The Compass has long been Jeep’s answer to the Cadillac Cimarron, failing to live up to the brand’s ideals while simultaneously cannibalizing its platform-mate(s). But apparently the refreshed anti-Jeep is about to get a dose of Jeep’s signature marketing: Trail-Rated status. According to the rarely-wrong-about-these-kinds-of-things Allpar.com

the 2011 Jeep Compass with Freedom Drive II will be Trail-Rated, the first time a Compass has achieved that designation. To accomplish this, the Compass moved the rebound springs to the same architecture as the Grand Cherokee, and raised the height by one inch for models with Freedom Drive II.

And if a Patriot can be “Trail-Rated,” why not a Compass? On second thought, why invest in a new Compass at all, Trail-Rated or not? Either way, we’re tits-deep in irony considering Dodge’s Ralph Gilles recently “revealed” that Dodge’s outgoing models all rode higher than the competition, and that

Lowering the car looks better. It looks a little bit smarter. It handles better. And more important is the fuel economy

Or, as Ripley doubtless said with his dying breath, not.

Even when marketers are locked in an epic struggle for the hearts of consumers, they still treat each other with a basic level of respect. After all, the competition is just competition; the real enemy is the consumer. But the competing impulses towards ruthless competition and collegial courtesy can often just cause more confusion. Take this spot from Hyundai, which makes a big joke out of a problem that isn’t especially widespread, and yet refuses to actually land the punch. What Hyundai is trying to do here is mock Chevrolet for coming out with a special “Eco” version of its Cruze that gets 42 MPG highway, and then using that claim to advertise all Cruzes with just an asterisk to remind buyers that the Eco model costs extra. Which is an interesting approach, except that we haven’t been able to find much evidence of this tactic… in fact, it seems that at least some Cruze ads cop to a 36 MPG, and the asterisk only references that the number is from the EPA. Did Hyundai jump the gun on this one? If so, the brand’s decision to break out sales of every 40 MPG vehicle it sells should help get things back on track.

In a supplemental memo related to forthcoming fuel economy standards for the years after 2017 [full doc in PDF here], the EPA has revealed the results of its consultations with stakeholders including the auto industry, and it seems that there are tradeoffs to high standards. The industry’s complaint seems to be that the government has underestimated the impact of higher fuel economy standards on such details as

vehicle performance, utility (e.g., towing capability), and comfort (e.g., noise, vibration, and harshness), the role of competing regulatory or technical requirements (e.g., criteria pollutant and/or safety standards), and assumptions regarding future gasoline fuel properties (e.g., octane levels).

All of which comes with a real price. The government is targeting a 2-6 percent increase in fuel economy standards between 2017 and 2025, which amounts to a range of 47-62 MPG. The NHTSA/EPA estimates show that this level of increase will cost automakers between $770 and $3,500 per vehicle to meet, but automakers insist that these estimates are too low. And apparently, the government takes these concerns seriously enough to blow its end-of-November deadline for narrowing the range of possible standards. At the top of the list of issues for study: the age-old trade-off between efficiency and safety.

Read More >

AutoWeek reports:

Major players in the industry think that EVs are a stopgap measure at best. Volkswagen declared that nobody wants EVs, except governments. In Japan, Toyota and Honda are talking louder and louder about hydrogen. There must be something better than plugins: A revolutionary technology that powers the car from a renewable energy source in an environmentally responsible fashion.

BMW just found what the world needs. Read More >

The official MPG(e) ratings for Chevy’s Volt and Nissan’ Leaf have been out for a few days. Finally, The Nikkei [sub] noticed something: Nissan’s “all-electric Leaf has gained bragging rights in the U.S. market after garnering a higher fuel economy rating than the Chevrolet Volt.” Bragging rights bestowed courtesy of the U.S. government. Read More >

While everybody is dreaming  (or shuddering at the thought) of masses of electric vehicles hanging off the grid at night, while that last ICE is donated to the Smithsonian, Volkswagen is taking a completely different tack. Forget the grid. Get your very own power plant. And guess what: It’s ICE powered. Read More >

India is keeping a wary eye on their neighbor north of the Himalaya. The Indian press is usually not prone to hyping Chinese achievements. Therefore, this news item should give us reason to sit up and take notice. China will shortly announce a plan to sell a million electric cars annually from 2015 on out. That’s what India’s Economic Times says.
A million electric cars a year? Read More >

When Autoweek asks the R&D boss at an alt-drivetrain leader like Toyota what the future of its powertrain development looks like, one tends to hope for something revelatory in his answer. Instead, we get

Why does the Nissan Leaf get a 99 MPG from the EPA? After all, you could pour gallons of gasoline into the thing and it wouldn’t budge an inch. It is, after all, an electric car. But hey, this ain’t America if a consumer can’t glance at a label and say “gosh honey, check out how many em-pee-gees this one gets. That sure is a whole lot of em-pee-gees.” And at least the EPA did include the most important detail: the Leaf’s battery range is rated 73 miles, or about three quarters the range Nissan had been claiming. Of course, as is always the case, your mileage may vary… only the amount of gasoline required by a Nissan Leaf won’t.

If you love data almost as much as you love cars, you’re in for a real treat. The EPA has issued a report [PDF here] on the last 35 years of light-duty vehicle efficiency trends, and it’s jam-packed full of fun graphs detailing the evolution of America’s car market. For example, the fuel-efficiency record of the major US-market players is laid bare in one particularly compelling collection of graphs (above). More detail on by-manufacturer efficiency over the last three years can be found here. Other fun graphs: production breakdowns by vehicle size and type, a comparison of performance and efficiency by vehicle type, and a distribution of vehicles by weight for 1975, 1988 and 2010 (weights dropped from ’75 to ’88, and are now back to nearly 1975  levels). You can also check out production share by weight to find out that the sub-2,750 lb died sometime after the year 2000. You can even see the breakdown of FWD-RWD-AWD  by vehicle type and pinpoint the moment that Subaru started making an impact on the market. All told, it’s an automotive data-gasm that will leave you a lot better informed about the state of the US market. And the perfect opportunity to make sweeping generalizations about the American car market. Enjoy!

Toyota is the king of the hybrid hill, but they have been accused of dragging their heels on pure plug-ins. Then Toyota plunked $50m on Tesla (and convinced them to move into the NUMMI plant.) This got people thinking. Some thought it was just an elegant way to unload the NUMMI plant. Some saw it as the beginning of Toyota’s electric future. Half a year later, Toyota puts their concrete plans on the table. Read More >

India’s Environmental Minister Jairam Ramesh’s  jab at diesel-powered trucks and SUVs is turning into a major diplomatic row. Turns out that he didn’t just call drivers of diesel-powered trucks and SUVs criminals. He also said that said the mere act of driving big-engined luxury models from BMW and Mercedes-Benz in India was “criminal”. Jaguars weren’t mentioned. Read More >

Hyundai’s new Elantra is the latest C-Segment car to receive a 40 MPG highway EPA rating (29 MPG in the city) as it prepares to take on Ford’s 40 MPG 2012 Focus and the 42 MPG Chevy Cruze Eco. The Accent’s only engine is a 1.8 liter engine is expected to make 148 HP and 131 lb-ft of torque, meaning you won’t have to upgrade to a special engine and aero package (as in the Cruze) or a dual-clutch transmission (as apparently is the case with the 2012 Focus). It will be down on power compared to the 160 HP/146 lb-ft Focus and more power but less torque than the 138 HP/148 lb-ft Cruze Eco, but should undercut both on price. And by bringing the model-wide efficiency up rather than tweaking special models for high efficiency, Hyundai’s John Krafcik says that his firm will have no problem hitting a 50 MPG average by 2025 (though a CAFE calculation that gives the 40/29 MPG ELantra a 44 MPG average doesn’t hurt). Meanwhile, when was the last time you heard anyone even mention the Civic or Corolla? The times, they are a-changing…