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Mazda2 nets Japan Car of the Year, Cherokee first US model to ever crack top 10

The 2015 Mazda2 is quite high up on our must-drive list. Yes, the teeny, tiny successor to the 100-horsepower five-door is worth getting excited over, largely because the previous generation was one of the absolute best smiles-per-dollar values on the market.
While we eagerly await for our opportunity to take to the 2's helm, our expectations of the new car have just been heightened thanks to its win in Japan's Car of the Year competition. Called "Demio" in the land of the rising sun, Japanese journalists handed out Mazda's second COTY award since the CX-5 took the title in 2012.
In more surprising news, the new Jeep Cherokee has made the list of 10 Best Cars in Japan. The Jeep's triumph marks the first time an American car has cracked the top ten, finishing eighth. It's not, however, the first Fiat Chrysler vehicle to snag the title, following in the footsteps of the Alfa Romeo Giulietta and Fiat Panda. Still, the fact that an American brand can make such impressive inroads into the traditionally tough-to-crack Japanese market is a seriously big deal.

Fiat Chrysler prepares to produce plug-in hybrid Jeep Renegade

MILAN — Fiat Chrysler (FCA) said on Monday it's preparing to begin production of a plug-in hybrid version of the Jeep Renegade as the carmaker pushes ahead with its electrification drive to meet tougher emissions rules. The world's seventh-largest carmaker said in June it would invest 9 billion euros ($10.3 billion) in electric and hybrid cars over the next five years to become fully compliant with emissions regulations across regions. It also pledged to phase out diesel engines in European passenger cars by 2021. The Jeep Renegade plug-in hybrid, expected in the market in early 2020, will be produced at FCA's Melfi plant in southern Italy, which is already churning out the combustion engine version of the model and the Fiat 500X crossover, FCA said. More than 200 million euros will be spent on the new engine, the company said, adding workers would be retrained for the new technology and the plant modernized. By 2022, FCA plans to offer a total of 12 electric propulsion systems, including battery electric vehicles (BEV), plug-in hybrids (PHEV) and full hybrids, it said, adding 30 different models would be equipped with one or more of these systems. Former FCA Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne had long refused to embrace electrification, saying he would only do so if selling battery-powered cars could be done at a profit. He even urged customers not to buy FCA's Fiat 500e, its only battery-powered model, because he was losing money on each sold. But Tesla's success and the need to comply with tougher emissions rules forced Marchionne to commit to what he used to refer to as "most painful" spending. Marchionne died unexpectedly in July after succumbing to complications from surgery, but his successor, Mike Manley, vowed to continue the strategy laid out in June. ($1 = 0.8719 euros) Reporting by Agnieszka Flak

Buyers ditching expensive European sedans to buy expensive American trucks

The New York Times ended the automotive week with a story that adds numbers and context to a range of other stories, from the crossover craze to the increasing median price of a new car to ever more grandiose pickup trucks. The NYT piece reveals that the shift to larger vehicles isn't merely about the average U.S. buyer swapping the midsize sedan for a Ford Edge. Luxury buyers are migrating from plush sedans to plush SUVs and trucks that creep close to six-figure prices, and the Detroit Three are running Treasury presses because of it. From 2013 to 2017, the truck category — everything from pickups to minivans — climbed from 30 percent of the market to 41 percent. In January of this year, trucks claimed 66 percent of new vehicle sales. At the milk-and-honey end of profits, GMC alone accounted for 11.3 percent of all vehicle sales over $60,000, not just trucks. That puts the luxury truck maker behind Mercedes-Benz and Ford, The Blue Oval's feasting on Lariat, King Ranch and Raptor versions of the F-150, which make up more than half of that pickup's sales, putting it ahead of Chevrolet, Porsche and Lexus on the high-dollar sales list. The average transaction price of a GMC in Denali trim last year was $56,000; it's easy to see why, when one dealer told the NYT he just swapped a 2012 BMW 550i for a $71,000 GMC Sierra Denali. That truck starts at $52,900. The NYT started its story with a buyer who took home a Ford Raptor instead of an Audi A6, and optioned that $50,020 Ford Raptor close to $80,000. Over at Lincoln, the new $72,055 Navigator — the one so popular that Ford will increase production — crossed hands for an average sale price of $77,000 in January. And a Jeep dealer told the NYT that the two $93,000 Trackhawks he had on his lot "won't be here more than a few weeks." While trucks head up in sales volume and price, cars are headed so viciously in the opposite direction that "the Detroit Three and even some foreign manufacturers acknowledge they are now losing money on many of the cars they sell." So ... get ready for a lot more crossovers and trucks. Related Video: Find out what vehicle is right for you. Give our Car Finder tool a try.