Chrysler on Wednesday revealed Q4 2011 and Detroits smallest automaker posted earnings of $225 million on revenue of $15.1 billion, 41 percent higher then the year prior. That amount also equals the first profitable quarter the company has had since a government bailout and subsequent bankruptcy saved Chrysler 2009.

That total also gave Chrysler a net income of $183 million in 2011 compared to a loss of $652 million in 2010. Annual revenue also increased in 2011 with the auto manufacturer taking in a whopping $55 billion.

Chrysler’s increasing success comes on the backs of the company’s Chrysler, Jeep and Dodge vehicles. Worldwide sales of cars and trucks for those brands increased by 22 percent, allowing for sales of 1.85 million vehicles in 2011 while Chrysler increased it’s share of the US market from 9.2 percent in 2010 to 10.5 percent in 2011.

Chrysler’s turnaround also comes despite a big charge taken by the company to pay outstanding debt to the United States and Canada. Without that charge the company would have earned $734 million.

Speaking of the company’s turn around at the hands of new owner Fiat, company CEO Sergio Marchionne noted:

“The house is in good order. Now we greet a new year of high expectations with our heads down, forging ahead and focusing on executing the goals we’ve set for ourselves as a company.”

In the meantime the governmental bailout could play well into the hands of the Obama administration during an election year, the administration was quick to hail Chrysler as proof that the government’s decision to offer auto bailouts was a success. In fact since the bailout Chrysler has added 9,400 jobs to now employee 57,000 people with plans expected for 1,600 new workers to join the company’s Belvidere, IL plant where they will build the new Dart.

By choosign to build the Dart in the United States the Obama Administration handed another 5 percent ownership stake back to Fiat.

Do you think Chrysler has done a good job in turning around operations in a very short period of time?

Chrysler Posts $225 Million Profit In Q4 2011, First Profitable Year Since 2009 Bailout is a post from: The Inquisitr

First it was just the standard old lightbulb, then along came halogen headlamps, and finally the current favorite is LED lights to shine your way down the road at night.

However BMW isn’t satisfied with stopping there as they have their researchers working to bring laser powered headlights to their cars, and we’re not talking about sometime in the future but rather in some models very soon.

What is driving this work forward is two factors. The first is that laser headlights are more energy efficient that even the LED ones and for electric vehicles every volt counts. While LED headlights only generate 100 lumens per watt the lasers will generate 170 lumens per watt.

The second driving factor is of course the design factor. In contrast to the 1-millimeter-square size LEDs used in car headlights today the laser diode used is only 10 microns in width. As Wayne Cunningham at Cnet notes this opens all kinds of possibilities.

But the tiny size of the lasers open up a lot of possibilities. Instead of a large, round piece of glass, a laser headlight could shine through the cross pieces of the car’s grille, and so remain hidden when not in use. The traditional dual-headlight configuration would also no longer be necessary, as a row of laser diodes could peek out from the front edge of the hood.

As laser light is a coherent beam, it can be precisely shaped, and also changed at will. Instead of a separate high-beam lamp, lasers can be computer controlled to form a low-beam or high-beam pattern.

While this technology is still a couple of years out talk is that we will see them first in BMW’s i8 hybrid brand of cars.

image courtesy of Cnet

Next up in automobile awesomeness – lasers used as headlights is a post from: The Inquisitr

I guess even the filthy rich might be interested in combining their taste for luxury automobiles and showing off their concern for rising gas prices and being ecologically minded.

At least that is what old world luxury automobile maker Rolls Royce is hoping for as they announce plans to make an all electric Phantom called the 102EX. However they are also hedging their bets by calling this a one off project that will depend on the reaction by those that can afford a Rolls Royce to begin with.

After being unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show on March 1 it will go on a road trip around the world as a tester vehicle.

“It is the company’s intention to carefully test the opinions and reactions to alternative drivetrain options of a range of stakeholders including owners, enthusiasts, members of the public and the media,” a press release said.

Rolls has started a website, www.electricluxury.com, to promote the car, though it says it has no plans to produce a production version.

Full specificiations for the 102EX, also known as Phantom Experimental Electric, will be released Feb. 28.

via Forbes

Rolls Royce to join electric movement is a post from: The Inquisitr

I’ve been following much of the Super bowl nonsense via my two Twitter streams, not that you can avoid it, and I think much of the conversation is being split between the game and the ads that are being run during the commercial breaks.

Groupon is the early failure with what apparently are totally tasteless and insensitive ads but in the winner circle at this point is the ad from Chrysler starring Eminem and – Detroit.

I just finished watching the ad (via Jalopnik) and I gotta admit, it’s a pretty powerful ad.

Chrysler’s most awesome Super Bowl ad with Eminem – Imported from Detroit [Video] is a post from: The Inquisitr

With Google recently reporting that their Street View vehicles can drive themselves with over 140,000 hours of perfect driving, it was only a matter of time before various other concept vehicles started appearing with promises of changing the way our roads are driven. The Guardian Concept vehicle is one such self-driving option and it seats a decent number of people, 7 to be exact.

Designed by John Bukasa, the vehicle is fully automated and offers nearly 360 degree views. The vehicle is nearly the size of a minivan and offers an open space design so you don’t have to stare at the back of everyone’s head, which I might prefer in some cases.

One nice option with the open floor space? There’s a touchscreen based display that allows everyone in the vehicle to enjoy movies or play video games.

The vehicle would be powered by four electric motors found in the wheel hubs and all four tires could be turned independently of one another.

Here are some more images of the concept vehicle:

What do you think about the overall design? Again I don’t know if I want to face people the entire time, but I like the entertainment hub and the ability to NOT drive on my next long road trip…although looking out the window at new places might be a little cumbersome given how each seat is arranged.

[via Yanko Design]

Guardian Concept Vehicle Seats Seven And Doesn’t Require A Driver is a post from: The Inquisitr

This might only be a concept car from Citroen but what an absolutely gorgeous looking car. They should make it against the law to create such beauts without a promise to bring them to market. Talk about getting a guy’s dreams all built up.

via Zeutch

OMG – what a gorgeous looking car is a post from: The Inquisitr

I’m not sure where these pictures were taken but they are definitely some pretty cool, and strange, concepts for cars of our future. Chances are though as with most concept cars we won’t see any of these ever making it to a production line.

There are some additional pic over at FreshPics.

Some futuristic concept cars is a post from: The Inquisitr

There is no denying the fact that BMW makes some of the sweetest looking cars around so it should be no surprise that they wouldn’t do the same when it comes top creating a hybrid car.

To be unveiled at the Frankfurt Motor Show in a couple of weeks the Vision EfficientDynamics Concept displays all the BMW qualities. The heart of the concept car is an advanced diesel-electric hybrid system. It is based on a compact turbocharged 1.5-liter, three-cylinder diesel engine. BMW says that the combined diesel-electric powertrain is good for 356 hp and 590 lb-ft torque. Maximum range in pure electric mode is 31 miles, with the diesel engine offering another 400 miles.

Now for the drool factor.

And now for added goodness the video

hat tip to My Modern Metropolis

A sweet looking hybrid concept from BMW [Pics/Video] is a post from: The Inquisitr

People do stupid and dangerous things all the time and thankfully no-one is injured or killed during these moments of idiocy. A good example of this is when Angel Rolon ended up causing a multi-car crash because the snakes he had stuffed in his pocket got out and slithered over the gas and brake pedals of his SUV.

The 20-year-old’s vehicle was then seen swerving as he tried to catch the creatures.

His SUV crashed into some parked cars and overturned in a street in Hartford, Connecticut.

Hartford police sergeant Christene Mertes said Mr Rolon was taken to hospital with minor injuries.

She said officers later recovered the snakes from the car.

Source: SkyNews :: Escaped Snakes Cause Multiple Car Crash

Hmm .. maybe it’s time we ran the strainer through the gene pool again.

Why it’s not a good idea to drive with snakes in your pockets is a post from: The Inquisitr

Everyone is all hot to trot these days about repurposing, recycling, re-using just about anything that won’t biodegrade in your hands while you look at it. While a lot of the stuff we see is more arts and crafty style there are those rare times when something really cool comes along the way.

Such is the case with the work by Joel Hester through his Huston based company Weld House. Take the hood of the car in the picture above. One would figure that once a car reaches this point there’s not much left to do with it. Well, it’s a good thing that Joel doesn’t feel that way or we wouldn’t have the please of having a really cool set of side tables like these ones

Through Weld House, Joel has taken the idea of repurposing the broken down and decaying vehicles at a junk yard and giving them a new life as usable objects. Much like taking the hood of this clunker of a pickup and making a coffee table anyone would be willing to brag about.

Some might consider a starting price of around the $700 mark to be a little high but for that you are helping the environment and getting some cool bragging rights at the same time. You can see the full range of his work through his Flickr stream or drop by the Weld House site to see about getting something of your own.

hat tip to Treehugger

The art of being green and recyclable is a post from: The Inquisitr

As we look for different way to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels to power out automobiles hydrogen has been suggested as an excellent source of vehicle power. The big problem with that though is the inherent high price of converting water into hydrogen and oxygen. This means that all the hydrogen in production today comes via the use of fossil fuels.

However US researcher Gerardine Botte from Ohio University may have just found a way to utilize urine through an electrolytic process to produce hydrogen. This would result in the power source being created at a fraction of the cost it currently takes.

Botte says the idea came to her several years ago at a conference on fuel cells, where they were discussing how to turn clean water into clean power. ‘I wondered how we could do this better,’ she adds – so started looking at waste streams as a better source of molecules from which to produce hydrogen.

Urine’s major constituent is urea, which incorporates four hydrogen atoms per molecule – importantly, less tightly bonded than the hydrogen atoms in water molecules. Botte used electrolysis to break the molecule apart, developing an inexpensive new nickel-based electrode to selectively and efficiently oxidise the urea. To break the molecule down, a voltage of 0.37V needs to be applied across the cell – much less than the 1.23V needed to split water.

‘During the electrochemical process the urea gets adsorbed on to the nickel electrode surface, which passes the electrons needed to break up the molecule,’ Botte told Chemistry World. Pure hydrogen is evolved at the cathode, while nitrogen plus a trace of oxygen and hydrogen were collected at the anode. While carbon dioxide is generated during the reaction, none is found in the collected gasses as it reacts with the potassium hydroxide in the solution to form potassium carbonate

Source: RSC :: Chemistry World – Urine turned into hydrogen fuel

Granted we aren’t likely to be pulling up to port-o-johns instead of gas pumps any time soon but you gotta admire people who are willing to brave experimenting with our bodily function left-over’s on the off chance we can use them in a good way.

hat tip to EcoGeek.org

Need to fill up your hydrogen powered car? Pull up to the port-o-johnny is a post from: The Inquisitr

Speeding admittedly leads to many fatal accidents. Speeding in bad weather can multiple the number of fatalities exponentially. Sure the police can issue speeding tickets as well as dangerous driving tickets but the truth is many people just consider them as part of the cost of driving.

In New Zealand they are trying something totally different to try and get people to slow down during bad weather – public horror. They are doing this through special billboards with pictures of children. They are special in that when it rains the billboard begins to bleed.

hat tip to BuzzFeed

Billboard campaign uses tears of blood. is a post from: The Inquisitr

In a 5600 square meter building designed by architects Delugan Meissi automobile maker Porsche has brought together an incredible collection of historical and rare Porsches. The complete collection contains 80 exhibits and is located just outside of the company’s headquarters in Zuffenhausen.

Here is a sampling of what you will find should you ever get the the chance to see it for yourself.

via FreshPics

Porsche Museum – bring your own drool towel is a post from: The Inquisitr

In light of the massive bailout for the automobile industry and the constantly shifting executives a rather interesting story has surfaced as to one of the reasons that GM is having such a hard time. While it is somewhat of an inside joke many people have wondered why it is that GM cars has such bad interiors compared to their competition. Sure some of the blame can be transferred right down the supply chain but it turns out it could be much more basic than that.

According to a well placed GM insider who contacted the crew at The Truth About Cars (TTAC) blog it all boils down to the executives. As it turns out the executives of GM have never known, and still don’t know that there is any real problem. Robert Farago at TTAC writes

As you probably know, ever since GM was founded, its execs have either been driven by a chauffeur or provided with carefully prepared and maintained examples of the company’s most expensive vehicles. Of course, there are times when the suits must sign off on the company’s more prosaic products. Since 1953, this intersection between high flyer and mass market occurred at GM’s Mesa, Arizona, Desert Proving Grounds (DPG). The execs would fly into Phoenix’s Sky Harbor airport, limo out to the DPG and drive the company’s latest models.

Our agent says that all the vehicles the execs drove were “ringers.” More specifically, the engineers would tweak the test vehicles to remove any hint of imperfection. “They use a rolling radius machine to choose the best tires, fix the headliner, tighten panel and interior gaps, remove shakes and rattles, repair bodywork—everything and anything.”

Did the execs know this? “Nope. And nobody was going to tell them . . . As far as they knew, the cars were exactly as they would be coming off the line. That’s why Bob Lutz thinks GM’s products are world-class. The ones he’s driven are.”

I asked Agent X if the GM execs would ever drive the cars again. Did he know if Wagoner or Lutz dropped in at a dealership to test drive a random sample off the lot? He found the idea amusing.

Robert also writes that their contact says that rather than the situation improving it is actually getting worse. Between selling off their major testing grounds in Arizona and some real problems at the replacement facility in Michoacán, Mexico the situation doesn’t look good.

But then of course we all get to see these new television ads proclaiming the new GM …. I wonder if that means the executives driving the real cars that are going to market or just some more specially prepared ringers.

GM: Making something better means knowing about the problem is a post from: The Inquisitr

Keep your comics, never mind about your replica toy models and I’m not interested in your kinky costumes. No, I have found a true Batman fan in sculptor Bob Causey who has built his own drivable Batman Forever Batmobile.

It has a full interior, retractable hard top and three LCD displays. All I can say is this is one real diehard fan and my hat goes of to him and here is a video and a bunch of pictures for your perusal.

Now for the pics

[hat tip to TecheBlog]

Now this is a Batman fan! is a post from: The Inquisitr

The Chevy Corvette has to be one of the dream cars that just about every boy has wanted to own when they grow up. It has always been equated with terms like sexy, sleek and powerful and even though many of the styles that have been shipped out in recent years have been for the most part boring it still is one of those dream cars.

Well Stilebertone’s Project M definitely throws those perceptions to the wind with their version of this classic that was revealed at the Shanghai Auto Show this past week. This sleek, sexy version is called the Chevrolet Corvette ZR-1-Based Bertone Mantide and comes powered by a Chevrolet 683-hp 6.2-liter supercharged V-8 engine which will take you from 0 to 62 mph in 3.2 seconds.

With the help of carbon fibre body panels, interior trim, seats and wheels this baby’s top speed reaches 217 mph. Here’s some more shots of this oh so sweet car just to help you through the day and once you are done those there’s a video waiting for you.

and now for the video portion of the show

[hat tip to LikeCool.com / pictures courtesy of LikeCool.com]

Screw hybrids – bring this baby to market is a post from: The Inquisitr

People all around are experiencing financial hard times and having to make daily decisions about which bills get paid and which get passed on until the next month. Unfortunately if you have bought a car recently missing that payment could find you sitting on the side of the road with a dead hunk of plastic and steel in place of your car.

More and more car dealers and loan agencies are requiring that shut-off switches be installed on vehicles being sold. The idea is that if you miss a payment you’ll first get a number of visual warnings that you missed the payment and if that doesn’t work they flip the switch and your car is suddenly dead in the road.

As personal credit ratings are slipping from “A” to “B” companies manufacturing these devices are having to ramp up production to keep up with the demand

Business is booming for makers of shut-off devices, which turn engines off when car payments are late. Sales at one manufacturer, Littleton, Colorado-based Passtime, are up 33 percent over last year. CEO Stan Schwarz says the company is cranking up production to meet the demand.

"Right now, we are moving about 2,000 units a month into the marketplace," Schwarz says. "I fully expect by the end of the year we will be up to 14,000 to 15,000 a month,"

Source: CNN/AOL Autos

These shut-off switches which also include GPS units allow either the car dealers and lending companies to still sell cars to people whose credit situation would normally exclude from buying cars. As well the troubled buyers get a break in that the interest rate charged is lower than regular purchases. That hasn’t stopped the discussions over their value or the talk on the net about how to disable them

Numerous safeguards are built-in, the manufacturers say. The devices won’t shut down the engine while the vehicle is moving, and consumers can extend the car’s operation in an emergency. Contracts spell out that the device is present on the vehicle.

"We have customers sign a disclosure before they get into the car, saying the unit is on the car and how it is going to function," Schwarz said. "The disclosure form is four or five pages long, and the customer checks off every box.

"If the dealer won’t disclose the unit is on the car, then we won’t do business with that dealer or his lender or finance company," he said. But the entire system may break apart if dealer doesn’t sell a good vehicle, he added. Some customers simply won’t make the payments if a vehicle doesn’t run reasonably well

Source: CNN/AOL Autos

Miss a car payment and find yourself shut down is a post from: The Inquisitr

Typically the majority of police cars in use today are just overhauled family sedans with the occasional Mustang or Charger thrown into the mix for those really high speed chases. That could change if Carbon Motors Corp. has anything to say about the future of police department vehicle purchases. The company is out and about showing off its prototype of a cop car that was designed by police officers

"I don’t see any downside to this car," said Carl Latorre, a Pennsylvania State Police dispatcher who served 35 years as a Philadelphia police officer. "I am so excited about this car. This car rates up there with cops carrying automatic weapons to combat what the criminals carry now. It’s about time that something like this came about."

OK, so it doesn’t have a nanotech cloaking capability or rocket boosters, but every feature on the Carbon E7 concept vehicle draws on suggestions from more than 3,000 law enforcement professionals.

The result is a futuristic prowler with a 300-horsepower clean diesel engine, flashing lights visible from all angles, an ergonomic cockpit, an onboard computer with voice command and instant license plate recognition, integrated shotgun mounts, and more. (Weapons of mass destruction detectors are available as an option — seriously.)

Source: CNN

Mind you the one thing that could hold police departments back on buying these cop cars of the future is the price. Currently Carbon Motors isn’t giving a definite delivery price but are suggesting it will be somewhere in the neighbourhood of $50,000 per car. Mind you the Carbon cop car is expected to surpass the current life expectancy of between 75,000 to 125,000 miles for the standard patrol car with a life expectancy of 250,000 miles.

[picture courtesy of CNN]

A cop’s cop car is a post from: The Inquisitr

Better mileage is the holy grail for every car manufacturer these days whether it be using electric power, gas or even some form of natural gas. The big problem that has been facing any move to green vehicles has always centered around cost to the consumer with green versions of vehicles costing anywhere from $5,000 and up when compared to their gas guzzling counterparts.

Enter Loremo.

Since 2000 the company has been working hard on a car by the same name. Even though Loremo has yet to produce a production electric vehicle it says that all three of its powertrains should be finished this year. The different powertrains will power 3 different designs of the car. the first version – the base vehicle – will get 120 MPG on a 700 ccm diesel engine that will feature turbo charging, inter-cooling and exhaust gas recycling.

The second model is the GT version with a sportier performance with a 850 ccm engine. As well the car will be able to run on liquefied natural gas (LNG) or pressurized natural gas (PNG).

The final version; and the one closest to production, is Loremo’s take on an ultra-efficient electric motor. Public tests of the Loremo EV are slated to start in March of this year. The price range for all three versions of the vehicle are supposed to range from $22,500 up to $30,000 for the GT model.

If you are so inclined you can keep up with Loremo developments over on the company blog.

[hat tip to EcoGeek]

120 MPG by 2010 for $30G’s is a post from: The Inquisitr

Around the globe it is estimated that 1.2 million people die in car accidents in one year – that equates to 3200 traffic deaths every day. This figure equals or surpasses some of the more high profile – and newsworthy – events that resulted in large death tolls. As Trevor Reichman at Treehugger points out in some of the following examples

1) Every day more people are killed in auto related deaths than in the 9/11 attacks on America.
2) Every day, about 3 times more woman, children, and men are killed in auto related deaths than in the recent Gaza conflict.
3) Every day, more than twice as many people perish in auto deaths than in Hurricane Katrina.
4) The daily toll from traffic accidents is equivalent to 15 plane crashes, each with 200 passengers aboard.

One would think that saving these kind of number of lives would rate a little higher in our collective concern about human lives. Instead we continue to relegate things like public mass transit and safer vehicles to the fringes. while the number of deaths has waned slightly in the wealthier nations due to higher fuel prices the death tolls in developing nations has increased. As it is though 110 people die every day in the United States which works out to 40,000 people a year.

[pic courtesy of CarAdvice.com.au]

Crash! Boom! 3,000 people die in car accidents daily is a post from: The Inquisitr