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Dodge Recalling Close to 10,000 Charger Police Cars to Fix Electronic Glitches

The Chrysler Group has issued a recall on certain Dodge Charger police vehicles from the 2011-2012 model years to address two electronic problems. The recall affects 9,688 patrol cars in the U.S.

The Detroit automaker told the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) that in some cars, the low beam headlamps could fail due to an overheated bulb harness connector, while in other vehicles, the ABS/ESC systems may stop functioning due to an overheated power distribution center.

The Dodge Challenger, even in SRT8 form, may not be the quintessential sports car, but it is one of those vehicles that will grab the attention of by passers on the road – especially if it's tuned to look like a real life Hot Wheels car.

This footage of the Challenger SRT8 was captured in London. The modified muscle car is said to be owned by the London Motor Museum. You can watch the video right after the break.

Around 1,800 new jobs will be added to the Chrysler Group's Belvidere Assembly Plant by the third quarter of 2012, the company's CEO Sergio Marchionne announced on Thursday during a ceremony at the facility with Illinois Governor Pat Quinn.

Included in the 1,800 positions are close to 500 jobs that will be added to launch production of the 2013 Dodge Dart in the second quarter of the year. For this reason, the Detroit automaker will be adding a third shift to the plant, something that hasn't happened since March of 2008 when the Belvidere facility employed around 3,600 workers.

We don't know if we should laugh or cry with this strange story that took place in South Carolina on January 18 and was captured on film by a police trooper's dashboard camera.

It all started when an unnamed South Carolina police trooper stopped the Mayor of Norway, Jim Preacher, for driving 70mph in a 50mph zone in an unmarked Dodge Charger police car. Let us note that the Charger previously belonged to the town's police chief before the division was disbanded in August 2011 due to lack of funds.

The trooped handed a four-point, $185 fine to Preacher, who wasn't pleased at all and decided to return the favor… The Mayor immediately made a U-turn and turned on his lights and sirens to stop the trooper!

"Can I see your driver's license," Preacher asked the trooper. The police officer gave him his license and asked the Mayor why he stopped him. "Are you familiar with interfering with a police officer?" asked Preacher.

On Tuesday, January 31, U.S. President Barack Obama’s schedule included a visit to the 2012 Washington Auto Show. The White House informed automakers on a two days’ notice to bring their most fuel-efficient models to the show.

Naturally, they obliged. For example, Honda flew in the FCX Clarity from California, Kia brought the Optima hybrid and Mercedes-Benz a fuel-cell car. Carmakers also brought along their top brass to discuss green technologies with the President.

As Bloomberg reports, the problem is that Obama, who had half an hour in his disposal, ignored foreign manufacturers.

Instead, he spent most of his time with domestic brands, posing for the press with the Dodge Dart, the Chevrolet Malibu, the Ford C-MAX Energi, the Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 and the Chevrolet Corvette ZR-1 (not pretty fuel efficient those two, by the way…).

On Tuesday, we brought the news on the 2013 Dodge Dart GTS 210 Tribute that was developed by Mopar both to celebrate its 75th birthday and to preview the performance and styling parts that will be available for customers in the fall as stage kits or á la carte from the brand's catalog.

Today we have live photos of the Dodge Dart GTS 210 Tribute that offer us a better view of the car and the customizations made by Mopar.

On the occasion of its 75th anniversary, the Chrysler Group's parts and service arm Mopar will be displaying four specially crafted models at next month's 2012 Chicago Auto Show including the Dodge Dart "GTS 210 Tribute".

Once it goes on sale later this year, Mopar plans to offer more 150 accessories and parts for the new Dart sedan, improving both its looks and performance.

The "GTS 210 Tribute" comes fitted with two packages. The first stage is all about aesthetics adding a ground effects kit with matte-black trim pieces such as a lower chin spoiler, side sills, rear spoiler and rear-diffuser panel.

We are eagerly anticipating the first official teaser photo of the next SRT Viper in the early morning hours of Tuesday but that's not all the Chrysler Group has in store for us this week.

In celebration of the 75th anniversary of Mopar, which is the group's automobile parts and service arm, the Detroit firm will present four specially modified vehicles that will go on display at next month's 2012 Chicago Auto Show (January 10 to 19).

Only 18 months after the Chrysler Group began production of its new Pentastar V6 at its Trenton Engine Assembly Plant in Michigan, the company hit its first important milestone with the manufacturing of the one-millionth unit. The V6 is also produced at Chrysler's plant in Saltillo, Mexico.

The Detroit firm's all-aluminum 3.6-liter V6 engine made its debut on the 2010 Jeep Grand Cherokee but has since found its way under the hood of many more models.

These include the Chrysler 200, 300 and Town and Country, plus the Dodge Avenger, Challenger, Charger, Durango, Journey and Caravan, and more recently the 2012 Jeep Wrangler.

Last night, the Chrysler Group's SRT crew had us constantly refreshing its Facebook page to see if it would upload the promised teaser photo of the next generation 2013 Viper sports car once it reached 10,000 "likes".

A couple hundred clicks later, SRT came out with an announcement saying that ~~the teaser was the teaser~~ it would release the first official shot on Monday, 11:59.59 PM Eastern Time.

Top Gear isn't alone in promising to give back to its fans if they "like" its Facebook page. Joining the social media craze is the Chrysler Group's SRT brand, which promises to show a "small teaser" of the next generation Viper sports car if it reaches 10,000 fans on Facebook by February 1.

Currently, the page has received 9,686 "likes", meaning SRT should hit its goal within the next 24 hours at the latest. Maybe you can speed things up by clicking here to visit DriveSRT's page and give it a blue thumbs up.

Fiat is the brand in the alliance that's in trouble and Chrysler the one blossoming right now having increased its sales by 26 percent in 2011, yet Fiat-Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne is not happy about the latter's performance in J.D. Power’s December Sales Satisfaction Index study on customer experience at dealerships.

The recent J.D. Power survey placed Jeep, Ram and Dodge in three of the bottom four places amongst the mainstream brands.

As a result, Sergio Marchionne wants Chrysler Group dealers to rapidly improve their Customer Satisfaction Index (CSI) scores if the company is to achieve its sales goals. He said that some dealerships’ salespeople weren’t acting properly, failing to make follow-up calls or treat customers “with the dignity they deserve”.

It's no secret that, aside from the Fiat Group-sourced 168bhp 1.4-liter turbocharged MultiAir engine, the new 2013 Dodge Dart compact sedan continues to use two powerplants from Chrysler's past.

You see, while the Detroit maker is marketing its 2.0-liter and 2.4-liter four-cylinder units under the new "Tigershark" moniker, both have their roots in the Global Engine Manufacturing Alliance (GEMA) family of engines.

To explain, GEMA was a joint venture of the Chrysler Group, Mitsubishi Motors, and Hyundai Motor Company for the development of a line of shared four-cylinder gasoline engines. In 2009, Chrysler bought out the shares of Mitsubishi and Hyundai and continued GEMA on its own.

And here's where Hyundai comes into the picture. Citing unnamed sources, Car&Driver is reporting that the 2013 Dodge Dart's Tigershark engines are fitted with a Hyundai-supplied 6-speed automatic transmission.