Chrysler 300M provides sporty flair

August 23, 2002 by · Leave a Comment
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[On the Road UpNorth for Aug. 22-23]
300M, Intrigue offer two views of future
The automotive world is highly competitive these days, and there are numerous ways to attack the same challenge. When it comes to design and technology, for example, Chrysler Corporation has long-jumped into the future with an ongoing series of new vehicles, while General Motors has been slow to change, recycling older designs and technology.
When it comes to the niche of sedans with a sporty flair, both have their representatives. One example from General Motors is the Oldsmobile Inrigue, while a futuristic peak at Chrysler’s stable puts the 300M on display. Not that the two are necessarily in direct competition on all levels, but both are contemporary designs, about the same size, aimed at being peppy sedans with a sportiness both compare to European sedans.
It has always amused me, by the way, how U.S. companies have raved long and loud about how their car are superior to European cars in some way or another, but when they develop something truly new and improved, they always tend to compare it to European cars as the standard of the industry.
Basically, the Chrysler 300M is a 1999 model sedan, with a 3.5-liter V6, overall length of 197.8 inches and wheelbase of 113 inches; the Intrigue came out a few months earlier as a 1998 model, 195.9 inches in length and 109-inch wheelbase, and with a 3.8-liter V6, although a 3.5 V6 is supposed to be available in the 1999 models. Both had 4-speed automatic transmissions with traction control, 4-wheel disc brakes with antilock, and virtually every power option imaginable.
Apparent as their similarities are, their differences are considerable, too. The 300M is aimed at being the sportiest of the big Chrysler sedans, with a slightly larger version of the new aluminum high-tech V6s, and a shorter, more blunt look front and rear than the Chrysler Concorde or Dodge Intrepid, aimed at competing with those aforementioned European sedans. The Intrigue replaces the old Cutlass, and is newly renovated while still sharing the same platform with the Pontiac Grand Prix and the Buick Regal, and while it has an Aurora-like look to it, we’ll have to wait for the new model to find the long-awaited high-tech V6.
Chrysler 300M
When Chrysler first came out with its LH sedans, there was an Eagle Vision to go along with the Dodge Intrepid and Chrysler Concorde. About the time the first major renovation of those sedans was scheduled to be finished, Chrysler decided to drop the Eagle line. So out came the new Intrepid and Concorde, to rave reviews, with their computer-fine tolerances and their all-new aluminum 2.7 and 3.2 V6 engines.
There was no Eagle for the Vision, which had been aimed at being a shorter version with more sports-oriented performance. So Chrysler made a wise move. Instead of leaving the new sporty sedan stillborn, it resurrected the old 300 nickname from when Chrysler’s most powerful sedans wore the 300 from 1955 up through the C, D, E, F, G, H, J, and L versions on up through 1965.
It made perfect sense, so the belated sedan came out as the 300M. The new Concorde and Intrepid are among the best-looking sedans in the world, and the 300M is a pretty wild diversion, with a more squarish grille with the retro-look Chrysler logo emblazoned across it, and enclosed high-intensity headlights, bright silver alloy wheels, and a suprisingly demure but stylish rear.
The 3.5-liter V6 is an enlarged version of the new 3.2-liter engine, with single overhead camshafts and four valves per cylinder. It spits out 253 horsepower at 6,400 RPMs and 255 foot-pounds of torque at 3,950 RPMs. The engine runs through Chrysler’s slick AutoStick transmission, a 4-speed automatic unit that can be shifted out of auto mode to be shifted as a clutchless manual with the spring-loaded selector.
The 300M has good agility, although a special sports suspension can be selected from the option list as — you guessed it — the “European handling package,” can enhance it. At 3,600 pounds, the 300M is quite heavy, and while it handles well, we can only wonder how much better it might handle had Chrysler decided to make it a lighter and still-more-agile car. Its EPA fuel economy estimates of 18 city, 27 highway are reachable; I got 19 miles per gallon in combined driving, although I ran the revs up freely.
Some magazines claim it has a top speed of 143 — another nod toward that autobahn target.
With a base price of $28,300, the sticker read $28,915 because of a “smoker’s group” option, which presumably means an ashtray. Standard features abound, including air-conditioning, leather 8-way power and heated seats for both driver and front passenger, cruise, tilt column with speed-sensitive steering, a 9-speaker Infinity audio system, keyless entry, foglights, and 17×7 alloy wheels.
Among the special touches in the 300M, the thicker, leather-wrapped steering wheel has an impressive feel to it. The grab handles in the door have tiny little indents that are angled just right so that your fingertips fit comfortably into them. And the white-backed instruments have black digits, but these gauges stay white and retain the look of a fine watch, instead of reversing at night the way many similar ones do.
Intrigue GL
Some observers fell in love with the Intrigue when it was first introduced. Automobile magazine named it the best family sedan for 1998, although in its same feature it listed the choices of the top five in readers votes as: 1. Honda Accord, 2. Volkswagen Passat, 3. Chrysler Concorde/Dodge Intrepid, 4. Toyota Camry and 5. Nissan Maxima. So we can figure the Intrigue comes in somewhere between the best available, and not-among-the-top-five.
It took awhile before I was able to get one for a test drive, and it was worth the wait. General Motors has done a good job of redesigning its sedans recently, although the aftermath of the strike at GM continues to spawn rumors of condensing the product lines. Oldsmobile, which has been on delicate footing, has the Aurora at the top of the line, while the Intrigue replaces the Cutlass, which was long in the tooth; and the Alero replaces the Achieva, which didn’t.
The Intrigue is distinctly similar to the more expensive Aurora, which gives some credence to the rumor that Olds might even discontinue the Aurora. With a low, horizontal front, and air ducts under the bumper, plus a sleekly contoured silhouette, it wouldn’t be a giant step for the Intrigue to fill in for the Aurora.
It has a bargain price, with the test car starting at $22,100 and running up to the $24,370 after adding leather seats and the — you guessed it — “autobahn package” of heavy-duty brakes and special tires, plus anh audio upgrade that includes cassette and disc player, with remote controls on the steering wheel. Standard equipment includes 6-way power seats, dual-zone air and heat, cruise, intermittent wipers and 16-inch wheels.
The Intrigue can only go so far in comparison to the 300M because while its engine is the very-good 3800 V6, it is still a pushrod V6 in a world of overhead-cammers. It has 195 horsepower at 5,200 RPMs and a whopping 220 foot-pounds of torque at 4,000. Impressive though that 195 horse rating is, it is interesting to note that the overhead-cam, multi-valve Chrysler V6 gets 58 more horses out of less displacement. Still, the Stage II 3800 has EPA estimates of 19 city, 30 highway gas mileage.
GM’s new 3.5-liter, 24-valve, dual-overhead cam engine that is coming is reportedly targeted for Oldsmobile only in its first year of use by the GM subsidiaries.
Seats are roomy and comfortable, and the ignition key is located on the dashboard rather than the steering column, which is a curious change that may prove to be capable of tearing up a few knees in a frontal impact. The rear seat is roomy and the trunk is huge, and there are enough bins on the center console, the console itself, the doors and the glove compartment that you may not need to use the trunk.
Performance is quite good, with 0-60 and quarter-mile times of about 8 seconds and about 16.5 seconds — both slightly behind the 7.8 and 16-flat of the slightly heavier 300M with its slightly smaller engine. Top speed is 117, which means those pushrods are a long way from matching the top-end capabilities of the 300M’s overhead-cam flexibility. It means that both cars could run on the German autobahns, but the Intrigue had best stay in the right lane.
[Boxes….]
Chrysler 300M
Likes: Snub-nosed looks, lush interior, high-performing V6 with the AutoStick.
Dislikes: Heavier than necessary for a sporty sedan; tough to look sportier than Intrigue and Concorde.
Bottom line: Base price $28,300; as tested $28,915.

2.7-liter V6 is a jewel in Dodge Intrepid

August 23, 2002 by · Leave a Comment
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1999 Dodge Intrepid—
Likes: The 2.7-liter V6 is a jewel, with surprising power and fuel-economy.
Dislikes: You have to get the base version to get the 2.7, excluding some nice interior and exterior features and the Autostick.
Bottom line: Base price $19,890; as tested $22,410.
With almost any car purchase, buying the base version gets you the caterpillars of the automotive world, and you have to pay significantly for enough options or special packages in order to get to “better” and “best” of what’s available.l
But if you go to buy a Dodge Intrepid, pause a moment on your way to the upgrade and check out the base version, with the 2.7-liter V6 engine. In my opinion, that is the best standard engine ever made by a U.S. company.
When the Dodge Intrepid was redesigned for 1998, Chrysler did an exceptional job of tightening up an already impressive sedan. Its silhouette remains arguably the sleekest of any U.S. company’s car. At its introduction, I got a chance to briefly drive the car with its all-new base 2.7, and the upgraded 3.2 V6. I thought the 3.2 was very smooth and very impressive, but I thought the 2.7 was spectacular — high-revving and responsive, with an amazing amount of power for its size, and for pulling around such a large car.
Factory test fleets generally are top-of-the-line models, to show off all the flashy equipment that allows the companies to make their money. After test-driving a 1998 Intrepid or two with the 3.2, I mentioned to Chrysler officials that it would be really interesting to give a thorough test to a base model with the 2.7.
Meanwhile, for 1999, Chrysler has added the 300M to its stable, which I wrote about a while ago. It is a blunt version of the Intrepid, with a larger and more powerful 3.5-liter V6, designed to challenge bigger V6 or V8 engines. It was strong.
Then, a few weeks ago, I got a chance to drive a 1999 Intrepid, and I was in such a hurry to get going that I drove the car a couple of times before thoroughly going over it. I was surprised that instead of alloy wheels, it had standard wheels with covers. I also thought it was somewhat spartan in its features.
But when you hit the gas, that Intrepid took off like a scalded cat. I figured it must have gotten the larger, more powerful 3.5-liter V6, but when I finally got around to popping the hood, I was amazed to see, right there on the intake manifold, the designation “2.7 DOHC.”
Sure enough, my original theory was borne out. The base 2.7 is an exceptional engine. I stopped by Duluth Dodge, up on Hwy. 53, to reexamine the differences between the base Intrepid and the ES model, which has foglights, alloy wheels and the 3.2 engine. Even the sales guys seemed surprised at my analysis of the two engines, and they obviously hadn’t hammered the 2.7 to put it through its paces.
Basically, when Chrysler revised the Intrepid, it decided to jump into the next century armed with state-of-the-art motors. It installed a high-tech computerized system, and they designed what they call a “no-paper” trio of engines. They used existing blocks and built all-new variations for the 3.2 and 3.5 V6s, putting single overhead camshafts atop the cylinder heads, actuating 24 valves — four per cylinder.
In high-performance concept, putting an overhead cam on an engine instead of pushrods allows you to rev higher and extract more power. Putting four valves per cylinder gives you still more capability. Better yet is to put dual overhead camshafts above those valves, so that one cam operates the intake valves and the other makes the exhaust valves work. That is the ultimate method for extracting maximum efficiency and capability from a valvetrain, and therefore from the combustion chamber.
And that is what Chrysler engineers did with the 2.7. It spent $510 million upgrading the Kenosha, Wis., engine plant to build the 2.7, while the 3.2 and 3.5 revisions are built in Trenton, N.J. Engineers told me they did 1,500 versions of the 2.7 engine on computers before ever building a model.
Normally, companies do some computer design, then build mock-up models, then build a prototype engine. Once it’s up and running, refinement can be done to improve the efficiency. Chrysler spent an industry-record short time of 26 weeks from original concept to finished product by bypassing all those steps with a coordinated “CATIA” computer program. In fact, David Knapp, from Cokato, Minn., the brother of Steve Knapp, last year’s Indianapolis 500 rookie of the year, worked on perfecting software for that program.
It was designed to coordinate all engine elements from air-intake, through the combustion process, including balancing and tolerances and even aerodynamics, on through the exhaust system. The 2.7 is all aluminum, heat-treated to be stronger than steel, and it has a forged steel crankshaft instead of cast iron.
With overhead cam engines, your main worry is the timing belt, which must be changed at around 65,000 or 75,000 miles, because if it ultimately wears through and breaks, you could do some serious and costly valve-tagging. The 3.2 and 3.5 engines have timing belts, as do almost all OHC engines. The 2.7, however, has a timing chain, which eliminates the worry about the belt wear.
The result is a light, compact, jewel of an engine, with extremely close tolerances on all computer-designed parts, which turns out 200 horsepower at 5,800 RPMs and has 190 foot-pounds of torque at 4,850. That’s 74.1 horsepower per liter, more than any other base-level engine. Hot-rodders are astonished at the engine’s output, because 2.7 liters equates to a mere 165 cubic inches, and hot-car standards used to look at displacements of 302, 350, or over 400 cubic inches — more than twice as big as the 2.7, but not with twice the horsepower.
On top of that, the 2.7 burns regular gas, and it has EPA estimates of 21 miles per gallon city and 30 on the highway. In my test, I got 28.4 miles per gallon in combined city-highway driving. And, trust me, it would have been difficult to run the engine harder than I did.
My lone criticism of Chrysler’s execution of the engine is that it seems intent on downgrading its own product. While it is in the base version of the Intrepid, the upgraded ES with its 3.2 gets the Autostick transmission, which is a 4-speed automatic, but with the capability to allow you to move the lever to an adjacent gate and shift it manually, without a clutch. That’s a fun and appealing option, but it cannot be ordered with the 2.7, even though it would be a perfect fit, because the 2.7 revs quicker and higher.
So, to appreciate the capability of the 2.7, I had to hand-hold it through its shift points. If you do that, and hammer the throttle, not only will the Intrepid zip away with authority, but the engine will shift itself at about 6,300 revs, safely below the redline. That makes it idiot-proof for someone who might be careless or want to abuse the engine. It also has a great sound. Chain-driven cams normally are noisy, but this one sounds good, probably due to the stiffness designed into the engine, and the balance from the close tolerances.
If I were buying an Intrepid, I’d go for the base version, then add my own special wheels and foglights, which would be the only way to get the 2.7 and even improve the looks and road-holding capability.
The base Intrepid is reasonable, at $19,890, but it is a large and spacious car, with excellent front room and visibility, enormous rear seat room and a huge trunk, all within those sleek lines. At that you get 4-wheel disc brakes with independent touring suspension, power windows and locks, an cruise control. The test car had a $1,140 package that included power 8-way driver seat, premium 120-watt audio system, keyless entry, etc., plus a cold-weather package with both an engine block and battery heater, plus oversize 16-inch wheels and antilock brakes. That boosted the tally to $22,410.
Not cheap, but a bargain considering what you get. And especially the smiles you get whenever you step on the gas and hear the sounds of over-achieving, high-tech power out of that 2.7-liter engine.

Competition fierce during car show season

August 23, 2002 by · Leave a Comment
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With the Detroit International Auto Show just passed, and the Chicago Auto Show coming up in a couple of weeks, let’s take a look at the lure of attending an auto show. Such extravaganzas can be interesting, whether your aim is to scout out a vehicle you’re interested in purchasing, to keep track of the state of the industry, or to just back off, mellow out and let your fantasies be challenged.
The Detroit show is the best on this continent, because it’s right there in Motor City, where you get company executives, designers and engineers to talk to, rather than merely marketing types.
And this year’s Detroit show proved conclusively that it has reached its desired level of being truly international. For proof, let’s break the show down to categories, with one man’s opinion on the best of each.
The categories are: Concept cars, the design exercises that could prove to be the basis for future products; Trucks, including SUVs, pickups and the latest trend of hybrids combining various elements of truck/wagons; High-mileage/alternative energy vehicles, because everybody is trying to create the best electric car or fuel-cell veicle; and Sports cars, the beautiful, slink, exotic sporty cars that have made a remarkable comeback in recent years from the brink of extinction.
With those four categories to examine, let’s start off with my pick for car-of-the-show as a fifth category. My choice: The 2001 Chrysler PT Cruiser.
This vehicle, with its name spelled “Cruizer,” began life as a concept car a year ago, but it is now heading for production. For automobile purists, it resembles an old London Taxi, or an expansion on an old Anglia square-back sedan/wagon. It has a retro-looking front, a four-door body, with a station-wagon style rear end. It is small, built on the Neon platform.
It is, in fact, six inches shorter than a compact Neon, but its tallish stance and squared off rear room, it has the interior volume of room rivaling any full-size sedan. It will share some parts with the new 2000 model year Neon, and will be powered by a 2.4-liter 4-cylinder engine.
Despite the tendency of U.S. buyers to want bigger and bigger sports-utility vehicles and seeming to veer farther away from economical and efficient smaller cars, there was no shortage of niche-filling entries that covered the compact and small-car end, and the Cruiser was just the most spectacular example.
With Mercedes Benz merging with Chrysler, we can only assume it’s coincidence that the concept for the Cruiser was introduced at Geneva over a year ago, and that top Mercedes executives are adamant about selling the production Cruiser in Germany and through the rest of Europe.
CONCEPT CARS
There were so many concept cars at Detroit that it was truly mind-boggling. A short list of some of them includes the Buick Cielo, Cadillac Evoq, Chevrolet Nomad, Oldsmobile Recon and Pontiac Aztek and GTO from General Motors; the Thunderbird and a variety of trucks that already are headed for production from Ford; the Dodge Power Wagon, Charger R/T, Jeep Commander, and a couple of other sedans from Chrysler; the Vision SLR sports car from Mercedes; a never-ending flurry of sports cars and SUVs from Japanese automakers Nissan, Mitsubishi, Toyota, Isuzu and Mazda; and a flashy, large-winged version of the Volkswagen Beetle that was so far out that different VW officials told me, at different times, that it had a turbocharged 4-cylinder, a twin-turbo V6 and a V8. And even popping the hood didn’t solve the riddle.
Ah, to pick just one…One of the maddening things about such shows, and about such concept cars, is that General Motors seems to really make concept cars design exercises only, breaking the hearts of their faithful followers by rarely following through on developing their concept cars into production. The Cadillac Evoq, with its Northstar V8 engine, is an example. Build it, and they will come. And there’s a chance that could become the rumored Cadillac sports car, which reportedly will share underpinnings with the Corvette.
Ford, on the other hand, seems to have fewer concept cars than others, and does turn a few of them into real things. The Thunderbird is an example, because it’s scheduled for production. Frankly, however, it didn’t do a lot for me. But that’s personal.
Chrysler is another extreme, pumping out concept after concept, but forging ahead and turning them into things like the Viper, Dodge Ram, Prowler, and now the Cruiser. For personal, subjective reasons, my pick would have been the Charger. It flat took my breath away with its flowing lines, as if someone had taken a 1969 Charger and thoroughly modernized it by improving every inch.
But in all objectivity, my pick for the most impressive concept car is the Mercedes Vision SLR. It was an absolutely drop-dead stunner, with flip-up doors and sensational looks from every angle.
TRUCKS
The trend in pickup trucks is to extend the extended-cab versions to full crew-cab, 4-door varieties, such as the Ford F150, Nissan Frontier, Dodge Dakota and others, from one end; and taking the rear end off SUVs such as Explorer and Navigator and replacing the third seat with a pickup-style box, from the other end. Then there are all-new SUVs from BMW and Hyundai, among others.
All of those were very impressive, but the competition here is unyielding. And while the Navigator’s Blackwood model was a strong runner-up, the show-stopper of them all was the Nissan SUT — for Sports-Utility Truck.
This concept-aimed-at-production vehicle is based on the Frontier pickup, which already was displayed as a full 4-door. But this one has the edge in having a fold-down rear seat, and a flip-up rear wall, which expands cargo capacity to allow a 4-by-8 piece of plywood to fit in there.
A Nissan executive said that market research disclosed that a large percentage of pickup truck buyers use the box area 25 percent of the time, but that they use only 20 percent of the box. So Nissan forged ahead, comfortable in expanding the passenger area of the vehicle, and shortening the pickup box.
Of a flock of impressive new trucks, the SUT was the most remarkable.
ECONOMY/ALTERNATIVE ENERGY
Ford displayed its new Focus, an impressive little thing that will replace the Escort worldwide for the company. Taking full advantage of some of its other worldly arrangements, Ford also showed off the Puma, which is a twin to the Mercury Cougar; the Ka, which is a tiny European and South American vehicle; and the new Mustang, entirely redone for the current year. Ford also showed off a fleet of low-emission vehicles that cover the whole scope, from fuel-cell, to electric, to hybrids.
Toyota had several new small cars, including the Echo, the XYR, and other alternative-energy vehicles. Mitsubishi, a leader in that sort of technology, showed off its latest.
But the clear pick of the litter here is the Honda VV, which is currently saddled with that unfortunate codename until the company can invent a new word for it.
Technologically, the Honda takes the cake. Companies are trying to find ways to make electric cars that don’t need to be recharged for eight hours — and tons of coal-fired electric plants’ pollution — or that will recharge themselves. Several are at the cutting edge. Honda is hurdling over that edge.
The VV has a 3-cylinder, 1-liter engine that is tiny, but Honda engineers, aware that electric motors have tremendous power but limited range, have an electric battery-pack motor that doesn’t function until you need to charge down an entry ramp or pass somebody. Then the electric motor kicks in and you zoom ahead. When you let off, the electric motor backs off, to be recharged by the 3-cylinder engine and by the braking process.
The variable-valve-timing 3-cylinder will deliver something like 70 miles per gallon. Not only is it ingenious, but Honda is preparing to produce the under-2,000-pound vehicle for less than $20,000, as soon as this coming November.
SPORTS CARS
The BMW Z3, Mercedes SLK and Porsche Boxster rekindled our long-standing passion for sports cars, and it is great to see that segment blossom. The new Corvette, a new Porsche Carrera, and the appearance of Ferrari, Lamborghini and Aston Martin boosted the interest in sports cars. I was particularly attracted to the flawlessly sculptured lines — and electric blue paint — on a new Bugatti, which returns to the U.S. marketplace.
One of the absolute best sports cars is the new Jaguar XK180. It looks like a sure winner, with low, sleek lines complemented by little blister-like bulges behind the headrests of the two seats.
Nissan also introduced its intended renewal of the Z car, the affordable sports car that started as the 240Z, grew to the 260, 280 and 300ZX before Nissan dropped it, a couple of years before the genre bounced back. The new Z should be a winner.
But Honda came up with the winner in this category, too. The new S2000 WILL be produced for sale by this fall, and BMW, Mercedes, Porsche and everybody else had better be prepared for some strong competition. The S2000 will be a 2-seat roadster with a 2-liter, 4-cylinder engine, but this engine will have variable valve timing, dual overhead camshafts and all the goodies required to extract a mind-blowing 240 horsepower out of it, with a redline of 9,300 RPMs!
It will be built at the same plant as the exquisite Acura NSX, and is expected to go 0-60 in around six seconds, and be priced at under $30,000.
OVERVIEW
To say this is truly an international event, consider that the top cars include candidates from the U.S., Japan, Germany, and some Japanese and German products being built in the U.S., even as some U.S. vehicles are being built in Canada or Mexico. And then there’s the Bugatti, which began life as the design exercise of an Italian who started a plant in Germany. It’s gotten to the point where, as long as it’s available to us in the U.S., it doesn’t matter where the assembly plant is located.

Silverado modernizes Chevy pickups

August 23, 2002 by · Leave a Comment
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1999 Chevrolet Silverado LS
Likes: Road-sensing 4-wheel-drive makes sense, so does the pushbutton ability to change shiftpoints for varied loads.
Dislikes: In the face of stylish challenges from Ford and Dodge, Chevy chose to stay, as they say, middle-of-the-road.
Bottom line: Base price (LS) $25,895; as tested $30,367.
Pullout quote: Chevrolet boasts that this is a smart truck. And it is.
All-new Chevy keeps
pickup war sizzling
The Chevrolet Silverado pickup is certain to be among the top-selling vehicles in the U.S. for the coming model year for several reasons. One is that trucks continue to surge along a rising arc of unprecedented popularity among vehicle buyers; second is that the full-size pickup segment always has been divided quite equitably among brand loyalists Ford, Chevy and Dodge; and third, the new Silverado is the first thorough redesign in over three decades, and it is the best Chevy pickup ever built.
In the past decade, all the people who needed pickup trucks were suddenly joined by a new array of buyers who wanted pickup trucks, whether they needed them or not. Ford and Chevy full-size pickups evolved to the No. 1 and 2 spots in total U.S. sales, as the buyers who owned farms or ranches, or regularly hauled trailers or other stuff, was augmented by the trendy folks who believed pickup trucks provided them with a sense of individuality.
Chevy designers chose not to follow Dodge’s idea of a massive, overpowering appearance on the Ram, or Ford’s concept of a contemporary look of sleek aerodynamics. Instead, the Chevy maintains traditional styling with a squarish front, square cab in the middle, and, of course, the open box at the rear.
The new Silverado front end has a full-width horizontal chrome bar dividing the grille into what attractive mirror-image look above and below that bar. It doesn’t immediately convey that this is an all-new truck so much as that it might be a stylish cosmetic redesign. Under the skin, however, Chevy has made enough major alterations to keep its loyalists in line, particularly in the engine compartment, interior, and chassis.
The frame now is done in three segments, with a “hydroformed” front section made stronger than its predecessor for housing the engine in rigid security; a roll-formed midframe section made the strongest of the three areas because it carries the weight of the pickup box; and a stamped rear frame, which is strong enough but doesn’t need the same structural support of the other areas.
The Vortec 4800 and 5300 V8s both have been revised with a deep-skirted block for increased rigidity, and it develops more power than the larger engines they replace. GM stubbornly strives to prove that pushrod engines are not obsolete, but there is no question that their long hours of refinement have proven that the 40-year-old “small-block” V8 engine design can be modernized to be both powerful and effective.
The 5300 V8 in the factory test vehicle I drove had 270 horsepowe and 315 foot-pounds of torque. It was the Silverado LS, which is the middle, between the base model and the LT top-of-the-line pickup.
The LS came loaded with features, which pushed its base price of $25,895 up to a total sticker of $30,367. That includes the extended cab, with the bigger 5300 V8, a tow-mode 4-speed automatic, plus off-road suspension and skid plates, as well as air-conditioning, a stereo system with a CD player, cruise control and power locks and windows with keyless remote. It’s clear that the days when pickups were an inexpensive alternative to cars has long since disappeared, as truck prices soared up to and beyond mainstream and even specialty cars.
Chevy boasts that this is a smart truck. And it is. The Silverado has a tow-haul switch on the automatic shifter lever which allows you to reprogram the shift points in case you’re towing or hauling a heavy load. It also has push-button engagement for 4-wheel-drive, and the Autotrac transfer case sends most of the power to the rear wheels, but automatically transfers power to the front whenever rear-wheel slippage is detected. Four-wheel disc brakes also are standard.
The revised interior is claimed to be the biggest in the industry. The 6-way power seats offer good lower-back bolsters but I thought there wasn’t much lateral support. The center has a fold-down console that can be used as a third seat when folded up. Instrumentation is excellent with a complete gauge arrangement backed up by an 18-function computer message center to alert you of trouble or maintenance issues.
The inside and outside door handles struck me as examples that sometimes change in the name of change doesn’t work as well as it looked on the design table. They are angled at a pull-up slope that I happened to find unnatural. And the new Silverado has one of my unfavorite features: When you start moving, the doors automatically lock, so when you stop, you are locked in and have to grope to find the unlock switch on the door panel.
A huge trapdoor — larger than some glove compartment doors — drops out of the lower center of the dash to reveal two cupholders, and a smaller trapdoor opens upward to reveal the cigar lighter and electrical outlets.
It’s been interesting to watch the “door war” among the three most popular pickups. Ford and Chevy raced to see which could come out first with rear-hinged third doors on the passenger side of extended-cab models. Near as I can tell, one brought it to market first while the other claimed to have designed it first. Whatever, both left the door open (so to speak) for Dodge, which came out last year with rear-hinged doors on both sides. Ford followed suit as a 1998 upgrade with four doors.
So it is curious that while the expanded rear seat in the Silverado is better appointed and more comfortable than its predecessor, Chevy still only has the third door on the passenger side. You don’t realize how much you miss the extra door on the driver’s side until you’ve driven a truck with that feature. We can only assume that the Chevy people are scrambling to add a fourth door to the extended cab, but in the meantime, there is plenty about the new Silverado to keep all the Chevy loyalists in line at the dealerships.

Miata, ‘Vette offer sports car variation

August 23, 2002 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Autos 

’99 Miata retains retro sports car charm
You could say the Mazda Miata is a “good ol’ car,” and you’d be right from every angle, because it’s always been good, and it started a trend of trying to make new and modern cars styled to capture the old days. The retro trend has turned out the Mercedes SLK, the BMW Z3, the Porsche Boxster, and the Plymouth Prowler, among others.
In the old days of sports cars, there were MGBs, Austin Healeys, Triumphs and Sunbeams — and that was from England alone. They were troublesome, eccentric little roadsters that required almost constant mechanical tending and may dribble a little oil on the driveway every night, but owners didn’t care. They were so flat-out fun that the problems were easily overlooked. On top of that, they had small engines that were plenty potent to make light little roadsters jump, but you could have your fun without going 100 miles per hour.
Sports cars changed a lot. Power became the watchword, prices rose to the sky, and Corvettes, Porsches, Mitsubishis, Toyota Supras, Nissan 300 ZXs and Mazda RX-7s took over. The MGs, Triumphs and their ilk disappeared, although so have the Supra, 300ZX and RX-7, leaving the Corvette much less competition. The all-new Corvette of 1998 has made a moderate and interesting update for 1999, which we’ll get to a bit later.
Although those British sports cars disappeared, the low-budget fun they inspired remained in the consciousness at Mazda, and nine years ago Mazda sprung the Miata on an unsuspecting world. The car was an instant success. Everybody who drove Miatas loved them. They were inexpensive, at just under $20,000, and they supplied all the fun of the good ol’ British roadsters, but they had one major difference: Everything worked in the ultra modern drivetrain — lots of power, quick-rising revs, great sound and all, but there were no oil leaks or breakdowns.
After selling 450,000 Miatas over nine years, with half of those in the U.S., it was time for Mazda to redo the Miata. The job was completed as a 1999 model, although Mazda brought it out several months ago.
I got a chance to test-drive a Miata just a couple of weeks ago, which was just a tad past the convertible/roadster driving season Up North, but I didn’t hesitate. The first Miata was a pure joy to drive, and the new one is better from every standpoint. Even the price remains under control, with a base of $19,770 and an as-tested sticker of $22,300. You can spend more and get several different option package upgrades, but the test car did everything you’d want a retro-roadster to do.
Improved all over
While it is still a little 2-seater, the new Miata seems a bit longer, although it isn’t. Moving the two seats forward a bit translates to 42 percent more trunk room than the earlier car, the better to haul a golf bag. A larger front grille is flanked by glassed-over headlights instead of the old flip-up trapdoor style, which looked fine when the lights were off but the trapdoors blocked out a sizeable amount of visibility when they were up to let the lights shine.
A lower roll center of gravity, coupled with improved bending and torsional rigidity in the frame, plus a race-bred double-wishbone suspension, makes the new Miata feel tighter and better-handling than its good-handling predecessor.
Inside, the seats are firm and supportive, and the instruments and switchgear retain that look of being as neat as the old roadsters, only better. The needles point with precision, the tachometer red line is ‘way up there at 7,000 RPMs, and the tight, slick 5-speed shifter allows you to respond as the Miata practically begs you to run it through its paces.
When you drive the Miata hard — and I can’t imagine not pushing it — it responds by delivering excellent gas mileage. The EPA listing calls for 25 city, 29 highway, and I got 28 miles per gallon combined, testing the red line regularly.
Technically, the Miata’s 1.8-liter 4-cylinder engine, with dual overhead camshafts and four valves per cylinder, has been bumped up to 140 horsepower at 6,500 revs, with a 119-foot-pound torque peak at 5,500. At a mere 2,299 pounds, the Miata’s response is snappy.
It has four-wheel disc brakes, with an advanced antilock system, and it has dual airbags. It also has a dashboard switch that allows you to deactivate the passenger-side airbag to avoid the recently reported hazards of short folks or kids being at risk when airbags deploy.
The new Miata carries on the tradition of a tuneful exhaust note. On the original, Mazda engineers did some computer tuning to adjust the exhaust sound to perfection. While the brakes are extremely good, the Miata handles so well you’ll find yourself coming into an intersection — signalling first, of course — and simply making a 90-degree turn without touching the brakes.
All of that makes for enjoyable driving, even on a cool, fall day, when you have to put on a heavy sweatshirt and a windbreaker to drive with the top down. Putting the top down, meanwhile, takes about five seconds, even though it’s totally manual. Flip two release switches above the windshield, and lift and push back, and the top goes right down. Once you spot a renegade rain-shower, or the first snowflake, simply reach back to the handgrip, lift, pull and refasten, and you can raise and clip the top in place just as quickly. Who needs power?
If the first Miata satisfied nostalgia buffs who recalled MGBs, Triumphs and Austin-Healeys, this one might also ensnare zealots who loved the old Alfa Romeo roadsters.
Corvette for ’99
We had the chance to examine an all-new-for-’98 Corvette last summer, and naturally Chevrolet isn’t altering the new winner for 1999, but a third style is now available. First came the coupe, then in midyear came the convertible. For the new model year, the same Corvette gets fitted with what is called the “fixed roof” hardtop.
The roof is lighter and closes down in a faster arc at the rear, allowing for a trunklid instead of a hatchback. It may lack the graceful sweep of the standard coupe, or the exotic look of the convertible, but the fixed-roof hardtop has a couple of significant advantages over its fellow-‘Vettes.
First, it is the least expensive of the three, dropping several hundred dollars to reach a sticker of about $38,500. It doesn’t have a sunroof, the test car didn’t have keyless entry or foglights, and it comes only with the manual 6-speed, which is how the car should be bought anyway.
The purpose is to keep the fixed-roof hardtop the lightest of the three Corvettes, and also the least expensive. So the heavier sports seats aren’t included, although the base seats are OK.
What all of that means is that the lighter version also is the swiftest. It’s hard to tell, actually, because all the new Corvettes have the 345-horsepower V8, a 5.7-liter pushrod powerplant built all of aluminum. With all that power, being 100 pounds lighter may make it slightly quicker, but how can you tell? The car has so much power that at 70 miles per hour, you’re turning only 3,100 in fourth , 2,200 in fifth, or a barely-idling 1,500 revs in sixth gear.
The thing that intrigues me the most about the new fixed-roof hardtop is the concept. Instead of loading on new glitz and gimmicks and jacking the price, it is refreshing to see Chevy make the newest, lightest and swiftest model also the least expensive.
True, it’s twice as spendy as the Miata, but it’s aimed at an entirely different market, where power is primary. I got over 300 miles off a tankful of combined city-freeway driving, but part of that was a subtle trick. A big gas tank meant I could pour enough gas in to equate to 19.6 miles per gallon.
Cars like the Corvette and Miata spearhead the rejuvenated sports car segment of the market. The Miata proves that you don’t need to spend twice as much to get a fun and efficient sports car; the Corvette proves that if you can afford to spend that much money, you can find the best Corvette ever built.
[boxes to go with these cars:]
1999 Mazda Miata
Likes: New look, exposed headlights, tighter body, a tad more power, no decrease in “fun” factor.
Dislikes: If oil leaks are part of sports car tradition, the Miata lacks them.
Bottom line: Base price $19,770; as tested $22,300.
1999 Chevrolet Corvette
Likes: More blunt roofline grows on you; lighter, quicker, fewer features makes it more powerful.
Dislikes: GM technology still can’t get the six-speed shifter to engage second at certain speeds.
Bottom line: Base price: $37,500 (estimated); as tested $38,500 (estimated).

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  • About the Author

    John GilbertJohn 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:

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  • Exhaust Notes:

    PADDLING
    More and more cars are offering steering-wheel paddles to allow drivers manual control over automatic or CVT transmissions. A good idea might be to standardize them. Most allow upshifting by pulling on the right-side paddle and downshifting with the left. But a recent road-test of the new Porsche Panamera, the paddles for the slick PDK direct-sequential gearbox were counter-intuitive -- both the right or left thumb paddles could upshift or downshift, but pushing on either one would upshift, and pulling back on either paddle downshifted. I enjoy using paddles, but I spent the full week trying not to downshift when I wanted to upshift. A little simple standardization would alleviate the problem.

    SPEAKING OF PADDLES
    The Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution has the best paddle system, and Infiniti has made the best mainstream copy of that system for the new Q50, and other sporty models. And why not? It's simply the best. In both, the paddles are long, slender magnesium strips, affixed to the steering column rather than the steering wheel. Pull on the right paddle and upshift, pull on the left and downshift. The beauty is that while needing to upshift in a tight curve might cause a driver to lose the steering wheel paddle for an instant, but having the paddles long, and fixed, means no matter how hard the steering wheel is cranked, reaching anywhere on the right puts the upshift paddle on your fingertips.

    TIRES MAKE CONTACT
    Even in snow-country, a few stubborn old-school drivers want to stick with rear-wheel drive, but the vast majority realize the clear superiority of front-wheel drive. Going to all-wheel drive, naturally, is the all-out best. But the majority of drivers facing icy roadways complain about traction for going, stopping and steering with all configurations. They overlook the simple but total influence of having the right tires can make. There are several companies that make good all-season or snow tires, but there are precious few that are exceptional. The Bridgestone Blizzak continues to be the best=known and most popular, but in places like Duluth, MN., where scaling 10-12 blocks of 20-30 degree hills is a daily challenge, my favorite is the Nokian WR. Made without compromising tread compound, the Nokians maintain their flexibility no matter how cold it gets, so they stick, even on icy streets, and can turn a skittish car into a winter-beater.