Midwest Mopars in the Park 2010 - The activities for the 2010 Midwest Mopars in the Park Car Show and Swap Meet continues to grow. We are finalizing the details for the special displays and celebrity guests. This year we have a very aggressive push to market the show. Watch for a great write up coming in the Mopar Collectors Guide.

Banquet - The club banquet/party in January is in the books. We ended up with a good turnout. The food was great and we played some games with lots of prizes for all. There were many stories swapped until last call and they closed the place down. Thanks to the guest representative from the Chicagoland Mopars this year. It was nice to get a different perspective of how Midwest Mopars is viewed and the things that are done in Chicago for their members.

What is New at Fiat? Now the Russians are coming. Fiat SpA and Russian group Sollers has just signed an agreement to manufacturer nine new Fiat based vehicles. This joint venture is between the Russian group and Fiat. The name of this union will be Fiat SpA - Sollers ojsc. The goal is to have all nine products to hit the Russian market by 2016. The plan is to evenly split the products between a Fiat engineered Jeep, SUV, and truck line. The Russians are subsidizing this entire $3.3 billion project. The Russian plant that will produce these models is in Naberezhniye Chelny and will be able to turn out up to 80,000 vehicles annually.

Need a Mini Van - In an effort to spark some Minivan sales in a sluggish economy, Chrysler LLC will be offering a 60 return policy on new Caravan and Town and Country vans purchased through the end of March 2010.

Incentives / Sales - Toyota has recently taken a hit on its stellar reputation for quality. Like Tiger Woods, the bad news just continues to grow. Toyota has issues with stopping and going. These are kind of important things in my book.

Barrett Auto - This year’s January auction was once again in the Arizona. The weather in the Phoenix area is usually a plus but not this year. Storms with very high winds passed through causing a lot of damage to the grounds and many cars. Two of the huge tents were pulled from their mounts exposing the cars awaiting new owners. With the winds and the exposed cars, it appeared that the crushed rock on the grounds became projectiles sand blasting everything not covered. One of the large tents ended up on highway 101 closing the freeway. Fortunately there were no deaths or serious injuries other than to the cars. Although the main tent survived and the auction did continue with modifications, I am sure it was a trying time for everyone there.

Club Activities - Last but not least, we still have lots of monthly club activities scheduled prior to and after the show this year. Thank Glenn for putting together lots of fun things to do the other 363 days of the year.