Sport Utility Vehicles

The 2009 Nissan Murano was the best performer in new crash tests of midsize sport utility vehicles, while the Hummer H3 had one of the poorest showings, according to results released today by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. The institute, which is funded by the insurance industry, said the redesigned Murano was the only vehicle among the nine tested to get the highest rating of "good" in front, side and rear crash tests. It praised Nissan Motor Co.

A month of gasoline prices near $4 a gallon was enough to sour Americans' long love affair with trucks and sport utility vehicles, pushing them back into sedans -- and driving Detroit's automakers into deeper trouble. U.S. sales results released Tuesday showed cars outselling gas-guzzling trucks and SUVs by almost 200,000 in May -- the biggest margin since 1996. That was bad news for U.S.

Chrysler Vice Chairman Tom LaSorda said Wednesday that his company would invest $1.8 billion to expand a Detroit assembly plant and retool it to make a new car-based sport utility vehicle. LaSorda said the money would go for tooling and a flexible body shop at the Jefferson North Assembly Plant. That plant now makes the Jeep Grand Cherokee. LaSorda said the investment would add 285,000 square feet to the plant and keep more than 400 jobs in Michigan.

Before it even started selling them, Chrysler is spiking its hybrids. The troubled automaker said Tuesday that it would discontinue production of its Dodge Durango and Chrysler Aspen hybrid sport utility vehicles at year-end, when the company shuts down the Delaware plant that makes the two trucks. Chrysler is closing the plant because sales of the non-hybrid versions of the SUVs have been selling poorly.

Environmentally friendly cars don't have to be slow and stodgy. ZAP, a Santa Rosa, Calif.-based importer of electric scooters and a small, short-distance electric car, aims to launch a 155-mph all-wheel-drive electric sport utility vehicle next year. If it comes to market, the $60,000 ZAP-X would join a select group of high-performance electric vehicles led by a two-seat sports car from Tesla Motors Inc. of San Carlos, Calif.

After dozens of reports of fires in Dodge Durango and Jeep Liberty sport utility vehicles, DaimlerChrysler's Chrysler Group recalled nearly 500,000 vehicles Friday. Auburn Hills, Mich.-based Chrysler said it had received 66 reports of fires in Durango SUVs from the 2004 to 2006 model years because of electrical overloads in the driver's side instrument panel below the dashboard. The automaker said it was recalling 328,424 Durangos.

Ford Motor Co. said it was recalling more than 500,000 Ford Escape sport utility vehicles after receiving reports of engine fires linked to corrosion on anti-lock brake connectors. Dearborn, Mich.-based Ford said the recall involved 444,880 Escapes from the 2001-04 model years in the U.S. and about 75,000 in Canada, Mexico and Europe. The recall does not affect hybrid versions of the SUV.

Chrysler Group is taking a different approach to corralling one of its big gas hogs by combining an environmentally friendly boost from an electric motor with the power of its popular "hemi" V-8 engine. In adding a second hybrid to its lineup, the automaker will use the hemi as the gasoline-powered portion of the hybrid's gas-electric powertrain. The company said last year that it would begin offering a 2008 model of its Dodge Durango sport utility vehicle as a hybrid.

A lawsuit percolating through the Riverside County courts could knock the auto industry for a spin if a jury buys the argument that stability systems shouldn't have been offered first only to buyers of luxury vehicles. The suit filed by survivors of two people killed in the 2002 rollover of a Chevrolet Suburban sport utility vehicle argues that General Motors Corp. was negligent in not providing an electronic stability control system on the mainstream SUV model.

Head restraints in dozens of sport utility vehicles, pickup trucks and minivans provided only poor or marginal protection from neck injuries in simulated crashes conducted by the insurance industry. The test results scheduled to be released today found several SUVs had improved protections against whiplash injuries but gave poor marks to vehicles made by several leading automakers, including BMW, DaimlerChrysler, Ford Motor Co., General Motors Corp., Nissan Motor Co. and Toyota Motor Corp.