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Jeep Wrangler Black Bear Edition: What to Drive in Telluride

- 2016 Jeep Wrangler Black Bear Edition

For years, Jeep has had difficulty building enough Wranglers to satisfy demand, but that hasn’t kept the brand’s marketing and product planning troops from dreaming up new packages to enhance profitability and keep metal moving off the showroom floors. The latest is the Black Bear Edition, new for 2016, and due to become available this fall.

The really hard-core Wranglers are named for California’s Rubicon Trail. But in an apparent quest to expand Jeep awareness to other tricky treks, this package is named for the short but treacherous Black Bear Pass trail, which culminates at Telluride, Colorado. Although it’s not specifically listed on Jeep’s list of top 10 off-road destinations, the starting point is near Ouray, Colorado, number six on the list, an area that includes a number of opportunities to test skills and skidplates.

The Black Bear Pass route, from Red Mountain Pass to Telluride, is less than 10 miles, but its high altitudes (from 11,018 to 12,840), extremely narrow stretches, and a series of precipitous switchbacks descending to Telluride make it a hold-your-breath proposition. Fall off the road here and you’re likely to come down in Denver. Jeep literature refers to the trail as “notorious.”

2016 Jeep Wrangler Black Bear Edition

So how does the Black Bear Edition hone a Wrangler Sport for an assault on the Black Bear Pass Trail? Well, there’s a topographical map of the trail reproduced as a hood decal, though it would be tricky to employ as a reference tool on narrow trails bordered by several hundred feet of drops.

More practical package elements include rock rails—reinforced rocker panels to resist damage from boulders—and a set of Kevlar-reinforced Goodyear Wrangler Silent Armor tires on black-finish 17-inch wheels. Beyond that, though, the Black Bear package is conceived to make you look good as you’re threading your way through the switchbacks.

2016 Jeep Wrangler Black Bear Edition

The interior is distinguished by black cloth seats; a leather-wrapped steering wheel with gray stitching; all-weather floor mats; and grab handles, instrument bezels, vent rings, and door handles in iron gray. Air conditioning and a power convenience group are standard, as is a connectivity group—important for keeping tabs on stock reports when you’re inching along at 12,000 feet.

In addition to the black wheels and map decal, exterior elements include a black grille, a gray bumper appliqué, black taillamp guards, and your choice of a premium Sunrider soft top or a body-color hard top. The package is available for both two- and four-door Wranglers.

Speaking of colors, the Wrangler’s 2016 palette includes two new ones, Hypergreen and Mojave Rhino Sand. The latter may have been inspired by the reported sighting of a rhinoceros in California’s Mojave Desert, a report that is thought to have come in late one night not long after the bars closed in the town of Boron.

2016 Jeep Wrangler Black Bear Edition

If the Black Bear package—pricing to be determined—seems more about appearance than function, do not be deceived: As delivered, the standard Wrangler Sport is more than capable of tackling any of Jeep’s top 10 off-road adventures or any other wilderness expedition that affords a satisfactory element of peril. But it’s the rare buyer who resists adding personalizing elements to his or her Wrangler, and Jeep’s accessory development troops just want to keep expanding the choices.

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Chrysler Reveals Major Revisions to Pentastar V-6

To hear Chrysler tell it, the automaker’s 3.6-liter Pentastar V-6 essentially will be a new engine when it makes its debut in the 2016 Jeep Grand Cherokee, its first application in the FCA lineup.

Basic dimensional elements—bore, stroke, bore-center spacing—carry over, but the engineering team claims greater efficiency, improved torque characteristics, a small horsepower uptick, and better NVH performance.

New components include cylinder heads with an 11.3:1 compression ratio (up from 10.2:1), eight-hole ignition coils, platinum-tipped spark plugs, new valve springs, low-tension piston rings, lightened crankshaft and crank pins, extensive friction reduction, and cooling of exhaust-gas recirculation.

3.6-liter Pentastar V-6 adds cooled EGR for model-year 2016

However, the biggest single efficiency improvement, according to FCA engineers, is a revision to the engine’s variable valve timing, giving intake-side valves a two-stage lift strategy—low lift for routine power demands, high lift when the driver calls for more urgency.

Operating range of the variable-valve-timing system has been increased from 50 to 70 degrees to mitigate detonation during hot starts, improving operation of the automatic engine stop-start (ESS) function. Carried forward from the current V-6, the ESS system has been enhanced with a new high-speed starter motor on order to reduce cranking time and deliver quicker, smoother starts.

Conspicuous by its absence from the engine’s catalog of revisions is direct fuel injection. FCA chose to continue with an upgraded port-injection system, citing added cost and weight as tradeoffs that go with direct injection. (According to FCA, the new engine will weigh 326 pounds in the Grand Cherokee, four pounds less than the current V-6.) The engineers also looked at, and ultimately passed on, Fiat’s Multi-Air induction system, for reasons of cost and U.S. market suitability. While it would be nice to see DI (or even Multi-Air), this strategy gives FCA something in its pocket for future development of the engine.

2016 Jeep Grand Cherokee Overland

While FCA isn’t ready to deliver all the engine’s performance specifics, it did reveal that output in the Grand Cherokee advances from 290 to 295 horsepower. Torque is said to improve by “more than 14.9 percent” between 1000 and 3000 rpm. (Which would be . . . what? 14.91? 14.98? You’re getting ridiculously specific here, Chrysler.) Note that there was no mention of the maximum torque figure changing—it stood at 260 lb-ft in 2015—but the low-range boost will be welcome given that torque peaked at a rather lofty 4800 rpm. FCA also anticipates a fuel-economy boost of “more than six percent.” (So, 6.1?) That would translate to roughly 18 mpg city and just over 25 mpg highway.

The revised 3.6-liter V-6 will be under the hood of the six-cylinder 2016 Grand Cherokee when it rolls into showrooms this fall. FCA is still mum on when it will spread to the rest of the lineup, but the 3.6-liter Pentastar currently appears in the Dodge Challenger, Charger, Grand Caravan, Journey, and Durango; the Chrysler 200, 300, and Town & Country; the Jeep Wrangler; and the Ram ProMaster, Ram Cargo Van, and Ram 1500 pickup.

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Production-Ready 2017 Infiniti Q30 Revealed Ahead of Frankfurt Debut

2017 Infiniti Q30

After a long, multi-year (and multi-concept-car) gestation, Infiniti’s all-new compact Q30 hatchback has finally been revealed. Scheduled to fully debut at the 2015 Frankfurt auto show this fall—so far Infiniti has only released the photo above—the Q30 marks Infiniti’s first foray into the “premium-compact-car” field since the G20. Don’t remember the G20? It vaguely resembled a Tehran taxi, but was somehow even less interesting to look at. Hence why you don’t remember it. The Q30, on the other hand, is quite a different creation.

For starters, whereas the G20 was based on a humble Nissan, the Q30 is a rather successfully re-skinned Mercedes-Benz A-class/GLA-class, using the same front-drive architecture, turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine, and seven-speed dual-clutch automatic as those cars. (The Benz pieces come by way of a technology-sharing agreement between Daimler and Nissan-Renault.) As promised by company representatives, the final Q30’s bold styling is carried over from the Q30 concept with nearly zero changes. The only standout difference between the two is the production car’s realistically proportioned tire-and-wheel package.

2017 Infiniti Q30 interior

This being the Q30, not the QX30 pseudo-crossover that will debut slightly later this year, the rocker panels, fascias, and wheels and tires are decidedly street-oriented pieces. The QX30 will add body cladding, unique front and rear styling, a taller ride height, and all-wheel drive to do battle with the Audi Q3, BMW X1, Lexus NX, and Mercedes-Benz GLA-class. We’re told to expect the Q30 and QX30 to feel and drive completely differently from their platform-mates, the Mercedes-Benz CLA250 and the GLA250; Infiniti even went to the effort of making its own infotainment system work with the Benz’s electrical architecture in the hopes of differentiating the cars as much as possible. The only whiffs of Mercedes in the Q30’s interior are the steering-wheel and door-panel switchgear; otherwise, the infotainment control knob is of Infiniti’s own design, as is pretty much everything on the center stack and in the gauge cluster.

Unfortunately, final Q30 details—beyond a couple photos—will have to wait until closer to the car’s big reveal in Frankfurt this September. The wait for the Q30’s arrival in dealerships will be slightly longer, as the baby Infiniti won’t go on sale until midway through next year as a 2017 model.

This story was originally published July 21, 2015 at 10:00 a.m., and has since been updated to include discussion and an image of the Q30’s interior.

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2016 Chevrolet Volt first drive

What Is It? Just ahead of the next Toyota Prius (coincidence?), the second-generation of Chevy’s hybrid Volt rolls into showrooms with pretty much everything on it new, including the hybrid drive...

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2015 Kia Sedona: Car Seat Check

Slow Your Roll: Researchers Defend Speed Enforcement Cameras

Make a driver brake, slow him for a moment; teach a driver not to speed, slow him for a lifetime. That's the philosophy behind the new "speed corridors" concept a Washington, D.C.-area community has been testing in recent years — reportedly to great effect. National safety officials say the program succeeds where others have failed because it focuses on changing behavior as opposed to merely punishing it.

Researchers report that the system, which makes abundant use of speed-enforcement cameras across an entire stretch of road, has been proven to reduce fatal or incapacitating car crashes by 39 percent on lower-speed roads when combined with other program measures. That translates to an impressive 21,000 lives saved if the program were implemented on a national scale, researchers say.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety today will present its report on the effectiveness of speed corridors, as well as the use of speed-enforcement cameras on a broader scale. IIHS President Adrian Lund will make the presentation during the 2015 Governors Highway Safety Association's annual meeting, a national conference running through Wednesday in Nashville and attended by 500 high-ranking state highway officials there to discuss new methods for reducing fatalities on U.S. roads. The 2015 summit comes as many states report spikes in traffic deaths following years of record declines, GHSA noted.

The speed-corridors experiment began in 2012 in Montgomery County, Md., with camera enforcement trained on long stretches of roads with speed limits of 35 mph or less. To prevent motorists from becoming familiar with camera positions, the devices are regularly moved to varied locations.

"Speed-camera corridors force drivers to watch their speed for the length of the road, instead of slamming on the brakes at a specific location and then speeding up again," said report co-author Anne McCartt in a statement.

In addition to the localized results, researchers further observed what they referred to as the "spillover" phenomenon in which drivers slowed down on roads outside the designated corridors. That resulted in a 27 percent reduction in deaths or severe injuries on non-camera-enforced roads with speed limits of 40 mph or less, according to the report.

The safety gains reported by researchers in Maryland don't end there. Since the introduction of speed cameras in general in Montgomery County in 2007, the devices have been credited with reducing — by a whopping 59 percent — the likelihood of a driver going more than 10 mph over a posted limit of 35 mph or less or in school zones. The introduction of speed cameras alone resulted in a 19 percent reduction in the likelihood of a fatal or severe-injury crash, researchers report.

The test county now has 56 fixed cameras, 30 portable ones and a half-dozen mobile speed vans, all deployed on lower-speed residential streets. But despite the ostensible success, the use of enforcement cameras remains a hugely unpopular practice, and at last count only 138 jurisdictions nationwide had automated speed-enforcement programs. Indeed, the history of enforcement-camera use is fraught with well-documented challenges to their reliability, accuracy and admissibility in court, as well as accusations of the devices being used to generate revenue rather than promote safety — not to mention your garden-variety Big Brother concerns.

But researchers have indicated that the emphasis on changing drivers' behavior on these lower-speed stretches of roadway with a high degree of transparency differentiates the Montgomery model. Nearly all of surveyed drivers were aware of the cameras, while more than three-quarters reported having reduced their speed as a result of the program, while nearly 60 percent acknowledged having received a ticket personally.

"Automated enforcement can be controversial, and some communities have rolled back programs because of a backlash," IIHS' study reported. "However, 62 percent of drivers surveyed in Montgomery County said they favored speed cameras on residential streets.

"That means there are supporters even among those who have been ticketed."

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2016 Jeep Grand Cherokee Gets More Power, Better Mileage

You won't be able to tell much has changed with Jeep's popular Grand Cherokee SUV, but the company has made some small changes for 2016 to eke out better fuel economy. The base engine, the 3.6-liter V-6, also adds more power, now rated at 295 horsepower up from 290 last year.

The V-6 also gets stop-start technology as standard. Both V-6 and V-8 models also add electric power steering, lower-rolling-resistance tires and weight savings with an aluminum suspension to add to improved fuel economy.

Fuel economy numbers themselves are not available at this time.

The high-performance SRT model does not get a power increase for 2016 but does receive an aluminum suspension. A revised gauge cluster places the tachometer in the center and moves the speedometer to the left, and the Performance Pages system adds more performance timers and six pre-configured drive modes for snow, towing and other conditions, plus a customizable mode. There's also a Valet mode that will reduce the amount of power the engine puts out.

The 2016 Jeep Grand Cherokee will go on sale later this year.

There are currently more than 33,000 new 2015 models in Cars.com's national inventory. With such minimal changes and gas prices low, shoppers might be better off finding a deal on the 2015s.

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