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Daily Driver: 2015 Jeep Renegade Sport 4x4

Daily Driver videos are micro-reviews of vehicles in the Autoblog test fleet, reviewed by the staffers who drive them every day. Today's Daily Driver features the 2015 Jeep Renegade Sport 4x4, reviewed by Adam Morath. Something to note: The vehicle tested here is a pre-production unit, and we had some issues with the MySky removable roof system. (Associate editor Brandon Turkus mentioned these problems in his Quick Spin.) FCA confirms that improvements were made for production-spec cars. You can watch the video above or read a transcript below. Watch more Autoblog videos at /videos. [00:00:00] Hey, this is Adam Morath with another Daily Driver. Today, we're in the 2015 Jeep Renegade and I'm excited to be driving this in a Sport trim level. That's the lowest trim that they offer it in. I say I'm excited, because often we get the cars to totally spec-ed out to the max, the automaker trying to show off what they can do with the car but it doesn't always give you a realistic view of how most customers are going to spec the car, and I think with the Renegade being the entry-level model for Jeep now [00:00:30] replacing the outgoing Patriot and Compass, it makes sense to drive this in the Sport trim. We do have it in 4x4, comes in at just around $23,000. It's powered by a turbocharged 1.4 liter inline 4 and we've got it, made it to the 6-speed manual transmission, which is pretty cool. Again you can see FCA's fingerprints on this car. If they wanted to do well in Europe, of course you've got to offer it with a manual and that's nice for consumers here to have that choice of having a stick shift in the Jeep again. [00:01:00] That's kind of fun. It produces 160-horsepower, 184 pound-feet of torque. It's got a little pack to it. I wouldn't call it sporty but it's enough for a vehicle of this size. This is a pretty basic version of the renegade. The only options we have on it are the AC, the roof rails, 4-wheel drive, which is a must here in Michigan and then these MySky roof panels, which I'll get to in a minute, but that takes us from a base price of $18,000, the cheapest you'll be able to get into a Renegade for [00:01:30] up to about $23,700, which is where we're at. Yes, these are MySky roof panels. It's a totally new feature on the Renegade that Jeep is trying out and I think it's pretty cool. It's like a tee top system, except the panels aren't side by side. You have one in the front and one in the back.

NHTSA closes investigation into Jeep Liberty fires

The investigation that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened into the Jeep Liberty in October 2013 has been closed. NHTSA received two (!) complaints about fires starting in the driver's door, thought to be caused by the master power window switch. The initial estimate was that 80,000 Libertys could be roped into a possible recall, but according to a report in the Detroit News the agency examined records for 425,000 Chrysler products that used the same window switch, including the Dodge Nitro and Chrysler Town & Country minivan.
After canvassing 265 warranty claims related to the master switches, NHTSA concluded that the rate of fires compared to the "large population of vehicles" was rather low, and that there was no trend pattern behind the few issues it did find. Perhaps with that, and the closure of the trailer hitch investigation, the Liberty can finally rest in peace.

Marchionne uses racial epithet to describe what must power future Alfa Romeo models

Sergio Marchionne and his Fiat empire have a lot riding on the US return of the Alfa Romeo brand. The endeavor has been in progress for what feels like a lifetime - certainly for as long as Fiat has had the Chrysler brand under its Italian wing.
It's not surprising that Fiat CEO Marchionne needs a perfect first Alfa to mark a return to America. And here's where things get dicey. Nobody would argue with Marchionne's insistence that Alfa Romeo's be powered by Italian engines - as Marchionne himself is quoted to have said at the 2013 Detroit Auto Show, "There are some things that are well done in Italy."
If not what he said, then, it's how he said it that has eyebrows raised. "I cannot come up with a schlock product, I just won't. I won't put an American engine into that car. With all due respect to my American friends, it needs to be a wop engine." Wait, what's that?