Chrysler has officially pulled the wraps off the 2013 Viper, except that they’ve decided to drop the “Dodge” name and turn “SRT” into a separate brand. So the SRT Viper, as it will be known, is out, boasting 640 hp and 813 Nm of torque from a front-midship naturally-aspirated 8.4-litre V10.
California was the place Chrysler chose to launch the Dodge Challenger Rallye Redline. It was at the Spring Festival, the haven for U.S. owners of Chrysler’s LX platform cars like the Challenger, Charger, Magnum and 300 congregate where the covers came off the special-edition Challenger.
Truth be told, we feel Chrysler is arguably the best American carmaker right now, if only because they keep sticking a big V8 into half the cars they make. And those cars are some of the best in their segments, with the only competition coming from Ford in terms of pure quality and engineering, while the third one in the Big Three is still chasing short-term profits by peddling Daewoos. The Chrysler 300C, along with its Dodge cousin, is probably the last truly-American full-size rear-wheel-drive V8 barge still in production. And it’s better than ever.
We’ve never been to an event before where we drove so many different cars at once that all the names did not fit in the title of a story. At the recent “Mopar Power Drive” media event at the Dubai Autodrome, we drove the 2012 editions of the — in one big breath — Chrysler 300C V8, Chrysler 300 V6, Chrysler Grand Voyager, Dodge Durango, Dodge Challenger V6, Dodge Charger V6, Dodge Caliber, Dodge Ram 1500, Jeep Grand Cherokee, Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT8, Jeep Wrangler, Jeep Cherokee, Jeep Compass, and finally, to throw a curve-ball, the Fiat 500.
This is the Dodge Dart, a new compact car based on the Alfa Romeo Giulietta. Chrysler’s buyout by Fiat are finally paying dividends.
We love the new Charger. Add a black and white paint job with flashing red and blue lights, and it makes us go weak in the knees. That is exactly what Mopar has done with its 2012 Dodge Charger Pursuit police car ready to chase down the 2011 Ford Police Interceptor that we saw last year.
Chrysler continues to revamp all their models, and steadily finding their way back into the race. Previously, we told you about the “new” 2011 Wranglers with an upgraded interior as well as the option to get painted roof and fender panels. Now, Jeep has moved onto another phase of revamping the Wrangler.
After Fiat’s takeover of Chrysler, the impact was new design and revamping of existing models. New for 2012, the Chrysler 300 came out with a new model, although some would call it an upgrade rather than an entire new machine. Claiming it to be the “most powerful, best-handling sedan ever”, Chrysler displayed the highly-anticipated 2012 Chrysler 300 SRT8 at the 2011 New York Auto Show.
It would be surprising if anyone remembers Lancia in the UAE. The semi-premium division of Fiat, nestled between Fiat And Alfa Romeo, Lancia is still alive in Europe, even though the brand stopped selling cars here once Fiat temporarily left the GCC market in the earlier part of this decade. There was a time when Lancias were uniquely-designed cars whose quirkiness was a trademark. But now that Fiat has bought out a part of Chrysler, the new Lancia range is looking all too familiar.
Recalls are boring news. They’re in fact so boring that we only cover them once in a while now. The number of recalls per month has actually reduced since the last time we did a rundown, by about 35%. Of course, the general media still chooses to sensationalise some recalls more than others, especially anything to do with Toyota. In the past two months, there have been recalls by Lexus, Land Rover, General Motors, Ford, Honda, Suzuki, Chrysler, Saab and even Mazda, the last of which is a hilarious one.