Dodge Magnum, Chrysler 300C go back to rear drive
PALM SPRINGS, CA. — Minivans? Front-wheel drive? Cab-forward design? Chrysler Corporation convinced us of the societal benefits of all of the above, and now the same Chrysler – or a reasonable facsimile thereof – is about to convince us to set those attributes aside and make way for the new Chrysler 300 and Dodge Magnum.
DaimlerChrysler unveiled its new corporate twins, the Chrysler 300 and the Dodge Magnum, to the automotive media last week at Palm Springs. The front-engine/rear-drive twins replace the front-drive LH, 300M and Intrepid. Chrysler hopes to sell enough of the twins to replace the 230,000 Chrysler LH models sold last year.
But if these are twins, Chrysler’s marketeers are desperately trying to separate them at birth. The Chrysler 300 comes in four versions – the 300, 300 Touring, 300 Limited, and 300C – as only a blunt-nosed – almost brick-shaped – sedan; the Dodge Magnum has three different models – the base, the SXT and the RT, all of them resembling chopped custom wagons where the roof has been lowered to leave windows tapering from thin to thinner as you move rearward, emphasizing a “don’t-call-it-a-station-wagon†shape.
The base cars have the high-tech, dual-overhead-camshaft 2.7-liter V6 with 190 horsepower and 190 foot-pounds of torque; the middle models come with the single-overhead-cam 3.5-liter V6, with 250 horsepower and 350 foot-pounds of torque; and the top models have the Hemi, a 5.7-liter V8 with 340 horsepower and 390 foot-pounds of torque that will send the cars from 0-60 in 6.3 seconds.
Prices run up over $30,000 and beyond for the top models of both, which have Hemi power and all-wheel drive, but the most amazing features is their low base price — $23,595 for the 300 and $22,495 for the Magnum, including destination charges. The cars are built at Brampton, Ontario, which makes them “domestic†U.S. cars via NAFTA.
The pushrod Hemi V8 also gets a five-speed automatic instead of a four that handles the overhead-cam V6s. The all-wheel drive system – a concession to those of us who drive in snowy climates – will be available by fall on either the 3.5 V6 or 5.7 Hemi V8 cars, but not on the 2.7 base cars, although all models will have traction-control devices. The all-wheel drive system will not be flexible but will have a constant fixed ratio of 62 percent power to the rear and 38 percent front. Chrysler’s splashy new “Hemi†refers back to the hemispherical combustion-chamber 426 V8 engines that powered Dodge and Plymouth cars to NASCAR stock car domination, back in the 1960s and 1970s, when NASCAR forced entrants to run engines based on their production powerplants. Nowadays, all of them run a formula-enforced engine size that none of them builds, so the engines, like the cars, are strictly purpose-built with a phony body resembling a stock car.
Chrysler did put hemispherical tops on the combustion chambers of the new 5.7, but the engine is of pushrod configuration. Pushrods are those devices that actuate valves when the camshaft is located down in the engine block, a process rendered obsolete by overhead camshafts over the last couple of decades.
Chrysler officials admit that if a combination of escalating fuel prices, increasing fuel-economy standards, and tightened emission standards were to occur, manufacturers might have to go back toward lighter vehicles with front-wheel drive and overhead cams. But for now, the corporate lobbyists have suppressed such changes, and manufacturers are creating more and more power. Once higher than 300 horsepower, front-wheel-drive units are strained to handle it all and steer as well, so the trend is toward rear-wheel drive, for the advertised purpose of better handling.
The new pushrod Hemi has been refined with an eye on fuel economy, with a multi-displacement system that deactivates four of the eight pistons when you donÂ’t need full power. General Motors is preparing its second attempt at variable piston firing, but ChryslerÂ’s vehicle development manager Jack Broomall is pretty confident that his company will be first on the street with it.
“Our multi-displacement system will give us a 15 to 20 percent improvement in fuel economy,†said Broomall. “When youÂ’re cruising, the V8 will run in four-cylinder mode. Everything from the pistons, the valves and the roller-type valve lifters shut down on the front and rear pistons on the left side and the two center pistons on the right.Ââ€
Broomall said the difference between the four pistons that work all the time and the four that take cruising-time off is slight, but he conceded that after 150,000 or so miles on dynamometers, he could notice a slight difference in the wear characteristics of the piston rings.
Both the 300 and Magnum are impressive to drive, although in the time allotted, we didnÂ’t get time to drive all of them in one day of hustling from desert to mountain top and back to desert in both models. My copilot and I wanted to try the base 300 to see if the high-tech but small 2.7-liter V6 could move such a hefty car efficiently. But by the time we both had driven a Touring model with its mid-range 3.5-liter V6, we were meeting with the group for lunch at a home originally built by Frank Sinatra, for $75,000 in 1946. Piano-shaped pool and all, it sold a few times subsequently, most recently when an entrepreneur got it in rough shape for $135,000 in 1996, and resold it for $1.3 million in 2000.
By the time we came out, the Chryslers had disappeared and we were whisked away to climb aboard Magnums. This time, we pounced on a Hemi, and followed the same route. The V8 provided much more power and a much deeper sound, as anticipated. My co-driver said he had been told all the Magnum Hemis were all-wheel drive, so when I got my turn behind the wheel, I believed it, the way the Magnum tracked around curvy mountain switchbacks and stayed pointed where I aimed it.
Although there was a little snow in the mountains, it was wet, slushy stuff and definitely not icy, but I was still impressed with the carÂ’s capabilities. I was even more impressed afterward, when I learned that these were preproduction models, and did NOT have all-wheel drive.
Chrysler officials claim that the 300, which is a couple inches higher and slightly shorter than the existing 300M, represents the “new definition of the classic U.S. sedan.†It has a large, bold grille on that vertical front, a high vantage point that is aimed at satisfying the demand of SUV-buyers to have a higher outlook on traffic, and a lot of room inside.
The interior layout is well thought out, seats are comfortable and supportive, and stowage behind the second seat in the Magnum is vast, as is the 300Â’s trunk. The cars are stable and feel firmly planted, possibly aided by their weight, ranging from 3,750 to over 4,000 pounds.
Front-wheel-drive devotees can still choose from the Neon, Stratus or Sebring, or Caravan/Town and Country minivans, which remain the backbone of the Dodge/Chrysler stable. But if the trend toward larger, higher, bigger sedans with more power, the 300 and Magnum should be positioned right up front.
(John Gilbert writes weekly automotive columns; he can be reached at jgilbert@duluth.com.)
A Galant bid to stand out from midsize car crowd
This has been a great winter for test-driving cars during and after heavy snowfalls – simply because that’s what we’ve had, all across Northern Minnesota. But there’s been more than record snowfalls. It’s been cold. We’re not talking about zero-degree stuff, but real, garden-variety, bone-chilling, hypothermia-inducing cold.
Auto companies used to spend a lot of time in outposts in Northern Minnesota to cold-test their cars, but a half-dozen comparatively mild winters caused most of them to move elsewhere. Too bad. This is the winter theyÂ’ve dreamed of. The lucky car that came to me with the perfect cold-test timing was the 2004 Mitsubishi Galant.
The Galant is thoroughly redesigned, with a completely different look, starting with the grilleÂ’s smile-shaped underline, impressively clustered headlights and foglights under glass, and long and flowing lines with a stylishly contoured rear.
Inside, the controls and instruments are well designed, with a machined appearance and an instrument panel that is not unlike PorscheÂ’s, with a speedometer centered and superimposed over the tachometer on the left and fuel on the right. In a Porsche, of course, the tachometer is the largest, superimposed over the others.
The Galant is equipped to be a star, but the co-star of this epic was the weather. How does an actual minus-31 sound? If that’s not enough, we can find -44, or even -50, in case there’s a discernible difference at that level of suffering. I once saw a sign at an establishment in Hibbing, Mn., which was engraved to read: “30 below keeps the riff-raff out.†Now that should be the state motto, because at such temperatures, you don’t see a lot of panhandlers or street people; they’ve gone south, if they have a clue.
Always a competent sedan, the Galant followed that trend from compact up to midsize, trailing the immensely popular Honda Accord and Toyota Camry, and amid the gang that included the Mazda 626, Nissan Altima, Subaru Legacy, Volkswagen Jetta, Ford Taurus and various midsize sedans from every General Motors branch. The competition has gotten dramatically tougher. The Accord and Camry continue to improve, then the Altima leaped up to be a stronger challenger, and last year the Mazda 6 replaced the 626 and moved right to the top of the class, in my opinion, as the tightest, sportiest sedan that is clearly the most fun to drive in the segment.
For 2004, Mitsubishi has taken a large step upscale with the Galant. Its predecessor got glowing reviews, but the new one is longer and much roomier, with the new front, new shape and also a large increase in power. Both the 4-cylinder (2.4 liters) and the V6 (3.8 liters) are large, compared to the competition, and to the engines that made Mitsubishi famous for jewel-like powerplants.
Mitsubishi four-cylinders used to measure 1.6 and then 1.8 liters in its sporty cars and sedans, then offered a 3.0-liter V6, all of which revved high to run with their rivals. The new GalantÂ’s 2.4 is about as large as a four-cylinder gets, and has MitsubishiÂ’s advanced variable valve timing to yield 160 horsepower at 157 foot-pounds of torque. The V6 is as large as the aging GM 3800, although MitsubishiÂ’s overhead cams develop 230 horses and 250 foot-pounds of torque, and leaves the Pontiac-Buick-Chevy engine with its outdated pushrods behind.
Mitsubishi always had built over-achieving engines, and its newest SUVs, such as the Outlander and Endeavor, have proven to be tough and weather-proof on one end, while cars like the compact Lancer and the high-spirited Lancer Evolution have received universal acclaim for uncompromising performance.
The Galant slides upscale to both make room for the Lancer and to compete with the Accord-Camry-Mazda6-Altima types. The big V6 lets the Galant perform with, or better than, anything in the segment, but it also reduces the usually outstanding Mitsubishi fuel economy to a more normal 22 miles per gallon, although that was in what we’ll call “severe†cold. The EPA estimates the car will get 19 city, 27 highway.
Having gotten out of the compact Outlander SUV after it made easy work of a couple of heavy blizzards, I eagerly took the Galant on a series of lengthy trips in the cold. I went from Minneapolis to Duluth, then to Grand Forks, then back to Duluth, back to the Twin Cities, and finally on a drive to Chicago. On a Friday morning a couple of weeks ago, I got up to see the thermometer on our house reading an actual 31-below. ThereÂ’s not a lot of numbers below that figure on any thermometer.
Parked outside, the Galant fired up pretty promptly, with only an understandable hesitation as its internal parts awoke to find unprecedented chill. Then it ran fine, with only the slight creaking that accompanies tires relearning roundness, and suspension flexing stubbornly. My wife, Joan, and I drove Northwesterly to Grand Forks that day to check out how the fabulous facilities the Ralph Englestad Arena will house next year’s World Junior Hockey Tournament. We stayed in a motel that night, and the next morning, the headline on the front of the Grand Forks Herald screamed: “44 BELOW.†That’s right, it was an all-time record low for Grand Forks. Maybe it was just for visitors, answering the question of why each parking slot had a little plug-in receptacle for engine heaters.
ItÂ’s an education, when it gets that cold. For those of us who are metrically challenged, the Celsius thermometer on which zero is the equivalent of +32 Fahrenheit, we learn that at 40-below, both are identical. YouÂ’re advised to not stay out more than five minutes with any exposed skin in temperatures that cold, or risk frostbite. Thermal underwear, fleece pullovers, down jackets, insulated boots and lined gloves help a lot. I also rely on my trusty old wolf fur hat, custom made for me 20 years ago near Rhinelander on a similar midwinter drive across Wisconsin.
Not only was it cold, but Grand Forks also proved the exception to the rule that when it’s extremely cold, it doesn’t snow. It was extremely cold, and it also snowed several inches that day. In Grand Forks, they don’t cover everything with salt, which was refreshing but required extra caution. There were ledges of white ice – forget the trendy “black ice†stuff – and drivers simply slowed down and were more cautious. Again, the Galant functioned very well, taking us over to the fabulous arena, and even getting us to Widman’s legendary candy store before we left town for “Chippers,†those chocolate-covered potato chips.
We stopped for gas in the little town of Fosston, Mn., about 50 miles east of Grand Forks, and learned another startling fact: It had been -50 the previous night in Fosston – and it was NOT a record! I don’t even need to know what the record actually is, but I acquired a new particle among the intelligence nuggets I’ve stored away over the years – I will probably not be building a retirement home in Fosston, Mn.
At temperatures like that, you appreciate a good heater and defroster, and the Galant did a fully adequate job getting and staying warm. Plus, the heated leather seats were greatly appreciated. Nothing like heated seats to allow survival time until the heater starts putting out serious heat.
Standard safety elements, such as front and rear crumple zones and side impact beams, dual-stage airbags up front, and unseen assets such as four-wheel disc brakes with antilock and traction control, and front and rear stabilizer bars, bolster the GalantÂ’s stable feel. The test car was the LS model, the top luxury model, with only the GTS sporty model above that. It came with all sorts of power features on the seats, mirrors, windows, etc., and the rear seat has a pass-through to the trunk, to accommodate hockey sticks or skis.
The option list included a power sunroof, alloy wheels, a Mitsubishi audio upgrade with eight speakers, a six-CD changer and remote audio controls on the leather steering wheel, plus side airbags up front, and rear heater ducts – which would be welcome at any time, and possibly mandatory if you live in Northern Minnesota this year and wanted your kids to be comfortable.
The options lifted the Galant LS sticker price from $20,997 to $25,299. The Galant lacks the manual-shift variation that you can get on the Mazda6, but the standard four-speed automatic has a manual shift gate with a spring-loaded Tiptronic style shift control. Like the Mazda6 and the new Altima, the Galant strives to take a different look from the clone-like cars that used to try and fail to mimic the Accord and Camry. It is now distinctive looking, and while it remains in hot pursuit of the segment leaders, it works willingly when itÂ’s cold. REAL cold.
Cayenne V6 husky enough to conquer Yukon
WHITEHORSE, Yukon — As a kid, I recall the radio crackling through DuluthÂ’s chilly winter night air as “Sgt. Preston of the Yukon†made its weekly radio visit, in which a Canadian Mountie and his faithful lead sled-dog King kept the Yukon clear of villains. It might have run through the summer, too, but in my memory, it had to be winter. Anyone over 50 might recall hearing Sgt. Preston yell: “On King! Mush, you huskies!†as his dogsled took off, skimming across the frozen tundra.
Ever since then, IÂ’ve wanted to visit the Yukon, even though I had no clue where or even what the Yukon actually was. History and geography classes seemed to pretty well overlook northwestern Canada. So when Porsche recently invited me to an automotive media introduction for the Cayenne with a new V6 engine, to be held in Whitehorse, Yukon, I immediately signed on.
Winter can be harsh across the northern tier states of the U.S., and even harsher in the Western Canada provinces of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. As tall as those provinces look on a map, though, there is another row of provinces above them. The Yukon is the one above British Columbia, with nothing to the west but Alaska, and nothing to the north but the Arctic Ocean – stretching just west of Northwest Territories, another province I need to someday visit.
If you had enough time to drive down the Alaskan Highway, from Fairbanks or Anchorage to Vancouver or Seattle, you would travel through Dawson City, where the legendary gold rush started, and head southeast another 300 miles to reach Whitehorse. The magical name originally was given to the city by early settlers who thought the rushing white water of the Yukon River resembled the flowing white manes of horses. A Whitehorse resident told me that the population of 20,000 makes Whitehorse outnumber the rest of the province. It was the gateway to Klondike gold for those pioneers coming up from the States or “lower†Canada over a century ago, and those who remained after the gold ran out were a hardy lot, mingling with the natives, and knowing big-city society was replaced by wolves, caribou, coyotes, muskox, and lynx.
What could be a better location for cold-weather testing by Porsche, which does things to extremes? In this case, the company had to arrange duffel-bags full of severe-winter clothing, from fur-trimmed parkas, snowmobile pants, enormous boots and gloves for the auto-writers, those fair-weather wimps. Honestly, one writer from Los Angeles flew up wearing only a heavy sweater.
Cayenne has proven Porsche wise beyond its sports-car heritage. In its first year, enough Cayennes have been sold to prove that Porsche buyers want SUVs as much as normal folks, and now they donÂ’t have to compromise by buying something lacking the Porsche marquee. Introduced a year ago in two forms, the Cayenne S has 340 horsepower and 310 foot-pounds of torque from an all-new 4.5-liter V8 engine, and the Cayenne Turbo has twin turbochargers on the same 4.5-liter V8, producing 450 horsepower and 457 foot-pounds of torque. Since most SUV-owners never venture off the road, I asked why Porsche didnÂ’t also make a model that would be a great wagon without some of the performance or off-road excellence, so it could be priced less than the $88,900 of the Cayenne Turbo, or even the $55,900 of the Cayenne S. I settled for the answer that Porsche would never make such a compromise.
But a year later, Porsche has compromised as only Porsche could. Porsche offered Volkswagen a version of the Cayenne platform from which to develop its own SUV, the Touareg, which comes with either the 4.2-liter Audi V8 or VWÂ’s own VR-6. In the Touareg, the V6 has 217 horsepower and 224 foot-pounds of torque, good for most low-end demands although it wheezes a bit at the top-end if you try to hustle. Porsche arranged to obtain the same 3.2-liter narrow-angle V6 from VW and went to work on it, redoing the intake manifold so impressively that they got the power up to 247 horsepower.
How could a company take a good engine, developed to 217 horsepower over a decade, and suddenly ratchet it up by 30 horsepower? The answer, as delicately as a Porsche engineer could put it is: “Volkswagen has a lot of money, and Porsche has a lot of engineers.Ââ€
While not as imposing as the V8, the revitalized V6 doesn’t ever wheeze, on or off any road. It will take the Cayenne to a 133 mile-per-hour top speed, and go 0-60 in about 9.5 seconds. With Porsche’s 6-speed Tiptronic transmission, you can shift the Cayenne with steering-wheel switches, like a 911, but you also can tow 7,760 pounds, unlike a 911, or many other SUVs. The V6 Cayenne – to be called simply Cayenne, as opposed to the S or Turbo – has a sticker price of $42,900. That should bolster sales even more, being right in there with a lot of luxury SUVs that could never hope to duplicate the Cayenne’s off-road ability.
We loaded up our cold-gear and hit the highway to Annie Lake, where two special handling circuits had been plowed into the frozen surface, one zig-zagging around cones for emergency-handling, and the other a quick little oval track to show how the right vehicle, and proper driving techniques, can get around where traction is scarce. Later, we drove up and down the hilly terrain to Fish Lake, where a long, 2-plus-mile road-racing course had been plowed onto the frozen surface.
The road back to Whitehorse was lined with snow piles, and in some places might be best described as a two-way, one-lane road, up and down hills and around all sorts of curves, where we tested the hill-descent control, which can be switched to lock all four wheels into shared low range, and using the engine to hold about 10 mph without touching either gas or brakes while going down a steep hill.
I heckled the congenial Porsche PR-types, because I had just written about road-testing cars in temperatures like -31, -44 and -50 from Duluth to Grand Forks. When I left for Whitehorse, the thermometer read an actual -22 at my house, and after a flight from Minneapolis to Edmonton, then a two-and-a-half-hour flight north to Whitehorse, I was prepared for something like -50 or -60. The Celsius thermometer fooled me for a while, but I was honestly disappointed when I learned that the reading in Whitehorse equated to +11. That seemed tropical, except that the trip occurred on the same week that my wife, Joan, found a special rate to join some old high school friends for a trip to the Caribbean. LetÂ’s see, Joan left Yukon-like cold for Grand Cayman; I went to the Yukon seeking more cold in a grand Cayenne. Or something like that.
It probably got down to -5 or so overnight on Fish Lake, when we were treated to a caribou dinner in a heated tent, then went outside to gather around a roaring bonfire on a raised fire-pit ringed with directorÂ’s chairs lined with thick muskox-fur pelts. Bright stars lit up the sky, although it stubbornly refused to show us the Aurora Borealis. Staring at the fire created a mesmerizing end to a long day of intense driving. All we lacked was some deep-voiced Yukoner reading “The Cremation of Sam McGee.Ââ€
Porsche folks setting up the itinerary said they had seen four lynx and a coyote, and even came upon a scene where a mama lynx had sent a coyote limping away in a tussle over a bit of road kill. The only critters we saw were several teams of sled dogs, which we got a chance to put to another test. It was awesome, being a musher, urging a half-dozen eager sled dogs to pull our lightweight sled skimming across the smooth, frozen surface of Fish Lake. I was sharing ride and mush time with another journalist, so I yelled things like “LetÂ’s go,†and “Gee†and “Haw†a few times. I suppressed the other urge – to bellow, “Mush, you huskies!Ââ€
Sgt. Preston had to be swift to get all the bad guys by dogsled, because he only had a half-hour each week to get it done. It would be far easier today, especially if he was charging across the Yukon in a Porsche Cayenne.
Pacifica refines assets of SUV, Minivan, station wagon
At a glance, the Chrysler Pacifica could be mistaken for a sport-utility vehicle. From a different angle, it looks a lot like a minivan. From the side, itÂ’s even possible to assume itÂ’s a station wagon.
But, please, for the sake of the collective ego at Chrysler’s division of DaimlerChrysler, whatever you do – don’t call it a station wagon, because we all know station wagons became far too mundane 20 years ago. And don’t call it a minivan, because for a decade now, minivans have remained popular, but nobody promotes them, and even buyers tend to buy them without bragging about them. As for SUVs, well, don’t call the Pacifica an SUV, either, because that term has become so overused it’s certain to be the next discard in the automotive lexicon.
Chrysler prefers to call the Pacifica “an entirely new segment of premium automotive transportation called sports tourer.Ââ€
So there.
When it first was introduced, I figured the Pacifica was a crossover SUV, one of the latest trend vehicles, where a manufacturer eliminates the inherent stability problem of large SUVs by tossing aside the truck platform and mounting a wagon-like body on a car chassis to make a lower, more stable vehicle. But since itÂ’s been introduced, manufacturers have all been trying to claim sole possession of a unique market segment. Some call them SAV, for sports-activity vehicle, others have come up with similarly spun-off names, as if the name alone can create a separation from normal SUV-type vehicles.
Whatever you call the Pacifica, it started off selling slowly. It was luxurious, and solid, and also costly, coming in around $35,000. But when consumers seemed to realize the Pacifica was a pretty good competitor for such high-profile vehicles as the BMW X5, the Nissan Murano, Infiniti FX35, and assorted other midsize alternative-SUVs, its sales improved. The Pacifica is being built in the Windsor, Ontario, facility, capable of producing 100,000 a year if demand calls for it.
What the Pacifica provides is a comfortable and luxurious ride, with three rows of seats to haul six occupants – minivan style. The second and third rows of those seats fold down flat for hauling – station wagon style. The Pacifica also comes standard with all-wheel drive – just like a proper SUV.
But the Pacifica also provides a solid dose of luxury, with firmly supportive bucket seats, covered with leather from the option list, and a neat interior with a lot of features that are located in surprisingly intuitive locations. I donÂ’t mean to chip at Chrysler, but no matter how much you used to like the old Chrysler products, some of the switchgear and other interior elements had a familiar sameness, a sort of plasticky, tacky array that never seemed to go away.
The Pacifica is filled with new stuff: A neat, thick-gripped steering wheel with remote controls within thumb reach; A center stack of controls that look stylish and are comfortable to operate; A console-mounted automatic gear selector lever, with an autostick position to allow clutchless manual shifting.
Best of all, the instrument panel has a new, fresh appearance, and if you order the optional navigation system, the map comes on to fill in the inside of the arching speedometer numbers. It is unique, and it comes on with an electronic trick that makes only the red-orange tip of the speedometer needle visible as it passes over the numbers – the transparent stalk of the speedometer needle is invisible, leaving no trace or shadow to be superimposed on the navigation screen.
It is so neat that I can overlook the fact that the navigation system itself is nowhere near as sensitive to locations as many of the contemporary systems. My own private test ground for navigation systems is a familiar trip up the North Shore from Duluth, just a couple of miles on good olÂ’ Hwy. 61, being revisited before turning northward. The Pacifica nav system identifies that North Shore Drive, but when I turn, the screen makes it look like IÂ’m driving off into the wilderness.
I don’t expect my road to be identified on a world-class navigation system, but it is identified, along with tiny side roads, on what I’ve found to be the best system on the market – the Infiniti unit that also can be found in Nissan vehicles. Still, putting the screen inside the speedometer is neat, unique, and certainly easy to spot for the driver with an economy of glances away from the road ahead.
Speaking of that anonymous roadway, when I drove the Pacifica north from Minneapolis a couple of weeks ago, I couldnÂ’t help but notice how little snow there was. Same when I got to Duluth, and even as I headed out along the north shore of Lake Superior. But when I turned up my road, plowed snow piles started to appear on either side. And as I continued up the long, near two miles of incline, the snow was obviously deeper, hanging from the fir tree branches.
When I got to the top of my hill, there was a plowed ridge over two feet high. It would be a worthy challenge to shovel it, but I was alone, and it was about 11 p.m., and I decided IÂ’d wait until morning to attack it.
So, while I hadn’t needed the Pacifica’s minivan or station wagon capabilities, except to haul my usual assortment of bags and gear, it was time for it to show its best SUV personality. I turned toward the ridge of snow, backed up a bit, and…charged. With only a momentary “Whump,†the Pacifica went right through the pile, and the all-wheel drive churned merrily through the pristine snow that covered my driveway. I drove in by the house, backed up by the garage, and trudged to the house.
The next morning, I noticed all sorts of scrape marks in the snow, where the accumulated snow was deep enough that the undercarriage of the Pacifica pushed it aside as I drove through it in the middle of the previous night.
Whatever you think about this yearÂ’s harsh winter, with record snowfalls followed by record low temperatures, itÂ’s been a great year for testing the ability of various vehicles to provide faithful success in getting through the worst elements. The Pacifica passed with more than flying colors. It maintained its grace and class no matter how terrible the conditions.
The test vehicle listed for $36,060. It started with a base price of $32,300, and added $890 for leather interior, $1,595 for the navigation system with its global positioning system and its instrument cluster display, and the rest for a power rear liftgate and satellite radio.
The biggest news about the Pacifica is not the slick options, but the standard equipment. The 3.5-liter V6 is strong, with 24 valves and overhead cams, turning out 250 horsepower and 250 foot-pounds of torque. The four-speed automatic transmission seemed to complement the engineÂ’s power, four-wheel disc brakes with antilock, power adjustable pedals, load leveling and height control on the performance suspension, dual zone air conditioning, consoles both front and rear, keyless entry, 17-inch alloy wheels with all-season performance tires, foglights, leather-wrapped steering wheel and shift knob, and those fold-flat second and third row seats.
The power rear liftgate deserves special credit, too. It not only is standard, but much appreciated if youÂ’re portraying Dr. Zhivago, carrying three sacks of groceries through Siberian cold. Push the button on the key fob, and the Pacifica makes a distinct, mechanical sound, then the door pops ajar, and whirs up to its fully opened position. Load the grocery sacks, push the button again, and it closes, tightly.
I would say that allows you to jump into the pleasantly warm driverÂ’s seat, except that the test vehicle did not have seat heaters. I may be getting spoiled, but IÂ’ve driven so many test cars with seat heaters that I definitely miss them when they arenÂ’t there, and the thermometer says things such as “31 below.Ââ€
When it comes to luxury touches, aside from the comfortable seats and well-arranged controls, the Infinity sound system is a 5.1 digital surround thing, with six disc in-dash CD player, and Sirius satellite radio.
DaimlerChrysler went to extremes to make sure the Pacifica safety standards were set high. Side-curtain airbags, inflatable knee blocker, and front crash sensors complement the usual multistage front airbags. The Pacifica comes in with National Highway Traffic Safety Administration ratings of five stars for all front and side impact tests.
In the worst imaginable driving conditions, I got 20 miles per gallon in combined city-highway driving, right in the midst of the EPA estimates of 17 city, 22 highway. Those figures are right there with minivans, possibly not quite up to the most economical station wagons, and well ahead of most SUVs with all-wheel drive. So we can agree that the Pacifica may not be any of the above, but it does capture some of the best elements of all of them and combines them into a unique package.
Volvo S40 adds style, luxury, safety to compact size
LOS ANGELES, CA. — On the first leg of the media introductory drive of the Volvo S40 sedan, I drove a bit too fast into a switchback curve on a wonderfully twisty mountain road a half-hour north and east of the perpetual Los Angeles traffic snarl. Without any drama, the S40 held a perfect trajectory, parallel to the yellow line, prompting my driving partner to ask: “Does this car have all-wheel drive?Ââ€
I had to admit that I didnÂ’t know, although I suggested that the car felt so secure, traced the curves so precisely, and exhibited no torque-steer, so it must be all-wheel drive. On the other hand, I said, it felt so light and agile that it could be the standard front-wheel drive. Turns out, it was front-drive, because we were co-driving advance versions of the S40 and the all-wheel-drive version wonÂ’t be out until closer to summer. They will be 2005 models; the cars we drove were considered 2004.5 models.
That best describes how good the new S40 is, however. Similar to AudiÂ’s proven front-wheel-drive with quattro all-wheel upgrades, Volvo has achieved similar performance. Maybe the S40 with all-wheel drive will be even better, but the front-drive S40 is awfully good.
Volvo spent 75 years building cars with one stubborn objective – to be uncompromisingly safe. In quest for such safety, Volvo engineers yielded fun and sportiness along the way. It wasn’t until the last decade that Volvo came out of its boxy styling closet to streamline its sedans, and it wasn’t until last year that Volvo tried its hand at a safe compact sport-utility vehicle. The innovative rollover crashworthiness of the XC-90 SUV helped it win 2003 International Truck of the Year, and the same technology, coupled with legendary front, front-angle, and newly improved side-impact crash safety was transferred to the S60 and S80.
Last year, VolvoÂ’s long-suppressed hot-rod heart also was exposed with the S60 R. That midsize sedan, with 300 horsepower, just as much torque, and firm, all-wheel-drive performance that is as fun and stable on a race track as it is safe and comfortable on its way to a shopping mall, is a limited-edition gem. All of that figured into the design scheme for this year, when it came time to redo the compact S40.
The previous car was about 50-50 shared development with Mitsubishi, and it did its job, proving that Volvo could make an entry-level car, priced in the mid-$20,000 range, and not compromise the safety ideals being promoted by the midsize S60 and luxury S80 models. If the old S40 style was soap-carving smooth, it was Ivory in being unobtrusive, and it didnÂ’t do much to lower VolvoÂ’s average buyer age from 49.
The new S40 is a masterstroke of combining cutting-edge Volvo safety, new-found Volvo sportiness, and new levels of features packed into a lighter, more compact, and far more stylish vehicle. It also proves the benefits of mutual engineering exchanges with other Ford subsidiaries. Ford of EuropeÂ’s suspension experts, and MazdaÂ’s advanced engineering had shared in platform development, which also was used for the new Mazda3.
The S40 wound up with a platform 68 percent stiffer against flexing while measuring 2.2 inches shorter and with a 3-inch longer wheelbase than the outgoing S40. ItÂ’s also 2.1 inches wider, which allows increases in every interior dimension. Volvo designers topped that platform with a stunningly attractive car, making the S40 look like a slightly stubbier and sportier version of its S60 big brother. Using the S60, S80 and XC-90 technology, the S40 attained the same crashworthiness, despite being smaller and lighter.
Computer-designed layering of four different grades of steel, with ultra-strength boron steel in the bumper, side pillar and door cross-beams, and the next-best extra-high steel reinforcing other areas surrounding the passenger compartment, the S40 is designed to withstand impacts by cushioning, diverting, or preventing penetration as the intrusion nears the occupant compartment. Airbags, side curtains and self-tensioning harnesses are coordinated with the system, as is the standard traction control to inhibit spinning and the optional skid control that helps avoid what could become a spinout.
For power, both engines are five-cylinder, with dual overhead camshafts, four valves per cylinder and variable valve timing. The base S40 comes with a 168 horsepower 2.4-liter, normally-aspirated 5-cylinder engine, with an optional 2.5-liter turbocharged 5 available. The T5 measures 2,521 cc. displacement to the 2,435 cc. of the 2.4, the difference being the T5Â’s 3.67-inch stroke to 3.54 for the 2.4. The all-wheel-drive S40 will have the T5 engine, which is the same one that powers the S60, S80 and XC-90. With 218 horsepower and 236 foot-pounds of torque, the T5 has more than enough to hurl the 3,100-pound S40 around, especially with the same 6-speed manual transmission from the S60 R.
Base price of the S40 is $24,190 with the non-turbo 2.4-liter engine and 5-speed automatic, and $26,990 for the T5 with the same automatic, with both prices representing slight decreases from similarly equipped 2004 models.
I drove both the T5 with a 6-speed and the 2.4 with a 5-speed manual. No question, the nonturbo 2.4 was “good†where the T5 was “hot,†but in normal commuting, the 2.4 would be easily adequate. Tests show 0-60 times range from 7.7 seconds with the 2.4 stick and 8.4 with the automatic, compared to the quicker 6.3 seconds with the T5 stick and 6.7 with the automatic. Fuel economy ranges from 24 city to 32 highway for the 2.4, and 22-30 for the T5.
Five is an odd number for an engineÂ’s cylinders, but they make sense, because they approach the power of an in-line 6, while eliminating the harmonic vibrations of a 4-cylinder. Both Volvo S40 engines are built in the Skovde, Sweden, plant, where they were refined for the S40, with grouped and rerouted tubes and streamlined attached accessories designed to carve 7.8 inches off the enginesÂ’ width to ease their transverse fit above the front axle. Safety engineers ran computerized frontal crash-tests of the S40 without the engines mounted, then placed the engines into the open space between crumpled front end and untouched bulkhead.
Independent suspension at all four wheels includes a rear multilink setup that allows some side-to-side flexing that has almost the same effect as four-wheel steering by leaning to maintain contact where a more rigid system might tend to lose traction, and aiding both safety and sporty handling.
While the new car proves the benefits of contemporary styling and the new-found fun of the escapist hot-rod engineers, it leaps to new heights from the usual comfortable but uninspired interiors. The S40 eliminates a nagging shortcoming of past radios, with their complex and unintuitive push and turn knobs without preset pushbuttons, and created a really neat new idea in the process. The new audio system is good, and gets better with an upgrade to a 13-speaker, 445-watt surround system.
Bigger news is the control panel for upper audio and lower heat-air systems. Volvo calls it, simply, the “centre stack,†but it is unlike anything else in the industry, with switches located on a curving, vertical panel that is about a half-inch thick, dropping gracefully from the center-dashboard to the floor. There is open space behind the panel, with a stowage area reachable in the pass-through from both the driver and passenger seats.
That slim and high-tech panel can be ordered in brushed aluminum, faux woodgrain, a coated plastic, or in a dark-tint see-through plastic called ice aqua. The weird old knob system is replaced by a button to differentiate from AM to FM to CD or phone, and a keypad that has three rows of three numbers, same as a phone keypad, so you can program stations 1-9 accordingly. You actually could reach over and hit the third button on the top row to change stations without taking your eyes off the road.
Reaction to the new interior was so unanimous that Volvo is certain to implement in other models. The sooner the better.
Volvo plans to build 70,000 S40s at its modern Ghent, Belgium, plant, with 28,000 of them heading for the U.S. A new ad campaign is aimed at buyers from age 25 up, hoping to lower the demographics from 49 to the 30-35 age group. The carÂ’s features, performance, and amazingly low price make it a strong candidate against perceived rivals such as the Acura TSX, Audi A4, Volkswagen Passat and Jetta, and even such mainstream giants as the Honda Accord and Toyota Camry. Volvo product strategy manager Anders Robertson pointed out that the S40 is 3.2 inches shorter than the A4, but has more interior room for head and legroom in every dimension; it is 7.5 inches shorter than the TSX, but has similar interior room; and it is within an inch of the PassatÂ’s every interior dimension, even though it is 10 inches shorter overall.
With fold-down rear seats expanding the trunk from a length of 38.4 to 68.7 inches, and a towing capacity of 3,300 pounds, the S40 seems ready for anything. Various packages can enhance the sportiness of the car, including everything from wheel size and suspension settings to exterior cosmetic add-ons, or luxury, with leather interior and a power moonroof. But the beauty of the S40 is that it is that in base form, it still meets VolvoÂ’s safety standards while offering a fresh new look plus premium-car features for entry-level prices.
Besides, driving aggressively through a tight turn further amplifies the S40’s character – even if it’s so precise you can’t tell whether it’s front-wheel drive or all-wheel drive. And it won’t be long, I’ll bet, before we see an S40 R.
(John Gilbert can be reached by email 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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