Lincoln-Mercury trucks on coast
Ford Motor Company wasn’t kidding when it announced it was going to separate its Lincoln-Mercury division off from Ford. First, it moved all the corporate Lincoln-Mercury folks in Detroit to a new office, and not in downtown Detroit. Instead, it was to Southern California!
So the perfect way for Lincoln-Mercury to introduce its 1999 truck-side vehicles was to invite a dozen automotive journalists to — where else? — California, where the Lincoln Navigator, Mercury Mountaineer and Mercury Villager could be put through their paces.
We ran the Navigator, Lincoln’s humongous version of the Ford Expedition, through the mountainous countryside just east of Carmel-by-the-Sea, inland near Laguna Seca race track and on through the valley to Mission San Antonio.
The Villager van, thoroughly redone for 1999, carried us along the coast south to Big Sur. We cheated a little from the original plan, going south from Monterey on a stretch of roadway I knew to be spectacular from the only other time I had been to that region, two years ago.
We drove the Mountaineer, which is Mercury’s regrilled Ford Explorer, for a sunset vista on the ocean in Carmel, and later to San Jose, a couple hours inland, for our return flight. It was fun and the sightseeing was fantastic, but we can’t lose sight of our objective, to scrutinize the three vehicles.
Navigator power
Resplendent in black with lots of shiny chrome, the Navigator is massive, geared to challenge the biggest Suburban/Tahoe types from General Motors and to stake its claim as the best “luxury SUV” according to Ford marketing hyperbole.
It has several unique features, even setting it apart from the highly successful Expedition, with a major feature its an advanced engine. The original 4.6 and 5.4 V8 engines are strong, with single overhead camshafts for higher revving and smoother freeway cruising. The 5.4-liter V8 had 230 horsepower for 1998 in the Expedition and Navigator, and that’s been jacked up to 260 horses for ’99. But as of Dec. 7, the Intech 5.4 engine that will be exclusive to, and standard in, the Navigator will have dual overhead cams with four valves per cylinder, jumping up to 300 horsepower at 5,000 RPMs and 360 foot-pounds of torque at 3,000.
That will set the Navigator up for best-in-class figures for horsepower and torque, as well as for cargo payload and towing capacity. The Navigators we drove in the California mountains were all armed with that new engine, which, I proved under hard acceleration, pull smoothly and easily to 5,300 RPMs before the 4-speed automatic transmission upshifts.
With a new live front axle and full-time all-wheel-drive becoming standard, the refined efficiency of the DOHC 5.4 V8 improves fuel economy closer to 17-20 — which is about all you can hope for on such a hefty vehicle — while also qualifying as an “LEV,” a low-emission vehicle by EPA standards.
To bolster sales, which already have more than doubled original estimates, the Navigator offers what any self-respecting $40,000-plus luxury SUV should, and a few features beyond. Four-corner load-leveling suspension, for example, and leather interior with real wood console and interior trim are standard. The third-row bench seat, which boosts capacity to eight occupants, now has rollers for easy removal.
So is a neat concept, which is power adjustable pedals, movable in or out a total of 3 inches at the touch of a dash switch, even while moving. This feature goes beyond the infinitely adjustable seats to assure individually comfortable driving position. The 17-inch chrome wheels stand out, especially on the black Navigator, and other standard features are a new electrical system and an upgraded audio unit.
Navigators have remote locks, and also Ford’s push-button combination keyless lock system, which allows entry by tapping in the vehicle’s exclusive combination on buttons located just below the door handles. That’s fantastic for Up North winters — at least, normally cold-temperatures winters — because you can start and warm up the vehicle, leaving the keys inside, securing it with the combination lock so only you can reenter.
Villager versatility
The Villager was introduced as a joint venture with Nissan in 1993, with both the Nissan Quest and Villager designed around Nissan engines and chassis but assembled for both at Ford plants. The Villager was known for having the closest thing to car-like handling among minivans, and the only complaint was limited interior room compared to the Chrysler minivans, the standard target for the rest of the industry.
For 1999, that complaint disappears. The Villager (and Quest) are all new, 4.5 inches longer, with 2 inches of that in cargo room, and another added inch in second-seat legroom. It also has sliding doors on both sides, although only the passenger-side’s has optional power. The Villager is powered by a 3.3-liter V6 with overhead cams and a proportionate power increase to 170 horsepower and 200 foot-pounds of torque.
The base Villager will be $22,995, with a fancier Estate model, and a Sport model, which gets the Estate’s real-world improvements in suspension and larger wheels, plus some sporty trim items. The test-vehicle we drove was the Sport model, although it had optional digital instruments instead of the white-faced gauges standard for the sport. Firmer spring rates and larger wheels add to the Sport models’s handling, although the Estate gets the same firmer suspension, which aids cornering maneuvers but is far from harsh.
All kinds of seat configurations are possible. The model we drove had quad buckets in front and in the second row, plus a bench seat in the rear. The rear bench is on a roller track that can move 5 inches fore and aft.
There is one other minivan battle going on behind the scenes, and that is for cupholders. The Villager wades in, offering seven cupholders when seating for seven is in place. Ah, but when you fold down the second-row buckets, you get more cupholders in the now-flat backrests, and you get still more with the rear bench folded flat. An eager marketing type was enthusiastic as he demonstrated how you can, in fact, wind up with a maximum of 13 cupholders, by folding down enough seats so that only two occupants are on board. Hmmmm…seven cupholders for seven occupants, and 13 cupholders for two occupants.
Behind the rear bench seat there is a foldable parcel shelf that extends to the rear hatch. That proved handy for a picnic lunch in a Big Sur park, and also conceals stuff you’re storing in the quite-spacious area beneath the shelf.
The front-wheel-drive Villager does track well and handle very well, and the larger interior room plus the dual sliding side doors and power increase should make it a viable challenger to steal a larger segment of the minivan market.
Mountaineer upgrade
You can still get the old pushrod 5.0-liter V8 in the Mountaineer, but it would only make sense if you had to tow things too large for the V6. The available V6 is the best choice for normal duty. It is Ford’s German-designed 4.0-liter engine, reinforced two years ago and fitted with single overhead cams, which allow the same engine to turn out 210 horsepower, only 5 fewer than the 5-liter pushrod V8. It also has a very adequate 240 foot-pounds of torque, although the V8’s 288 is stronger at low-end for all-out tow jobs.
The SOHC V6 also runs through a highly efficient 5-speed automatic transmission, and it almost feels like a sporty car when you stand on it and let the revs run up to the shiftpoints. Like all Lincoln-Mercury trucks, the Mountaineer qualifies as a low-emission vehicle. The test vehicle had full-time all-wheel-drive with available ControlTrac, which can locked by a switch into high or low range for rugged terrain.
It is a body-on-frame truck-based chassis, and also has improved suspension, rear load-leveling and improved brakes. Safety has been enhanced by available side-airbags, housed in the side bolsters of the front driver and passenger seats, for incremental head and chest protection when hit from the side. I have never been an advocate of front airbags, simply because they only work if you are securely belted in, and if you are securely belted in, airbags might not only be superfluous but downright dangerous. That’s another column, but in the meantime, airbags might be far more useful in side-impact protection.
Among other new features is a reverse-sensing system that beeps when you get near an object while backing up. Activated by four ultrasonic sensors in the rear bumper, the beeps are at shorter intervals as you get closer to an object, and at 10 inches the beeps are continuous. Some costly BMW luxury sedans have that feature, and it makes even more sense for a square-backed SUV to help you realize your proximity to vehicles/walls/people while backing into a parallel parking space.
Both the Mountaineer and the Villager have the Homelink system that uses up to three remote transmitters to make you find yourself, and a new Travelnote system is an optional hands-free digital recorder on the driver’s sun visor, which is better than trying to remember or, worse, to jot down an important note while you’re driving. It’s particularly useful for encoding intricate directions, because you can play them back as you try to locate some site.
The Mountaineer is a more sensible size for an SUV, and I liked its form-fitting bucket seats best among the three test vehicles. The Navigator and Villager seats were fine, certainly, but the Mountaineer seems to envelop and grip your body better.
Competition fierce during car show season
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
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
’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).
Cougar reborn in Mercury lair
1999 Mercury Cougar
Likes: Bold, futuristic styling conceals surpisingly spacious interior, including rear seat and hatchback storage. A front-wheel-drive sporty coupe that a family can live in.
Dislikes: Bucket seats could use better lower-back bolstering; suspension could be finer-tuned for sportier handling; hard-core racers might find the power no better than adequate.
Bottom line: Base price $18,495; as tested $20,265.
Cougar reborn as all-new cat for 1999
Everybody remembers the Mercury Cougar. Well, forget it. For 1999, the Cougar will be drawing folks interested in sporty coupes to Lincoln-Mercury showrooms in numbers Ford is gambling will be unprecedented.
It’s a gamble, because the U.S. car-buying public is nowhere near as predictable as the European or Japanese markets, where logical size, reasonable economy and enduring style command the decisions to buy sedans or coupes. In the U.S., where a lot of folks always have seemed stuck on “bigger is better,” the current rage is enormous sports-utility vehicles and large, powerful sedans that get poor economy and are considerably larger than most buyers really need.
In that scope, sporty coupes have faded in recent years. General Motors is so concerned about lagging sales of the Camaro and Firebird that those two long-term coupes may cease to exist. Chrysler Corporation dropped the Dodge Stealth (a rebadged Mitsubishi 3000GT), and the Plymouth Laser and then the Eagle Talon (both rebadged Mitsubishi Eclipses). And Ford eliminated the Probe, and the Ford Thunderbird, and the Mercury Cougar.
That’s right, the Cougar ceased to exist. Long live the Cougar.
The new and rejuvenated ’99 Cougar is part of what Ford is calling its “new edge” design. It is an entirely new look for Ford, and it is worldwide in scope, with futuristic touches here and there, but utilitarian features underneath the boldly redone outer skin.
One look at the new Cougar and you realize this is unlike anything you’ve ever seen from Ford, with the possible exception of photos of the Puma concept coupes. It has a serious scowl to the front grille, with the familiar little Cougar logo in the middle. Also, neat little projector-beam headlights, with blistered plexiglass covering, give the car an advanced sporty appearance.
From the side, the lines are sleek and imaginatively contoured, with two bends running from front to rear, widening as they veer apart at the rear, and accenting the swept-back appearance that is further enhanced by the antenna, which juts back at a jaunty angle, centered on the leading edge of the roof.
The rear is daringly angular, with wraparound taillights that also have blistered lens covers, and a built-in spoiler rear face rising to meet the steeply angled hatchback glass.
In size, concept and approximate shape, the new Cougar most resembles the Probe, which was an impressive and consistently good sporty coupe for years until Ford and its Mazda affiliate quit making it a year ago. But the family ties include the fact that the new Cougar is built in the same plant that built the Probe.
Under those Contours…
The car that the new Cougar most relates to is the Contour sedan. Lift those neatly styled contours of the Cougar’s body, and that sleek 2-door coupe would reveal the chassis, suspension, engine and transmission of the Contour. That’s a no-brainer for Ford, because the Contour has gained wide acceptance worldwide, so it gives the Cougar solid footing.
The sporty potential of the Cougar also has a worldly reality to it. The car is not a neck-snapping dragster, nor is it a slalom-running sports car. It is a competent, attractive, futuristic coupe with both front-wheel drive and room for actual occupants in the rear seat — quite unlike the Mustang, Camaro, Firebird or Eclipse — and it is reasonably priced at just under $20,000, and it is built to be both durable and economically efficient.
I had no trouble getting 25 miles per gallon with a factory test car, which was a rich, dark blue Cougar with the optional V6 engine and a 5-speed manual transmission.
The problem could be with those hot-rod hearted zealots who expect this sporty-looking car to blow away Cobras and Z-28s. It won’t do that. The base 4-cylinder has 125 horsepower and 130 foot-pounds of torque, which is fully adequate for taking the Cougar on its daily real-world chores.
The optional V6 has an impressive 170 horsepower and 165 foot-pounds of torque, but remember that this is only a 2.5-liter V6. U.S. manufacturers are making V6 engines up to 3.8 liters, and the 2.5-liter Ford Duratec engine challenges the sheer displacement size of larger engines with technology. It has dual overhead camshafts with four valves per cylinder, so it runs strong and true up through the revs, and if its outright power is merely adequate, its flexibility, efficiency and economy are rich compensation.
The platform gets stiffer suspension, a thicker stabilizer bar and a wider track, making the lower and lighter Cougar (3,060 pounds) potentially more stable than the Contour sedan. While it handles well and feels good, I think it will be refined into a much better-feeling sporty coupe in the future. I wish Ford had gone to the Special Vehicle Team guys who transformed the Contour to a limited-edition SVT Contour, but maybe something like that will be coming.
Inside, the layout is neat with impressive gauges and ergonomically efficient switchgear. The 5-speed feels OK, if not Porsche precise, and the curvy-lined door design integrates the handgrip and window switches. Rotating raised-rib switches operate the air/heat system, and dash vents are old-style round outlets that can be easily aimed where you want.
Now if only we could convince Ford to go ergonomic on its radios. This had a great audio system, complete with compact disc player in the dash, but Ford insists on a tiny, horizontal volume control that looks and feels a lot like the dozen other buttons. I’m all in favor of every audio system having a big, round knob for volume, so you can turn it up, down or off without groping, looking, and then groping some more.
The bucket seats are impressive looking, but I think Ford could improve them. The seats have a comfortable-looking curve to the backreasts, which looks inviting. But once you’ve been in that seat for awhile, your lower back might wish it was convex where it’s concave. Added bolstering could help immeasurably. There may have been some compromises for style over substance in the Cougar, but the seats are an unusual place for Ford to make that tradeoff. Particularly since Ford has various other cars with exceptional seats, starting with the SVT Contour or Mustang Cobra. They’d probably bolt right in.
All-new concept
In the 1960s, when Ford had pulled off the master-stroke of creating the Mustang, and with it a whole new automotive segment called “pony cars,” it was quite natural that Mercury wanted a Mustang of its own. That’s how the Cougar was born. In those first days, the Cougar was a Mustang with different sheet metal, closed headlights and all, but with the same sporty attitude. There was even a Cougar Eliminator version for high-performance zealots, which rivaled the Mustang Boss 302. I remember it well because in the early days of my automotive columnist life, I drove one at high speed around Ford’s private test track.
From there, the parent company seemed caught up in whether to split away Mercury models from Ford or make them similar, if not identical. The Cougar was caught in the middle, changing personalities as if to typify cats and their nine lives. It finally branched away from the Mustang and latched onto the Thunderbird’s platform, even though that car itself had evolved from a 2-seat sports car to a lunker 2-door, 4-seat coupe.
The Cougar had seemed to solidify in its niche as a luxury coupe, a large 2-door with a spacious back seat and what is called a “formal” roofline. In the automotive design world a roofline is either sleek or squarish and not sleek. In the automotive buzzword biz, you can’t call a roofline “squarish” and hope to sell any, so the formal designation is used instead.
The Cougar was quietly terminated a year ago, and there was no particular outcry of disappointment from the masses, who were generally elbowing each other out of the way to buy sports-utility vehicles. Ford also terminated the Thunderbird, and the Ford Probe, which was a sleek little sporty coupe built jointly by the Mazda folks at Flat Rock, Mich., and which had nothing whatsoever to do with the hefty T-Bird and Cougar.
Meanwhile, Ford has a major hit on its hands with the 4-door sedan called the Contour (or Mercury Mystique) in the U.S., and called the Mondeo in Europe and other parts of the world. It is a compact sedan smaller than the Taurus and larger than the Escort, and its properly compact size fits most families’ sedan requirements. Ford also builds a strong little 4-cylinder engine called the Zetec and an impressive V6 called the Duratec for the Contour. Both engines are high-tech, dual-overhead camshaft and multiple-valve configuration, and they are so impressive that they are shipped from the U.S. to Germany to be installed in the Mondeo for high-speed hauls down the autobahns.
Out of all this, Ford made its next move a bold one. The Cougar name has been resurrected for ’99 as this unique and sporty 2-door coupe.
It combines the old Cougar’s distinctive logo, outlining a cat’s-head, with the Contour’s chassis, platform and drivetrains, and this stunning new body, and the whole thing is put together by the craftsmen at Flat Rock, Mich., where the Probe had been built and the Mazda 626 still is.
A little bit extinct Cougar, quite a bit Contour under the skin, a little bit Probe in size and concept, but the overall package of the 1999 Cougar is stylish and unique.
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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