Focus is on driving — and entering — ’05 ZX4 ST model
SAINT PAUL, MN. — What could be better than gazing at a bright red, all-American, 2005 Ford Focus ZX4 on Fourth of July week? About the only thing that would be better than looking at the new Focus is to drive it. Curiously enough, I was so impressed driving it that I wound up outside, looking at it.
The ZX4 ST model requires a lot of letters, but it’s hot enough as an upgrade to the basic Focus that the red-hot Focus SVT has been discontinued. That saddened me, when I heard the news, but only until I got to drive the new ZX4. The new 2.3-liter four-cylinder is so strong that you have to think back to how impressively quick the outgoing Focus SVT was, and you realize that this “non-SVT†might be every bit as quick.
After being impressed for several days, I was driving the Focus ZX4 past Maplewood Imports in suburban St. Paul, and I stopped in to see if, by chance, any of the 2005 Mercedes models had arrived yet. My old friend and salesman George Andeweg said that some had shown up, and he volunteered to take me for a short drive in the all-new E-Class CDI turbo-diesel, letting me drive it back. Afterward, I motioned over to the bright red little Focus and told George that this was more than just a garden-variety Focus, because of its new engine.
George asked for a ride, so I agreed, and to make sure he was properly impressed, I suggested he drive it up the highway and back. As we got in, by chance, it started to rain, so we closed the sunroof and the windows. George ran it gingerly up through the five-speed gears for a couple of blocks, and as we came back, he was smiling at how impressive the engine was. He pulled up at the main entrance to his Mercedes dealership, and said, since it was still raining and he knew I had to leave, he was going to hustle inside. So he left the motor running, hopped out, and ran inside.
I climbed out of the passenger seat, walked around the carÂ…and found, to my surprise, that the driverÂ’s door was locked. That George; how could he have even hit the power-lock switch as he got out? Of course, he hadn’t, but I wasn’t sure of that as I chuckled, walking back around the car to the passenger side, only to find out that the passenger-side door was also locked! All four doors and the trunklid all were steadfastly locked, and they had apparently locked themselves, as the 2.3-liter engine kept humming merrily along at idle.
It was of small consolation that the rain stopped right about then, because there I was, standing there where I could do nothing but admire the bright, red looks of the new Ford Focus ZX4, while being totally helpless about getting back inside it. I summoned George, and he was very apologetic, but of course, it had nothing to do with anything he had done. And a lot to do with either an electrical malfunction of the power-lock gizmo, or else some ill-advised scheme of an over-zealous feature designer who went one step too far down the road of sophistication.
Two or three Mercedes service guys, along with George and I, struggled to work a “slim jim†and a coat hanger into the upper corner of the doors on both sides. After a half-hour, one fellow managed to hook the hanger around the inside passenger door handle and unlatched it. What a relief. George cracked the passenger side window about four inches and, as he slammed the door, I yelled: “Wait! DonÂ’t close it!Ââ€
He laughed, but said it wouldnÂ’t lock this time, and besides he had cracked the window. Then he tried it, and, amazingly, the Focus had again locked itself. Luckily he could reach his arm in and unlock it this time. But I was left with the realization that technology has clearly gone too far. The fancy remote devices on the key fob are great, and power locks are wonderful, but who ever heard of doors that would lock themselves?
I imagined a scenario, during one of our frequent late-night trips between the Twin Cities and Duluth, when I might suggest to my wife, Joan, that I was a little sleepy, so maybe she should drive for a while. In those cases, she complies, I pull over on the freeway shoulder when no traffic is approaching, put the car in neutral with the emergency brake on, or in park, then we jump out, circle the still-idling car, and take off. Almost like a pit stop. It would truly be the pits, however, if we did that somewhere between Sandstone and Moose Lake and found that both of us were locked out. Being left standing on the freeway shoulder in the middle of nowhere at 1 a.m., with no way to get into the still-running car, is not a pleasant scenario, although being stuck anywhere in that condition isnÂ’t very appealing.
Because Fourth of July weekend was fast-approaching, I couldnÂ’t locate anybody in FordÂ’s Chicago or Detroit offices for a potentially logical explanation, which means I was left without any explanation, logical or not.
I recently had a Volkswagen Passat for a test drive, and while my wife and I were making several stuff-carrying trips, she went inside with the key. With my arms full, I wasnÂ’t sure she was going to make a return trip for the last couple of items, so I tried to lock the doors, just in case. I pushed the lock switch and the doors clicked to lock, but when I closed the door, it unlocked. It would be impossible to lock that car WITHOUT the key. Maybe thatÂ’s what Ford intended, but they just got it backwards. When I finally reached the always-helpful Tom Larson in Ford’s Chicago regional office, he was surprised to hear my tale and said he’d try to find out if any such design was in place, but strongly suspected a malfunction.
I donÂ’t like locks that lock you inside a car, for whatever security reasons, without you pushing some button to order it. But I find it incomprehensible that any car would lock itself automatically, with nobody inside and the car running, with the key, obviously, still inside.
The whole incident was off-putting, which is too bad. It makes for a good column, but the Focus ZX4 ST deserves a column-full of accolades. Ford’s arrangement with Mazda is paying rich dividends, and the ZX4 is just one of those. The previous Focus engine was a 2-liter “Zetec†four-cylinder, which was adequate, and the Special Vehicle Team (SVT) gang reworked to deliver 170 horsepower and 145 foot-pounds of torque – far more than adequate in the SVT Focus. As usual, the SVT treatment also doctored up the suspension and shocks to make that model handle with fabulous sportiness.
For 2005, Ford takes Mazda’s slick, new 2.3-liter four-cylinder – the base engine in the Mazda6 and the available engine in the new Mazda3 and the Ford Escape – and stuffs it into the Focus. The Mazda engine is a dual-overhead-cam, world-class beauty, with chain-driven cams and four valves per cylinder. It has 151 horsepower, which seems light next to the SVT Focus’s 170, but it adds a robust 154 foot-pounds of torque, topping the SVT’s 145. The bottom line is the new Focus ZX4 four-door runs 0-60 within one-tenth of a second of the SVT in most car-magazine tests.
In addition, the new Focus ZX4 gets the SVTÂ’s firm-set shock absorbers, and even though the new car is softer sprung, the performance is decidedly improved over the current Focus, and just a tad more comfortable for everyday driving than the uncompromisingly stiff Focus SVT. The ST upgrade to the ZX4 adds some neat sporty trim to the interior, and even fully loaded with every possible option, the price stays around $18,000.
Alloy wheels and a five-speed work smoothly, and the Mazda heritage dovetails well with the 2,816-pound Focus. The 2.3-liter engine not only has potent, free-revving power, but it also burns clean. Ford officials claim the new engine is twice as clean as the ULEV (ultra low emission vehicle) standards call for, and it burns one-third cleaner than the 2004 Focus.
Externally, the new Focus has a revised nose, more smoothly coordinated in the same manner that the new Ford 500 sedan will be when it is introduced in a couple of months. Altogether, the Focus remains FordÂ’s economy-car challenger, and in base form it measures up well. In ZX4 form, with the 2.3-liter upgrade, it more than measures up against most imports. And in full-boat, ZX4 ST gear, itÂ’ll make you eager to climb inside and drive the heck out of it.
If, that is, it lets you get inside to drive.
Power Wagon breaks new ground for Dodge in 2005
CHELSEA, MI. — Chrysler Group introduced all of its 2005 car and truck models at a large-scale opportunity for automotive journalists to put the vehicles through their paces at the companyÂ’s Chelsea Proving Grounds. It was a hectic and eventful day, to say the least, but right in the middle of it, at 11 a.m., everything came to a halt and we were all summoned to a location right amid the three test tracks at the facility. The occasion was a groundbreaking, we were informed.
Virtually all the assembled journalists were similarly cynical. I mean, there are cars to drive, cars to photograph, and inside the huge tent there were snacks and refreshments to consume, so why are we wasting out time at a groundbreaking? Every auto manufacturer on the planet is competing to build the best cars and trucks, and all of them also are battling to do the best job of promoting their new – as well as their old and outdated – vehicles.
But when it comes to the standard of clever and creative ideas for new-vehicle introductions, Chrysler stands alone. So this, we assumed, was payback time. Chrysler entertained us by dropping new minivans from the ceiling at the Detroit Auto Show several years ago, and the company has continued to dazzle the assembled writers every year since, including last year when it rolled a fire-breathing Viper-powered motorcycle out on a raised runway. But a groundbreaking? Do we cynical journalists care about a groundbreaking? Let us go into the tent for one more cup of coffee and send us a message with whatever building you plan to build, OK?
Cynical or not, we all dutifully trooped over near the handling road-course because Dieter Zetsche, the impressively German president and CEO of DaimlerChryslerÂ’s so-called Chrysler Group, was about to hold court. As he strode to the podium, we noticed the enormous dirt pile behind him, with an earth-moving loader up on top of the pile. Whatever they were going to build obviously was going to be built right about there.
Zetsche talked about what a monumental point in history this was, because it is the 50th year that Chrysler has test-proven its cars at the Chelsea Proving Grounds. He introduced the mayor of Chelsea, and he talked about the legendary cars from ChryslerÂ’s past, such as the 300 letter-series Chryslers, the Dodge Charger Daytona, and the current Dodge Ram SRT-10, which set a Guinness Book of World Records standard for a measured speed of 154.587 miles per hour over a flying kilometer right out there on the Chelsea facilityÂ’s high-banked oval.
Such groundbreaking performance, Zetsche suggested, made it fitting for this groundbreaking moment. With that, Zetche walked around to the front of his podium, picked up a shovel that was planted in a pile of dirt. He picked up the shovel, and as he held it poised above the dirt pile, he turned each way, striking a hokey pose for any interested photographers who might want such a photo.
As he posed, Zetsche said, “Today, we reach another milestone with a groundbreaking expansion…†And with that, a huge, red pickup truck burst straight out from the middle of that giant dirt pile, which, obviously, was a dirt pile enclosing a little garage-like hiding place in which this huge truck could be stashed, and from which it could erupt. It was the new-for-2005 Dodge Power Wagon.
No question, the whole thing was astounding. Twenty-five years ago, Dodge built a super-heavy-duty truck, the kind of truck that could tackle any rugged task imaginable. You might say it was an SUV-type long before SUVs were the norm. So after returning to prominence as a valid contender for the top Ford and Chevy pickups with the imposing Dodge Ram, Dodge is reincarnating the Power Wagon as its heavy-duty, bring-on-the-Hummer vehicle.
It is built, Dodge says, for “the road less traveled.†It has power from the 5.7-liter Hemi, with 345 horsepower, a large and beefy stance, towering over us at 80.6 inches tall, and with huge 33-inch BF Goodrich all-terrain tires mounted on 17-inch by 8-inch forged aluminum wheels. It can be had in either normal cab or Quad-Cab four-door form, and its custom wheel flares set it off as something special.
A solid front axle with coil springs, and a single stage leaf spring rear suspension with softer spring settings allow for what Dodge claims is the best wheel articulation in its class. Bilstein monotube high-pressure gas shock absorbers keep all four corners planted, and 4.56 gearing assures immediate takeoff when you step on the gas.
Another big-time feature is a 12,000-pound custom winch, which Zetsche claimed was so that Power Wagon drivers could lend a hand to those less-fortunate souls who might have gotten stuck in their off-road endeavor before the big Dodge could arrive to yank them out.
No question, the Power Wagon offers the ultimate macho look to the whole Ram family, which already led the world in macho image stuff with that bold grille and super power.
As if that wasnÂ’t enough, around the handling road course came another red flash, and another bright red Dodge truck pulled into the area. It was the Dodge Ram SRT-10 Quad Cab, which is all new for 2005, too. The SRT-10 made its debut for 2004, as the swiftest pickup truck in the land, with its closed-course speed record and all. So for Â’05, you can have your race truck and four full-size doors.
The SRT-10 signifies that the truckÂ’s scoop-laden hood covers an 8.3-liter V10 engine out of the Viper sports car. It has 500 horsepower, 525 foot-pounds of torque, and a towing capacity of 7,500 pounds.
With that, we were all released to go back to the refreshments, and back to the test track. On the track, we drove all the new stuff, but Chrysler issued strict rules of an information embargo: We had to promise we would not divulge any information about the style, or the performance, or the driving impressions, of any of the 2005 models.
The large majority of Chrysler/Dodge stuff came out as 2004 models, however, such as the Chrysler 300, Crossfire Roadster, Dodge Magnum, Neon STR-4, the Dodge Ram SRT-10, etc., and there isnÂ’t all that much thatÂ’s remarkably different for 2005. The new Power Wagon, and the SRT-10 Quad Cab definitely are new, and we were given the go-ahead to talk all we want about them.
What isnÂ’t new — but never gets old — is Chrysler’s ability to make any introduction clever and creative. Even the most cynical auto journalist has to be blown away when a simple or mundane introduction turns into high entertainment.
Honda S2000 takes sports car to high-tech levels
The Honda S2000 is both a throwback and a thrust into the sports car future. There are several ways for the S2000 to put you into a reflective mood, recalling the dreamlike wonders of true, pure sports cars of the 1960s. Fortunately, there are more elements of the S2000 that make you realize that it might be the perfect conveyance to carry sports-car zealots into the new century.
To begin with, the reflective stuff.
First, put the top down and let the wind blow. Sure, thereÂ’s an audio system, but who needs it when itÂ’s summertime and the sunshine and wind can heighten all your sensory feelings to overload status.
Second, hit the start button and let the engine roar to life. ItÂ’s a little engine, as engines go, but it has the bright, zappy sound that lets you know it means business every time you crack the throttle to run the revs up.
Third, as you run up through the gears, feel the punch of each shift as the engineÂ’s power takes charge over the carÂ’s lightness and gives you a thrill as it presses you back into the bucket seat.
And fourth, find a winding piece of roadway or at least approach intersections and sharp corners the way you always have, only this time donÂ’t bother hitting the brakes. Just turn and the S2000 slices around those corners and curves without even leaning. ItÂ’s a thrill, just as it always was in a pure sports car, and never was in a stuffy, overweight sedan.
Those feelings of enjoyable nostalgia can cause a person’s sports-car blood to warm up immediately, the same way they did if you were back in the ‘60s, driving an MGB, or a TR4. No, we aren’t looking for high-powered sports cars here, so Corvette, Jaguar and Porsche 911 owners can’t quite relate; we’re talking the affordable sports cars that were built to allow maximum pleasure without having to break the speed limits to reach nirvana.
Ah, but now letÂ’s let the S2000 take us instantly up to modern standards.
First, that top doesnÂ’t require any gymnastics, scuffed knuckles or foul language to operate. Unlatch the two front connections at the top of the windshield, then push the switch on the console, and the fabric top whirs back and disappears behind the two bucket seats in four seconds. You could go back to the trunk and pull out the stiff tonneau cover to truly hide the top if you knew you were going to drive that way all day, but that takes more work, and far more than four seconds. Besides, if the top is out of sight itÂ’s good enough, and in the Upper Midwest itÂ’s always reassuring to know that if the weather changes in a flash, or the sun goes down (as it is wont to do) you can close the top in four seconds without leaving the cockpit.
Second, the start button. The S2000 has a key on the right side of the steering column, but you need to hit a large, round, red start button on the left side of the dash to start the car. That allows you to be sure you have the clutch in and all in proper order, which is good in case the S2000 is your second car, and youÂ’ve developed careless habits while starting your automatic with the car in “Park.Ââ€
Third, going through the gears has rarely been so much fun. There are six of them, to start with, and the shift throw is short and precise, with smooth clutch engagement. The 2.2-liter four-cylinder revs freely up to its 8,000 RPM redline, and if you run it up there in second gear, youÂ’ll be going 55 miles per hour. Still under most speed limits, and with four gears to go, yet. If you cruise the freeway, you can easily go 70, but if you want to keep up with the endless chain of trucks and SUVs, youÂ’ll find yourself cruising closer to 80. At that speed, the tach might read 4,500 RPMs, which is high, but the redline is 8,000, remember.
Fourth, away from the freeway and on twistier roads, notice how the taut suspension seems to let the S2000 anticipate what you want it to do, almost as if it is so ready to react to your input that you need very little input to generate a positive response. The S2000Â’s razor-sharp suspension has been enhanced for 2004, and complemented by adding 17-inch alloy wheels for wider, low-profile, hard-sticking tires.
For those who recall those wonderful old sports cars, the deal-breaking feature of the new S2000 is that it doesnÂ’t leak oil, doesnÂ’t blow smoke, doesnÂ’t need the constant pampering and nurturing that used to provide old-time sports-car folks with a forced education in engine maintenance. It runs like a Honda, which means if you want to maintain a good rapport with your favorite service guy, youÂ’ll want to stop by for lunch, because it simply wonÂ’t need “old-time” sports car maintenance.
The S2000 for the 2004 model year has undergone some significant changes, with HondaÂ’s intention to make the car better for more mainstream buyers in everyday driving chores. ThatÂ’s probably a good idea, considering that at its price of $33,460, the S2000 faces severe competition from roadsters such as the Porsche Boxster, the BMW Z4, the Nissan 350Z, and MazdaÂ’s two-pronged sports car approach of the Miata and the RX-8. All of those are impressive, fun to drive, and very functional in everyday driving.
But I must also pause to indicate that the move to more mainstream was not without compromise. I read with some humor an ad for a General Motors sedan with the Stage III 3800 V6, which has 200 horsepower and was praised for having far more power than the base Honda Accord four-cylinder. Seems absurd for GM to boast that its 3.8-liter V6 has more power than Honda’s 2.4-liter 4-cylinder, but you do what you have to, in the ad-biz. Anyhow, the superb “base†engine in the S2000 is a 2.2-liter gem with 240 horsepower.
Those 240 horses hit their stride at 7,800 RPMs and the 161-foot-pounds of torque peak at 6,500 RPMs, with that red line of 8,000 (which is unheard of in any GM product, the Honda debate team might suggest). But still, that represents a compromise. Until 2004, the S2000 had a 2.0-liter 4-cylinder, with the same 240 horsepower at 8,300 RPMs, and 153 foot-pounds of torque at 7,500 RPMs, but that previous 2.0 engine had a red line of 9,000 RPMs. Talk about being edgy – that engine was absolutely no-compromise, Formula 1-inspired edgy. When it first was introduced, I wrote that it was possibly “only dogs can hear 9,000 RPMs,†because the note was so spine-tingly shrill.
Honda decided that lowering the revs, maintaining the horsepower and increasing the low-end torque would help its driveability, and I canÂ’t disagree. But I can still sigh about the compromise.
The new engine stretches the length of the stroke of the sensational 4-cylinder engine to go from 1997 cc to 2157 in displacement.
It retains its all-aluminum, dual overhead camshaft, 4-valve-per-cylinder design, with variable valve-timing. Almost every company with a high-performance yearning has now adopted variable-valve timing, itÂ’s just that Honda took that concept off its Formula 1 championship engines and adapted it to its street vehicles over a decade ago. You can find the VTEC system now on everything from Civics to Accords, to its upscale Acuras such as the NSX, TL, RSX and TSX, with the valve-timing tuned for economy or power. In the S2000, it is definitely for power, although I got over 25 miles per gallon overall, and 28 miles per gallon on a highway-mostly trip.
As impressive as the over-achieving engine is, the S2000 body is also a work of art, being built of aluminum for strength and light weight. The fact that it weighs only 2,800 pounds adds to its “throwability†feeling, and the immediate response of the powertrain allows you to instantly be headed in the right direction wherever you throw it. The ease of driving is enhanced at night, with high-tech headlights that beam brilliant light but with a sharp cutoff that prevents you from offending oncoming drivers.
The color? Well, IÂ’m not one who wants to own a yellow car. I like them for other people, but I donÂ’t want one myself. The S2000 test-carÂ’s yellow is a highly metallic work of art, however, with brilliant little metallic highlights shining through to make it practically iridescent. When the sun is shining on it directly, it almost hurts your eyes, and it does odd things to a cameraÂ’s automatic light-setting.
From every angle, the S2000 is an eye-stopper. True, if youÂ’re used to sedans, the S2000 might feel a little tight, although the trunk is surprisingly spacious for a 2-seater. But the contoured bucket seats and firm suspension are not harsh enough to jolt you on a long trip. And when you put the top down, hit the big red button, and run the gears up to the red line, a long trip is about the only fantasy remaining unfulfilled.
(John Gilbert writes weekly auto reviews and can be contacted at cars@jwgilbert.com.)
Nissan’s worldwide introduction looks beyond 2005
SAN FRANCISCO, CA. — As new-car introductions go, Nissan put on a mind-boggling display, gathering all of its worldwide vehicles for 2005 in San Francisco, then bringing in 12 waves of journalists from North America, Europe, South America, Central America, Australia, Asia, and the Middle East, for an event called Nissan 360.
In a way, it made sense. Nissan sells more than three million vehicles in 190 countries, and has 27 plants in 18 countries. So instead of holding separate introductory sessions in all corners of the world, Nissan brought everything and everybody to one site for a three week extravaganza of test drives and displays.
About 70 different vehicles were available to be driven by more than 500 journalists in all. There were so many vehicles that the full day of trying to drive as many cars and trucks as possible required some astute note-taking to keep things sorted out as we drove short and long courses from two different base sites north of San Francisco, just across the Golden Gate Bridge.
But any negatives were overcome by the realization that some of the unusual and previously unseen vehicles would be coming to the U.S., and the intriguing question of exactly which ones, and when. There were powerful gasoline engines, economical gasoline engines, hybrid vehicles, fuel-cell vehicles, diesel engine cars, and they ranged in size from subcompact to compact, to midsize, to extremely long and slinky cars, sports cars, small trucks, large trucks, SUVs, and an array of vans from mini to maxi.
Most mind-blowing were a couple of cars altered by Nissan’s “Nismo†high-performance arm, including a flashy, laser-striped 350Z and a Sentra SE-R, which just happened to be the first two vehicles I leaped into. I also enjoyed an X-Trail, which isn’t sold in the U.S., but is the Xterra equivalent sold in Europe, Canada and Japan.
The most intriguing real-world vehicle in the whole batch was something called the Micra. It is a small car, subcompact in exterior dimensions, but fully capable of housing four full-sized people with trunk-room. It appears perfectly placed to capitalize on the current trend back to smaller commuter vehicles with maximum fuel efficiency, in order to cope with fuel prices that keep escalating above and beyond $2 per gallon.
Nissan showed off three varieties of a car called the Cube, which are starkly styled, square-back vehicles that also are pretty square-front, looking a lot like the Scion xB, and I enjoyed heckling some Nissan executives from Japan about the whole purpose of the display being to show off that Nissan has a square little vehicle before Toyota created the Scion.
But the Micra was my favorite. It is sold in Europe, and also in Japan as the March, which blends the ongoing relationship Nissan of Japan has enjoyed with Renault of France. Their connection is referred to as “the Alliance†by everyone connected with Nissan, and it is an arrangement by which Renault now owns 44 percent of Nissan, while Nissan also owns 15 percent of Renault.
The complex arrangement started out with Renault investing some much-needed money to bail out Nissan from some major financial difficulties in 1999. The two companies have remained on their own, with completely separate boards of directors, even though Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn adds to the confusion by being CEO of both companies. Obviously, the two companies are sharing basic vehicle platforms, manufacturing facilities, and powertrains, to say nothing of ideas.
Since the Alliance came into effect, consider the all-new products from Nissan, such as the 350Z, the renewed Altima and Maxima, and entirely new Quest minivan, Titan pickup truck and Armada SUV, to say nothing of all the new Infiniti models. Japanese officials steadfastly insist that there is no French input on the styling of those vehicles, but nobody can say they don’t all have a stylish flair – as do the cars Renault is now building for its European customers.
The 360 obviously stood for the number of degrees in going all the way around the world. “But 360 also indicates Nissan has come full circle as a company,†said Tadao Takahashi, NissanÂ’s executive vice president of manufacturing. “WeÂ’re back as one of the worldÂ’s leading automakers. WeÂ’ve eliminated our debt, which has significantly improved our flexibility.Ââ€
Nissan produced its first vehicle in 1914 with a car called the DAT. Then it built a Datsun Type 14 in 1935 as the first mass-produced car in Japan. Despite more recent successes as the Z, which became the best-selling sports car in the world, NissanÂ’s fortunes dipped greatly a decade ago, but with RenaultÂ’s cash infusion, the comeback has been remarkable. Nissan now has plants in places like Egypt, Malaysia, Thailand and Brazil, in addition to the better-known facilities in Japan, North America and Europe.
Nissan just completed a $40-million, 100,000 square foot expansion of its North American technical center in Michigan, employing 200 additional engineers, out of a worldwide total of 16,300 engineers. It builds full-size Titan pickups and the Armada in a new plant in Canton, Miss., and builds the V8 engines for them up the highway in Georgia.
In addition, Nissan is poised to capitalize on the sudden growth of the car market in Japan, something every manufacturer is focused on. Nissan has invested $1-billion in a 50-percent partnership with Dongfeng, the leading Chinese auto manufacturer, in addition to a $190-million investment in Thailand.
Those things may seem distant to U.S. consumers, because they are. But they tell about the worldly nature of automotives these days. Nissan sold 3,057,000 cars a year ago, including 856,000 in U.S. sales, and 837,000 in Japan, and 542,000 in Europe. In the U.S., Nissan just had the best May sales in its history, selling 87,000 vehicles for a 28 percent increase over May of 2003. But while expanding, it also is streamlining its production, introducing 28 new models from 2005 to 2007 while also cutting down from 24 different platforms of five years ago to 15 by the end of this year.
We can anticipate that the Cube will come to the U.S., and we can only hope the Micra makes it, too. IÂ’ve always enjoyed the agility of driving smaller cars, to say nothing of the economy, but I also have always wondered why most economy cars are made of such chintzy pieces. I mean, why canÂ’t small-car buyers get some of the great features of larger cars? Just because you want economy, efficiency and ease of maneuvering and parking doesnÂ’t mean you donÂ’t want a fancy audio system and great seats.
Alfonso Albaisa, the fellow who was chief designer of the Quest and is now design director for Nissan, read my mind. “Nissan is a sporty company,†Albaisa said. “When it came to planning the new Altima, we thought, ‘Why does a sedan have to be boring?Â’ When we built the Quest, minivans were utility boxes, but we wanted to make it sexy, because women didnÂ’t want to drive vans anymore. Now look at the Micra, which has keyless entry, and rain-sensing wipers – itÂ’s a small car, but it has great features.Ââ€
I drove two Micras, one of which had a gasoline engine, and was peppy and fun to drive. The other one, a sort of lima-bean green – a color almost as unappetizing as the descriptive vegetable, I must say – was powered by a 1.5-liter turbodiesel with a five-speed stick shift. It was quick, agile and thoroughly enjoyable to drive in all circumstances.
It also was clean, didnÂ’t smell foul and didnÂ’t smoke or clatter the way we remember a lot of diesels. I found out later that Nissan had imported European diesel fuel, which is far cleaner than the stuff we are forced to buy. Ah, but as of 2006, our diesel fuel will have to drop to 15 parts per million of sulfur content, from about 340 parts per million now. So the Micra has a chance to be NissanÂ’s rounded Mini Cooper.
Nissan, it turns out, built three different diesel engines for its global outlets, while Renault had five or six. Since their alliance, Nissan has quit making diesels, yielding to RenaultÂ’s expertise, and while Nissans now use Renault diesels, Renault buys NissanÂ’s fantastic 3.5-liter V6.
Among other impressive drives, I had brief tours in three different X-Trail models, with gasoline, diesel and fuel-cell power. I also drove an Altima hybrid, which will be out in about a year using the technology licensed from Toyota, with a Nissan engine, until Nissan can complete its own hybrid technology. There also was a long, sleek sedan called the Teana, which is sold in Japan and had a continuously-variable transmission that could manually be shifted through eight gear-stops. That was one of several right-hand steering vehicles I drove, which was an adventure on two-lane California roads in the mountains.
But the Micra remained the vehicle that most impressed me, as it sailed up the hill from Sausalito, to the upper reaches of the Headlands, where the carÂ’s smooth, turbo-power was interrupted only when I stopped to enjoy the panoramic view of San Francisco, over the Golden Gate Bridge. From the looks of things, NissanÂ’s outlook is just as impressive.
(John Gilbert writes weekly auto columns and can be reached at cars@jwgilbert.com.)
BMW 645 dazzles as star of ‘Return of the Coupe’
The BMW 645i convertible jumped instantly at my urging to dash up the pit lane and onto the straightaway at Road America. We accelerated quickly until I hit the brakes to swerve through a 90-degree right turn, and it exhibited similar manners on the downhill turn leading onto the gently curving straight where we got up to 125 miles per hour before slowing for the 90-degree left at the bottom of the hill. Same with the Carousel sweeper, and rising out of Canada Corner.
Finishing a one-lap run at high but manageable speeds around the four-mile road course at Elkhart Lake provided convincing evidence of what I had assumed a week earlier – that the new BMW 645 would perform a lot like it looks, which is spectacular.
I had gotten the chance to drive a 645Ci coupe for a week on normal highways, and the car proved to be a fantastic addition to the German companyÂ’s stellar array of vehicles. The oft-criticized 7-Series sedan remains at the top, with the stylishly modified 5-Series in the middle, and the yet-to-be-restyled 3-Series at the entry level. In and around those stalwarts, which have established themselves as the standards of comparison in each segment, BMW has fitted a two-seat sports car, the Z4, which replaced the neat Z3 a year ago, and it has taken a giant step off the road with first the X5 sport-utility vehicle and this year the X3, a compact SUV that is a superb performer.
So the 645 is perfect as the previously missing link, bringing BMW back to the historic 2800 and 3.0 coupes of the 1960s and to the recently discontinued 850 coupe of just a few years ago. In fact, in the late 1960s, a BMW 2800Cs coupe was offered to me by a Minnesota BMW dealer and began my transformation from driving tips to a road-test column format. I still have fond memories of that beauty.
The 645 fits in as the sporty coupe for 5-Series or even 7-Series buyers. It comes with the 4.4-liter V8 with every high-tech device for valvetrain and intake system – dual overhead camshafts with BMW’s Double-Vanos variable valve timing – and with BMW’s Sport Package with Active Steering, a system so precise it virtually eliminates the need for correction even when you swerve.
It was a pure joy to drive, despite the presence of the “i-Drive†control knob on the console, which is pushed different directions to engage heat-air, audio, navigation and car performance, but which also is counter-intuitive to use without taking your eyes off the road to view the readout screen. Fortunately, BMW also has a voice-command system that can override the i-Drive.
Otherwise, the coupe is sleek and stunning to the eye, and totally engaging from behind the wheel, shifting that six-speed manual through its paces. The paces include strong low-end power because the torque peaks at 330 foot-pounds at only 3,600 RPMs, sending you sailing up to a 325 horsepower peak at 6,100 RPMs.
Typically, when you drive a great car like the$70,000-$80,000 BMW 645, you wish you could be on an autobahn with unlimited speed limits. Or at least a race track. ThatÂ’s where the Midwest Auto Media Association came to the timely rescue, with its annual Spring Collection at Road America, just outside Elkhart Lake.
Getting a hundred or so automotive journalists to agree on anything comes under the same mathematical probability as herding cats. But agreement is not required for them to all want to come “home to MAMA.†Especially when that home leaves its home base in Chicago and sets up camp at the beautiful Osthoff Resort in Elkhart Lake. That sets the stage for two days at nearby Road America, the most beautiful road-course in North America, with its undulating hills and more than a dozen curves of varying difficulty as they cut through the tree-lined hills.
As a member of that MAMA organization, I looked forward to getting acquainted or reacquainted with as many of the 60 or so new vehicles provided by almost every manufacturer to run – reasonably – on the high-speed road-racing course, then the next day on a tightly-coned autocross course, and a rugged off-road challenge.
I was able to drive the new Pontiac GTO, the existing Corvette Z-06, Pontiac Bonneville V8, Acura TL, Audi S4 Cabrio and TT coupe, Chrysler Crossfire Roadster, Infiniti G35X, Honda S2000, Mini-Cooper S, Mitsubishi Evo RS, Subaru WRX STi, Subaru Legacy GT, Volkswagen Golf R-32, Saturn Ion Red Line, Volvo S40, Mazda6, Mazda3 and Mazda RX-8, and supplementing those with off-road sorties in the Hummer H1, Land Rover Freelander, Volkswagen Touareg, and Isuzu Ascender.
There were dozens of other available cars that I simply couldnÂ’t get to, either because they were being driven by other MAMAÂ’s boys (or girls), or because we flat ran out of time. There were various Mercedes, Dodge, Jaguar, Kia, Nissan, Porsche, Saab and Suzuki machines there, too, and IÂ’m sure there were another couple of vehicles IÂ’m overlooking among those I tried out. But the first one of the 24 vehicles I ran to was the BMW 645 convertible.
Driving a car capable of such exquisite performance is a mystery to those who think driving should be confined to 55 miles per hour and such exorbitant potential is ridiculous. The point is, having a vehicle capable of such excessive power is exhilarating, even though you shouldnÂ’t be using it to its maximum on normal roadways.
There also is something special about learning the true capabilities of the machine and yourself. In circumstances such as the MAMA event at Road America, you are out there alone, at something like a one-minute interval, so you can stay comfortably within limits of good sense, but you can also push yourself and the car to limits youÂ’d never seek on highways.
True, while the 645 goes 0-to-60 in about 5 seconds, and rushes swiftly to its electronically-governed 155 mph maximum, there were other cars available that performed in the 645’s class. The Corvette, with a huge, six-liter pushrod V8 stubbornly proving that enormous displacement can compete with competitors’ higher-technology, might have had a faster top speed going into that downhill 90-degree left known as Turn 5, for example. Other high-powered cars could run with it as well. And some of the smaller and more economical vehicles, such as the Mini, the S40, the RX-8, the Mitsubishi Evo and the R-32 were surprisingly swift over the whole lap – lacking the outright top speed capabilities but much quicker to brake and to handle.
As for the BMW 645, speed was only a part of the picture; it performed every possible chore, from sophisticated and high-tech power, to ultra-sophisticated handling and braking, and to a stable overall feeling of supremacy. And it looks so darn good all the while.
It seems, in fact, that BMW is practically left to compete against itself nowadays. Virtually every other company that wants to build sporty or high-performing sedans uses some BMW model for its performance benchmark. Mercedes and Audi remain the closest competitors to their fellow-German BMWs, but I keep suspecting that they probably evaluate every move BMW makes, while BMW engineers might be looking only at their own products, and their Formula 1 racing experiences, when upgrading their vehicles. It isnÂ’t arrogance, just fact. BMW is unyielding in its demand to enhance every facet of the driving experience, and the 645 is just the latest example.
While the BMW 645 convertible looks lean and taut with the top up, and looks even better after the top is folded back and stowed at the touch of a button, I have to say that I prefer the lines and the look of the coupe. The price is high, but the BMW 645 coupe might well be the most beautiful vehicle available right now. If so, that means the 645 convertible couldnÂ’t be any better than, say, second in the most-beautiful car standings. On any roadway, or race track.
(John Gilbert can be reached by e-mail 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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