Neon improves its bid for real-world, entry-level consumers
Here we are, awash in a fast-approaching springtime loaded with the luxury cars, sports cars and megabuck SUVs that fill auto-show season, but the harsh reality is that a lot of people canÂ’t afford to pay over $20,000 for a means of everyday transportation.
ItÂ’s fun to look at the exotic stuff, but when it comes down to paying around $15,000 or less for a car, it requires tightening your belt on options, refinements and features, so the question becomes one of where youÂ’re willing to compromise and still be satisfied.
Chrysler Corporation’s answer to what they call “entry-level†transportation has been the Neon, ever since that youth-oriented campaign that plastered the “Say Hi to Neon†slogan all over our consciousness. Over time, and refinement, and the merger of Chrysler into Daimler-Benz, there no longer is a Plymouth Neon, because there no longer is a Plymouth. But the Neon is alive and well under the Dodge marquee.
While waiting patiently for the new, hot-rod Neon SRT-4, with a turbocharged engine and stiff suspension, I was able to spend some time with a 2003 Neon SXT. At first, I was disappointed, because in the alphabet-soup world of car names, I mistook SXT for SRT and thought I was getting the hot-rod, which comes with a turbo 2.4-liter and has gotten some rave reviews.
The SXT, meanwhile, is the SRT-4’s tamer brother, but it has some real-world virtues that shouldn’t be overlooked – not the least of which is a price tag of $14,895, which went up to $15,295 with the inclusion of a 4-speed automatic transmission. And we know the hot-rod twin will be more like $20,000.
The new Neon has impressively bold styling, with a nose that closely resembles the Ram/Viper/Stratus front façade, with its cross-hatch grille rounded off to aerodynamic stylishness. The fit and finish of the bodywork is improved, too, and the 4-door design still makes for adequate roominess in the rear seat and trunk, despite the car’s compact stature.
My biggest complaint was quickly exposed, as soon as I opened the front door and jumped into the good-looking bucket seat behind the steering wheel. In memory, my impression is accompanied by a cartoon-like sound – “BOINGGGGG!†– because there was something close to a trampoline springiness to the seat bottom cushion. Now, maybe it was a not-too-subtle hint that I should do a little roadwork without a car, but even my wife, Joan, noticed that the support from the seat was virtually nonexistent, so it isn’t a weight thing.
Putting firmer bolsters in the bottom would seem to be a simple step, and not cost any more than the trampolining feature. So to begin with, I found my driving position to low.
Otherwise, the interior is pleasant enough and even sporty. You can get reverse, dark numbers on white gauges that reverse themselves at night, when the lights are on. Also, standard are a 6-speaker audio system with a CD changer, tilt steering column, keyless entry, a full-length console with cupholders, a little storage bin on the instrument panel facing, power locks – with that maddening speed-sensitive auto-locking tendency, power front windows, and a power trunklid release, along with air-conditioning.
Also standard are a rear-window defroster, intermittent wipers, a 12-volt outlet, independent suspension with stabilizer bar up front, power rack-and-pinion steering, and child-locks on the rear doors. For other safety features, there are three-point harnesses even for the center rear seat, and a child-seat tether, and up front there is what they call “next generation†airbags.
I have this thing about calling any current device “next generation,†which is so trendy now, because what are they going to call the next generation of airbags?
From a performance standpoint, the 2.0-liter, 4-cylinder engine has a single overhead camshaft operating 16 valves, and the 4-speed automatic transmission also is standard. The 15-inch alloy wheels enhance cornering firmness and make the Neon SXT handle quite well.
Now, as you peruse the useful features and standard equipment, you may have noticed a couple of things missing.
The front-only power windows mean you have to crank the rear windows, which also means you have no control over opening them from the front seats. When the weather is warm, I prefer to open the windows unless air-conditioning is needed, and when I open the front window, I like to open the rear at least a couple of inches to help the airflow. I couldnÂ’t do that with the Neon because of the crank rear windows.
You can get foglights, which help the rural road visibility and also add a sporty touch. But there is no cruise control, which is a major drawback whenever you take a freeway trip anywhere.
The engine has adequate power, although the automatic transmission prevents it from feeling very quick. I would anticipate a 5-speed manual, or even a 5-speed automatic, might feel far less stodgy. But the flip side of the stodgy performance is that I was able to get 26.7 miles per gallon in town, and 28.3 on a mixed city-freeway tankful. The EPA estimates range from 25 city to 32 highway.
All in all, the Neon SXT makes for good basic transportation. The only frustration is that without even knowing about the hot-rod version just coming out, the potential is there for the existing Neon SXT to be far more satisfying, with minor alterations to the transmission and the seats. The engine might be quick, but the transmission reduces its effect; the suspension-wheels-stabilizer bar collaboration and the steering seem adequately sporty, but the super-soft seats reduce any feel of sportiness. Unless, that is, you consider a trampoline sporty.
(John Gilbert writes a weekly auto column. He can be reached by e-mail at: jgilbert@duluth.com.)
New and retro Mini Cooper S makes the ‘S’ stand for ‘smile’
TURN-ON IS STANDARD EQUIPMENT WITH MINI COOPER S
If you have the blues, or the blahs, you might spend untold thousands in therapy to try to get happy. Or, you could buy a 2003 Mini Cooper S.
There simply is no way to drive the new Mini Cooper without smiling.
Precious few cars have elicited such a response. One was when Volkswagen reinvented the Beetle, and another might have been the first time you ever saw a PT Cruiser. But maybe not. Whatever your preference, the new Mini Cooper is a retro trip definitely right up there with the BeetleÂ’s resurrection as far as an automotive turn-on.
To clarify: We are talking about the Mini Cooper S, which is the garden-variety Mini Cooper with a supercharged engine and a much more aggressive demeanor, to say nothing of handling capability.
Back in the 1950s, in the days of the original Volkswagen Beetle, Great Britain had a proud automotive tradition of its own and made small cars that fit onto narrow, crowded European streets. One of those tries was the Mini, nicknamed because of its diminutive, squarish size and shape. A tiny, squarish little car with the wheels located way out at the corners, the Mini had great handling and even its tiny stock engine gave it a favorable power-to-weight ratio when it was launched in 1959.
Two years later, legendary British race car designer John Cooper stuffed a potent little formula racing engine into the Mini, and the “Mini†became the “Mini Cooper.†Almost with each passing year through the ’60s, the Mini Cooper’s engine grew in potency. They were made into the 1970s, although they weren’t brought into the U.S. after 1967.
My first contact with one came in one that was used for autocross competition by Jerry Hansen, a Twin Cities amateur racing legend who won multiple national championships and later bought Donnybrooke Speedway and turned it into Brainerd International Raceway. Hansen had a Mini Cooper maintained by his crew and he would routinely hurl it around every Twin Cities autocross course, beating Corvettes, Porsches, Camaros, Mustangs and whatever else showed up.
After one such Sunday afternoon event in the late 1960s, Hansen took me for a ride through a virtually deserted downtown Minneapolis. One of his crew owned a beautiful and powerful Z-28 Camaro, and Hansen drag-raced him for half-block bursts at about six consecutive intersections on a one-way street. Hansen jumped ahead at the start each time, before the Camaro would roar past. Then we came to an intersection where cars were already filling two of the three lanes at a red light. HansenÂ’s crew guy won the race to the third open lane. So Hansen pulled around all three cars on the right, drove up in the bus stop lane, then turned 90 degrees and drove the little Mini down the crosswalk, then he turned 90 degrees again, nosing slightly into the intersection for an instant before backing up until he was right in front of the Z-28Â’s grille.
That was 30-some years ago, but IÂ’ll never forget neither HansenÂ’s brashness nor the Mini CooperÂ’s incredible turning agility and quickness. Now we flash forward, to the mid-1990s, when BMW bought the rights to what was left of BritainÂ’s faltering BMC-Rover group, gaining Range Rover, which it later sold to Ford, and rights to the Mini Cooper.
For 2003, there is a new Mini Cooper, 30 full years after the originalÂ’s demise. It looks like an exact replica, but itÂ’s not. ItÂ’s actually 24 inches longer, 11 inches wider and over 1,000 pounds heavier. With an overall length of 143.9 inches, the Mini is less than 13 feet long, which is more than two feet shorter than a Honda Civic coupe. If the Mini Cooper is the shortest vehicle sold since the GEO Metro, it has a meaningful and aggressive flair.
To say the new Mini is a joint project is putting it mildly. The car is still built in England, with over half its parts from Great Britain and 15 percent of the rest from Germany. The engine comes from Brazil – Brazil! – from a joint-venture plant shared by BMW and Chrysler, which, of course, is now Daimler-Chrysler. So BMW and Mercedes, arch-rivals in everything automotive, both have an interest in this engine, which is an iron-block, 1.6-liter four-cylinder, with a chain-driven, single-overhead-camshaft. That, too, is small, and it turns out 115 horsepower, which is adequate to move a 2,767-pound car.
Ah, but the Mini Cooper S gets a supercharged version of that engine, with 163 horsepower at 6,000 RPMs and 155 foot-pounds of torque at 4,000 RPMs. The engine is controlled by a “drive-by-wire†electronic throttle.
The transformation to more power is amplified by the sports suspension, wider wheels, all-season traction control and, on the test car, 17-inch alloy wheels with 205/45 Pirelli “run-flat†tires. Such tires appear to be the coming trend, but in the Mini it’s mandatory, because there is simply no spare room for a spare tire. Four-wheel disc brakes with antilock, and an electronic brake distribution device, allows short, sure stops.
I haven’t driven the standard Mini Cooper, which has a base price of $16,850, but the “S†starts at only $19,850 with the blown motor. Add a few options and trim items and you can easily raise those prices by $5,000. Mini Coopers are sold by BMW Group dealerships, and 20,000 of the cars are to be sent to this country, a nominal figure which makes it pretty certain they all will be gobbled up.
Every auto magazine rushed to be first to drive the Mini Cooper, and most of them claimed to be first. But some of the early tests indicated a rough choppy ride and a crummy interior. By the time I test-drove the “S†several differences have appeared. The interior has neat, contemporary seats that are very comfortable and supportive, and I thought the instrumentation was novel, with a large tachometer mounted on the steering column, and a larger speedometer, with other gauges inset, mounted in a big, round instrument right in the middle of the center dash.
A Getrag 6-speed manual transmission on the test car made it perform very well, with factory tests showing 0-60 times of 6.9 seconds (compared to 8.5 with the standard Mini). Theyh also show a top speed of 135 with the supercharger. None of the numbers matter, however. What matters is that itÂ’s quick, itÂ’s fun, and it feels fantastic, no matter how you drive it.
On four freeway trips of two hours each, the Mini never got tiresome. Its smooth stability easy-running engine delivered 28 miles per gallon of premium fuel, and rode straight and true. The handling is so responsive and precise with the quick-ratio power steering that you have to avoid driving by your own rules – tight U-turns, slaloming around slower cars and SUVs – and focus on less-critical things, such as choosing which half of your parallel parking space to use. The optional xenon headlights are bright and well-focused and the foglights illuminate the shoulders to help watch for deer.
The Mini Cooper S has a weird effect on other drivers, particularly those in very large SUVs. Because the Mini is a BMW, you feel safe and secure in the solid build-quality of the Mini, even when surrounded by giant SUVs. But when you come upon an SUV on the freeway and ease past it, count to 10 and you will invariably find the SUV driver charging past you at 80-plus. I passed two women in a minivan at the speed limit, and they soon flew past us at what must have been 90.
Maybe as a link with its predecessor, the new Mini has some idiosyncracies. Switchwork for the power windows and the foglights, for example, are on a little horizontal panel at the bottom of the center dash area, down by the base of the shift lever, and they are separated by little plastic knobs that prevent you from hitting the wrong toggle switch, even if they make it a bit difficult to hit the right one. Still, I liked the switches; IÂ’d simply prefer that they were mounted higher, say above the audio system or between the audio and heat-air controls.
The cupholders are between the center dash and the shift lever, but if you have a thermal cup in the holders, be careful because it will be lodged in tightly against the center dash. When I shifted into third and fifth on several different occasions I was certain I had broken a finger smashing directly into my cup. Fortunately the audio system was strong enough to drown out my choice of descriptive words, and, just as fortunately, my coffee wasnÂ’t in a styrofoam cup, because I would have smashed it instead of my finger.
The well-formed bucket seats offer easy access to the rear. Push down on a lever and the backrest folds forward and the whole thing slides ahead. With the square roofline, there is plenty of rear headroom, although storage space is at a premium, with only a tiny bin behind the rear seat, so you tend to turn it into a two-seater and load up the rear seat with luggage.
The test car also had a sunroof that covered virtually the entire roof, with the front half tilting or opening, while the rear half was a skylight to alleviate any threat of claustrophobia for rear-seat occupants. There is no claustrophobia from the driverÂ’s seat. Only a silly smile that you canÂ’t seem to get rid of.
Cayenne adds SUV spice to Porsche’s sports car heritage
BIRMINGHAM, ALA. — Porsche. The name is magic, whether you pronounce it “PORSH,†like the sound of air rushing out of a confined area, or the more correct “POR-sha,†in the best two-syllable German tradition, the name connotes high-speed sports cars, built in limited numbers, at steep prices, but with uncompromising racing heritage radiating from every square inch.
So, Porsche is going to make an SUV, eh?
The reaction ranged from shock, dismay and consternation throughout the automotive world when the idea was first suggested. What could possibly motivate Porsche to build a sport-utility vehicle? IsnÂ’t that the ultimate compromise?
After assorted engineers and technicians explained the many facets of the new Porsche Cayenne, Tim Mahoney addressed the automotive journalists assembled in Birmingham, Ala., for the new vehicle’s introduction, and beat the media to the punch by asking himself those same questions. His answer was refreshingly simple: “To make money,†he said.
“We proudly refer to ourself as the smallest manufacturer making cars for the whole world, but sports cars reflect the ups and downs of the economy more than any other cars. SUVs have a much larger cross-section of the demand curve, and making an SUV gives us more stability and assures our independence. You will see, also, that the Cayenne is authentic, and stays within PorscheÂ’s heritage.Ââ€
While the Boxster gives Porsche a reasonably priced sports car, the Stuttgart, Germany, company is best known for the 911 – the venerable Carrera sports cars that have dominated world endurance and road racing and directly translate that heritage to the street. It is easy to pay over $75,000 for a Carrera, and well over $100,000 for the turbocharged versions. So it is no surprise that the Cayenne is going to cost a lot. But it’s still a jolt to see the sticker prices: The Cayenne S starts at $55,900, although some of the Cayenne S models we test-drove had a few impressive options that boosted their price tags up over $70,000. The Cayenne Turbo starts at $88,900.
Porsche doesnÂ’t want to make a mainstream, high-volume vehicle, and intends to continue to build limited-edition specialty vehicles. The companyÂ’s market research says that the average Cayenne buyer will be 46 years old, will be 88 percent male, with 82 percent married, and 50 percent having kids under 18. When Porsche-lovers (arenÂ’t we all?) and Porsche-owners get to the point where they are married with a couple of kids, itÂ’s either time to get rid of the Porsche, or add a second vehicle to service the family. When somebody needs a four-door vehicle, or an SUV, obviously the choice is something other than a Porsche. Until now.
“We found that 40 percent of Porsche owners also have SUVs,†Mahoney added. “And the top three reasons they bought SUVs were design, handling and performance. Now Porsche owners wonÂ’t have to go elsewhere to buy an SUV. We expect in the next two or three years to doyuble out overall volume, although we have capacity constraints. We anticipate selling 23,000 total vehicles in the first year, and weÂ’re aiming for 45,000 in the next two to three years.Ââ€
The urge to buy SUVs is for all-season handling, and the perceived security of a strong structure, even though well over 90 percent of SUV buyers never venture off the road to take advantage of a true SUVÂ’s capabilities. Porsche could have sold a million Cayennes if it offered a strictly on-road version of the vehicle, but there was no chance of that. Porsche, being Porsche, made this one stand alone in capabilities both on and off the road.
At the introduction this past week for waves of journalists, we were able to drive both the Cayenne S and the Cayenne Turbo through their paces. First we hit the highways and freeways leading away from Birmingham, and later we went to Barber Motorsports Park, where we were able to take part in the Porsche Driving Experience, over both a rugged off-road course and a tight and tricky new road-racing course. We had professional race drivers like Hurley Haywood, Doc Bundy and David Donohue (son of the late Mark Donohue) showing us the intricacies of the vehicles and how to best extract the virtues in all circumstances.
Porsche anticipates that 80 percent of Cayenne buyers will choose the “S†model, which starts with an all-new 4.5-liter V8 engine delivering 340 horsepower and 310 foot-pounds of torque. The Cayenne Turbo has twin turbochargers on the same engine, with electronic management extracting 450 horsepower at 6,000 RPMs and 457 foot-pounds of torque from 2,250 RPMs on up to 4,750 revs. The new engine shares much of the internal dimensions, such as cylinder bore, with the Boxster six-cylinder, and borrows liberally from the 911 Turbo for cylinder head and temperature-proof alloy construction.
Both versions come only with four-wheel drive, and with the Porsche Tiptronic six-speed automatic transmission. The PTM (Porsche Traction Management) four-wheel drive system sends 62 percent of the carÂ’s power to the rear and 38 percent to the front under normal conditions, but can transfer any or all of the power to the axle with better traction any time any spinning is detected. It will tow 7,716 pounds, and tow it quite swiftly, I must add. Air suspension has six heights that are both adjustable and self-adjustable for rough conditions, and the Tiptronic allows clutchless manual shifting. Off the road, electronic switches can set a reduced-ratio off-road gear, and another flip of the switch can eliminate the center differential and lock in both the front and rear axles for equal duty.
Porsche Stability Management (PSM) coordinates the traction control, antilock brakes and the vehicleÂ’s direction to help keep it running straight, on road and off. The air-suspension settings can raise the CayenneÂ’s ground clearance 4.56 inches to a maximum of 10.75, which drops back down at speeds over 20 mph, just as the lowest-level setting drops to extra-low whenever speed exceeds 130 mph. (!) Other of the six settings can be set for standard ride height, or somewhat hiter for rougher roads and up to 50 mph.
Both a hill-holding feature in the transmission for going up steep hills and a low-range setting that uses engine braking to keep you under control when going down steep banks.
The Cayenne is structured out of high-strength steel, with reinforcement of boron steel in the pillars to make the occupant compartment secure, and the assortment of air bags and side curtains enhance the safety aspect. Huge brakes also meet PorscheÂ’s rigid demands.
Amid all the uproar over Porsche building an SUV, forgotten is the fact that the Cayenne also is PorscheÂ’s first four-door vehicle. There is no pretense about a third-row seat, but it has good seat room for five, and excellent space for four occupants. The interior is classy and tasteful, with leather and either real wood or brushed alloy trim.
The beauty, of course, is in the driving. On the freeway, the Cayenne is swift and secure, perfectly poised on its suspension and never feeling like a truck, or anything except a slightly taller Porsche. With the suspension set in comfort mode, it remains stable and precise; in normal mode, it’s a bit firmer; in sports mode, it is definitely stiffer – almost performance stiff, which many drivers might find too harsh on frost-heaved bumps or potholes.
On the off-road course, the Cayenne was truly impressive. Over rugged terrain where one or even two wheels were off the ground, staying steadily on the power required only a bit of patience to allow the electronic systems to reassign the power and give the Cayenne the guidance to pull itself out of trouble. Over large rocks, steep inclines, foot-deep muddy ruts on a course carved through the Alabama trees on the Barber Motorsports grounds, the Cayenne never flinched or hesitated. I was driving the first Cayenne behind off-road expert Jay Tischler, and after watching him have great difficulty climbing a steep and muddy hill, I got a bit of momentum up, listened to Hurley HaywoodÂ’s urging to stay consistent on the gas, and we went straight up the same hill in the same ruts.
On the race track, Haywood’s 24-Hours of LeMans experience and suggested lines around the twisty turns made the Cayenne behave absolutely with Porsche-like precision. Haywood, who has successfully raced virtually every Porsche in existence, said that he was totally impressed with what Porsche had done to make the Cayenne a true Porsche – not only on the road, and off the road, but on a race track as well.
Despite weighing 5,000 pounds (4,949 for the S, and 5,192 for the Turbo), all that power sends the Cayenne to eye-popping speeds. The Cayenne S goes 0-60 in 7.1 seconds and hits a top speed of 150; the Cayenne Turbo does 0-60 in 5.5 seconds and hits a top speed of 165.
Those numbers are dazzling if weÂ’re talking about a Carrera, but weÂ’re talking about an SUV here, complete with fold-down rear seat that expands cargo capacity from 19 cubic feet to over 62 cubic feet, and with a unique Bose surround-sound audio system with 350 watts and 14 speakers, and, functional cupholders that may even work going up a 45-degree hill off-road.
Just as Porsche sports cars go above and beyond the norm in engineering and performance, that may be where the new Cayenne best traces Porsche heritage, because it exceeds every expectation, wherever you can drive.
(John Gilbert writes a weekly automotive column. He can be reached by e-mail at: jgilbert@duluth.com.)
Minivan far from forgotten as Toyota launches new Sienna
DETROIT, MI. — When it comes to sport-utility vehicles, Toyota is loaded with weapons – with no less than five SUVs already out under the Toyota name and three more with the upscale Lexus nameplate. But when it comes to minivans, which are the anti-SUVs of the auto business, Toyota has only one. For the 2004 model year, Toyota has totally redesigned its Sienna, however, and intends for it to be a serious challenger against the best minivans.
The 2004 Sienna was introduced to the media this past week, with a brief explanation and test-drive in Detroit on Monday, followed by a trip to Princeton, Ind., where Toyota will build the new Sienna on a new assembly line, in the same facility that builds the Tundra pickup truck and Sequoia full-size SUV, based on the Tundra.
Toyota started with the Van Wagon in the U.S. back in 1984, and switched to the Previa, which had all-wheel-drive, from 1991-97, before introducing the first Sienna as a replacement in 1998. The reasons for the dropoff of the Sienna, which is a quite-competent vehicle, is that Chrysler redesigned the segment-dominating Caravan/Town & Country, while Honda had come out with a highly acclaimed Odyssey since then, and Mazda and General Motors made major improvements in the last year. Furthermore, Nissan has already displayed its soon-to-be-realeased sleeker Quest.
So Toyota made a move to upgrade the Sienna from every possible angle for its reintroduction, and, from a preliminary look at least, and a brief road-test, the Sienna hit the mark on almost all counts. The LE model with all-wheel-drive shows good stability, precise steering, well-designed bucket seats, and a lot of room.
With SUVs dominating the industry in general and Toyota in particular, the Sienna proves that Toyota has no plan to abandon the minivan segment, although it was obvious a major overhaul was needed for the Sienna, which drooped to only 81,000 sales for 2002.
“SUVs have taken a chunk out of the minivan market, but it is still strong for fulfilling family needs,†said Don Esmond, vice president and general manager of Toyota Sales in the U.S. “We think minivans will increase in volume at the expense of other vehicles, and our plan calls for annual sales of 130,000 to 150,000 Siennas.
“Our market research shows that two groups dominate. One is emerging families, where the parents are between 30-49 and their kids are in grade school. The other is empty-nesters, who are age 50 and over, and mostly retired. In both cases, these people want minivans because of kids – of being a good parent, or good grandparents. There were 1.2 million minivans sold last year, despite a decline of 4 percent, but we expect it to stabilize and possibly rise in the next year.Ââ€
Esmond said that chief engineer Yuji Yokoya had spent five different trips driving through every state in the U.S., from Alaska to Florida and from Maine to California, totaling 53,000 miles, allegedly to learn what features would be important to have on the new Sienna.
Among those are: 6 inches longer in overall length, 5 inches longer wheelbase, 1.6 inches taller, 4 inches wider track, translating into more head, leg and shoulder room, an increase of over 15 square feet of cargo volume to 148.9, and yet a turning radius that dropped by more than 3 feet to 36.8 feet.
Those are just numbers, of course, without converting that extra size to usefulness, and not many companies are any better than Toyota at making the most of space, with seating for seven or eight with the three rows of seats. The second row can be two buckets or three. With three, there is room for eight occupants and the center seat can slide forward to more easily reach a child-seat, for example. With two buckets, the seats can move sideways to form a short bench, or stay separated by open space or a console, which can be interchanged to fit between the front or second-row seats. Without the console in front, a fold-up tray is fixed in place. The third-row bench seat is a 60-40 split, and it tumbles and disappears flat into the floor. The gearshift lever comes out of the dash. And the tailgate rises with a power mechanism.
Those are all great ideas, although while Toyota was wise enough to include them all, it must be pointed out that they are “acquired†tastes: Honda put a fold-up tray in its CR-V five years ago, and the tumbling and disappearing third seat has been in the Honda Odyssey since its inception, while the Mazda MPV minivan has side-sliding middle-row buckets. Several manufacturers have the shifter coming out of the dash, which enhances room if you want to make a trip between the seats and through the fold-down tray to the second row. Chrysler put a power tailgate in its last minivan upgrade.
Including the best ideas from a variety of competitors is nothing new, of course, and Toyota has incorporated most of the best ones in the Sienna. Only a few competitors offer all-wheel drive, which Toyota aims to capitalize on, offering it in the LE, XLE and XLE Limited models – all but the base CE. A center differential separates power 50-50 front and rear, then power is automatically transferred to front or rear if any slippage is detected at the other end. Vehicle stability control and traction control, plus electronic brake distribution and brake-assist all contribute to the feeling of security, whether going, going straight, or stopping quickly is the objective.
For power, Toyota increased the 3.0-liter V6 to 3.3, and the engine is a dual-overhead-camshaft gem, with variable valve-timing that adjusts valve operation for optimum power and efficiency, turning out a healthy 230 horsepower at 5,600 RPMs and 242 foot-pounds of torque at 3,600 RPMs. A 5-speed automatic transmission harnesses that energy, and Toyota claims 0-60 times of 8.3 seconds for the new Sienna, with potential for up to 27 miles per gallon for the front-wheel-drive and 24 for the all-wheel-drive version and an upward move from low-emission vehicle status (LEV) to ultra-low-emission vehicle (ULEV).
Power rack and pinion steering not only circles in a much shorter span, it is smooth, without that binding feeling, meaning the Sienna will have some of the best assets of SUVs, without some of the drawbacks.
Pricing is impressive. Toyota actually lowered base price on the CE, dropping it by $1,000 to $22,955, and decreasing it $4,480 to $24,260 on the LE. It drops $3,077 to $28,260 on the XLE, while the new XLE Limited will start at $34,480. Most impressive is that the base model gets the same potent engine and transmission as the upgrade models, while other features and interior amenities such as woodgrain trim and navigation system account for the higher prices.
Toyota officials anticipate an altered mix of models. The outgoing Sienna had 25 percent of its sales as the CE, which is expected to drop to 5 percent; the LE had 49 percent and may account for 68 percent on the new one; the XLE had 26 percent and should have 22 percent. The XLE Limited should account for 5 percent, in its first year of existence.
Following the “kids rule†philosophy for selling minivans to families and grandparents, Toyota added some other neat touches. There are all sorts of cupholders and bottle holders, and numerous storage bins up front and in the doors. The rear doors slide open on both sides, with power assist and a sensitivity to stop closing if one-finger pressure intercedes. Those sliding rear doors also have roll-down windows, a huge factor to relieve the claustrophobic feeling of some vans with the doors shut. Another feature is a 30-percent larger sunroof that opens above.
EPA fuel estimates for the front-wheel drive Sienna are 19 city and 27 highway; 18 city and 24 highway for the all-wheel drive models. It also has all the latest safety devices, including front and side airbags and full-length side air curtains.
Knowing that minivans have kids in mind, the Sienna has a “conversation†mirror, a convex thing that folds down from the front roof so the driver can keep an eye on what’s going on in the back. There also is the obligatory DVD player in the ceiling for rear occupants, and wireless headphones for individual use of the optional 300-watt, 10-speaker surround-sound audio, which has cassette and CD players located in the dash. Heat and air controls can be dual or triple zone, depending on whether both fronts and the rear get separate controls, or just the front and rear.
Dynamic laser cruise control can be set to hold your speed, or to maintain the interval with the car ahead. And sonar parking assists are positioned front and rear, so you can keep your distance when parking, whether youÂ’re coming or going.
The Sienna is improved enough that even Toyota executives admit it might capture a lot of customers from other manufacturers, and might even steal a few from its own vast SUV contingent, if they realize that the once-scorned minivans still are the best possible answer for a lot of family-hauling requirements.
(John Gilbert writes a weekly automotive column. He can be reached by e-mail at: jgilbert@duluth.com.)
‘Accord’-ing to Honda, newest sedan should return to No. 1
Over the past few decades, the Honda Accord has risen from being a good Japanese imported sedan, to the top-selling car in the United States, and on to being built primarily at a U.S. plant in Marysville, Ohio, from which it became the leading U.S.-built EXPORTED sedan.
With each new generation of the car, it continues to improve, although the competition gets tougher each year as well. The seventh version of the Honda Accord has just been introduced for 2003, and test-drives indicate it very likely could reclaim the position of top-selling sedan in the U.S. Challengers keep increasing in number, improving in quality and coming from all directions, but the Honda Accord just keeps on cruising to its own high standards.
The Toyota Camry is AccordÂ’s biggest challenger, and the competition between the two has aided both of them, and consumers, by the ever-escalating achievement of their virtues. Two years ago, the Accord led in sales, but Camry, bolstered by the introduction of a new model in 2002 against the final year of AccordÂ’s sixth generation, leapfrogged back ahead of Accord to become No. 1 in U.S. sales with 434,983 models sold during the 2002 model year. Accord sold 399,213, compared to the third-place 325,493 Ford Tauruses.
Honda also captured the fourth spot in U.S. car sales with the CivicÂ’s 316,055. All of these cars tend to grow slightly with each evolution, and the current Civic is about the same size as the Accord was 15 years ago, which means combining the traditional midsize Accord sales with the near-midsize Civic puts Honda clearly at the top.
Accord and Camry both have become legendary for not needing anything more than routine maintenance and virtually assuring buyers of 200,000 trouble-free miles. Accord has always enjoyed a slight edge on Camry from the subjective standpoint of being slightly more high-tech and sporty feeling. ThatÂ’s not important to many thousands of buyers, who are just looking for transportation, and the more appliance-like a car can be, the better. But if the new Accord maintains its slight edge in fun-to-drive, it must now look at the Volkswagen Passat, NissanÂ’s year-old Altima and the sensational just-released Mazda6 as raising the bar on sporty driving.
The Accord always has been obtainable as base DX, mid-range LX and top-of-the-line EX models, and the styling is the same on all, except for upgrade elements such as alloy wheels. The new Accord looks good from the front, and has improved aerodynamics from 0.33 to 0.30 coefficient of drag. From the rear, it is a bit more controversial, as it has a tall trunklid that may increase trunkspace, but looks large, and has high-beltline horizontal taillights that buyers will either like or dislike. It does reach all the way to the bumper, for low liftover height of grocery bags, golf clubs or luggage.
I recently had the chance to test-drive a pair of EX models, one with the 2.4-liter 4-cylinder engine and the other with the 3.0-liter V6. Both were impressive, with HondaÂ’s high-tech VTEC system of variable valve-timing, and both carried the new sedan to unprecedented heights. The 4-cylinder deserves inspection, because the vast majority of Accord buyers would be happy with its performance, even though the V6 almost has become a reflex option among buyers. Going to the V6 and a few other options can cause the sticker price to rise from $23,000 to over $26,000.
The 4-cylinder revs freely, with dual overhead camshafts driving the 16 valves. It adds 161 foot-pounds of torque to its 160 horsepower, and at only 3,120 pounds it runs swiftly and smoothly. I got 23 miles per gallon in mostly around-town driving, although EPA estimated highway mileage goes to 34 miles per gallon.
The V6 model had more features and increased weight by about 300 pounds. The engine itself also has four valves per cylinder, but only a single overhead cam on each bank. Its 240 horsepower are complemented by 212 foot-pounds of torque, so the increase in power is substantial. ItÂ’s just that in real-world driving, it is unlikely anyone this side of a drag-racer would notice the benefits. While some tests show the 4-cylinder can go 0-60 in 7.5 seconds, the V6 is a bit quicker, at 7.0, but thatÂ’s pretty negligible.
Most impressive to me was that I was able to get a legitimate 25.2 miles per gallon on a trip from Chicago to Duluth with the V6 – quite comparable to the 4. So the question comes down to whether it’s worth the extra few hundred dollars.
As EX models, both were similarly equipped, although the V6 model had seat-heaters, which are features IÂ’ve never had on cars IÂ’ve owned, but which are greatly appreciated when the temperature on the northern ridge of the Great Lakes plunges below zero.
Both cars have 4-wheel disc brakes and double-wishbone suspension at all four corners, with stabilizer bars front and rear, and both came equipped with HondaÂ’s slick 5-speed automatic transmission. Both also have a rear seat that folds down to increase stowage space. When the rear seat is up, it has a pass-through door to the trunk that becomes very useful when hauling things like skis or hockey sticks. A glass moonroof with slide and tilt, 16-inch wheels, an impressive audio system with 6-disc in-dash CD player and steering-wheel remote controls are other features.
The seats are comfortable and supportive, with lumbar support, and I liked the leather seats and steering wheel, and the various storage bins and cupholders are well designed. I even liked the fake woodgrain on the console and door panels.
The air-conditioning has an air-filtration system, and dual controls allow you to adjust the climate control setting for left or right. That, however, leads to my only complaint about ergonomics with the Accord. Honda always has been the king of ergonomics, that subjective talent of laying out the switches right where personal logic and instinct tells the driver they will be. In recent years, the Accord has had a large round knob just to the left of the audio system for turning the thing on and off, and cranking the volume up or down.
On the new car, the audio system is positioned above the heat-air system on the center dash, and there are three large round knobs laid out in a slight “V†shape. Close inspection will show you that the center knob is the one that is used for turning the audio system on or off and turning up the volume, while the left knob is for turning the left side temperature higher or lower, and the right knob takes care of the same chores for the right side occupant.
The trouble is, being in a slight “V†reinforces the instinct that the left knob must be to control volume. I lowered the window to talk to someone, but when I hastily tried to turn down the audio, I instead lowered the temperature setting to 55 degrees, while Mark Knopfler’s guitar kept on blasting away. At least once a day I mistakenly reached for the left knob to adjust volume. Now, THAT’S ergonomically correct. Thankfully, there also are steering-wheel remote controls.
(John Gilbert writes a weekly auto column. He can be reached by e-mail: jgilbert@duluth.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.
For those who want to keep up with John Gilbert's view of sports, mainly hockey with a Minnesota slant, click on the following:
Click here for sports