The analysts RL Polk prove just how hot All Wheel Drive is right now, demonstrating that over a third of all vehicles sold in October and November of last year were equipped with AWD. Even more interesting: last Summer didn’t see the typical seasonal drop in AWD-equipped model sales. Polk’s Tom Libby breaks it down

At the make level, every ongoing make except four enjoyed an increase in AWD/4WD penetration in the September – November 2010 time period when compared to the same time period in the prior year. And the five largest makes based on retail registrations (Toyota, Ford, Honda, Chevrolet and Nissan) all experienced increased AWD/4WD take rates, led by Nissan (up 25%) and Toyota (17%). Lastly, in the 11 months of 2010 for which registration data are available, the two makes with the highest AWD mix among all those that offer both cars and light trucks, Subaru and Audi, have substantially out-performed the industry, with retail registrations up 21% and 20%, respectively, versus the industry gain of 7%.

Everyone doesn’t need AWD, but plenty of people want it… and it’s no coincidence that the two brands most closely associated with AWD (Audi and Subaru) are on sales tears right now. But will AWD continue to climb? Gas prices could put a crimp on the AWD party, but assuming for a moment that gas prices stay flat, where would the AWD fleet mix top out? Will the AWD mix ever hit 50 percent? More?

It’s been ten long years since Volkswagen stunned a generation with its Microbus concept, a modern interpretation of the ’60s icon. That vehicle was supposed to go into production on the T5 platform by 2003, as a way to introduce a new Volkswagen van to America. Instead, in one of the crueler bait-and-switch moves in recent memory, VW rebadged a Dodge Caravan for the US and kept the T5 in Europe.

In the meantime, the Microbus concept remains in the minds of VW’s American fans as a sign of what might have been, and a marker for when things started to wrong for VW of America. But now, the wait is over. American Microbus fans rejoice, for Volkswagen has heard your decade of muttered prayers and has brought back the Microbus. As a (tiny) concept. Yeah, it’s electrically-driven, and yeah, it’s got iPad integration, but it’s just a concept and VW isn’t even hinting at production plans. Tease me once, shame on me… tease me twice, and you’d better build the damn thing!

Hyundai may have taken the unprecedented step of publicizing its sales-weighted Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) number, but as the Korean automaker itself has pointed out, CAFE numbers are based on unadjusted (non-EPA) numbers that do not reflect window sticker ratings. Into that gap step the auto data-philes at TrueCar, who have created the first index of sales-weighted EPA fleet fuel economy for the US market. According to TrueCar’s release

TrueCar is seeking to provide transparency and truth in average fuel economy, providing an alternative view to Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) ratings that can be confusing and misleading.  TrueCar’s monthly average fuel economy helps keep in perspective what each manufacturer’s average miles per gallon per car sold using EPA’s window sticker.

Unsurprisingly, Hyundai takes the top average efficiency rating, at 26.6 MPG, while Chrysler trails the pack at 19.5 MPG. More surprisingly: Toyota’s car fleet became 1.6% less efficient in the last year but still held onto its lead at 28.7 MPG. Also, GM’s truck fleet actually became less efficient over the last year, even as Ford and Chrysler’s trucks improved 1.1 and .6 percent respectively. For more fleet average breakdowns by segment, just hit the jump.

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Since 2002 GM’s Compact Crossovers, like the Chevrolet Equinox, GMC Terrain and Chevrolet Captiva/Opel Antara have been built on a unique platform known internally as “Theta.” That platform, which debuted on Saturn’s Vue, was developed largely in Korea by GM-Daewoo, based roughly on GM’s Global Midsized (“Epsilon”) platform. Since 2002, Compact CUVs have become one of the fastest-growing segments in the US, and though GM’s Theta-based CUVs have sold well, the competition is moving towards mildly-modified C-segment platforms for Compact CUVs in order to use as many common components as possible, thereby lowering the cost of development and increasing manufacturing flexibility. Now, it seems that GM is following suit, dropping the Korean-developed Theta platform for a new generation of Compact CUVs developed by Opel on the Astra’s global Compact (Delta II) platform.

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Having shown a raft of C-platformed cars, MPVs and crossovers at the Detroit Auto Show, Ford is making big deal out of its smaller B-segment platform at Geneva, with this “B-Max” MPV. Just over four inches longer than a fiesta but over a foot shorter than the C-Max, the B-Max packages pillar-free sliding door entrances into a tiny footprint for this MPV, which is destined for a 2012 launch in Europe (no word on US availability, but don’t hold your breath). And in addition to the Fiesta’s 1.6 NA four-banger, the B-Max will debut Ford’s smallest EcoBoost engine to date, a 1.0 liter with start-stop technology. Just the thing to take on Opel’s suicide-doored Meriva, which is headed to the US soon as a Buick.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the Supreme Court’s recent ruling against Mazda is re-opening at least one more lawsuit against an automaker, noting

The Ford case focuses not on seat belts but on the type of glass the company chose to install in its 1997 F-150 pickup. The plaintiff alleged Ford was liable in the death of a passenger in an F-150 who was ejected during a 2002 accident in which the truck veered off the road and rolled over several times.

The victim wasn’t wearing a seat belt, and his mother alleged he would not have been ejected had Ford installed laminated side windows on the truck instead of using tempered glass. Federal safety regulations gave Ford a choice in which type of windows to install.

The case now goes back to the South Carolina Supreme Court, which ruled last year that the lawsuit was preempted by the federal regulations.

It’s not clear at this point if other OEMs will be vulnerable to re-opened lawsuits based on the Mazda ruling, but don’t be surprised if the Supreme Court’s decision continues to cause legal headaches for automakers.

Ever since Toyota and Subaru announced they would be building a rear-drive sports coupe together, one question has torn the Subaru faithful apart, casting their forums and message boards into an dark age of strife and conflict. That question: will the Subaru version retain the brand’s signature all-wheel-drive? Since the car’s running gear is Subaru Legacy based (or, it was to start with), it should have been obvious from the get-go that the Subaru version would rotate all four wheels. But, as these images from the Autoguide‘s coverage of the Geneva Auto Show reveal, Subaru seems to have deliberately played up the confusion. While calling its display a “concept model of Subaru’s rear-wheel-drive sports car now under development,” the display even says “its new platform incorporates Subaru’s signature Symmetrical AWD.” Confused yet?

Thanks to a flood of about 200 comments, NHTSA has delayed final rulemaking for its requirement that all vehicles sold in the US must have back-up cameras. Automotive News [sub] reports the vehicle safety agency released a statement saying

The public comment period on this safety proposal only recently closed, and NHTSA will be asking Congress for additional time to analyze public comments, complete the rulemaking process and issue a final rule

But don’t expect NHTSA to drop the proposed rule. An analyst watching the regulatory process tells AN that

he expects the rule to be tweaked to include testing for illumination at night and the time it takes the picture to appear on the display. Overall, though, he said there shouldn’t be any major changes that would cause the ruling to be enacted later than September.

The agency says the cheapest option is to connect the camera to a vehicle’s existing video screen at a cost of $58 to $88. Equipping a vehicle that doesn’t already have a screen would cost $159 to $203

At an industry-wide cost of $1.9b-$2.7b, that comes to some $20m per life saved (assuming cameras will actually prevent back-up “accidents”). Want to guess what most of those 200 comments have to say about the proposal? Seriously, though, we can only find one…

Hyundai and Kia are on a tear in the European market, having recently passed Toyota to become the best-selling Asian automaker in the EU (at 605,386 units, some 50k away from Daimler’s 2010 sales). And with its first Europe-centric product coming online, aimed at the heart of Europe’s 896k unit midsize segment, it hopes to keep the growth coming. In service of that goal, Hyundai is moving European production of its iX35 (Tucson) CUV from Kia’s plant in Zilina, Slovakia, to its own factory in Nosovice, Czech Republic, and adding an extra shift according to the WSJ. And unlike many of its European competitors, Hyundai is keeping its Euro-zone production capacity on the slim side, importing the forthcoming i40 from South Korea and the i10 from India, helping to keep the Korean automaker out of the overcapacity trap that plagues its competitors. Though Hyundai has good prospects for growth in Europe, production capacity expansions are being targeted at the developing markets that show more promise for growth.

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A GM NVH engineer brags:

[GMC] Terrain measured quieter than the Honda CR-V and Toyota RAV4 in our on-road interior noise tests. At 70 miles per hour, Terrain’s interior is quiet enough to allow conversation in normal tones of voice.

How did they manage that? Hours of engine tuning, right? Wrong.

When GM engineers set out to deliver segment-leading fuel economy on Terrain they chose to lower the 6-speed transmission’s gear shift points to enable the Ecotec 2.4L four-cylinder engine to run at lower rpm torque. In this “Eco” mode, which the driver can activate with a click of a button on the console, the torque converter clutch engages at lower engine speeds to help save gas. While the engineering action improved fuel efficiency by up to one mpg, it also created an objectionable low-end frequency boom. To counteract that boom the engineers turned to active noise cancellation technology.

Terrain’s noise cancellation system relies on two microphones embedded in the headliner to detect the hum and prompt an onboard frequency generator to create counteracting sound waves through the audio system’s speakers and sub-woofer. The system also reduces higher rpm engine noise at highway cruising speeds to help keep the vehicle interior quiet.

OK, that solution may not satisfy our desire to imagine engineers slaving over the details of engine tuning, but hey, it’s a solution. Too bad GM’s Theta CUVs have yet to live up to their MPG ratings in real-world testing.

Back in November, NHTSA announced that it was investigating how long it took for rental cars to be repaired under recall, saying

NHTSA understands that there is presently a petition before the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) seeking to prohibit at least one rental car company from renting vehicles on which safety recall campaign remedies remain outstanding.

Because only vehicles made by the Detroit Three are under investigation, they are the only firms who have been asked to disclose how long it takes rental fleets to repair their vehicles. And, according to the Detroit News

GM and Chrysler told NHTSA this week that 30 days after a recall — 10 to 30 percent of vehicles sold to rental car companies had been repaired.

By 90 days, it had improved to about 30 percent and within a year, the number had improved to 50 percent or higher.

Ford did not make its data public, citing the fact that the release of the information could damage it is relationship with rental car companies and result in “decreased sales of motor vehicles to rental car fleets.”

Rental car companies are not legally required to complete recalls before they rent the cars to customers.

Zoinks!

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Via autogetspot.com come these first pictures of the Lamborghini Aventador awaiting the adoring attention of Geneva Auto Show attendees…

Chrysler just filed its first SEC disclosure in over a decade, providing a peek under the hood of the smallest Detroit automaker. One of the most interesting items: a history of Chrysler’s fleet sales breakouts since 2006. And despite Chrysler’s vows to break its fleet addiction, 2010 saw the firm’s highest fleet percentage since 2006, at 36.1%. Back in the Cerberus days, they held the line at 30%, thank you very much. But then, ChryCo knows how to defend the fleet sales, arguing:

Although our vehicle sales to dealers for sale to retail customers are normally more profitable than our fleet sales, our fleet sales are an important source of revenue and can also be an effective means for marketing our vehicles. Further, fleet orders also help normalize our plant production because they typically involve the delivery of a large, pre-determined quantity of vehicles over several months. Fleet sales are also a source of aftermarket service parts revenue for us and service revenue for our dealers. In recent years, our fleet customers, particularly our commercial and government fleet customers, have tended to order vehicles that are smaller and are more fuel-efficient.

But the best thing about fleet sales? They conceal the steady erosion of consumer demand for your products and brands. After all, at 36.1% fleet mix, Chrysler only sold about 695,000 vehicles to actual retail consumers last year (100k-200k below what the firm’s five-year plan called for).

Dieseldriver.com broke down diesel sales for 2010, and found that December’ diesel sales (7,604 units) were about double the monthly rate for January of last year (3,855), although diesel’s overall market share is not growing at a commensurate rate. For vehicles available in both gas and diesel versions, the diesel take rate over the course of 2010 was 32%. Audi buyers chose diesel powertrains most often where available, with a 48% take rate on diesel versions of the A3 and Q7. Volkswagen had the second-highest take rate at 7%, with its Jetta Sportwagon leading the way with nearly five diesel versions selling for each gas version sold.

Almost exactly three years and one week ago, my dad, Paul Niedermeyer called me up and told me there was an opening for a freelancer at TTAC’s then-new news blog. Little did I know at the time that just a few years later, so much would have changed. In fact, if someone had told me at the time that in three years I would be editing TTAC and that my dad would have moved onto his own site, I might not have taken the job. After all, if it weren’t for him I might not even be interested in cars, and I certainly wouldn’t be writing about them professionally.

Needless to say, there have been some twists and turns along the way… but sharing a profession with your dad is too deeply rewarding a privilege to simply come easily. His decision to leave TTAC was a tough for me to accept at first, until I realized that TTAC’s loss was the internet’s gain. We may have lost a valued contributor, but the autoblogosphere gained a new destination: curbsideclassic.com.

For legal reasons, you can still find an archive of Paul’s TTAC-era Curbside Classics here, but be sure to surf over to his new site for his latest additions to a body of work that is, without a doubt, one of the best sources of automotive history and nostalgia on the web.