chrysler

It's all change at DaimlerChrysler. As Chrysler Group contemplates its buyout at the hands of Cerberus Capital Management, one of its signature engines is about to get a green makeover. The 5.7-liter Hemi V-8, the motivation behind some of Chrysler's most thirsty trucks and SUVs, is going hybrid thanks to the addition of two electric motors. The resultant Hemi hybrid engine will be offered in the 2008 models of the Chrysler Aspen and the Dodge Durango, making the vehicles into 2-mode hybrids similar to the 2008 GMC Yukon Hybrid and the Chevy Tahoe Hybrid--both due out later … Read more

Biofuel. Hybrid cars. Electric cars. Hydrogen. Those are some of the bright ideas in the future of car tech. Many proponents of the hydrogen fuel cell gathered in Vancouver, Canada, recently to discuss their problems and the promises.

This video from that conference shows hydrogen cars on the road. Models from four manufacturers made a 150-mile round trip during the meeting. DaimlerChrysler predicts that by 2015 there'll be millions of hydrogen cars on the road. The company claims that's not just a lot of hot air.

DaimlerChrysler's itty-bitty Smart ForTwo has been in the news recently, primarily because it's going to be made available to U.S. markets next year. The defining feature of the ForTwo is pretty much just the fact that it's about as small as a car can get without being designed for circus midgets, and it's more or less useless outside cities since it can't go all that fast, but that hasn't stopped one Greek auto enthusiast from turning it into an off-road vehicle.

Taking a hint from the design and functionality of Daimler-Chrysler's off-road … Read more

Chrysler will be the first car company to offer "Backseat TV" from Sirius. At first glance that reads like a typo--TV from a radio company? But bits is bits and this proves it.

The service gets its name from its target audience: antsy kids in the back seat. They'll have three channels of live, family-oriented stuff to watch from Nick, Disney, and Cartoon Network.

Subscribers will find two small antennas on the roof of their new Chrysler, a receiver box installed inside, and the video showing up screens in the back seat area. Backseat TV and Sirius … Read more

Not much surprises us nowadays on the CNET Car Tech channel. In this age of mobile, voice-activated, wireless, digital, high-definition, mesh-networked, in-car infotainment, we hardly bat an eyelid as torrents of new automotive gadgets comes down the pike.

But here's something that made us sit up and take notice: an in-car phonograph. According to an article on the UAW-DaimlerChrysler National Training Center Web site, these record players--made by Columbia and offered as options on 1956 Chrysler, DeSoto, Dodge, and Plymouth models--could handle 45-speed records as well as 7-inch records in the new 16-2/3 format. The players were installed … Read more

In the 2007 Pacifica that got dropped off for our review this week, it's obvious that Chrysler is taking luxury lessons from Mercedes-Benz. From all the cars we've seen at CNET Car Tech, I'd pretty much come to the conclusion that Cadillac was the only American car company getting it right. But then I got into the Chrysler Pacifica. Here are my first impressions of this car.

The most obvious cue from Mercedes-Benz are the power seat controls, set in the door and shaped like a seat. These types of controls make it unnecessary to probe blindly … Read more

New versions of the Chrysler Town and Country and Dodge Caravan minivans made an appearance at the 2007 Detroit Auto Show. Come on, wake up! There really is something interesting about these minivans. Chrysler creates a cozy little breakfast space in the back by adding swiveling capability to its middle-row seats, along with a foldout table. And it really makes these minivans kind of cool road-trip vehicles. While a couple of friends drive and navigate, you and your friends are in back riding limo-style, playing poker and doing shots of tequila. (Make that last one lemonade if you don't … Read more

We were expecting to see a convertible version of the 2008 Chrysler Sebring here today at the LA Auto Show; what surprised us was the kind of drop-top that was unveiled. In additon to a soft-top convertible, Chrysler showed off the 2008 Sebring with a power-retractable hard top, following the recent trend among automakers to offer an alternative to tradional ragtops.

Like that of the Volvo C70 that we reviewed recently, the Sebring's roof folds away in an elaborate process of interleaving panels, with the whole process taking less than 30 seconds from start to finish. Chrysler claims that … Read more

Following our reviews of DaimlerChrysler's Mercedes R350 and Chrysler Pacifica, we just got hold of Cadillac's offering in the SUV/station wagon/minivan segment, the SRX. We just took receipt of a gleaming, fully-loaded silver review model this afternoon, and lost no time taking it for a quick spin around the sunny streets of San Francisco. Inside, the SRX has many of the upscale appointments of the 2007 Cadillac Escalade we reviewed earlier this year: leather and burled-wood trim; touch-screen navigation; and CD/MP3/WMA/DVD in-dash multimedia head unit with auxiliary input jack. A couple of the … Read more