The News Wheel
No Comments

Car News In the Rearview: Fiat-Chrysler Is Up Emissions Creek Without a Paddle

Decrease Font Size Increase Font Size Text Size Print This Page

Hello and welcome once more to In the Rearview, where I bring you a recap of the past week’s top automotive news, seasoned liberally with my own uppity quips.


Wow, Nice: Ever wonder just how many awards Mazda has won?


First up this week, Australia’s ANCAP acted out Nissan’s dream and crashed some Toyota Corollas into each other. This was actually a demonstration of just how good at safety technology we are now, and just how dead you would be in a crash in a ’90s Corolla. Spoiler alert: super dead.

Speaking of suspect safety technology, we take a bit of a look back at the technology of yesteryear, when back in the ’30s, Popular Mechanics featured a product that would keep dog hair off of your car seats – by strapping that yap factory to the side in a canvas bag. Clearly, “animal cruelty” was not something that weighed heavily on the mind in 1935.

StoreDot EV battery pack

StoreDot EV battery pack
Photo: StoreDot

On a brighter note, if you like electric cars, then humanity may finally have found the holy grail of EV acceptance: batteries that recharge to full in the same time as a gas fill-up. This tech comes from an Israeli startup, and while my jaded mind tells me to be skeptical until I see it in a real car, my heart holds a little flame of hope.


Ah, Some Day: Check out this automotive object of desire


2017 Mercedes-AMG W08 F1 Car

In motorsports, Formula 1 has also been innovating, as the relaxing of modification regulations for this year has led to aerodynamic changes (read: more wings than a sports bar). Three teams suddenly revealed these changes ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix last weekend.

Toyota TeenDrive365

Then, we’ve been kicking around a question about new drivers: “Would it be a good idea to raise the driving age?” The article itself goes more in depth, but I say no – older drivers don’t make for safer drivers. Heck, I started when I was 18, and I almost immediately popped my dad’s headlight on some guy’s bumper and snapped the turn signal.

FCA has denied that its diesel engines cheat EPA regulations

Finally, Fiat-Chrysler has been swimming upstream against a tide of sewage this week, because not only did the company have to issue a recall of 1.25 million Ram trucks due to safety systems deactivating if there was enough underbody damage in a wreck, but the company is also the subject of the European Union suing Italy over FCA’s possible emissions test cheating, and may shortly be facing a more direct lawsuit from the US Department of Justice for emissions test cheating. I bet this really will ruin Sergio’s chances of getting GM to merge with FCA.