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Best cheap SUVs: You don't have to pay a lot to get a lot

Here's a news flash: Everything is a lot more expensive now! And that definitely goes for new SUVs, with prices that keep nudging higher and higher. Actually "nudging" might be too soft of a description for their motion. "Skyrocketing" is probably more accurate.  While higher prices and hefty interest rates have likely knocked a lot of people out of the new car market entirely, there are still quite a few cheap SUV choices. Better still, they're not terrible! Far from it, in fact. While the lowest price SUVs used to be drab, sorry affairs best left to the lots of Avis and Budget, that is definitely not the case today. Not only are there legitimately appealing cheap SUV choices, they offer genuine differences in character, capability and design. It's not just a series of anonymous boxes with different badges. Below you won't just find a simple list of the cheapest SUVs available. We are actually pointing out the best ones. They are listed from least expensive to most expensive, with none exceeding a starting price of $30,000. Most are subcompacts, but a few of our top choices in the compact SUV segment snuck on. Finally, please excuse the crummy photo quality. We sought out representative trim levels of the prices in question rather than just reusing pretty carmaker-provided photos of the most expensive trim levels. This is what the cars will actually look like. Kia Soul Why it stands out: Ample space and abundant features for the money; unique style; strong turbo engine upgrade Could be better: All-wheel drive is not available Starting Price: $21,315 Read our most recent Kia Soul Review The Kia Soul definitely didn't start off as a small SUV, and the term "crossover" is probably better applied to it. Still, what started life as an undefinable funky tall hatchback now finds itself in its third generation with numerous vehicles of similar shape and size that are dubbed "small SUV" or "small crossover." If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck ... Call it what you will, but the Soul delivers the goods with tons of equipment and space for its price and size, an agreeable driving demeanor, and an even more powerful engine upgrade than the Kona's. We also think it's pretty cool. All of the above helped it win our subcompact SUV comparison test. Now, if there's one area where the Soul does not satisfy a typical SUV requirement, it's the lack of available all-wheel drive.

Carmakers say they 'can't meet' Euro 6 emissions targets

UPDATE: A previous version of this story listed Euro 6 requirements in kilograms per kilometer. This was incorrect. The correct unit is grams of NOx per kilometer, or g/km. The story has been edited accordingly. Well, the timing of this is not good. In the midst of Volkswagen's emissions cheating scandal, the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA) is claiming it won't be able to hit the stringent Euro 6 nitrogen oxide standards currently slated for the end of the decade. Currently, European legislators are set to begin requiring tougher emissions standards by 2017. Standards would be ramped up until 2020, when all new cars sold across the pond would be required to emit just 0.080 kilograms of nitrogen oxide per kilometer. That's too tough for automakers, though. Citing an "EU insider," AutoExpress reports that automakers are asking for conformity factors, which is a fancy way of saying they want easier standards. The automakers are requesting a conformity factor of 2.75 from 2017 to 2020, and a factor of 1.7 in 2020. What that means is that by 2020, new diesels would be allowed to emit 1.7 times the 0.080 g/km standard, or 0.136 g/km. While that might not be all that bad, if automakers were granted the 2.75 conformity factor, new diesels from 2017 wouldn't even be eligible for today's Euro 5 classification, AE claims. Far and away the most astonishing thing here though, is the way the ACEA is viewing the VW diesel scandal. According to AE, the EU insider said automakers across the pond think there's "a US conspiracy against European diesels." Yep. Volkswagen installed software on millions of vehicles to cheat emissions tests and it's somehow an American conspiracy. That makes loads of sense. To put it simply, automakers don't think their diesels will be able to hit European standards, so they're asking for a break. Whether European legislators go along with it remains to be seen. Related Video:

VW outsells GM in China for first time in 8 years

In case you didn't know, Volkswagen is hell-bent on becoming the largest automaker in the world. The German carmaker has inched closer to that goal, having outsold General Motors in China last quarter for the first time in eight years.
Volkswagen's sales in China, its largest marker, increased by 21 percent last quarter to 704,991 units. Those numbers almost tripled GM's third-quarter growth, and were enough to beat out the American automaker's 664,765 sales. GM, however, still leads in year-to-date sales in China by a slim margin of around 77,000 units. The Asian nation also happens to be GM's largest market, and according to the report in Automotive News, China's car market may grow to be larger than the US, Japan and Germany combined in three years' time.
About the news his company was bested in China by VW last quarter, GM CEO Dan Akerson is quoted saying, "It's not whether you're the biggest car manufacturer. It's whether you want to be the most profitable." It should be noted of these figures that GM includes truck figures, yet excludes Hong Kong and Macau from its Chinese sales numbers, while VW does just the opposite. Through September of this year, Volkswagen had 5 of the 10 best selling vehicles in China. GM boasted three of the cars on that list.