On Apr 28, 7:53 pm, cuhu...@webtv.net wrote:

Yes, in days gone by they were indeed a leader in technology.  My dad
used to work at Chrysler plant in Detroit.  Engineers at other
companies used to tour plant often. Of course, as I pursued my own
engineering career, I learned that this is quite common in many
industries.

I think in spite of the MB merger/takeover they do not lead as much as
they used to, though they are by no means backward.

I must say, however, that after being a Mopar customer for some time,
I have been taken aback by their decision to drop subcompacts (Neon)
and "replace" it with an SUV (the Nitro).  I will be looking Japanese
or Asian for my next car. I dearly love my Neon, certainly among the
best, if not the best, car I have owned.  It has 120,000 miles and I
know it will not last forever.  But I have no need for an SUV.  With
the price of gas these days I figure it was a stupid decision for
Chrysler to make.

    I love their technology of putting the icm and the voltage regulator
into the pcm.  This makes pcm's pretty scarce in the junkyards around
here.  Also seems to make 50% of the aftermarket rebuilds we get to be
NFG out of the box.  The 2.7 engine is a real piece of work.  Those are
also pretty scarce in the yards.  Expensive too.
    One of the things I liked about mopar was the evap pump.  It tested the
system in the same way that it had to seal.  I've seem too many systems
that leaked under vacuum but not pressure.  They fail the monitor but
don't contribute to any emissions.  Mopar, of course, changed their
system to the same crap that everyone else is using.

No news flash there. Chrysler has always been ahead of the curve in
engineering design, which is why Chrysler engines have such a great
reputation. Its mostly QA and QC that have varied drastically over the
years. Chrysler has had very few complete engineering disasters like the
early A-604 transmission, and even that was mainly due to rushing to
production early rather than it being a bad fundamental idea. Compare
that to GM with things like the V-8-6-4(-0), the HT4100, the TH250, the
TH700R4 (early version) Chevy engines in Oldmobiles without telling
buyers, the Oldsmodiesel, the Vega aluminum engine, intake gaskets on
the Chevy 60-degree v6 family, etc. etc. etc.......