Jetta follows VW’s Passat-New Beetle hot streak
1999 VOLKSWAGEN JETTA GLS
Likes: New look is sporty, contemporary; a tight, everything-works example of how to improve on an already excellent compact sedan.
Dislikes: Spare me the power locks that lock by themselves and force all occupants to unlock before exiting.
Bottom line: Base price $16,700; as tested $20,045.
If you were blindfolded and placed behind the wheel of the 1999 Volkswagen Jetta GLS, then allowed to drive it with all the trademark logos concealed, you would be thoroughly impressed that you were in as good a midsized sedan as you could find — from the standpoints of performance, comfort, efficient layout of controls, even style.
That shouldn’t be surprising. As automotive companies go, the German corporation that combines Volkswagen and Audi have an unparalleled success story over the last six years. And the new Jetta is just the latest example.
Go back a few years to when Volkswagen was switching much of its North American assembly to a plant in Mexico. That came just after Audi was ripped without mercy — and, it turns out, without conclusive fact — about unintended acceleration. Sales of Audis plummeted in the U.S., even while it continued to prosper as an inexpensive alternative to Mercedes and BMW worldwide. Resale value of Audis dropped to rock-bottom, which made used Audis the best bargain in the industry.
Then the labor problems in Mexico caused Volkswagen to miss a full model year with the Golfs and Jettas in 1994. Try that on your dealerships’ health. Dealers in Duluth, Bemidji, and other medium-size towns closed up shop, and the Twin Cities dealers were hanging on by a thread.
On top of all that came the German fluctuation of the mark on the money market. German manufacturers realized they had to cut costs and lower prices, and would not compromise on quality. Audi made their good cars better, and came out with the A4 model that instantly became the standard of the industry at $25,000. So successful was the A4 that buyers would make orders and wait nine months for delivery. Resale was so good that in two years, the A4’s success caused all Audis to rise to unprecedented heights, and it became one of the best cars in the industry for resale. The pre-A4 models that you could buy for $5,000 actually rose in price three years later.
Volkswagen’s arm recovered, although the Golf/Jetta line was getting on in age and style, it remained solid and trustworthy, and Volkswagen borrowed the A4 platform from Audi as the basis for a new Passat sedan that came out with rave reviews. It has a stylish, arching roundness to its lines that sets it apart from the A4, plus it has a larger back seat and trunk to more closely resemble the newer A6 Audi. On top of that, to avoid competing with the A4, the Passat is priced under it, at around $22,000.
And then, of course, came the New Beetle. In the past year, nothing else has approached the New Beetle for attracting sales and simply charming the socks off customers and wannabe customers. The thing that makes the New Beetle so good is that it rides on the platform that is the basis for the all-new Jetta and Golf, with front-wheel-drive and all the safety and security the Golf/Jetta are known for. Plus it’s so darn cute.
Amid all the hoopla, Volkswagen almost quietly has come out with the scheduled introduction of the new Jetta. The bread-and-butter car in VW’s line, the Jetta is extremely important to the onward and upward spiral. And it is a clearcut winner.
The test vehicle I drove was the GLS model, which is the middle model in the Jetta line. The base GL comes with the solid and substantial 2.0-liter 4-cylinder engine and costs just under $17,000. One of the interesting marketing situations that Volkswagen has now created for itself is that the Passat’s price is good, and the Jetta, being more compact, has to cost less. Which makes at an even better bargain.
The GLS test car came pretty well loaded, with the optional V6 engine that has gotten various mechanical awards worldwide. It is a close-angle V, with one cylinder head covering both banks, and began life on the Corrado sports car. It also had the optional automatic transmission, alloy wheels and a sunroof, and still came in right at $20,000.
SCULPTURED LOOK
The Passat lines are smooth and flowing, with the front end aerodynamically matched and not even an indentation where the grille and hood meet the headlights. The Jetta departs from that look, which makes both of them look distinguished, and distinguishable. On the Jetta, the nose enclosing the grille is contoured out from the headlights, and the contour angles up over the hood.
The bumper and its lower molding is smoothly incorporated into the whole thing, creating a neat, contemporary look around the sloped rectangular headlights.
The rear end is more angular, and much more anglular than the Passat. The line comes up and meets the rear door pillar, which is angled not-unlike the traditional BMW look. More important, the rear looks very compact, but when you open the trunk you are amazed at how much room is inside.
The whole passenger compartment of the body also is compact, and if you carry 6-footers in the rear seat often, you will find it quite confining. It is adequate for 5-10 folks or so, and roomy for anyone shorter than that, including two or three kids.
I would think VW designers could have cut a couple more inches into the rear seatroom and taken it away from the spacious trunk, but VW has been so sharp lately, we have to assume the plan is to keep the Jetta compact so as not to bump into the Passat’s customers.
Inside, the cloth bucket seats are supportive and comfortable. The dashboard is covered in a two-town grey textured vinyl that is neither flashy nor as bland as German interiors often are.
The seatbelt anchors are adjustable on the center pillar, which is a nice touch many cars have now. Anchoring it lower on your shoulder improves security and feels less obtrusive. As usual, the Jetta has a crushable, impact-absorbing body that is among the safest in the industry, and airbags are there along with the quick-tensioning seat harnesses.
For more real-world safety, the 4-wheel disc brakes haul the Jetta down quickly, and while smooth-riding on the road, the car’s suspension and handling give you a total feeling of control and agility in all maneuvering.
ADDED FEATURES
While the GLS with the options on the test car seems to fulfill all demands, there also is a GLX model that isn’t out yet, but comes loaded with even more performance options and interior features. That one will cost more than the base Passat, but will be interesting to test when it shows up.
Meanwhile, for $20,000, it’s hard to imagine being a better bargain than the GLS. Good as the VW V6 is, it is only 2.8 liters in displacement, which is small, particularly when compared to some domestic V6s of 3.8 liters. Most smaller engines become dogs with automatic transmissions, but Volkswagen gears its automatic to zip the Jetta swiftly off the line. I would still prefer a 5-speed to wrench the full potential out of that powerplant, but this is one compact where the automatic has no bow-wow leash to it.
The audio system was am-fm-cassette, and had a great sound to it, and the remote trunk release and gas filler door are on the door panel, which makes sense.
German cars are built to run on the Autobahns, with unrestricted speed limits, which is why they are strong, durable and efficient. When running those speeds, drivers are dangerous if they are thinking about things like cupholders or cruise control — features we take for granted in the U.S.
So it’s sometimes interesting to see how those features are handled. The cupholders are on a push-button thing that zips out from the dash, just below a small, lined cubicle, and just above the audio controls, which are just above the heat-air controls. Having a cup in those cupholders makes it a challenge to handle the audio controls, but putting it lower would be inefficient because the cups or pop cans wouldn’t have room to hang down. So set the radio before you use the cupholder.
The power locks are another thing that seem to be unGerman to me. On the test Jetta, the power locks engage at about 10 miles per hour, with a telling “clunk” that is typical, because Germans want you to be aware that your car has done something. But they don’t unlock when you stop and put it in park, and that is a U.S.-type nuisance I don’t like.
In Up North winter weather particularly, there is a lot of warming-up the car and moving a few feet to pick up a passenger or whatever. It’s a bother when you get in, start it up, purposely unlock all the doors for easy entry for a couple of passengers, then move forward 50 feet and stop, only to have all the doors locked.
That’s one of those modern conveniences I could do without.
The sunroof operates by a round switch, which tilts or opens or closes the large glass panel, and it has a sliding shade for hot days. Seat heaters are optional, and can be set from 0-5, with 5 being broiled. Another little thing is the antenna is short, stubby and wrapped in spiral-reinforced fashion, and it’s mounted at a jaunty, rear-sloping angle from the middle of the roof above the rear window. Perfect location to be safe from car-wash gremlins and lessening the chance for getting it knocked off.
The instrumentation is the final, crowning touch. The New Beetle has stunning, irredescent blue instruments, and VW knows a good thing when it sees it, so the Jetta instruments have the same attractive bluish glow, with bright, red-orange needles.
All in all, a very impressive compact-to-midsize sedan. If it’s big enough, it’s big enough, and anything bigger is wasted space. The new Jetta will fit in nicely, between the Passat and the New Beetle, in Volkswagen’s resurgence.
Huge Excursion aims challenge at Suburban
[photo caption stuff:
#1 — The new and enormous Ford Excursion was introduced to the automotive media last week amid the glorious Big Sky Country of Montana.
#2 — As if there needed to be evidence that the Excursion is the biggest SUV ever conceived, it was displayed next to a General Motors Suburban, which is huge in its own right, but 7.2 inches shorter than the Expedition. ]
There is no question why Ford Motor Company decided to build the Excursion. It was, plain and simple, an attempt to go directly after what Ford folks call the “large SUV segment.” And that, plain and simple, is defined by the Chevrolet and GMC Suburban.
When Sports Utility Vehicles first came out, there were Jeeps and Broncos and Blazers. Then there were downsized versions, and midsized versions, and on up to over 40 varieties of SUVs. But as the manufacturers stampeded to capture some of the lucrative market share from the U.S. craze for SUVs, there always was a Suburban. The Suburban was the longest and largest SUV imaginable, and its downsized versions, the Chevy Tahoe and the GMC Yukon, are pretty huge by themselves. Ford went after those with the Expedition, and the Lincoln-version Navigator — both of which were bigger than the Tahoe/Yukon. But General Motors could continue to advertise that the Suburban still stood alone, as the largest SUV on the market.
So for the year 2000, Ford is going after the big guy, with plans to produce 50,000 Excursions, many of which already have been ordered. U.S. buyers clearly believe that bigger is better, and the Excursion is the longest, largest SUV made, or even imagined. It is 7.2 inches longer than a Suburban, 3.3 inches wider and from 4.3 to 5.8 inches taller, conclusively deciding which is the king of the road, size-wise. Ford hopes its technology will also make the Excursion king of the enormo-SUVs in sales, someday, but it knows it has three decades of Suburban tradition to overcome.
“The Suburban has been out there for 30 years, and there is great loyalty among Suburban buyers,” said J.C. Collins, Ford’s marketing wizard on the Excursion project. He addressed a gathering of selected automotive media types last week at the introduction for the Excursion, which was held in Montana’s Big Sky country, up in the mountains near Yellowstone. Interesting that while environmental groups are ripping Ford for bringing out an enormous, fuel-guzzling vehicle into the market during the ongoing fight for cleaner air and more fuel-efficient vehicles, Ford chooses to introduce this monster under the clear, blue sky of the Montana mountains, with the rivers-that-run-through-it splashing alongside the highways.
When asked specifically about bringing in a vehicle that can estimate 10-18 miles per gallon but might get closer to the 10, Collins said: “We’re entering the segment as environmentally friendly as possible, but we’re entering the market.”
Impressively, the Excursion qualifies as a Low Emission Vehicle (LEV), because its engines develop up to 43 percent lower emissions than the law requires in all 50 states. Also, nearly 20 percent of the vehicle is made from recycled material, whether steel, aluminum, rubber or plastic. And 85 percent of the new Excursion is recyclable.
The Excursion will start with a base price of $34,135 in two-wheel-drive base form, with the LTD four-wheel-drive version starting at $40,880. Ford says that’s reasonable, because the base Excursion delivers greater capacities than the base Suburban 1500, and will be less-expensive than the larger Suburban 2500 series. It is targeted at consumers who will tow heavy trailers or use it for vacation-loads, although Ford is aware it also will become a team bus for youth sports loads, and estimates that 30 percent of the buyers will be women.
It was almost comical to hear repeated references marketing references to growth in the segment, and how the segment had doubled in the last eight years, and how the lure of getting a piece of such a huge segment was what caused Ford to come up with the Excursion. “That segment was fairly dormant until eight years ago, and since then it has doubled,” Collins said. “There were 150,000 sold in that segment last year, and we couldn’t afford to leave that segment lie.”
When I finally asked him what exactly the segment consisted of, he said, “The Suburban.”
That’s all.
We were allowed to drive various Excursions on and off the highways, but only after promising not to disclose our driving impressions until August. My notes might be a bit musty by then, but at least we can talk about the concept and the intention of the Excursion without any embargo.
HUGE, BUT SLEEK
Appearance-wise, I thought the Excursion looked less forbidding than I anticipated. I’m the type who believes we’d all be best off driving the smallest, most efficient vehicle that serves our specific needs, and I believed that nothing needed to be larger than a Suburban. But the Excursion looks quite sleek, actually, and maybe that’s why it doesn’t seem so huge, because the stubbier Expedition/Navigator actually look taller and large, because of the proportions.
The Excursion weighs either 7,190 or 7,688 pounds, depending on which engine you get in the 4 x 4 form. if that is an asset. The Excursion comes in nine-passenger form, with 165 cubic feet of cargo volume behind the front seats, and 48 cubic feet of stowage area behind the third row of seats. If you remove the third seat, cargo capacity rises to 100.7 cubic feet. A Class 4 trailer hitch, rated at pulling 10,000 pounds, is standard. (The Suburban provides that much towing capacity, but only if you choose the larger 2500 series model.)
The rear end features a glass liftgate for the upper portion, and two thick-but-light doors, made of plastic composite.
For power, the Excursion can be obtained with a 5.4-liter overhead-cam V8, but only in two-wheel-drive form. And anyone paying over $35,000 and living in Up North winters would be clueless if they bought one without four-wheel drive. That way, you can choose between two engines — a 6.8-liter V10 or a 7.3-liter turbocharged diesel. The 5.4 has 255 horsepower and 350 foot-pounds of torque; the 6.8 V10 has 310 horses and 425 foot-pounds of torque; the 7.3 turbodiesel has 235 horsepower and an amazing 500 foot-pounds of torque.
Robin Miller, who worked on the team that designed the platform, explained how Ford had figured it would be an easy move to take the new F250 crew cab truck platform, and cover it with a long, large SUV body. But it didn’t quite work out that way.
“There were a lot more changes than we anticipated from the F250,” said Miller. “Even though there are 60 percent common parts, there are 1,000 parts involved. The suspension is similar to the F250, but we ended up redoing and retuning everything before we were through.”
The 4×4 version has leaf springs front and rear with live axles, while the 4×2 (two-wheel drive) version hasthe old but reliable Ford I-Beam on the front axle.
WHO’S RUNNING THE ASYLUM?
Over the years, Ford trucks and SUVs have traditionally been hardier off the road if a bit harsh on the road, while GM’s counterparts have been too flexy off the road, but softer and “floatier” on the road, with the driver more insulated from smaller road irregularities. Neither side is wrong, they’re just different. Both have moved toward a middle ground in recent years, but do you think you could find a dedicated Ford fan who would praise a Chevy, or vice versa?
One of the problems Ford had to overcome when designing the suspension, amazingly enough, went down to market research of how to attract both Ford folks and Suburban buyers. Companies do tireless quantities of research before building any vehicle these days, but Ford actually sought out Suburban owners and asked them to critique the new Excursion. That’s like asking someone who is allergic to water how they’d feel about swimming the English Channel.
Suburban owners told Ford folks that they thought the Excursion suspension was too firm, too harsh, had too much jounce, and didn’t have the same “floating” feeling that Suburbans have in their handling. Suburbans, they said, float along, insulating drivers from the feel of the road. Those are the same characteristics that have caused observers to criticize GM vehicles in recent years, yet here we have Suburban owners criticizing the prototype Excursion’s road feel, which is no surprise. The surprise is that Ford scurried around to make all sorts of changes and alterations to accommodate those GM types.
“The challenge was to refine the Suburban concept and add some finesse,” said Miller. “We wanted to soften up the suspension to get what people liked about the Suburban, then add some finesse. We altered the tires, shocks and spring characteristics of our original to come up with a compromise, and we think we got it.”
While such moves may have impressed Suburban drivers, most of them are GM zealots who wouldn’t buy a Ford produce at any cost, just as Ford types won’t be buying Chevys. But the corporate stance from Ford is that SUVs are something consumers need and want, and if they want the biggest SUV on the market, Ford wanted to be able to supply it.
The Excursion hasn’t overlooked safety, either. Along with all the anticipated crashworthy items that allow it to meet all car crash tests, it takes into account the current controversy about how big trucks and SUVs are hazardous to any normal or small car it might encounter. The Excursion has a blocker beam up front, which is a cross-member located under and behind the front bumper and allows it to engage any car at the proper height so that both vehicles’ safety systems are activated. The trailer hitch assembly accomplishes the same at the rear.
Ford executives say they expect this “segment” to continue to grow. Indeed, with this introduction, the segment has doubled in size — from the Suburban, to the Suburban and Excursion.
Also, they don’t think the Excursion will intrude on Expedition/Navigator sales. As one marketing type said: “If the Expedition fills the bill for size, why would you spend the extra money for this?”
That’s a question that once was asked about the Expedition being favored over the Explorer, and if anyone can figure out the answer, we might better understand the unique-to-the-U.S. love affair with huge trucks.
Saturn surprises even itself with 3-door coupe
If a third door on a pickup truck is a good idea, then why isn’t it also a good idea on a sports coupe?
That is a question that nobody in the car business has ever asked, apparently because the limited space and the smoothly styled lines of a coupe simply preclude the concept.
The folks at Saturn, however, not only asked the question, but also have provided a worthy answer.
For 1999, the Saturn not only comes in a 4-door sedan, a 4-door station wagon, and a coupe, but you can get the sleek, 2-door coupe with a third, rear-hinged door on the driver’s side.
The placement and operation is the same as with the pickup truck idea of recent years, which, of course, led to a fourth door in many cases, after the idea of the rearward opening third door to allow access to extended-cab pickups caught on and swept through the industry. Some of those front seats in pickups are hard to tilt and near impossible to reach behind, so the third door offers great and quick access to the extension of the extended cabs.
On the Saturn coupe, the rear seat has always had surprisingly good head and legroom. If you’re 6-feet or taller, you wouldn’t want to ride cross-country back there, but it’s definitely adequate or better for short hops, and great for kid-sized passengers.
Still, climbing into the rear seat for anyone has always been an agility project in all coupes. Open the door, wide, tilt the seat forward, then do a gymnastics-like tumble to wind up back there with all your extremities.
With the three-door Saturn coupe, you open the driver’s door, then work the hidden doorsill hand grip to pop the skinny little rearward door open. Without a pillar between the doors, the wide expanse seems even wider, and you not only have easy access for passengers, but it’s excellent for getting your hands on parcels or briefcases that you’ve stored in the rear seat.
Saturns come in the SL (4-door sedan) models and the SW-1 and SW-2 station wagon models, plus the SC-1 and SC-2 coupes — both of which are now offered as 3-doors.
SATURN’S BEGINNING
When General Motors allowed a handful of its rebellious engineers to embark on the Saturn project, which was launched in 1990, it was a bold and impressive step for the biggest, and most tradition-bound U.S. car manufacturer.
And that first Saturn was far ahead of its time, vaulting GM into true competition with the best Japanese compact cars. Since then, an assortment of things has kept the Saturn from leap-frogging forward. Other divisions have seemed envious, and politically have needed some help, all of which might have caused less development and polishing to be done to Saturn’s bold new branch.
The first car had several breakthrough features. For one, the 1.9-liter engine is made with a “lost-foam” technique, in which the engine block is made of styrofoam, then molten aluminum is poured onto the styrofoam, which causes it to evaporate, while the aluminum cools and forms to replace the foam perfectly.
The other main feature is the body panels, which are made from a polymer instead of steel, so they don’t get dings or dents, they just flex and reform.
Saturns originated because some rebels at GM wanted to build a car from the ground up that would compete directly with the best imports. The mainstream concept at GM was to buy smaller cars from the joint venture with Toyota (Nummi plant in California), such as the Prizm, or from Suzuki, for the Metro and Tracker. But when GM decided to let the rebels make their Saturn, the response was impressive.
The initial hype for Saturn was its no-dicker sticker prices. You get a price, and there is no diddling with the sales-person. That’s it. Options can be had a la carte, or in a couple of packages. Adding an automatic transmission costs about $850, adding air-conditioning (standard on the SC-2) costs $960 on the SC-1. But it’s still easy to stay around $17,000 and get your Saturn pretty well equipped.
The difference of the SC-1 and SC-2 (or any 1 or 2 designation Saturns) is the motor. All have a 1.9-liter, 4-cylinder, but the “1” has a single overhead camshaft and two valves per cylinder, while the “2” gets dual overhead-cams and four valves per cylinder. It’s the same with the SW-1 and SW-2. The DOHC version gives you a boost from an adequate 100 horsepower and 114 foot-pounds of torque up to 124 horses and 122 foot-pounds of torque.
The biggest problem, over the years, is that the engine has been noisy. If you run the revs up, it tends to vibrate, although Saturn engineers have worked hard, and annually, to cushion the engine mounts in rubber, or otherwise smooth out the vibration. This year, they have gone to a new engine cover, longer connecting rods, an eight counter-weight crankshaft, and a new, 8-mm. pitch timing chain.
OK, the engines are smoother and quieter. But I never minded the buzzy sound of performance of the old one as it revved toward the maximum. There’s nothing wrong with an audible tachometer, which can tell you when the revs are getting high.
COUPE DE GRACE
For 1999, however, Saturn seems to have surprised even itself with the new 3-door coupe. It didn’t even merit a mention in the notebook-full of 1999 Saturn information — as if, maybe, it was an afterthought that was hustled out after the initial launch of new model cars.
The early brochure lists the sticker price of the SC-1 at $11,945 and the SC-2 at $14,505; the revised sheet shows the SC-1 at $12,445 and the SC-2 at $15,005. That shows strictly the difference in cost with the third door.
I had a chance to test-drive two different Saturns, with one being the 3-door coupe that you’ve undoubtedly seen advertised on television, and the other being the station wagon.
Both zipped through their paces with ease. The wagon offers the versatility of throwing whatever we don’t want in the trunk.
The first Saturns looked good, but there was something about the lines that bothered me. Sort of a trendiness to show something like the angle of a ring around Saturn. The new car, having been extensively redesigned two years ago, looks good from every angle. In fact, it has something of a low, ground-hugging sports-racer.
I was particularly taken by the look one evening, when we had to move a couple of cars around, and as I drove, my wife drove the Saturn behind me. The headlights are quite close together, but are aimed well and shine well down the road. But the foglights — which are standard on the SC-2, optional on the SL-2 and SW-2, and not available on the other models — not only do a good job of illuminating the lower side extremities, but they are located on the outer corners of the car. So when a Saturn comes toward you at night, you have the horizontal headlights fairly close together, and the lower, outrigger foglights, providing a distinctive and neat look.
The instrument panel is well laid out, free and clear of the gimmicky ideas of the original Saturn. The switches for various controls are a little different than some cars, but you readily get accustomed to them.
With front-wheel drive and the optional traction-control, the Saturn coupe goes in all conditions as good as it looks. And its looks can be enhanced by the optional 15-inch alloy wheels (the SC-2 has special teardrop alloys as the only optional wheel). Typically, you can go off the deep end with audio upgrades as well, including cassette and CD player, some with equalizers.
MINI-WAGON
With minivans and sports-utility vehicles filling the roadways, the station wagon seems to be almost a forgotten entity. There are several good ones on the market, however, and the Saturn SW-2 wagon I drove was a worthy, and inexpensive, idea.
Priced under the sportiest SC-2 coupe but more than the loaded SL-2 sedan, the wagon had the usual utilitity of the 4-door sedan, with the added use of the large rear cargo area. It also has a cover to shield any stuff from outside view.
The wagon I drove had the stronger engine, which is not a racer but performs well, even with an automatic transmission. Tested times for acceleration show the single-cam at about 10.5 seconds 0-60, with the DOHC about a full second quicker. Fuel economy ranges from 27 city to 38 highway for the DOHC with a manual transmission or 24/34 with the 4-speed automatic; the single-cam version gets 29/40 with the stick and 27/37 with the automatic.
A new exhaust system with a larger muffler and altered ductwork has reduced noise considerably, and aided performance. When you drive the wagon, you don’t get any feeling that the boxier rear intrudes on your near-sports-car experience, because looking ahead from the driver’s seat you get the same view as the coupe.
You get the distinct feeling that the little 1.9-liter 4-cylinder could be a world beater with just a few years of constant refinement, which is what Honda does with the Civic, Toyota does with the Corolla, and Volkswagen does with the Golf/Jetta, and even Chrysler does with the Neon. Those are the cars the Saturn must deal with in the market place. And they are tough competition.
Auto option lists include phenomenal features
So you’re cruising down the freeway in your 1999 Pontiac Bonneville SSE sedan, and without ever removing your gaze from the road ahead, you know exactly how fast you’re going, and whether you have gotten seriously low on fuel.
How did you do that? Great peripheral vision? A phenomenal feel for your gas-pedal toe? Or are you on cruise-control?
None of the above. What you have is Pontiac’s “Heads-up” display. When you’re in the driver’s seat, you can switch on a device that beams a translucent, digital number onto the windshield, just below you’re line of vision, or, if you choose, directly in your line of vision. Doesn’t matter, because you can look right through the digital number, and after a few miles, you don’t even think of it as unusual, or as any kind of distraction. You can adjust the intensity of the whiteness of the numbers, and you can move it higher or lower, or you can simply turn it off. It is a sort-of subliminal way of staying totally tuned in on the road ahead, but also always being aware of your speed.
It’s not a new gimmick, either, but one that’s been around for a few years. Remarkably, everybody hasn’t rushed to copy it or come up with a similar version of their own. It’s something that you might anticipate having in a jet fighter, or maybe a Formula 1 race car. But in a Pontiac? On the road?
While test-driving the newest cars on the road, it is impossible to fail to notice the newest gimmicks and gadgets that are usually options on all vehicles. Some of them are simple, some are stupid. All of them are interesting, and a collection some of them make a pretty impressive list.
BEST WAY TO FIND YOUR WAY: Navigation systems are available from many manufacturers these days. I’ve tested them on Cadillacs, Chevrolets, Lincolns, BMWs, Acuras, Mercedes and various others. One of the simplest and most impressive is on the Acura 3.2 and 3.5 luxury sedans. A cassette installed in the trunk unit localizes your region, then you can punch in your destination, and it reads out on a small, TV-like screen on the center dash panel. You can summon up a map of the state of Minnesota, overlapping into Wisconsin, then you can increase or decrease the scale to change from 200 miles to 10 miles. A voice backs it up to direct you through the final intersections to your exact destination.
Still, with all the new ones on the market, it’s hard to beat General Motors’ OnStar system, which used to come in only Cadillacs, but now is spread through various divisions. With OnStar, you punch a button and connect by satellite with the OnStar staff, which has you pegged on a global positioning system. It’s like having an electronic slave at your fingertips, because at your request, the OnStar folks will tell you what sort of restaurants are ahead and even make a reservation for you! It also will make a fair attempt to pull off any reasonable request.
BEYOND CRUISE CONTROL: Obviously, having cruise control is a wonderful feature on a trip, but the new Mercedes S-Class has a cruise device that is guided by sonar, which throws a beam ahead to the car in front of you, and reads the bounce-back reflection. It then commands your cruise control to maintain your speed if possible, but also maintains the interval with the car ahead. It causes your car to adjust its speed accordingly, and if you get cut off it warns you that you may need to assist it by hitting the brakes.
BACK-UP BENEFIT: A device first seen in BMW’s $75,000 740-series sedan, and this year incorporated for a fraction of that by Ford on its Windstar van, is a warning beeper activated by sensors in your rear bumper. You’re parallel parking, and as you back in and start to straighten out, you wonder — particularly in a van — how close you are to caving in the grille of that car behind you. Suddenly you hear a beep, then another, then closer and closer as you keep getting closer, until finally you hear a steady “beeeee-eee-eeeeeeee-eeeep!” Then you know it’s time to stop, that your within 10 inches of your non-target. It also works if a pedestrian walks behind the vehicle, or if you’re backing up toward a wall or other obstacle.
HAPPY-TRIP INSURANCE: So you’re taking the little ones on a cross-country trip in the Oldsmobile Silhouette minivan, eh? Or maybe the not-so-little ones. It’s illegal to have a television working where the driver can see it in a vehicle in the U.S., so the Silhouette has an optional little TV screen that folds down out of the ceiling, where it can be seen by everyone in the second and third rows of seats. It is an option, and it comes with a VCR, so the kids can watch movies, or home-made tapes, or play video games, while Nebraska rolls by without a murmur of complaint. Brilliant.
PLEASANT HOT SEAT: Saab has had this for years, and Volvo, Lexus, and virtually all other luxury cars have finally followed with seat heaters. The best ones have at least two settings, and five are even better. It feels great on a sub-zero morning to climb into the car, fire it up, hit the switch, and have this wonderful warming effect spread over your body. It’s amazing at how much more pleasant those cold start-ups can be.
MANUAL AUTOMATICS: Porsche started it all, with the Tiptronic, then it let its cousin at Audi use it. Chrysler came out with a version next, and now BMW, Honda, Jaguar, Volvo and others all have caught on. The device takes care of all the drivers who would like to have a stick shift but are either too lazy or have other drivers in the family who haven’t mastered a stick. It is an automatic transmission, but it can be switched to a separate, spring-loaded gate, where you can upshift or downshift by bumping the lever to the plus side or minus side. It’s great for downshifting, or for holding revs into the power band on upshifts, or just for fun. Porsche’s is still the best, and you can get it on the steering wheel, where you can use your thumb to upshift or downshift without taking your hand off the wheel. Just like Formula 1 or Champ Car racers.
HANDS-FREE CELL PHONES: Cell phones might be as much hazard as helpful when drivers pay more attention to their dialing or holding their phone instead of signalling a turn. But I have tested cars fro Audi, Cadillac and Mercedes that have hands-free units — you speak into a tiny microphone that looks like a little vent up by the mirror. Usually, you don’t trust it can possibly work well enough — until the person you’ve called says: “Why are you yelling?”
SHIFTY VENTS: Mazda, on its 626 sedans, has put an optional device on its center vents for what must be 20 years that is positively brilliant. Instead of simply channeling heat or air-conditioned air through the vents in the direction you’ve aimed the vent, the center vent on the Mazda oscillates — it swings gracefully from side to side, spreading the air more than in a straight channel, and it seems to warm or cool the interior much more efficiently. Nobody else has caught on.
SOLAR COOLING: Mazda, again, started this, but now Audi has included a fantastic device on its A8 luxury flagship. When it’s hot out, the solar batteries can not only activate but power the ventilation system to keep the interior moderately comfortable.
TECHNICAL ADVANCES
There are some excellent physical and technical things that have become impressive add-ons to vehicles too, things like multiple-valve engines, and variable valve-timing which can make the engines more efficient in developing power without sheer displacement increases. There are more:
TABLE APPEARS, SEAT DISAPPEARS: Honda is masterful at using space creatively. On the Honda CR-V mini-SUV, the flat panel that hides belongings under the floor in the rear can be lifted out and converted to a unique picnic table. Next, Honda comes out with a new minivan, the Odyssey, and it has a third-row bench seat with a deep, sub-floor well for belongings behind it. That third bench can be rotated to face the rear, and, for those situations when you’d rather have storage room than a third seat, the whole rear seat can tumble into a somersault, fitting perfectly into that sub-floor well and disappearing, leaving a flat, carpeted area instead.
HEADLIGHT WASHERS: Especially in Up North foul-weather driving, whenever your windshield requires washing or wiping, imagine how glopped up your headlights must be. Cars like Saab and Volvo — both Swedish — both have tiny windshield wiper units on their headlights, and when you hit the windshield washer, your headlights also get washed and scrubbed. Audi, too, is among one of the first to have tiny little spouts that rise up and spray a high-pressure shot on the headlights to clean them.
THIRD DOORS, FOURTH DOORS: The concept of adding rearward-opening third doors on pickup trucks made sense, but left the way open to come up with such doors on both sides, thus four-door pickup trucks. That, of course, has led toward the newest trend, of extending the extended cabs and installing four full-size, normally opening doors. We should have seen it coming, but now Saturn has added a third rear-opening door to the driver’s side of its SC-2 coupe.
KEYLESS DOOR LOCKS: The idea of remote door switches is not new, but it has become more and more sophisticated. Now, with the best key fobs, you can lock or unlock just the driver’s door, using a second click to unlock the rest. On some cars, holding the lock switch after you’ve locked the doors also will close the windows and even the sunroof, which is really nice for those times when you get out and are all set to walk away when you remember somebody left a window down.
GOOD NEWS/BAD NEWS
Not all the new magical devices are worthwhile. Some, in fact, are nuisances. This is pretty subjective, but two of my nonfavorites are showing up more and more.
AUTO-LOCKING DOORS: I hate door locks that automatically engage when you hit 9 miles per hour, or 18 mph. First, if it’s driver safety that is foremost, the above-mentioned method of clicking once to unlock the driver’s door, and twice for the rest of the doors, is far superior. But when you can lock or unlock all the doors with a touch of a button from the driver’s seat, all drivers should be responsible enough to push the button — if they want the doors locked. On some cars, thankfully, the doors unlock once you’ve stopped and shifted into park. However, that flies in the face of driver’s safety, because, in some situations, maybe you don’t want to instantly unlock all your doors.
AUTO ON HEAD LIGHTS: I also think drivers should be responsible enough to turn on their headlights, but some cars have either instant-on lights or daytime running lights. These work for added visibility in the daytime, but my findings are that when it’s dusk or dark, you can easily fail to turn on your normal headlights because when you start the car, the lights are already on. And when was the last time you noticed your lights were on, then reached to turn them on? I wrote about that once, and got a hostile note from someone who said the whole thing could be disconnected, or I could have pulled the fuse. My point is that if a gadget or gimmick is so questionable that you also need to learn how to defuse it, then we’re better off without it.
That includes safety devices, such as airbags, which remain questionable as strict safety devices because they seem to malfunction just enough to also be hazardous in some cases.
TT sports car gives heartbeat to Audi concept
For an automobile company, building a concept car for actual production can be therapeutic — an example of turning loose the designers to have a little fun and then dispatching the car-makers to execute a little corporate fun. And the result can be a corporate toy that makes everybody feel good. Especially if it sells.
If that’s all that German manufacturer Audi had in mind with the TT sports car, it would have to qualify as an A-plus success. However, the TT is far more than just a corporate toy. It is a new definition of the true underlying character of the corporation, which so far has spent its considerable energy and technical skills on producing extremely good, basic, substantial but somewhat conservative sedans.
I happened to be in Frankfurt, at the world’s most impressive auto show, four years ago, when Audi unveiled the TT as a concept car. Hundreds of automotive journalists from all over the globe gathered in a little studio arranged in one of the show’s 13 exposition halls to see a little lump of silver. Suddenly, and carefully choreographed to music, the silvery sheath was lifted, and out sprang a half-dozen silver-bodysuit-clad dancers, all leaping around this unusually styled little sports car.
It was neat, but a little strange, with a rounded-off front end, tight passenger compartment that resembled a chopped Porsche Speedster from the 1950s or early ’60s, and a sleek but rounded off rear end. Very unusual, but a striking blend of retro and futuristic.
Flash forward to 1999, and I had the opportunity to join another herd of automotive journalists in the 90-degree heat of central Texas for the first drive-time in the real production TT sports cars.
It was almost left to the imagination of how the metamorphosis must have occurred, from designer’s dream to consideration of production, and then to actually turning the concept car into reality.
Before we got the actual explanation of how it all came about, we were simply plunked into a group of TTs, which had been parked in semicircle inside a hangar at the airport in Austin, Texas. And we were off, running the willing little engines up through the gears with a precise-feeling 5-speed manual gearbox, dashing down freeway ramps and on out I35 — yes, the same I35 that runs from Up North in Minnesota all the way down deep through the heart of Texas, and on through the twisty hill country between Austin and San Antonio.
The car, which will be in Audi showrooms nationwide within the next month, indicates that underneath that stout, sturdy, proud, Teutonic exterior of Audi, there beats the heart of a sports-car enthusiast. For decades, Audi has let Porsche be the German sports-car builder, and Mercedes has been out there with luxurious sports cars as well. Volkswagen even had the Scirocco for years as a sporty coupe, and BMW finally got into the sports car end of things with the Z3 a couple years ago.
In those last couple of years, the new trend has been for a new breed of German sports cars, priced at just around $40,000, that includes the Porsche Boxster, the Mercedes retractable hardtop SLK, and the Z3. It is into that segment that Audi finally burst forth with the TT, which will begin at a base price of $30,000. And it will be highly competitive not only because of its amazingly reasonable price.
THE BEGINNING
Marc Trahan, who is in charge of product planning for Audi’s U.S. arm, and is one of those rare types who can not only answer any questions ranging from technical to marketing but can translate his own answers into understandable terms, explained the quick overview of the car.
“Freeman Thomas, a designer in our Sema Valley design studio, first designed the concept car,” Trahan said. “The idea was to be very pure, and to incorporate geometric shapes. The cylinder and the circle are the purest geometric forms, and you will notice they recur in various places on the car. When you see this car, it looks like the body has been stretched tight over that original 1994 drawing.
“It has Teutonic purity; every line and form must be justified. And it must all come together in an absolutely pure result.”
From Audi’s home-base factory in Ingolstadt, Germany, the TT is built in Gyor, Hungary, in a plant Audi has used since 1992 as the site to produce its extremely efficient engines. While producing over a million engines a year, the plant also has now been altered to ouse a new and efficient assembly plant. Ten trains make the run from Ingolstadt to Gyor every day, and body panels stamped out in Ingolstadt one day can be assembled into a new TT by the next morning.
The TT platform is the same one used for the A3, a blunt coupe that has had tremendous success in Europe and is slightly smaller than the world-class A4 sedan.
The name TT might seem logically to have sprung from Tradition and Technology, but, Trahan explained, it came from the term “Tourist Trophy,” which is what came to be known as the victor’s reward for racing at the Isle of Man, where all comers raced with either motorcycles or cars, from 1905 to 1922. The cars could be any touring cars, you raced whatever you could drive to the circuit. NSU motorcycles, which later would be taken over by Audi in 1969, were primary competitors in those races, making the TT name commemorative for the company as well.
In styling, Trahan went over the look of the TT. It looks like it has a chopped top because it has high door sills, which meet the “eyebrows” of the top of the wheelwells perfectly.
“The wheels and tires themselves are a prominent part of the design,” Trahan said. “The gap between the wheel-housing and the top of the wheel are considered very important, and the springs had to fit exact tolerances to maintain that spacing.”
Even the fuel filler has prominence. Most cars attempt to hide the door to the fuel-filler in the bodywork. Audi figured it’s an important item, and decided to show it off with a brushed aluminum circle and a pop-up cap on the flank.
Inside the cockpit, there are no woodgrain touches, either real or plastic. There is only the supplest of leathers and polished — but not too bright — aluminum. That aluminum recurs to circle the instruments, on the cupholders, the steering wheel horn ring, the shift knob and a panel that is hinged to fold down over the 80-watt audio system, and the silvery look also is on the perforated stainless steel facing of the pedals.
“The leather is Valcona leather, on the seats and door panels,” said Trahan. “It is a special Italian leather that is natural, with virtually no coating so that it gets better with age. We’re the first to use this particular type of leather in an automobile.”
THE DRIVING
To compete with such luminaries as the Z3, Boxster and SLK, to say nothing of world sports cars such as Corvette and various alternatives from Japan, the TT had to be more than a unique, attention-grabbing pretty face. It also had to perform.
For that, Audi uses its small but extremely potent 1.8-liter 4-cylinder engine, which, two years ago, was equipped with five valves per cylinder (three intake, two exhaust), run off dual overhead camshafts. Such a small engine might lack low-end torque, so Audi runs a low-pressure turbocharger on it.
For the TT, 180 horsepower peaking at 5,200 RPMs, but a strong 173 foot-pounds of torque as well. That torque number is good, for a small, light sports car, but the beauty of it is that its 173 peak is attained at only 1,900 RPMs, and — imagine this — it remains constant at that peak all the way to 4,700 RPMs.
The result is moderate acceleration from 0-20, then an uplifting surge that can carry 0-60 in only 7.4 seconds, and can go on through the gears to whatever speed you want, with an electronic shutoff at 130 mph. It also can deliver an estimated 22-31 miles per gallon, city or highway.
Aside from its design, the high-performing TT also breaks away from the tired old tradition that says to be a true sports car, a vehicle must have the engine in front and the drive wheels at the rear. Audi, for years, has proven that front-wheel drive designed properly can get you through the tightest curves swiftly and even more surely, because the front wheels pull and the rear wheels never try to pass up the front. And, of course, for over two decades Audi has been producing the incredible quattro — lower-case “q’ please — system of all-wheel drive, which is designed for performance around curves and just happens to be superb in all manner of foul weather besides.
We sped around curves, marveling at the TT’s ability to remain with a flat-based attitude no matter how sharply we hurled it, and the smooth comfort never was compromised, to say nothing of the absolute feeling of control. Nonetheless, somebody in the press gathering sort of moaned the traditional moan at the apparent compromise of front-wheel drive in the TT.
“Audi traditionally has believed in front-wheel drive, or all-wheel drive, as the two most tractable systems,” Trahan said, diplomatically. “We think, quite frankly, that those are the best two drivetrains.”
Then he explained the production plan. First, the front-wheel drive TT hits the showrooms. Then, by late summer, the quattro version of the 180-horsepower TT. The quattro system adds 250 pounds to the 2,655-pound lightweight, but 0-60 times remain the same because the all-wheel-drive system’s dispersal of power compensates for the weight addition by eliminating any wheelspin on hard acceleration.
A year from now, the TT will be available as a roadster, without a top, but with an easy to operate softtop and an available hard cover. And by then, a new version of the same 1.8 turbo engine will be offered with new cylinder blocks, a different turbo and throttle control, delivering 225 horsepower and with a 6-speed manual shifter.
That one will undoubtedly cost around $40,000. As it stands, the start-up TT for $30,500 — with standard leather interior — will be a certain sellout. And when you fling it around a tight series of curves on a twisty road with that new, quick-ratio steering, and find out that all you’re missing by not having rear drive is the lack of heart-in-your-throat feeling that you might spin out.
And when you nestle into that special leather on the seats, it makes you wonder how neat that leather will become with age and as it gets accustomed to holding your body. You wonder, and you can’t help wanting to find out.
TECHNICAL TOUCHES
Along with the ability to go, the TT can stop on the traditional dime, with oversized brakes and an antilock system. It also has airbags, with a shutoff switch for the passenger seat. And while the two jumpseats in back are small, they would work for little kids or for small adults on a short hop. But at least they’re back there, which gives the TT an edge on strict 2-seaters.
In the driver’s seat, you notice the ergonimic detail. Round knobs that can be twisted or tilted perform logical functions. Under the rear hatch, you have a surprising 14 cubic feet of cargo space, and it can be expanded to 23 cubic feet by folding down the rear seats.
With heated windshield washers and retractable headlight washers, the TT is ready for even Up North winters, which would otherwise be justified into ignoring sports cars or at least parking them from November to April.
The TT also comes with Audi’s traditional safety components. It has what Trahan described as 50-hertz bending frequency in its body structure, where rigidity of 25-30 is considered world-class for harmonic frequency of vibration. It also has a side impact bar that includes a rear element that transmists any side impact to the floor.
The body is made of fully galvanized steel with an aluminum hood and still gets a multiple-step anti-corrosion process. It carries Audi’s unique three-year warranty, with all service done free.
In dimensions, the TT is 159.1 inches long, 73.1 inches wide, and only 53 inches high. Its styling gives it the look of an athlete, crouched and about to spring into a 100-meter dash.
It all makes sense, because Audi has been a subtle, almost background performer with its excellent A4 sedan, its mid-luxury A6 sedan, and its all-out A8 luxury flagship, plus its new A4 and A6 Avant station wagons. Under all those conservative but classy outer skins, Audis always have been fun to drive, and satisfying to drive fast and hard, with responsiveness to go with their durability.
All that was missing was a bold statement to the world that an athlete’s heart and mind were working beneath that business-person’s demeanor. The TT delivers that statement.
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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