1987 Dodge Ramcharger Le-150 4x4 on 2040-cars

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Chrysler, Nissan minivans earn 'dire' crash test results, says IIHS [w/video]

First introduced in 2012, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety's small-overlap frontal crash test has become the bane of many auto engineers' existence. It's a particularly steep design challenge because it forces just 25 percent of a vehicle's front end to take the brunt of a 40-mile-per-hour impact. The newly released results of four family-minded minivans underscore just how difficult the crash test is: only one scored an Acceptable rating, and the other three did very poorly. The 2008-2015 Chrysler Town & Country and Dodge Grand Caravan, plus the 2011-2015 Nissan Quest, all received Poor ratings in the test, the IIHS' lowest possible score. The three of them showed significant crash intrusion into the driver's area. The dummy in the Nissan actually had to be cut out of the vehicle, with an IIHS spokesperson remarking, "the structure collapsed like a house of cards." In the Fiat Chrysler Automobile vans, the steering wheels moved out of the way, making the airbag less effective and letting the driver's head hit the dashboard. While it was not actually crashed, the agency is also giving the 2009-12 Volkswagen Routan a Poor score because it shares a structure with the FCA models. The newly released results of four minivans underscore just how difficult the small-offset crash test is. The refreshed 2015 Toyota Sienna (shown), conversely, earned an Acceptable rating and is also a Top Safety Pick+ because of its optional forward collision warning and automatic braking system. While the crash test dummy moved around during the impact more than the agency would have liked, sensors showed a low risk of injuries. The IIHS tested the Honda Odyssey last year, and it earned a Good overall score, the agency's best ranking. It's also a Top Safety Pick+ vehicle. The only member of the minivan segment left to test is the latest Kia Sedona, and the Institute is reportedly waiting a little longer for Kia to make changes to improve the model's performance. When reached for comment, Nissan spokesperson Steve Yaeger provided Autoblog with the following statement: "Nissan is committed to vehicle safety and believes that consumers should have information about crash protection so they can make educated buying decisions. Nissan is proud of the 2014 Quest's "good" rating in the IIHS front moderate overlap and side impact tests as well as a "good" head restraint rating.

Top torque-to-weight ratios under $100k, $50k and $25k

Horsepower may steal a lot of headlines, but the always-more-complex torque figure is often a critical one for both the workingman and the motoring playboy. The measure of rotational force represents the twist that can liquefy one's tires or haul one's horse trailer. Good stuff.
It follows then, that as with the horsepower-to-weight list that we assembled for you a few months ago, a list of cars that offer the most pound-feet with the fewest pounds to carry, is an interesting one to break down. Sure, there's a big difference in how the torque is applied from a turbocharged six-cylinder in a Swedish luxury sedan and a massive heavy-duty truck's turbo-diesel. But being the car/stat geeks that we are, we think it's kinda neat that those two vehicles rank near each other where torque and weight intersect.
As with the horsepower list, we've given you figures as pounds per every one pound-foot. Again broken down into broad price categories, we've got a mixed bag of 2014 and 2015 models here, too. Every effort has been made to select the most up-to-date prices and specs, and we've also to omitted some '14 cars that won't be re-upped after the ongoing yearly changeover.

Dodge PHEV due in 2022 expected to be the Hornet

A relatively new saga involving hornets in the Pacific Northwest begins with the adjective "murder" and gets worse from there. A relatively dated saga involving hornets in the automotive industry begins with the name "Dodge" and is — or could be — much friendlier to plant and animal life. Last year, former Dodge parent company Fiat Chrysler trademarked the term "Dodge Hornet" for the first time. Two months ago, an Italian publication credited its sources with news that current parent company Stellantis will create a Dodge version of the Alfa Romeo Tonale (pictured) and call it the Hornet. Now, Mopar Insiders picked up on Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares sharing a roadmap of the 20 PHEV and battery-electric vehicles coming our way in the next two years between the company's 14 brands. Dodge merits a single PHEV entry in the 2022 column. MI says this will be the Hornet.      As FCA recast its U.S. lineups to give Dodge more focus and give Chrysler a reason to exist, Dodge lost the Caliber, Nitro, and Journey. The way this new report is put, and as we mused a year ago, the coming Hornet will replace the Journey — a space Dodge could do well to return to. Never given much love by the parent company, the Journey turned into a hoary old thing over its 13 years on the market, but sold in remarkable numbers to the end. According to Car Sales Base, sales increased nearly every year for the first nine years of the Journey's life. Even during the sales decline over the last four years of its production life, the Journey found 298,594 homes in the U.S. More than 12,000 zombie units have been moved off lots this year. A Dodge Hornet likely wouldn't offer the Wal-Mart rollback pricing the Journey was known for. Also, the Hornet would pack in just two rows, whereas the Journey offered three. Nevertheless, we're now talking about three vehicles sharing major internal organs; the Alfa Romeo Tonale leans heavily on the Jeep Compass platform and internals, and the Dodge is expected to be built at the same Naples, Italy plant as the Alfa Romeo. The economies of scale are there. As for powertrain, we know there's a Tonale PHEV coming, but it's thought to get its plug-in system from the Jeep Renegade 4xe that's based around the smaller 1.3-liter four-cylinder with either 190 or 240 total horsepower instead of the larger 2.0-liter engine in the Wrangler 4xe.