More automotive news..

[ironglow]

  Stellantis (Dodge, Chrysler, Ram, Jeep and Maserati) CEO retires, and gets a $26 million check on the way out the door.

   Stellantis has been struggling..vehicles seem to bo OK (IMO), but management seems to have been making poor choices (again IMO).

  Many Stellantis employees seem to agree, so.....   https://www.autonews.com/stellantis/ane-stellantis-tavares-compensation-investor-protest-0415/

[Lloyd Smale]

they committed suicide discontinuing the hemi in their trucks and cars and discontinuing the challenger and making an UGLY 6 cyl and ev charger. Americans want a v8 especially in trucks and sure have little interest in ev's. dodge and ram spent their research wad on evs and the new 6 when they should have been designing a new v8. the hemi is old in the tooth and ford and chev have done redisigns on their v8's a number of times in the near 20 years dodge has sat on their hands with the hemi. sad thing is their bleading money and finding money to start all over making a new 8 probably wont happen. theyre talking bringing back the hemi but even that is just a band aid. to survive the competition they need a more modern v8. my bet is in 5 years they will go the way of amc.

[ironglow]

they committed suicide discontinuing the hemi in their trucks and cars and discontinuing the challenger and making an UGLY 6 cyl and ev charger. Americans want a v8 especially in trucks and sure have little interest in ev's. dodge and ram spent their research wad on evs and the new 6 when they should have been designing a new v8. the hemi is old in the tooth and ford and chev have done redisigns on their v8's a number of times in the near 20 years dodge has sat on their hands with the hemi. sad thing is their bleading money and finding money to start all over making a new 8 probably wont happen. theyre talking bringing back the hemi but even that is just a band aid. to survive the competition they need a more modern v8. my bet is in 5 years they will go the way of amc.

  I considered that being as the now retiring CEO of Stellantis has been rewarded with a check for $26,000,000..leaves me wondering why the bird who led them down this trail, deserves so much reward..



  Looks to me like some CEOs are like some politicians...

[Bob Riebe]

     The new dude in charge is the one bringing the V eight engines back.

[Lloyd Smale]

hes actually an ex employee they hired back, hes the one that headed up the hellcat project and most of their performance cars. his name is Tim Kunislis. rummor was he was canned for pitching a fit against the push to go ev. now hes in charge of their performance division and now the ram trucks too.

     The new dude in charge is the one bringing the V eight engines back.

[Bob Riebe]

     There was an online article from Car & Driver about the new Dodge Charger Daytona electro-mobile; to sum it up, they were not impressed.
I did not know the wheel base on the new one is 5 inches longer than the old 116 inches; the whole car is therefore also 5 inches longer.
Now magazine writers nowadays, and for quite some time, are immersed in the Euro Econobox size car as a norm, but even at that, a 121 inch wheelbase is HUGE.

They said it drives like a a car that weighs close to 6,000lbs, which it is; in summary they said rather than Dodge Daytona a better name would be Chrysler Imperial.

[Casull]

they committed suicide discontinuing the hemi in their trucks and cars and discontinuing the challenger and making an UGLY 6 cyl and ev charger. Americans want a v8 especially in trucks and sure have little interest in ev's. dodge and ram spent their research wad on evs and the new 6 when they should have been designing a new v8. the hemi is old in the tooth and ford and chev have done redisigns on their v8's a number of times in the near 20 years dodge has sat on their hands with the hemi. sad thing is their bleading money and finding money to start all over making a new 8 probably wont happen. theyre talking bringing back the hemi but even that is just a band aid. to survive the competition they need a more modern v8. my bet is in 5 years they will go the way of amc.

20 years and it still has more hp than Ford or Chevy's standard V8.  But, behind every Chevrolet p/u is a Ram . . . because the Chevy won't get out of the fast lane.   

[Lloyd Smale]

maybe so but the 10sp makes up for it, my 343 geared chev with 343s is as quick as my 393 geared ram and gets 5mpg better gas mileage, id say tech wise the chevs and fords have it over the rams. i liked my ram but like this new chev more and will like it even better when i get the auto start stop bypassed tommarow. that is the stupidest thing they can do to a vehicle. by the way my 392 challenger has 30 more hp and actually more because its been dyno tuned and has headers and a cat back that should give it 38hp on the dyno and it still wont outrun an ss camaro. some no doubt because it weights 400lbs more but if you ask me chev sandbags their numbers

they committed suicide discontinuing the hemi in their trucks and cars and discontinuing the challenger and making an UGLY 6 cyl and ev charger. Americans want a v8 especially in trucks and sure have little interest in ev's. dodge and ram spent their research wad on evs and the new 6 when they should have been designing a new v8. the hemi is old in the tooth and ford and chev have done redisigns on their v8's a number of times in the near 20 years dodge has sat on their hands with the hemi. sad thing is their bleading money and finding money to start all over making a new 8 probably wont happen. theyre talking bringing back the hemi but even that is just a band aid. to survive the competition they need a more modern v8. my bet is in 5 years they will go the way of amc.

20 years and it still has more hp than Ford or Chevy's standard V8.  But, behind every Chevrolet p/u is a Ram . . . because the Chevy won't get out of the fast lane.   

[Bob Riebe]

20 years and it still has more hp than Ford or Chevy's standard V8.  But, behind every Chevrolet p/u is a Ram . . . because the Chevy won't get out of the fast lane.   

RIM-Shot! 

[Casull]

maybe so but the 10sp makes up for it, my 343 geared chev with 343s is as quick as my 393 geared ram and gets 5mpg better gas mileage, id say tech wise the chevs and fords have it over the rams. i liked my ram but like this new chev more and will like it even better when i get the auto start stop bypassed tommarow. that is the stupidest thing they can do to a vehicle. by the way my 392 challenger has 30 more hp and actually more because its been dyno tuned and has headers and a cat back that should give it 38hp on the dyno and it still wont outrun an ss camaro. some no doubt because it weights 400lbs more but if you ask me chev sandbags their numbers

they committed suicide discontinuing the hemi in their trucks and cars and discontinuing the challenger and making an UGLY 6 cyl and ev charger. Americans want a v8 especially in trucks and sure have little interest in ev's. dodge and ram spent their research wad on evs and the new 6 when they should have been designing a new v8. the hemi is old in the tooth and ford and chev have done redisigns on their v8's a number of times in the near 20 years dodge has sat on their hands with the hemi. sad thing is their bleading money and finding money to start all over making a new 8 probably wont happen. theyre talking bringing back the hemi but even that is just a band aid. to survive the competition they need a more modern v8. my bet is in 5 years they will go the way of amc.

20 years and it still has more hp than Ford or Chevy's standard V8.  But, behind every Chevrolet p/u is a Ram . . . because the Chevy won't get out of the fast lane.   

That's odd, since I just looked up a head to head comparison of the two and the Ram was a full second quicker (6.65 0 to 60) than the Chevy (7.65 0 to 60).  And that was the Ram with the 3.21 rear end.

[Lloyd Smale]

dont know where you looked but what i found was a 1/2 second at most and drag race videos tht mostly showed rams a half a truck ahead in the quarter mile. that said with the very low gear in the 10sp chev it gets my 28 foot camper rolling better than the dodge and seems to always be in the right gear when hauling. it also shifts much faster and smoother. actually a fairer comparison would be against the 1/2 to 6.6 which will smoke a ram and still get a mile or two better mpg. IF dodge put the 392 in a half ton it MIGHT give the 6.6 a run but it would be like the ev thing because it would have to stop every 250 miles to fuel up. your kind of reading me wrong. i dont dislike the hemi. ive had a hemi Chrysler 300 and a ram with the 5.7 and still have my 392 challenger. id take a hemi over that new turbo 6 any day of the week. the hemi is actually remarkable because other then fuel economy it holds it own with the newer v8s pretty well. but then even the early hemis liked their fuel more than the gm's of that era. but its old in the tooth and 5-10 years late on a redesign. even if the made it with an aluminum block to shed some weight and caught up to the mpg of chevs and eco boost fords. the real comical thing is they threw all their money at the new turbo 6 and real world tests ive seen show it averaging around 16mpg which is even worse than the hemi. even talk of ram trying to pay off testers to pad the numbers because of dismal sales.  talk about having your head up your but. america wants v8 trucks not 6's. yup ford sells a pile of them but ford truck buyers are the most brand faitful truck buyers in the world and i think if they slapped old pinto motors in them theyd still sell a pile of them. but even ford truck guys i know that really use a truck as a truck either wish theyd bring back the v8 (and they already make a great one) or have stepped up to 3/4 tons to get a v8.

[ironglow]

  While I am definitely not an EV fan..when talking 0 to 60 times in a pickup truck, it would seem fruitless to ignore the 0-60 times of the Tesla Cyber truck.

  0-60 times in the 2.6 second range is hard to overcome...even while the Cyber truck weighs 6800 pounds.

   take a look..  https://www.youtube.com/shorts/YRVKUtp9uAY

[Lloyd Smale]

yup evs wiil "get down the road" but do it with all the romance of a singer sewing machine

  While I am definitely not an EV fan..when talking 0 to 60 times in a pickup truck, it would seem fruitless to ignore the 0-60 times of the Tesla Cyber truck.

  0-60 times in the 2.6 second range is hard to overcome...even while the Cyber truck weighs 6800 pounds.

   take a look..  https://www.youtube.com/shorts/YRVKUtp9uAY

[Bob Riebe]

  While I am definitely not an EV fan..when talking 0 to 60 times in a pickup truck, it would seem fruitless to ignore the 0-60 times of the Tesla Cyber truck.

  0-60 times in the 2.6 second range is hard to overcome...even while the Cyber truck weighs 6800 pounds.
   take a look..  https://www.youtube.com/shorts/YRVKUtp9uAY

It is simply the physcs of power delivery without friction drain from drive-train components.
But then there is the drain on the batteries for all the functions such as heater and air-conditioning that reduce mileage, not to mention towing a trailer.

It is amazing, LOL, that all these tests are on major highways where power stations are common, NOT, in the boonies where they are not, although several of the tests I have read say factory mileage numbers are BS.
I do not want to be stopping , often, to top up the battery when with a internal combustion auto, 400 miles, plus or minus,  is the norm.

I looked it up and a electro dodge charger is approx. 1,500 lbs. heavier than a internal combustion engine model.

[Casull]

dont know where you looked but what i found was a 1/2 second at most and drag race videos tht mostly showed rams a half a truck ahead in the quarter mile. that said with the very low gear in the 10sp chev it gets my 28 foot camper rolling better than the dodge and seems to always be in the right gear when hauling. it also shifts much faster and smoother. actually a fairer comparison would be against the 1/2 to 6.6 which will smoke a ram and still get a mile or two better mpg. IF dodge put the 392 in a half ton it MIGHT give the 6.6 a run but it would be like the ev thing because it would have to stop every 250 miles to fuel up. your kind of reading me wrong. i dont dislike the hemi. ive had a hemi Chrysler 300 and a ram with the 5.7 and still have my 392 challenger. id take a hemi over that new turbo 6 any day of the week. the hemi is actually remarkable because other then fuel economy it holds it own with the newer v8s pretty well. but then even the early hemis liked their fuel more than the gm's of that era. but its old in the tooth and 5-10 years late on a redesign. even if the made it with an aluminum block to shed some weight and caught up to the mpg of chevs and eco boost fords. the real comical thing is they threw all their money at the new turbo 6 and real world tests ive seen show it averaging around 16mpg which is even worse than the hemi. even talk of ram trying to pay off testers to pad the numbers because of dismal sales.  talk about having your head up your but. america wants v8 trucks not 6's. yup ford sells a pile of them but ford truck buyers are the most brand faitful truck buyers in the world and i think if they slapped old pinto motors in them theyd still sell a pile of them. but even ford truck guys i know that really use a truck as a truck either wish theyd bring back the v8 (and they already make a great one) or have stepped up to 3/4 tons to get a v8.

Not sure why you're wanting to compare to the 6.6, but as far as mpg, the worst I've gotten (back and forth to work 5.5 miles) is 16.3.  Best on the highway (and not quite all highway) was 22.7.  I don't believe for a second that the 6.6 will beat that.  As far as the transmission, I've heard nothing but good about the 8 spd Ram and not so much about the 10 spd Chevrolet.

[Lloyd Smale]

sorry but the 10sp is pretty much the transmission theyre all judge by today. strong enough for a 600 hp vette and shifts as fast as a porche, the 8 sp is a good transmission to but the one they put in high hp hellcats has to be beefed up to take that level. 10sp is so good ford and chev set aside the rivalry theyve had since day one to share it. what i really notice is the ram seemed to hunt around looking for the right gear and you could feel every shift. the chev shifts so smooth that you only feel it when you mash the throttle and when you do shifts are lightning quick and smooth. the ram when you mashed it shifted slow in comparison and much rougher. my ram with 33in tires for half of that averaged 16.5 over 30k. best it got was my wife driving it to greenbay to take me to the doctor when it got 20.1. ive had the silverado 15k now with a 2' loft and 33s from day one and its average is 19.5 and highway trips see as good as 23. now that said i actually filled the tank and checked gas milage on both and the rams dash reading is at least 1mpg better than reality and the chevs is only a couple tenths off. son in law was bragging he was getting 20 on the road with his diesel 2019 ram and i told him to fill it and actually do the math and his was 3mpg off! if you got 22.7 with a hemi ram your running weenie street tires has a high geared rear end, are driving 55 with no riding through any rural areas, and probably down hill with the wind at your back and the cruise control on. i frequented a ram forum when i had mine and the biggest complaint was fuel mileage and i never hears a single person that actually verified it that got better than 20 in any 4x4 crew cab ram. they suck gas PERIOD.

by the way my brother in law just told me he got a 5k bill from ram because the cam wiped on his 6.4 2500. took out the lifters to. a problem that happening to LOTS of the 6.4 rams. look it up. but ill add chevs had teething problems with the 6.6 the first year but fixed it. typical of ram they never addressed a thing and even the new ones have this issue. there was one guy on the ram forum that had to have his done 3 times in 60k. luckily ram warranted it. like ive said you can get good and bad from any of them even the japs. ive PERSONALY put miles on rams and chevs and prefer the chev. dont buy fords and dont buy imports so i cant pass PERSONAL judgement on them. but rams cost more, use more fuel and just plain cost more to drive because of it. im sure not saying a ram is junk. i actually liked mine but didnt want to pay for a 2024 that was identical to my 2020 with absolutely no improvements. which is typical of dodge and ram. look at my 2011 392 challenger. other than a different grill the new ones are basically the same car with the same motor (actually worse because i dont have that stupid cyl deactivation). they put stouter EVERYTHING in the hellcat but wont use any of it in the 5.7 or 6.4 cars other than the special addition 1320 made for racing thats basically a hellcat with a 392 in it an yup they had to use the hellcats stouter transmission because the one they use in the rest of them wouldnt hold up to the abuse of racing.

[Lloyd Smale]

yup lets see battery life driving in the mountains of montana with the ac on towing my 28 foot camper. my guess in about a 100 miles at best. their was talk on one forum where someone was drag racing and could only get 3 full power passes and had to fire up a generator to charge it enough to drive it 60 miles home. but it was the first truck i ever heard of in the 11s stock

  While I am definitely not an EV fan..when talking 0 to 60 times in a pickup truck, it would seem fruitless to ignore the 0-60 times of the Tesla Cyber truck.

  0-60 times in the 2.6 second range is hard to overcome...even while the Cyber truck weighs 6800 pounds.
   take a look..  https://www.youtube.com/shorts/YRVKUtp9uAY

It is simply the physcs of power delivery without friction drain from drive-train components.
But then there is the drain on the batteries for all the functions such as heater and air-conditioning that reduce mileage, not to mention towing a trailer.

It is amazing, LOL, that all these tests are on major highways where power stations are common, NOT, in the boonies where they are not, although several of the tests I have read say factory mileage numbers are BS.
I do not want to be stopping , often, to top up the battery when with a internal combustion auto, 400 miles, plus or minus,  is the norm.

I looked it up and a electro dodge charger is approx. 1,500 lbs. heavier than a internal combustion engine model.

[Casull]

sorry but the 10sp is pretty much the transmission theyre all judge by today. strong enough for a 600 hp vette and shifts as fast as a porche, the 8 sp is a good transmission to but the one they put in high hp hellcats has to be beefed up to take that level. 10sp is so good ford and chev set aside the rivalry theyve had since day one to share it. what i really notice is the ram seemed to hunt around looking for the right gear and you could feel every shift. the chev shifts so smooth that you only feel it when you mash the throttle and when you do shifts are lightning quick and smooth. the ram when you mashed it shifted slow in comparison and much rougher. my ram with 33in tires for half of that averaged 16.5 over 30k. best it got was my wife driving it to greenbay to take me to the doctor when it got 20.1. ive had the silverado 15k now with a 2' loft and 33s from day one and its average is 19.5 and highway trips see as good as 23. now that said i actually filled the tank and checked gas milage on both and the rams dash reading is at least 1mpg better than reality and the chevs is only a couple tenths off. son in law was bragging he was getting 20 on the road with his diesel 2019 ram and i told him to fill it and actually do the math and his was 3mpg off! if you got 22.7 with a hemi ram your running weenie street tires has a high geared rear end, are driving 55 with no riding through any rural areas, and probably down hill with the wind at your back and the cruise control on. i frequented a ram forum when i had mine and the biggest complaint was fuel mileage and i never hears a single person that actually verified it that got better than 20 in any 4x4 crew cab ram. they suck gas PERIOD.

by the way my brother in law just told me he got a 5k bill from ram because the cam wiped on his 6.4 2500. took out the lifters to. a problem that happening to LOTS of the 6.4 rams. look it up. but ill add chevs had teething problems with the 6.6 the first year but fixed it. typical of ram they never addressed a thing and even the new ones have this issue. there was one guy on the ram forum that had to have his done 3 times in 60k. luckily ram warranted it. like ive said you can get good and bad from any of them even the japs. ive PERSONALY put miles on rams and chevs and prefer the chev. dont buy fords and dont buy imports so i cant pass PERSONAL judgement on them. but rams cost more, use more fuel and just plain cost more to drive because of it. im sure not saying a ram is junk. i actually liked mine but didnt want to pay for a 2024 that was identical to my 2020 with absolutely no improvements. which is typical of dodge and ram. look at my 2011 392 challenger. other than a different grill the new ones are basically the same car with the same motor (actually worse because i dont have that stupid cyl deactivation). they put stouter EVERYTHING in the hellcat but wont use any of it in the 5.7 or 6.4 cars other than the special addition 1320 made for racing thats basically a hellcat with a 392 in it an yup they had to use the hellcats stouter transmission because the one they use in the rest of them wouldnt hold up to the abuse of racing.

Sorry, but I never go by the dash mpg.  Always hand calculated.  As far as tires, no road warrior knobby 33's, just regular light truck tires (since 90+% of my driving is on pavement and the rest gravel).  I don't go mudding, so don't need them for that or as an extender.  Last two highway trips were different.  First was through rolling hills at 60 to 65 (55 speed limit) and with some small town driving included.  The other was some city driving, but mostly interstate at 70 to 75 (speed limit 65 to 70).  When I bought, I looked at Chevy, but had a dealer try to pull a fast one.  Then checked the Ram.  Nicer interior, better ride (rear coil suspension), more hp, quicker, etc.  Cost about $1500 more, but worth it.  I'm also on a Ram forum, and yes some guys complain about mileage, but there are quite a few on there, that like me, can easily get 22 mpg or more.

[Lloyd Smale]

id bet on weenies and stock height i could easily get 24. i do agree the interior of rams are nice and my 2020 road better than the 17 silverad it replaced but what i noticed with this 24 is the ride is about as good and it has much tighter handling, less sway and a more precise feel to the steering. just a tighter more solid feel. all ive said aside the differences other than fuel milage are small. even that isnt a big concern to me because its the wifes daily and she feeds it. i usually drive the jeep in the winter and the 06 gmc in the summer and we both occasionaly use the challenger which by the way has a 392 and amazingly gets an easy 24 on the highway if you keep your foot out of it. but easily blowing the doors off anything from the 60s and 70s and getting that kind of fuel economy makes me shake my head. i still remember my 70 454 chevelle that got 10 IF YOU BABIED IT and usually averaged around 8!! its why i shake my head at people pining over old cars and trucks or bitching about the price of new ones. corrected for inflation and cost of living theyre no more expensive than decked out trucks (when power  windows, air conditioning and even power steering and brake were considered decked out!) and you getting 3 times the truck. heck a half ton today will tow more than a 70s 3/4 ton and go twice as far on a tank of gas. i have nothing against rams. if chev quit making trucks today my next one would be a ram but my guess is chev will still be making them when Stellantis has made so many dumb moves that rams go the way of hudsons and ramblers.

[ironglow]

  My only experience with those type, was when I worked for the Harvestore people.  I often used a Chevy 454 dually. It got 4-5 MPG if babied.
 
   ..Not too much beetter than my tank which got 3 GPM  thats 'gallons per mile', with a new engine..and 5 GPM on a well worn one...