Closer Look: The All-new 2015 Jeep® Renegade

Posted on April 24th, 2014 1:02 pm by Jeep in Models

The New York International Auto Show has always been an exciting event for the Jeep_® brand. In 2013, we proudly introduced the all-new 2014 Jeep Cherokee. This year, we had another exciting reveal. Say hello to the all-new 2015 Jeep Renegade, the Jeep brand’s first entry into the small-SUV segment.

Exterior
With the iconic seven-slot grille and round headlamps, you can see how the exterior of the 2015 Jeep Renegade takes cues from other Jeep brand vehicles. Aside from its broad stance and available 17-inch wheels, the Jeep Renegade also features a unique tail lamp design, which is modeled after vintage military gas cans. Red tow hooks, skid plates, aggressive tires, and an 0.8-inch lift on the Trailhawk model help to add to its Trail Rated® capability.

The Renegade is also available with the industry-exclusive My Sky™ open-air, dual-panel roof. Experience the fresh air of the open road by removing the panels and conveniently storing them in the rear cargo area.

Interior
The 2015 Jeep Renegade brings innovative features and a rugged, yet refined interior to the small SUV market. Crafted with high-quality materials, Renegade delivers comfort and convenience. Available features include the award-winning UConnect® infotainment system with hands-free communication, touchscreen radio, navigation, and a full-color configurable instrument cluster display.  Safety and security were at the forefront in the development of the all-new 2015 Jeep Renegade, setting the stage for up to 70 available safety and security features.

If you need a little extra space in the all-new 2015 Jeep Renegade, fold the rear seats flat for best in class rear cargo space.

Capability
When it comes to capability, the Jeep Renegade Trailhawk model truly lives up to its Trail Rated® name. It offers best-in-class 4×4 capability with the standard Jeep Active Drive Low 4×4 system and the Selec-Terrain traction control system. The Jeep Renegade Trailhawk boasts a 20:1 crawl ratio and comes with 17-inch aluminum wheels and aggressive tires, ready for any off-road adventure.

In case you missed the live reveal of the 2015 Jeep Renegade at the New York International Auto Show last week, you can relive the event in our 3-D player here. Get up close and personal with the Renegade from whichever angle you choose.
While you’re watching the video, make sure you click around to find hidden hotspots for your chance to win a Jeep brand adventure pack.

All-New 2015 Chrysler 200: On the Road with America’s Import

By Forward Look | April 29th, 2014 10:38 AM

All photos courtesy of Cristian Farcas

When Chrysler Group LLC employee Cristian Farcas set out in March on a 2,400-mile road trip to visit family and friends in New York state and Washington D.C., and to attend a work event in Kentucky, it wasn’t the distance that made the trip significant, it was the vehicle. His All-New 2015 Chrysler 200 was among the first to roll off the line in Sterling Heights, Michigan, and this trip, at least in part, was intended to gather “fast feedback,” information that could help designers and engineers back at Chrysler HQ fine-tune the All-New 2015 Chrysler 200 before its launch to the general public in the second quarter.

Compounding the significance of the trip was the fact that Cristian had personally played a part in the vehicle’s development. A senior designer in the Interiors Group at Chrysler, Cristian worked side by side with the many talented people who helped take the All-New 2015 Chrysler 200 from a concept on the drafting board to a reality on the road.

With that kind of personal investment, it’s not hard to understand why this experience — and this car especially — would be so important to Cristian. In his own words, “The road trip was a culmination of personal and career goals coming together. It was my dream as a child to one day design cars. By helping design the interior of the All-New 2015 Chrysler 200, I was fortunate enough to fulfill that goal.”

Of course, any goal is hard to accomplish without help, and even though Cristian traveled alone, he often felt the whole team was along for the ride. “Every time someone admired or complimented the car, I remembered how hard everybody worked on it back in Michigan.” That was true at the Canadian border, where the border guards let him pose the car near the Canada sign, and true in Washington, D.C., where in heavy traffic one morning, a commuter in an imported luxury sedan shouted, “Hey, that’s the new 200. Awesome!”

Awesome indeed. The exact car Cristian drove from Detroit, through Canada and New York, to Washington, D.C., Louisville and back was an All-New 2015 Chrysler 200C with a 3.6-liter Pentastar® V-6 engine. The car is Cristian’s own and, like any owner can (not just Chrysler designers), he configured it the way he wanted, opting for the available panoramic sunroof and an all-black interior featuring real bronze-colored maple wood and complemented by warm bronze accents and seat piping.

Cristian is especially happy with his car’s center console, calling it his favorite interior feature “by far.” What’s so great about it? “It’s highly adaptable your needs,” Cristian says. “It features class-leading storage space, but it is also well compartmentalized to help separate your items. There are also a number of small, convenient innovations, like a cord-management opening. It just makes sense.” Spoken like a true designer.

As for the exterior, Cristian is a fan of the front and rear LED lighting. “It definitely stands out,” he says. “It announces a vehicle that looks like it belongs in a more premium segment.”

Attractive exterior lighting isn’t the only category in which this car punches above its weight. With more advanced standard and available safety and security features than any other vehicle in its class*, the All-New 2015 Chrysler 200 offers an experience unmatched by the competition. “I am absolutely addicted to the Adaptive Cruise Control,” Cristian said, listing off a few more of his favorite features. “The Lane Departure Warning with Lane Keep Assist are equally impressive.”

Innovative features aside, the true trip highlights for Cristian were far less technical — watching the sun set over Manhattan, for instance, and stopping in Washington, D.C., to take photos outside the White House, Capitol building and Washington Monument. He also reveled in the opportunity to share his car with the good friends in New York and Washington, D.C., he visited along the way.

Most memorable for Cristian, it seems, was having the chance to stop in Binghamton, New York, the town where his mother lives, to show her in person the car he’d been working on so intensely all this time. “Being able to share my work with my mother was by far the highlight of this trip. It was like bringing something full-circle, all the support she gave me as a young artist and aspiring designer.”

To think of it in these terms — that the All-New 2015 Chrysler 200 is a collection of stories like Cristian’s as much as it is a ground-breaking vehicle — one begins to see how the car truly is America’s Import.

See below for more photos from Cristian’s road trip.

The Dodge Heritage Series, Part 1: 1914-1929

Posted By RLD | 04.30.2014

 

 

Take a trip back in time with the Dodge Heritage Series, a 10-part exploration of Dodge history. In this post — the first in the series — we meet the Dodge brothers, John and Horace, whose commitment to innovation is still very much a part of how we do things today.

The official history of the Dodge automobile begins in 1914, but the story of the Dodge brothers in the automobile business reaches back even further.  John and Horace Dodge were among the pioneers of the Detroit auto industry.

Successful bicycle builders and racers, the Dodges sold their first company in 1900 and started a new business, a machine shop, in what is now the Greektown neighborhood of Detroit. Combining the latest manufacturing equipment with the brothers’ exacting workmanship, the machine shop soon became a leading supplier of engines and components to the city’s major auto producers. When the Dodge brothers introduced their own car in late 1914, they were already among the most experienced automotive manufacturers in the world.





Ruggedly built using only top-quality components, Dodge cars developed a reputation for reliability under the most grueling conditions. U.S. General Black Jack Pershing used Dodge cars in the campaign against guerilla Pancho Villa in the Mexican desert, and the new company quickly became one of the top five makes in America. But tragically, older brother John Dodge, only 54 years old, was taken by an influenza epidemic in January of 1920, and younger brother Horace followed less than a year later.

A banking committee controlled the company for several years while searching for a top automotive manager to take over the reins. In 1928, after many months of intense industry gossip and tough, behind-the-scenes negotiations, legendary auto executive Walter P. Chrysler and the Chrysler Corporation emerged as the new owners of the Dodge Brothers Company. The $170 million deal, said to be the largest private business transaction in history, doubled the production capacity of the Chrysler Corporation and ensured the future of the Dodge brand for decades to come.

For more Dodge history, visit the Heritage Wall section of the Dodge Power Rallye Tour, a traveling Dodge-based experience showcasing the best in performance vehicles. You can find the schedule of Tour events here.