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Fiat Chrysler may build an AWD Pacifica minivan

Fiat Chrysler is reportedly considering building an all-wheel-drive variant of the Chrysler Pacifica as a salve for the minivan's flagging sales, especially in Canada, where it's built, and where the Dodge Grand Caravan is eating its lunch. Automotive News cites a ranking official with Unifor, Canada's autoworker union, and two anonymous sources familiar with the company's internal machinations. In addition, the outlet cites the CEO of AutoForecast Solutions, a consulting firm, who says his industry data show that FCA will begin production of an AWD Pacifica in the second quarter of 2020 at its plant in Windsor, Ontario. "It's going to help them with their leadership of the product," it quoted CEO Joe McCabe as saying. An FCA spokeswoman told Autoblog the company doesn't comment on speculation about future products. Pacifica sales have held relatively steady in the U.S. Full-year 2018 sales were a respectable 118,322, essentially flat with 2017, compared to 151,927 Grand Caravans, an increase of 21 percent. Sales through February of this year were down by 24 and 27 percent, respectively, but FCA says its share of the overall U.S. minivan market has nevertheless risen to 57.7 percent. But cross the Detroit River into Canada, FCA's second-largest market for minivans, and things don't look as rosy for the company's flagship minivan. There, the Grand Caravan in 2018 outsold the Pacifica by a 5-to-1 ratio, 32,253 to 5,999, which represented respective declines of 31 percent and 3 percent. Things haven't gotten any better in 2019, either, with Pacifica sales falling 55 percent through the first two months to 512 and Grand Caravan sales slipping 20 percent to 4,836. FCA's share of the Canadian minivan market was 59 percent at the end of 2018, the company says. Canada is known as the Great White North, after all, so it makes perfect sense that all-wheel drive is a popular sell there as a way to navigate the long, snowy winters. But there are questions about whether adding a rear driveshaft would affect the Pacifica's Stow 'n Go system, which allows users to fold the third-row seats into the floor to add cargo space. Chrysler in fact offered all-wheel drive versions of its minivans through 2004, when it first introduced the Stow 'n Go, AN reports.

Hyundai-Kia claims 'greenest' title from Honda, Big Three still big losers

Let's start with the good news. On average, any new car you buy in the US today will be 43 percent cleaner than any average new car in 1998. Here's some more good news, for Korea anyway, Hyundai-Kia has been named the cleanest automaker in the latest study by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), which looked at 2013 model year vehicles sold between October 2012 and September 2013 from the top eight automakers (by volume). The bad news? The big three Detroit automakers are, on average, still making the dirtiest cars in the showroom. The big three Detroit automakers are, on average, still making the dirtiest cars in the showroom. The problem for Ford, General Motors and Chrysler lies in their trucks, which sell well but tend to have pretty bad fuel economy (compared to sedans, at least). The UCS calculates its list by averaging "the per-mile emissions for each light-duty vehicle sold by each automaker" and then factors in "the fuel economy, fuel type, and sales volume of each type of vehicle sold by each automaker" and "the upstream global warming emissions from producing and distributing the fuel used by each vehicle, as well as emissions from the vehicles themselves." That all means that, the more trucks you sell, the worse you're gonna do. Then again, the more trucks you sell with 18 mpg, the more you're helping drivers put CO2 into the air, so the UCS is doing a fair comparison of the things that this study is trying to track. More details on the methodology are available on page six of the study PDF. In case you were wondering (we were), UCS did make sure to use the revised mpg numbers for Hyundai and Kia models that were originally overstated. Hyundai has apologized for and fixed those figures and even with the new, corrected numbers, Hyundai's total emissions are dropping at a rate of about three percent a year, enough for it to take the greenest company title for the first time. In fact, this is the first time that an automaker other than Honda has come out on top in the UCS ranking, which has been released six times now, including the first one in 2000 (which looked at 1998 model year data). In 2010, Honda was almost knocked off the winner's perch by both Hyundai and Toyota, but managed to hold on. Chrysler, on the other hand, came in dead last (again) in the ranking of the top eight automakers, snagging the "dirtiest tailpipe" award once (again). Read the UCS' press release below.

2014 Ram Power Wagon is bigger and badder than ever [w/video]

"The 2014 Ram Power Wagon fills a need for those who travel into extreme terrain for rescue or recreation." - Reid Bigland
More, more, more. That's the philosophy behind the latest Ram Power Wagon. The extra-brawny, Ram 2500-based pickup is back for 2014, and naturally, it's even more extreme than its predecessor.