Drew Dowdell

Heavy. Luxury. SUV. Built by a domestic. And GM already has this tech. Doesn't leave a lot of options.

That stopped being true for most front-wheel drive based AWD vehicles 10 years ago. Most AWD systems now are dual-clutch or some variation on haldex. Even my Encore could send 50% of the torque to the back and did so at every launch, it didn't wait for slip. The 200C and the Envision are two more that I know of that have this. The Ioniq 6 is also larger inside than a Sonata despite being smaller outside. They could probably make a smaller version of it (if they hadn't already screwed up the naming scheme... maybe Ioniq 5 sedan) and sell it closer to the Sonata's price point. But Hyundai doesn't want to keep making those $249 a month lease deal models anymore anyway. Jeep killed the Renegade and Cherokee because they are trying to force Jeep up market and because Jeep has failed in China. Part of the economies of scale for Jeep included China sales, and for the first few years of the Renegade it was selling well there.... until it wasn't. The other problem is that the platforms the Renegade and Cherokee are on are being phased out without Fiat support. Compass is next.