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On May 14, 2007 DaimlerChrysler AG announced the sale of 80.1% of Chrysler Group to American private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management, L.P., Chrysler's Founding Forum although Daimler continues to hold a 19.9% stake. It is then that the company gained its current name. The deal was finalized on August 3, 2007.

On August 6, 2007, after the announcement 2008 Chrysler Town & Country Community of the spin-off to Cerberus, the Chrysler LLC, or "The New Chrysler", unveiled a new company logo and launched its new website with a variation of the previously used Pentastar logo. Robert Nardelli also became Chairman and CEO of Chrysler under the ownership of Cerberus.

Article by Shane O' Donoghue
Source: uk.cars.yahoo.com

The BMW 123d Coupé has been rather busy in its last month with us. The very last journey was its longest yet, as the 123d was enlisted to drive three of us (and our camping gear) to Le Mans for the annual 24-hour epic. The trip itself was fairly epic; never mind the race. Starting out in Dublin with a gleaming car and a full tank of diesel, I boarded the fast Irish Ferries craft to Holyhead. Two hours later the nose of the BMW was pointed towards Birmingham to pick up the first of my passengers, then onto Luton Airport before hightailing it to Folkestone to catch the Eurotunnel to Calais.

Incredibly, we didn't need to top up with diesel until about a hundred miles south of Calais, and even then it was for fear of having to deal with closed fuel stations at night. We eventually rolled into our campsite at about 1am, which was no time to have to put up a tent...

We're loving the -

Range. Despite carrying three 'well-fed' lads and all their camping accoutrements, the 123d managed nearly 450 miles on that single tank of fuel. Given that we were 'pressing on' for much of our journey, the average fuel consumption is pretty impressive too.

Along with the fuel economy and range, the Coupé attracted praise for how surprisingly large its boot is and even in M Sport guise was exceedingly comfortable on France's excellent motorway network.

But not so impressed by -

The lack of cruise control. We spent hours and hours at a high-speed cruise on the motorway and my right leg and knee were aching by the end of the weekend from holding the throttle at a constant angle. It's also too easy to let your speed creep up in these circumstances, especially given the mid-range urge of the 123d's twin-turbo engine and that's not a good idea on the Autoroutes around Le Mans, as the Gendarmes patrol for speeding Brits with real vigour.

We're looking forward to -

Well, there's nothing more to look forward to with this car unfortunately, as BMW has cruelly taken it from us - not before we gave the Coupé a thorough valet first though, to remove all trace of the Le Mans weekend from it...

My next steed is VW's parsimonious Polo BlueMotion. I already know that it won't be as much to drive in the traditional sense as the BMW, but with diesel prices escalating out of control, it's perhaps no bad thing to be driving a car that requires so few fuel stops. Anyway, there's fun to be had in watching the instantaneous economy read out and eking out those extra miles per gallon. More on that soon.