2006 Jeep Liberty 65th Anniversary Edition Sport Utility 4-door 3.7l on 2040-cars

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SEMA crowns Mustang, FR-S as this year's hottest cars in the building

After wrapping up the first day of the 2012 SEMA Show, organizers handed out awards for some of the trendiest vehicles on display. Since the whole point of SEMA is to show off new products available in the aftermarket world for use in cars, trucks and SUVs, each year, the show distinguishes the most popular vehicle in various segments. Not surprisingly, this year's Hottest Car and Hottest Sport Compact are the Ford Mustang and Scion FR-S, respectively, while the Ford F-Series brought home the Hottest Truck and the Jeep Wrangler was named the Hottest 4x4-SUV.
More than 2,000 companies are at this year's show, and the display booths represents a "vote" for each car to determing the trendiest vehicles in each of the four categories. It isn't clear if these awards also take cars brought by OEMs into account, but the Mustang and FR-S were definitely well represented by both OEM and aftermarket show versions.
As usual, the OEMs showed up in force at the this year's SEMA Show exhibiting a variety of cars ranging from production-intent cars like the beastly Ford Mustang Cobra Jet to much flashier rides like Scion's Carbon Stealth FR-S.

NHTSA still mulling crash tests for recalled Jeeps

Well, no one should ever accuse the government of not giving things plenty of thought. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is still debating whether it will retest any of the 1.56 million 1992 to 1998 Grand Cherokees and 2002 to 2007 Libertys that were part of a recall regarding fires after rear-end collisions. And yes, this debate has been going on for over a month. In other news...
The recall dustup started in early June, when Chrysler took the unusual position of refusing a recall request from NHTSA regarding placement of the fuel tank on the effected vehicles. NHTSA said a collision could cause a fire, a position Chrysler took issue with. Extensive negotiations ensued, with Chrysler agreeing to fit certain Jeeps with trailer hitches, which it said would provide some protection to fuel tanks mounted behind the rear axle in the event of a collision.
Part of the issue rests with the amount of data that needs to be processed, according to The Detroit News. NHTSA administrator David Strickland said during a Washington Auto Press Association meeting, "There's a lot of data and Chrysler is being very cooperative in giving us more data." Until that information has been sorted, it looks like re-testing will still be up for debate.

Chrysler resolves recall issue with NHTSA, will inspect, upgrade affected Jeeps

Chrysler made big news earlier in the month by refusing a recall request from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for the 1993-2004 Jeep Grand Cherokee and 2002-2007 Jeep Liberty. Last week, NHTSA boss David Strickland countered by defending his agency's request for the recall of 2.7 million Jeep SUVs. Today marked the deadline for Chrysler to formally respond to NHTSA, and it seems that both parties have met in the middle with Chrysler inspecting and upgrading some of the affected vehicles without using the word "recall," which would constitute the admission of a defect; instead, Chrysler said that it is conducting a "voluntary campaign."
At issue on these vehicles is the positioning of the fuel tank behind the rear axle that could get damaged during a rear-end collision. NHTSA has stated that at least 51 people have been killed in rear-end collisions involving these Jeeps after the vehicles caught fire, to which Chrysler countered by pointing out that both models "met and exceeded" the requirements for fuel-system integrity.
As a compromise on the situation, Chrysler says that it will inspect all pre-2004 Grand Cherokees and pre-2007 Liberty models and, "if necessary, provide an upgrade to the rear structure of the vehicle." According to Automotive News, this upgrade will consist of adding a trailer hitch that will presumably better protect the rear-mounted gas tank. Vehicles already equipped with a factory or Mopar hitch will not be modified. Chrysler's official statement on the matter is posted below, but no additional information has been released, such as when the campaign will begin and how many vehicles could be affected.