Malibu Maxx offers Chevy concept of ‘blue-collar tech’
A friend of mine owns a Chevrolet Malibu Maxx, and he insists itÂ’s better than any of the so-called superior Japanese midsize sedans. He insists he has adequate power, adequate fuel-economy, and features that cars such as the Accord and Camry canÂ’t match.
This fellow fancies himself objective, but he is not open to debate if the conversation turns to the superiority of the latest technology in overhead-camshaft engines, for example. It turns out, the new Malibu Maxx is quite a good car, despite a refusal to offer GM’s highest-tech V6 engine. What we can call GM’s “blue-collar tech” V6 is adequate for power, efficiency, price, although not up to the car’s impressive occupant conveniences. The question, in the current highly competitive automotive climate, is whether adequate is good enough. Obviously, GM in recent years believes it is, but recent drops in GM’s share of new-car sales indicates consumers have not shared that outlook.
The Malibu has been a historical success for General Motors, ever since its days in the 1960s when it was a neat, intermediate-sized sedan and coupe with sporty tendencies. The newest Malibu four-door sedan has a brother, called Malibu Maxx, which has an extended roofline tapering back in the manner of a stylish and sporty almost-wagon hatchback.
Personally, I like the silhouette cast by the Malibu Maxx, and the fact that the test car was gleaming white, and I drove it during some very grey days, made it stand out all the more. From a styling standpoint, the front end has what has become Chevrolet’s “signature†horizontal bar across the middle of the grille, which looks OK on some vehicles, and accents others, but which I think clutters the clean lines of the Maxx.
Performance wise, the Malibu Maxx is no more than adequate, with the iron-block 3.5-liter V6 engine, an option choice above the Ecotec four. The V6 achieves 200 horsepower, which is adequate — that word again — for a 3,500-pound four-door, and its 220 foot-pounds of torque moves the Maxx away from stops with adequate zip.
Climbing into the Maxx, the interior is well laid out, especially the gauges and switchgear for the driver. I have grown to appreciate the firm support of stiffer seats for maintaining alertness and driving control, and I found the seats in the Maxx almost old-time soft compared to the firmness of the competitors.
The hatchback offers a worthy alternative between sedans and donÂ’t-call-it-a-station-wagon, and the test car had a heavily tinted skylight over the rear portion, which doesnÂ’t do a lot for occupants of the first or second row of seats, but would brighten up the rear a little, if you happened to haul your dog back there. Fido, and any groceries or objects you might want to haul, are easily loaded through the large, top-opening hatch.
Living with the Malibu has some surprise benefits. For example, as I drove through the I94 tunnel leaving the west edge of Minneapolis, the headlights suddenly came on. I like that feature, because often, even if you think about switching the lights on in a tunnel, you rationalize that itÂ’s only a short tunnel so you can get along without them, even though it’s obviously safer to have them on. After driving through some monsoon-quality rainstorms in the past week, where some drivers couldnÂ’t see and pulled off onto freeway shoulders, I was amazed at how many drivers turned their wipers on full but didnÂ’t turn on their headlights (even though itÂ’s required by law). Daytime running lights donÂ’t activate your taillights, so switching on the headlights in foul weather is vital to being seen. So having lights that come on when sensors perceive adequate darkness can be a benefit.
A bigger benefit, and a tremendous feature, is the remote start feature that was standard on the LT model of the Maxx. You have a remote key-fob switch to lock and unlock the doors and hatch, and if you click it in the proper sequence, you can start the vehicle from across the parking lot. That could be a good feature when itÂ’s a humid, 90-degree day, because you could have the air-conditioner preset, and cool down the car before you get to it. ItÂ’s a much more impressive benefit in wintertime, when you can start a car in subzero weather and warm up both the engine and the interior. It is timed to shut itself off, and it will shut itself off as a safety precaution when anyone opens a door.
The audio system was quite good, and a separate set of rear audio headphones and controls should make the kids happy. Heated front seats should make you and your front passenger happy, and six-way power driver seat with manual lumbar support, plus adjustable pedals, should make the driver happy. A fold-flat front backrest, plus “multi-flex†rear seats, make hauling long objects easier.
Other standard features are a four-speed automatic, front and side airbags with side head-curtain bags as well, four-wheel disc brakes and antilock brakes, foglights, and, of course, power windows and locks, tilt and telescoping steering wheel and air conditioning.
The standard price for the LT Malibu Maxx is $24,610, which is fully equipped. In fact, there were no options on the car, so adding only destination price runs the sticker to $25,235. You could add things like XM satellite radio, or OnStar, and still be under $26,000. ThatÂ’s a pretty good price, and especially with General Motors recently offering any buyer the inside, corporate employee discount on most of its vehicles. As it is, the price puts it under such top-dog competitors as the Honda Accord and Toyota Camry.
However, U.S. car-makers have suffered greatly with their own internal problems in recent years, and they have had to watch import companies take over the intermediate segment pretty thoroughly, where the Accord and Camry have soared above and beyond any competitors in U.S. sales. Other prime competitors, such as the Mazda 6 – my favorite among current models – plus the Nissan Altima, Subaru Legacy, Volkswagen Jetta, and now the new Hyundai Sonata, make that a very competitive battleground.
But while the Malibu and Maxx might sneak under the price of the top competitors, they are the latest examples of how General Motors hopes to save money by building old-technology pushrod engines that ignore the technical advantages of overhead-camshaft design. ThatÂ’s an old and tiresome debate, but all of those above-listed competitors offer smooth-running, free-revving overhead-cam engines with four valves per cylinder, in both four and V6 powerplants. If you compare horsepower, the Camry offers 210 horsepower with the 3.0-liter V6, and 225 horses in a larger 3.3, while the AccordÂ’s 3.0-liter V6 runs away from both with 240 horsepower with a single-overhead cam, 24-valve engine.
The Malibu burns regular gas, a huge benefit, but so does the Accord. General Motors, in general (so to speak), and Chevrolet in particular, have boasted for years that less-expensive and adequate-but-not-high-tech equipment is good enough to dominate the industry. But that domination has slipped away, making the alternate possibility loom larger. Younger buyers in a society that considers any computer or cell-phone more than six months old to be outdated, canÂ’t be expected to consider older engine technology high-tech, just because it’s cheaper for the manufacturer to build.
The most ironic circumstance is that General Motors has a fantastic and very competitive engine – the Cadillac “high feature†3.6-liter V6, which also can be obtained in 2.8 or 3.2 liter displacement options. That engine delivers 255 horsepower in standard form, and General Motors engineers have extracted more in testing. But GM wonÂ’t let anyone outside Cadillac, except for the Buick LaCrosse, to use that engine, presumably because it costs more to build. Too bad, because that engine would push the Malibu Maxx, Grand Prix, G6, and countless other GM sedans and coupes — which are high tech everywhere except under the hood — to vault from adequate to world class.
Otherwise, itÂ’s possible the MaxxÂ’s versatility and flexibility can carry it to some competitive sales achievements beyond fleets, and itÂ’s also possible that being solid and tight, and decidedly…adequate, might be good enough to offset the technologically advanced competition. Time will tell.
(John Gilbert writes weekly new-car reviews and can be contacted at cars@jwgilbert.com.)
Kia reinvents Sportage as prime compact SUV
Remember the old Kia Sportage? If you do, you have a means to measure the amazing and onrushing development of the Korean auto industry. And, if you remember the original Kia Sportage, you can now forget it.
Not that there was anything markedly wrong with the Sportage, it’s just that it was sort of a miniature sport-utility vehicle – a die-cast, 5/8 scale version of a real SUV. For that, it was fine, a sturdy, dependable little beast, but few mourned its passing when Kia’s fortunes took a downturn and the Sportage was shelved.
Flash forward, and now Hyundai has taken over financial and mechanical guidance for Kia. So after the recently introduced Hyundai Tucson made a big impression as a compact SUV, a slightly revised version of the Tucson has now been introduced under the Kia name – and Kia graced it by retrieving the Sportage name.
There are some outstanding vehicles in the compact SUV segment, starting with the Honda CR-V and Toyota RAV4, and going on through the Ford Escape, Mazda Tribute, Nissan Xterra, and Jeep Liberty, and while the Tucson is a worthy contender there, I think the new Kia Sportage is the best looking vehicle of the bunch.
The test Sportage I drove was stunning, in black, with tastefully understated trim pieces. The front looks vaguely similar to the Honda Pilot or CR-V, the side has a nice silhouette, with the bulges over the wheelwells forming nice contours that are extra-subtle in black, and the rear end being my favorite angle to view the thing. On most cars, as well as trucks and SUVs, it almost seems as though the designers worked so hard on the front and sides that by the time they got to the rear they just closed it up without much imagination.
The others don’t necessarily look bad from the rear, just uninspired. That includes the Tucson. But the Sportage has nicely angled contours to the rear, tapering in from the large, vertical taillights. The rear window is nicely outlined by dark charcoal ridges that rise up over the top and become one-piece anchors for the roof rack. A pair of bright silver-tipped tailpipes jut out from underneath, nicely accenting the rear of the black Sportage.
The other surprise came when the sun came out, shining brightly. Remember the sun? Anyhow, close scrutiny in the sun revealed neat highlights coming through the black, and, sure enough, the Sportage wasnÂ’t JUST black, but black cherry. Very tastefully done. The side contours include side claddings and wheel arch moldings in black, blending perfectly in a subtle manner, even if they didnÂ’t have the cherry-toned highlights shining through. As long as they absorb rock chips and mud, owners will be happy.
The new Sportage is nothing whatsoever like the quarter-midget predecessor. It is now long enough to carry four, or even five in a pinch, with surprisingly adequate storage space behind the fold-down second row seats.
It shares the Hyundai 2.7-liter V6 engine, with dual-overhead camshafts and very adequate pep. The four-speed automatic transmission has a separate gate to the right where the floor shifter can be placed if you want to shift manually – a nice touch in any vehicle, and particularly novel in a compact SUV.
It also has power rack and pinion steering, and added stability from 16-inch alloy wheels. The four-wheel disc brakes have antilock standard, and also standard are both a traction-control system and an electronic stability program, which coordinate to keep you headed straight ahead in all circumstances. The structural safety of the Sportage is bolstered by front seat mounted side airbags and front and rear side curtain airbags, with side-impact door beams.
Other standard equipment includes air-conditioning and a sunroof, power windows, locks and heated outside mirrors, and an AM-FM-cassette-CD-MP3 audio system with six speakers, as well as a trip computer, keyless entry with alarm, leather wrapped steering wheel and shift knob, cruise, and eight-way driverÂ’s seat adjustment with lumbar support.
ThatÂ’s an impressive standard list, and the test vehicle also included installed options that ranged from heated leather seats, an audio upgrade with a subwoofer, automatic headlights, and body-color bumpers. And yet the whole package came to $19,999. With delivery charges, it crept up to $20,589.
The point is, without the options the vehicle costs only about $18,000.
The only drawback to the test vehicle is that it was two-wheel drive, but the two wheels are the front wheels, so it’s easy to think of getting through rough weather, even Minnesota winters, with a front-wheel-drive compact SUV. Still, adding four-wheel drive to the Sportage only adds about $2,000, and where can you get a fully-loaded four-wheel-drive SUV for under $22,000? On four-wheel-drive models, while the Sportage isn’t intended to keep up with Jeep Wranglers, or Xterras off the road, it does have a switch that allows you to lock both axles for rugged going – off-road or in snow or mud.
Another benefit of the connection with Hyundai is the Kia warranty. The Sportage has KiaÂ’s amazing 10-year, 100,000-mile powertrain warranty, with five-year, unlimited-mile overall warranty with 24-hour roadside assistance. We arenÂ’t about to claim the Hyundai/Kia engines are as good as the Honda or Toyota engines, but Honda and Toyota offer three-year, 30,000-mile warranty coverage. So if Kia offers 100,000 miles, itÂ’s one of those canÂ’t-miss gambles where KiaÂ’s engine has a chance to prove itself with no risk to the owner.
IÂ’ve joked with some Hyundai engineers about how they have worked so hard to revive KiaÂ’s models, that many of the new Kias are flashier looking than HyundaiÂ’s own vehicles. The Kia Sedona minivan is outstanding, the Sorento SUV is very impressive, and several of the Kia sedans have a flair that Hyundai is now scrambling to match.
One of those is the Spectra. In fact, a month ago, the Midwest Auto Media Association (cry MAMA) held its annual Spring Rally at Elkhart Lake, Wis., on the scenic Road America race course. About 70 vehicles were there for all of us to try out, on hot laps of the four-mile road-racing track, on a superb off-road setting, and on a timed autocross run set up in the paddock area. We all got to run an assortment of cars, and I felt I did well in the Acura RSX, the Subaru WRX STi, the Cobalt SS and the Mini Cooper. Later they gave away little model cars as awards for whoever had the fastest time around the autocross cones in each vehicle. I tried as many cars as time would allow, and I won for having the fastest time in — the Kia Spectra5.
I was surprised, but then I realized the Spectra5 may lack the sportiest handling, but its steering and handling were coordinated and predictable, and the engineÂ’s power was sufficient to allow you to toss it around in a fun and enjoyable manner. Those are the same attributes of the Sportage. IÂ’m not suggesting you can go out and conquer the autocross world in the Kia Sportage, but it will handle with the best compact SUVs. Plus, it has adequate power, decent fuel economy, costs only $20,000 while looking like it should be twice as muchÂ…and it has that warranty.
WhatÂ’s wrong with that picture?
(John Gilbert writes weekly auto reviews and can be reached at cars@jwgilbert.com.)
Saab 9.5 gains and retains purist-level traditions
Driving the new Saab 9.5 Arc SportWagon is like a slice of Saab history. And that is a good thing, even if it is an ironic twist for a car that began life as least-likely-to-succeed to Saab purists.
Saab’s takeover by General Motors – which began with a 50-percent investment in 1990, and the remaining segment bought in 2000 – meant new life for the Swedish manufacturer, but the loss of some Saab eccentricities. That might have been an asset, but Saabs were sought by well-educated, individualistic types because of their offbeat character.
For Saab purists, GM’s takeover of the Swedish car-maker was sad, even though it undoubtedly kept the company in business. “We should all be thankful to GM that Saab is still around,†said Jan-Willem Vester, GM’s new, Detroit-based public relations director for Saab.
Saab now boasts an expanded crop of new vehicles, including the 9.2, 9.3, 9.5 and 9.7, with more decimal places to come. Those vehicles all look like Saabs, outside and in, but they are compromises. The result may be thriving sales for Saab as a division of GM, right there next to Chevy, Pontiac, Saturn, Buick and Cadillac, but as much as Swedish executives insist on the new-modelsÂ’ Saabness, the gain in profit may be paralleled by a loss of innocence.
Saab was a company that built aircraft and cars. The old 96 model was a strange little front-wheel-drive car that looked like a Honda Insight on steroids, 40 years before the Insight. It was like an upside-down bathtub, as impenetrable as a bank vault, with a two-cycle engine that would go pretty well, get phenomenal gas mileage, and free-wheeled when you took your foot off the gas. That car gave way to the 99, which was a leap above and beyond car-making in the 1960s, even though it used a Triumph engine.
The 99 of the 1970s gave way in the ’80s to the Saab 900, a fantastic car that not only retained and expanded on SaabÂ’s colorful idiosyncracies, but led the way with an overhead-camshaft Saab engine that was adequately potent, and made moreso by turbocharging. Back when Saab and Swedish contemporary Volvo were introducing seatbelts, Saab was using ergonomics before it became a buzzword – creating a driverÂ’s position similar to a pilotÂ’s in one of those Saab jet fighters. The ignition key was located on the floor, between the wonderfully supportive bucket seats, because in a collision, a driverÂ’s knee could get torn up if it hit the key in place on the dashboard.
That was particularly true in the early seatbelt days, before usage was mandatory, and before the key slot moved to the steering column. It became a Saab trademark, along with the front-hinged clamshell hood, designed to crumple into a triangular shape to help protect occupants in a frontal crash, while tiny but tough little casters held the collapsing hood on steel tracks for stability.
The 900 developed a cult-like following, but the cult wasn’t big enough for future success. So Saab came out with a new and larger car, called the 9000, in 1984. It met with some glowing impressions – from those who had never been Saab owners. The car was luxurious, with its multi-button, flat instrument panel and generic looks, but in its attempt to flow in the mainstream, the 9000 could attract Buick owners, but was flat unacceptable to Saab purists.
While the Saab personal touches remain, a cynic could say that the new 9.3 is a Saturn or Malibu with a GM Ecotec engine and a Saab body; the new 9.7 is a true SUV because it is a Chevy TrailBlazer with a GM engine and a Saab front end; and the new 9.2 is a Subaru Impreza, with Subaru engine, and a Saab face.
That leaves the 9.5, a vehicle which has an interesting history. Essentially, it is the modernized version of the 9000. The 9000 was based on a shared platform with Fiat, Alfa Romeo and Lancia, and when the 9.5 replaced the 9000 in 1998 as a 1999 model, on an all-new platform shared with Opel, a German branch of GM, and the whole thing came out more than a year before GM completed its takeover.
As a confirmed Saab zealot, who owned a 1980 Saab 900 for more than a decade of dependable service, I drove the 9.3, and the 9.2, and something inside caused me to season my impressions with a “look what they’ve done to my car†undercurrent.
So when a new 9.5 SportWagon showed up for a week’s test drive, I was fully prepared to be underwhelmed. The car looked very sleek, however. And when I walked around it, I noted the “2.3†emblem on the rear. True, it’s a 2.3-liter four-cylinder engine, turbocharged. The basic block is shared with Opel, but Saab reworks everything from the intake system to the turbocharger and the transmission, all of which are pure Saab.
Inside, the view from the driverÂ’s seat is clearly more 900 than 9000 for Saab traditionalists. The center stack of audio and heat-air controls is on a panel angled toward the driver, and the main speed, tachometer, fuel instruments are readily visible through the top half of a nicely padded steering wheel. Not only that, but along with the usual audio remote buttons located lower on the inside of the steering wheel, there also is a small, slim, triangular switch located higher and behind the audio switch on both sides.
The five-speed automatic transmission works fine in “D†but if you shift it down to a manual setting, you can use the paddles for manual shifting, upshifting with the right paddle and downshifting by hitting the left paddle. I find that far superior to the systems that allow upshifts and downshifts by either paddle, depending on whether you push down or pull back. It’s definitely more error-proof and instinctive to learn that the right paddle upshifts and the left downshifts.
The 9.5 SportWagon comes in three models, with the same four-cylinder engine and weather-beating front-wheel drive. The Linear has a light-pressure turbo with 185 horsepower and 207 foot-pounds of torque; the middle Arc model has more boost for an impressive 220 horsepower and 228 foot-pounds; and the top Aero model with the high-output version has 250 horses and 258 foot-pounds. The test car was the Arc, the middle one, and it had plenty of zip.
All three have a transverse-mounted 2290 cc. engine, with dual overhead camshafts and four valves per cylinder — a concept still stubbornly suppressed by pushrod-mad GM — and dual balance shafts to offset the inherent vibration of four-cylinder engines. In the Arc, the result is not only a smooth and responsive application of power, but SaabÂ’s engine-management system and long expertise in the art of turbocharging manipulates the torque to peak at a plateau from 1,900-4,500 RPMs, meaning youÂ’ve got great acceleration from the torque, which carries right on up to the 5,500-RPM horsepower peak.
The 9.5 SportWagon seats four very nicely, and five if you must, with a large storage expanse behind the rear seat, where tie-down straps and nets can be adjusted by sliding the anchors along rails embedded in the floor. The 37-cubic foot area expands to 73 cubic feet if you fold down the rear seats. The floor of the rear area slides out 18 inches to ease loading, and because it will support 440 pounds, it can serve as a table for a very hefty picnic, or a seat for a couple of quite hefty adults.
Performance handling capabilities make the 9.5 SportWagon feel much sportier than your basic station wagon, and the traction-control system helps the front-wheel-drive vehicleÂ’s traction, while the Electronic Stability Program reduces engine power and applies the brakes to prevent any detectable skid.
Beyond all the performance and handling, and the traditional Saab crumple-zone safety, with airbags, and electronic brake distribution on top of the antilock brakes, I surprised myself by getting over 28 miles per gallon while driving the 9.5 SportWagon in a manner we shall call “enthusiastic.Ââ€
In addition, Saab is at the forefront of producing ethanol-friendly engines. The 9.5 can be bought to use E-85, the far less-expensive fuel that is 85 percent ethanol, without the conventional concern of scorching valves with the hotter-burning alternative to gasoline.
The Arc test car had a base price of $37,000 and was $43,684 as equipped. The Linear costs less, and the Aero costs more. Without driving those two, IÂ’ll pick the Arc as the right compromise for sporty driving and fuel-efficient flexibility.
Without question, however, the best feature of the 9.5 is that it feels like a genuine, traditional Saab. ThatÂ’s where the irony comes in: The upscale sedan/wagon model, once scorned by Saab cultists as not being pure-enough Saab, has evolved into being the last remaining example of all that was the best of traditional Saabs.
(John Gilbert writes weekly new-car reviews, and can be reached at cars@jwgilbert.com.)
Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Rubicon grows in name, body
If you were to take a new Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Rubicon into your home, you might never call it by its proper name. It would simply be “the Jeep.†Company name-makers can explain to you what each word means, but the best definition is that the 2005 model is longer – by more than a foot – and that lengthening has more effect on the Wrangler than the longer name.
The 2005 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Rubicon met me for three distinctly different evaluations. The longer wheelbase smoothed out the trademark bounciness of the vehicle on the incredibly treacherous terrain of UtahÂ’s Moab Desert, in the harshness of Northern MinnesotaÂ’s winter roadways, and in normal everyday driving in the early warmth of springtime.
The timing wasnÂ’t all logical. For example, the neat soft-top convertible version that I drove up cliffs, down rock faces, and astride deep-V crevasses at Moab was also the one I got for a sub-freezing winter week. Just recently I got the hardtop version, on days when I was wishing I could swap the solid, but very bulky, hard roof for the convertible, which has a unique fold-back front section for creating the rarity of a 45-by-23-inch sunroof in a ragtop.
Jeeps have always been accomplished off-road performers, from World War II and ever since. The Wrangler can never be confused with the quite-civilized Liberty, and the super-civilized Grand Cherokee, which is a virtual urban wagon for hauling kids and groceries, but with serious off-road capabilities. The Wrangler instead is aimed at tackling the most rugged off-road situations, and even after Chrysler, and then DaimlerChrysler, took over the company. It has maintained its status as a somewhat primitive icon, required for a vehicle that is ready for any off-road challenge for fun or necessity.
The problem is more how Wranglers operate ON the road. Because it has always been a fairly tall (for ground clearance) vehicle with a short wheelbase (for agility), the Wrangler ride could always be compared to a pogo stick. Now, pogo sticks can be fun for hopping around the yard, but less fun if youÂ’re heading for a destination four hours away, when you seem to travel as many miles vertically, in short but constant bounces.
The ever-expanding world of SUVs includes a number of modern vehicles which might be seen as challenging to Jeep’s realm, however, without the bounciness. So Jeep added a badge that says “Trail Rated†to all Wranglers, as evidence that they can handle any trail, conquering five performance categories: traction, ground clearance, maneuverability, articulation, and water-crossing capability. Then came the word Unlimited, which only gets added to mean it’s more specialized than the normal Wrangler. The Rubicon name is taken from the Rubicon Trail, signifying that you got the new, big one, which can conquer that most grueling off-road adventure.
The Rubicon is 15 inches longer than the normal Wrangler, with 13 of those inches going to the cargo area behind the rear seat, and the other two inches added to second-row legroom. The added rear space increases cargo volume from 9.5 to 22.3 cubic feet. Wheelbase is also stretched 10 inches, to 103 inches. That, and revised shock-absorber tuning, eliminates any comparison to pogo sticks when on the road.
The Rubicon model was introduced in 2002, in response to Jeep buyers who wanted normally after-market parts to be supplied from the factory. Meanwhile, the Unlimited version had more room. The Trail-Rated tag came from a Nevada Auto Test Center test that required splashing through water that is 19 inches deep at 5 miles per hour.
Combining all those things gets you the Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Rubicon, and we should just be thankful the official name isn’t “Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Rubicon Trail Rated.†Locking front and rear differentials, front and rear Dana 44 axles, with a 4-to-1 low-range transfer case, with a Rock-Trac ability to limit descending speed while increasing available torque. The Tru-Lok differentials front and rear are air-actuated.
The full-boat Jeep Wranger Unlimited Rubicon is $28,825. The Jeep Wrangler Rubicon (excising the “UnlimitedÂâ€) drops the base to $27,825. Dropping “Rubicon,†the Jeep Wrangler Unlimited costs $24,355. And dropping both Unlimited and Rubicon, the Jeep Wrangler SE coasts a mere $18,510 (and you can get used to the standard pogo-stick ride).
The longer Rubicon actually is quite pleasant to drive on a freeway trip, which is more of a surprise than the poise with which it conquered any icy and snow-covered roads, or the extreme Moab driving challenges.
My biggest criticism is that in its attempt to stay true to tradition, Jeep left the windshield in its usual near-vertical attitude. On sunny days – remember sunny days? – if you drive toward the sun, you can watch the reflection of the sun off your windshield as it lights up road signs a half-mile ahead, and causes drivers ahead of you to flinch noticeably when they are temporarily blinded through their own rear-view mirrors.
Tilt the windshield five or ten more degrees, eliminate the prominent direct reflection, and Jeep purists might either applaud or not notice.
The 4.0-liter Power Tech in-line six-cylinder has 190 horsepower at 4,600 RPMs and 235 foot-pounds of torque at 3,200 RPMs. Standard is a six-speed manual transmission, with a four-speed automatic available. It will tow a 3,500-pound trailer, which almost doubles the 2,000-pound limit of the standard Wrangler.
Over-engineered for the rigors of off-roading, the Wranglers we drove at introduction time did some amazing things on the Moab test course. Some of the climbs and descents were only done by experienced drivers. That was OK with the rest of us, who watched as one driver hesitated just before reaching the crest of a 100-foot vertical wash, and starting up again meant raising both front wheels, much like a rearing horse in an old cowboy movie. It appeared likely to roll back over on its back, and give the rollbars an improvisational test, but instead, it settled back down and finished the climb.
On dry highways, and in city driving, rear-drive was smooth and efficient. On those not-too-distant days of snow and ice, shifting to lock the axles assured all four to churn their way up any hill and over any icy terrain.
Jeep Wranglers have always been fun, although I’ve had difficulty identifying with anyone who could afford to have a vehicle just for the fun of off-roading, and who was willing to pogo-stick through the real world. Adding names – and length – eliminates that problem. So now it’s fun, with definite everyday benefits added in.
(John Gilbert writes weekly vehicle reviews, and can be contacted at cars@jwgilbert.com.)
CTS-V moves Cadillac into luxury-hot rod category
COLUMBUS, OHIO — Multitasking, they might call it. A fantastic weekend, IÂ’d say. The tasks included doing a few stories on the NCAA hockey tournament in Columbus, trying to get to Columbus when air tickets were pretty much gone, and figuring out a way to still do a road-test while on the road.
The solution was perfect. Denver beat North Dakota for the NCAA title, I was able to fly in and out of nearby Dayton, Ohio, with only a couple extra days tacked on, and a new, dark burgundy Cadillac CTS-V was awaiting me in Dayton, and it proved a welcome ally.
Having a high-powered cohort made me feel right at home for my first trip to Columbus. The CTS-V is a beautiful car, stunning even, and it goes better than it looks. It comes with a 400-horsepower Corvette V8 churning those rear wheels. There even seemed to be an eerie welcome on my first day in suburban Columbus, when I drove about six blocks from the Radisson Hotel and found upon a classy steakhouse named “J.Gilbert’s Wood-Fired Steaks.†I showed the manager my card, he got a chuckle out of the coincidence, and he gave me a souvenir mug with their – my – name embossed on it.
The CTS-V is the corporate hot rod from Cadillac, the luxury, high-brow arm of General Motors. It stood out, because everywhere you look you see Hondas and Acuras, with HondaÂ’s Marysville, Ohio, factory nearby. Columbus was host to the NCAA;s 2005 national collegiate hockey tournament for the first time. College hockey is an exciting alternative in this year of NHL lockout/strike, although ESPNÂ’s NHL broadcasters seem to be more familiar with basketball than college hockey, judging by Bill ClementÂ’s constant references to the crease and goal-mouth area as “in the paint.Ââ€
The youthful infusion of thousands of college hockey fans backing North Dakota, Denver, Colorado College and Minnesota helped set a proper scene for the CTS-V, because it is a car for the young-at-heart among the upper-crust. The CTS was a breakthrough vehicle, above the level of a compact, certainly, yet leaving plenty of room for the larger STS and the still larger DeVille.
The CTS broke new ground because it was front-engine with rear-drive, and it carried the then-new chiseled look that we didnÂ’t realize was to become CadillacÂ’s signature appearance. We knew it promptly when, shortly afterward, the XLR sports car, the SRX crossover SUV, and then the STS all came out wearing the same chiseled look, in place of the smoothly rounded lines that previously distinguished Cadillacs.
The CTS comes standard with Cadillac’s high-tech – GM calls it “high feature†– 3.6-liter V6 engine, with dual overhead camshafts and plenty of power, as well as variable valve-timing that boosts it far beyond any other V6 GM has produced in terms of horsepower, torque, and potentially fuel economy and durability. The CTS lists for about $40,000 that way.
But hot on the wheels of the CTS came the CTS-V, and adding that hyphen and “V†indicates that the Corvette Z06 V8 has been stuffed under the hood. That boosts the base price up to $49,490, and a few options, such as a sunroof, put the test-car’s sticker at $53,680. You wanna play with the big German and Japanese sport-luxury sedans, it costs a bit.
Curiously, this is not the new 6.0-liter V8 in the new 2005 C6 Corvette, but the 5.7-liter V8 from the 2004 Corvette, the last of the C5 versions. But by going to the Z06 version of last year’s engine, it matches the 400 horsepower of the new ‘Vette. The CTS-V reaches 400 horses at 6,000 RPMs, while developing 395 foot-pounds of torque at 4,800 RPMs.
Those are high revs for a pushrod engine, and yes, remember that even while Cadillac has been GMÂ’s vanguard for new, high-technology engines, the Corvette remains with its 50-plus-year-old pushrod engine style, still depending more on huge displacement than technology to make great wads of power.
Other features are just as significant as the Corvette engine to make the CTS-V an impressive package. The Tremec six-speed manual is a smooth-shifting unit that comes along with the engine from Corvette, and huge, 14-inch vented rotors on Brembo disc brakes adorn all four corners. Traction control, and CadillacÂ’s StabiliTrak stability control also is standard. There also are a lot of creature comforts, such as leather seats, and run-flat tires that have a high-performance profile but will get you home instead of blowing out if punctured. Foglights, a sunroof, XM Satellite radio, and an eight-speaker audio system, along with a navigation system, also are standard on the test car.
Perhaps the most distinctive feature of the CTS-V is its appearance. Simple as that. The CTS has that abrupt down-sloping front end, with sharp vertical edges, and a wide and open grille, underlined by a bumper and lower façade that has more grille opening and indentations for foglights. That’s distinctive enough, for starters. The CTS-V goes beyond that, with a fine-mesh plating on the grille that really sets off the prominent Cadillac shield-and-braiding emblem located in the middle, just above the gently arched V.
The big wheels – 18 inch alloys that are 8.5 inches wide – not only house the run-flat tires, they also set off the profile of the CTS-V from the side by filling up those large wheel-wells, and they give the car a more determined, sporty stance than the garden-variety CTS. Just behind the front wheelwells there are colorful little V-emblems, which is the only other tipoff that youÂ’ve got the CTS-V, because the rear emblem simply says “CTS.Ââ€
The interior is less luxurious and definitely more sporty, retaining plenty of class in the way that a BMW interior can be neat without being ostentatious. The three-spoke steering wheel has all manner of remote switches, and the stick shift is right there on the console, welcoming you every time you enter the car with the reminder – a Cadillac, with a stick shift!
Driving along I-70 from Dayton to Columbus, and around the I-270 beltline of Columbus, I discovered that a lot of other drivers established an attitude toward the CTS-V. Maybe it was the dark, sulty but shiny paint, or the little trim features, but it seemed as though everybody driving anything from Cavaliers to SUVs wanted to pass me, and if I ever eased past any of them, they’d immediately speed up and repass. Corvettes generally get a different kind of respect from fellow road-sharers, but maybe there’s still some time needed for people to realize the CTS-V is hot – too hot to waste any energy zapping Cavaliers and assorted SUVs as they strain and sway to get ahead.
The CTS-V handles like no previous Cadillac sedan. Firmed up suspension pieces and quick, precise steering means that if you crank the steering wheel just a bit, the big (3,847-pound) sedan cuts in as if it thinks itÂ’s a sports car. The six-speed stick means you can reach down for more revs and more torque whenever you need it, but there is so much available you almost can pull out of almost any situation in fourth or fifth without the feeling of lugging the engine.
I was able to get 23 miles per gallon on a specific pre-dawn 75-mile run from Columbus to Dayton, but in freeway-city combined driving that figure dipped to 16. I must admit, however, that I was, shall we sayÂ…exercising the engineÂ’s power most of the time.
The skip-shift is an unqualified nuisance. HereÂ’s the deal: About a decade ago, GM wanted the Corvette to get a high EPA fuel-economy estimate, so to bolster mileage and emissions, it engineered a stick shift to go directly from first to fourth on normal acceleration, thus fooling the EPA computers. If you start up very slowly, or if you hammer it and charge away from a stop in first, it will go into second smoothly. But on moderate acceleration, the shift lever is deflected from first to fourth. I criticized the Corvette for that, because my favored method of driving is to start up moderately, and then maybe hammer it a little in second gear. If you do that in a Corvette, you find yourself in fourth, lugging the engine, and wrestling the shift lever back up, over and down into second.
I heard from dozens of Corvette zealots who claimed I was unjustly mean for criticizing the car, and besides, they wrote, you can go to Radio Shack for a device that bypasses the thing. I know about that device, and I also know that GM is the only company in the world that uses such a nuisance gadget to get their car certified. And itÂ’s been about 10 years now. Besides, I countered, when does the ad campaign come out that says: “You want the Great American Sports Car? Send $50,000 and weÂ’ll not only give you a new Corvette, weÂ’ll also give you a map to the nearest Radio Shack so you can make it shift properly!Ââ€
I donÂ’t think weÂ’ll be seeing that promotion. But I also know that while the skip-shift is a dreadful nuisance in the Corvette, it is beyond contempt in a vehicle wearing that braid-surrounded-shield of a Cadillac. And yet the CTS-V has the skip-shift.
There is one other nitpick I must register about the CTS-V. Although it has a stick shift, it has a pedal emergency brake. Most sticks have a brake lever located adjacent to the shift lever so you don’t forget it’s engaged. On the CTS-V, when you engage the emergency brake, you have to reach down and pull up on the release on the lower left edge of the dashboard. So on several different occasions when I had engaged the emergency brake, I went to start up, realized the brake was still set, then reached down and pulled up the little switch – and, presto, I unlatched the hood! Yes, the hood release is located about an inch from the brake relese, in “I†formation. After a while, I’m sure you would get it right. But not every time.
The problem is compounded when the unlatched hood stays down, and unless you stop and get out immediately to close it, it becomes a challenge to remember it later. A couple of times, people who were attracted to look at the car as I got out of it said, “Hey, did you know your hood is open?Ââ€
For overall performance, the CTS-V is a rocket ship. It will perform with some of the world’s best sports sedans, making up for the technology it may lack with pure displacement grunt. I’ve seen published tests where the CTS-V goes 0-60 in 4.7 seconds, and run 13.1-second quarter miles at nearly 110 miles per hour. Interestingly enough, Cadillac also has brought out its STS for 2005, and it has Caddy’s 4.6-liter high-tech V8 with dual overhead cams and four valves per cylinder. That engine is smaller, but higher tech, and Caddy engineers are dabbling with an STS-V – supercharging the 4.6 V8, which just might make it faster than the CTS-V.
But here we are, talking about Cadillacs as if they were BMW M5s, or Audi S4s, which – come to think of it – is exactly what Cadillac probably wants us to do.
(John Gilbert writes weekly auto reviews and can be reached at cars@jwgilbert.com.)
About the Author
John Gilbert is a lifetime Minnesotan and career journalist, specializing in cars and sports during and since spending 30 years at the Minneapolis Tribune, now the Star Tribune. More recently, he has continued translating the high-tech world of autos and sharing his passionate insights as a freelance writer/photographer/broadcaster. A member of the prestigious North American Car and Truck of the Year jury since 1993. John can be heard Monday-Friday from 9-11am on 610 KDAL(www.kdal610.com) on the "John Gilbert Show," and writes a column in the Duluth Reader.
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