1992 Jeep Cherokee Lifted Low Miles on 2040-cars

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2019 Jeep Renegade, Fiat 500X fuel economy revealed, slightly improved

The 2019 Jeep Renegade and Fiat 500X twins each get a new engine option, a turbocharged 1.3-liter four-cylinder. At 177 horsepower and 210 pound-feet of torque, it's substantially more potent than the 160-horsepower turbocharged 1.4-liter engine it replaces, and nearly matches the naturally aspirated 2.4-liter engine for power while beating its 175 pound-feet of torque. But we haven't known until now is how the new engine fares in terms of fuel economy. The numbers are a little tricky to parse, since both the Jeep and Fiat have changed what transmissions are available, as well as what combinations of engine and driveline are offered. We'll start with looking at the Jeep Renegade. It offers both the new turbo engine and the old 2.4-liter engine, but the manual transmission is gone, and the Renegade Trailhawk gets the turbo engine instead of the naturally aspirated one. All the numbers are below. Overall, the new turbo engine coupled with front-drive and the standard nine-speed auto returns better fuel economy than even the old manual-equipped combo. Both all-wheel-drive models do worse, though, with the automatic and the new engine than with the old engine with a manual. The new turbocharged Trailhawk also doesn't do as well on the highway as the old model, but does better in town. Fuel economy is unchanged for the 2.4-liter versions of the Renegade. 2019 Fiat 500X View 11 Photos The Fiat 500X range is simpler to follow, since only one variant is available now: the turbo 1.3-liter engine with all-wheel drive and an automatic. It's not quite as frugal as the fuel-sipping manual, front-drive turbo model from last year, but it does offer noticeable gains over the 2.4-liter versions. All the numbers are below.

Total auto recalls already on record pace in 2014

If you've noticed that there have been more recalls than usual this year, you may be on to something. According to a report from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the US market is on pace to break a record for recalls. In 2013, 22 million cars were recalled. We're only a third of the way through 2014, though, and we've already halved that figure, with 11 million units recalled. That's wild.
Considering the past few months, it shouldn't be a surprise that General Motors is leading the charge, with six million of the 11 million units recalled coming from one of the General's four brands. Between truck recalls, CUV recalls and the ignition switch recall, 2014 hasn't been a great year for GM.
Other recall leaders include Nissan (one million Sentra and Altima sedans), Honda (900,000 Odyssey minivans), Toyota (over one million units in a few recalls), Volkswagen (150,000 Passat sedans), Chrysler (644,000 Dodge Durango and Jeep Grand Cherokee SUVs) and most recently, Ford (434,000 units, the bulk of which were early Ford Escape CUVs). So while it's been a bad year for GM so far, its competitors aren't doing too well, either.

Chrysler investing $20M in Toledo plant to support 9-speed auto production

In 2011, Chrysler announced a $72-million investment in its Toledo Machining Plant to modernize production of the eight- and nine-speed torque-converters for automatic transmissions made there. That upgrade work won't be finished until Q3 of this year, but Chrysler has already announced a further $19.6-million investment to increase production capacity for the nine-speeders.
The extra units will be necessary because the nine-speed transmission they'll be mated to is going into three popular models: it will debut on the 2014 Jeep Cherokee, then go into the Chrysler 200 and Dodge Dart. The company predicted that this year alone it would sell 200,000 units equipped with the nine-speed tranny, and it is spending some $374 million in addition to the investment in Toledo to upgrade production capacity for it.
The work attached to this new investment won't begin until Q3 of 2014, and it will be finished by the end of that year. There's a press release below with all the details.