Chrysler Group Wins Big at Texas Auto Roundup

At the recent Texas Auto Roundup in Fort Worth, Chrysler Group walked away with a total of six awards for their Dodge, SRT, and Chrysler brands.

The Texas Auto Writers Association (TAWA) gave away a total of 19 awards at the Texas Auto Roundup, so with six awards, Chrysler took home nearly a third of the available awards and more awards than any other manufacturer. The 2014 Dodge Dart won Compact Car of Texas. The 2014 Jeep Cherokee SRT won Performance Utility Vehicle of Texas. Chrysler took the most with the 2015 Chrysler 200 winning Mid-size Sedan of Texas, the 2014 Town & Country winning Minivan of Texas, the 2014 Chrysler 300 winning Full-size Sedan of Texas, and 2014 Town & Country winning Family Car of Texas.

Michael Marrs, President of TAWA, explained why the Texas Auto Roundup was a great venue for the vehicles, saying, “This event allows us to experience manufacturers’ products in a first-hand comparison. The design, capability and versatility of Chrysler Group products really stood out among the competition.”

Reid Bigland, Head of U.S. Sales at Chrysler Group, thanked TAWA for the honor, calling the six wins “a testament to our hard work this year.”

“We continue to improve our vehicle lineup,” Bigland stated, “and we’re pleased that TAWA gave our brands their vote of confidence once again.”

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Chrysler Keeps Drivers Connected

Chrysler is working to keep you connected even when you’re on the road.  Cnet.com revealed that the auto company is teaming up with Sprint to bring the new UConnect Access system to two of the hottest cars of the year, the 2013 Ram 1500 and the SRT Viper. 

Uconnect in its current form brings drivers a host of features already.  Hands-free phone, navigation system, digital audio, and it’s all tied into a single touchscreen interface.  UConnect Access is the next step in the evolution of the system.

So what’s new?  You can now operate the rear view mirror frame with just the press of a button.  Get into an emergency and you’re just another press away from assistance.  You can even synch up your smartphone with your car via an app that will let you unlock the doors or even start up the engine.  Don’t get too worried about focusing on your phone too much when driving.  Seriously, seems like we’re not far away from driving around using our phones as remotes. 

UConnect Access will read out your text messages out loud.  You can respond back by just voicing out your text, causing me to wonder why you haven’t just called the person, but oh well.  It’s a great way to work against distracted texting drivers; I can’t help but think of the hilarity possible in some awkward texts.  Last thing I need to do while driving my parents to the store is explaining the context behind the things my friends send me.

How does Sprint fit into this?  The service they are launching will be called Velocity.  It is described as a “end to end solution” and is going to offer the companies like Chrysler “a data connection, human-machine interface expertise for in-car electronics, and telematics services.”

Velocity works on Sprint’s 3G network.  The phone company is already looking into implementing the service on an international scale.  To achieve that goal, the car makers will need to start putting cell radios in the cars so it works across borders in other countries.

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