Lexus RX300, Amigo, Grand Vitara SUV alternatives
When it comes to Sport-Utility Vehicles (SUV), there are projections that the supply is fast-approaching the cutoff point of demand, but that would be difficult to prove when you’re out on the road, observing what seems to be a never-ending stream of what now numbers over 40 varieties of SUVs.
Sales figures indicate that about 17 percent of vehicles purchased in the U.S. are SUVs, which means the segment has about doubled in the past five years. The alternative/compromise to minivan/pickup trucks makes some sense here in the Up North region, where the all-wheel-drive or 4-wheel-drive capabilities makes hills or country terrain in winter no problem.
Manufacturers and dealers, of course, love the SUV craze, because they can make enormous profits on each vehicle — profit margins in the thousands compared to the intense car market, where profits are often in the hundreds, if sales don’t make it closer to break-even.
You can spend from $18,000 to $50,000 for these SUVs, and it seems that we’re past the point where every manufacturer wants to build one; nowadays every manufacturer is trying to build several in order to plug into marketplace niches both real and projected.
Impressive as the SUV segment is, some of the more recent spinoff vehicles are not only interesting, but in some ways might be better-suited to what SUV buyers are looking for.
Consider the Lexus RX300, at one end of the spectrum. Anything with the Lexus name means luxury, as would befit a whole branch dedicated to upper-level Toyota products, and the RX300 fits well, with a sticker of about $40,000. The Isuzu Amigo is a shortened, fun little vehicle that’s a spinoff of the normal-sized Rodeo, and it does its particular job well for arou nd $25,000. And at the bottom end of the price scale is the Suzuki Grand Vitara, a compact but pretty amazing SUV that can be had, loaded, for $20,000.
LEXUS RX300
In recent balloting for truck of the year, I would have voted for the RX300 as the best new SUV on the market. Unfortunately, those conducting the voting established a policy that to be a truck, a vehicle had to have off-road capabilities, so the RX300 was designated among the cars. True, the RX300 does not have a low-range lock for going up or down off-road hilly terrain, but Toyota is smart enough to realize that 97 percent or so of buyers of these vehicles never will venture off the highways and roadways.
Besides, Toyota already has Land Cruisers and 4-Runners for such all-out, off-road purposes, and makes a version of the Land Cruiser for Lexus. At first, I thought the RX300 was merely a rebadged 4-Runner. But it caught me completely by surprise at the Minneapolis-St. Paul Auto Show last March, and I knew in a flash it was something different.
Toyota also makes the Camry sedan and its Lexus spinoff ES300, and it took that platform as the basis for the RX300, then built onto it a sleek, futuristic body, with space-age projector headlights and an other-worldly look that is instantly appealing.
The RX300 gets an upgraded version of the very strong Toyota 3.0-liter V6, with dual-overhead-camshafts and four valves per cylinder, tweaked by variable valve timing. The result is 220-horsepower output, stronger than the same engine delivers in cars, and it comes with permanent all-wheel drive, so you don’t need a switch. The system decides how much sharing the four wheels need to do with the available power for optimum traction, and a viscous-coupling adjusts torque between the front and rear axles on demand.
All of that mechanical stuff is done smoothly, and you may never have to know how much power is going where, or how slippery it would feel without the system working. It still achieves EPA fuel-economy estimates of 19 city and 22 highway, and anytime an SUV can top the 20 mark, we’re ahead of the game.
Inside, you are wrapped in creature comforts, and driving is far superior to the hardier SUVs because while you’re slightly higher than the cars, you feel much more in tune with the road, and therefore far more in control.
Looks-wise, the RX300 is not unlike the extremely popular Mercedes M320, and while the base $33,000 sticker is steep, it comes crammed with goodies at that price.
For example, the test vehicle had a snow-mode switch on its 4-speed automatic transmission to allow you to start up in a higher gear to avoid wheelspin. The four-wheel independent suspension and power rack-and-pinion steering make it handle with greater agility than its bulkier competitors, and acceleration is definitely car-like.
The climate control has rear ducts, and seating is comfortable for four adults, with a lot of cargo area behind the rear seat, and the 190-watt, seven-speaker audio system can blow you out of the thing. Adjustable power seats with lumbar support, and safety features such as dual front and seat-mounted side airbags, and an energy-dispersing crumple-zone design with side door beams adds to the secure feeling.
In the driver’s seat, you’ll like the “Optitron” instrumentation, and the genuine walnut wood accent panels implanted here and there. I always say, give me real wood or keep your phony vinyl woodgrain in the supply room.
That also sets apart the RX300 with a few key options, such as the leather seats that are heated electrically, the in-dash 6-disc changer, and the power moonroof, which I always thought was a sunroof, but Toyota must intend it for nightime use. A rear limited slip differential also is optional, and the options on the test vehicle boosted the sticker to $39,111.
For its size, with 7.7 inches of ground clearance and towing capacity of 3,500 pounds, the RX300 takes most of the best attributes of full-fledged SUVs and incorporates them into a classy, luxurious, but also very useful and user-friendly vehicle.
ISUZU AMIGO
The Rodeo always has represented a bargain on the SUV market, and its quality is such that Honda takes the Rodeo and re badges it to sell as the Passport — another indication of how good it is. Isuzu builds tough trucks, and the Passport adds an upgraded 3.2-liter V6 with dual overhead-cams and 24 valves to put it in competition with normal size SUVs costing considerably more.
Isuzu also has brought back the Amigo, which began life as a fun, shortened alternative to Rodeo. I had a chance to test-drive both the convertible and hardtop versions of the Amigo.
While Up North winters render the convertible soft-top pretty useless for six months of each year, it would work as the avant-garde beach-boy (or girl) vehicle in the summer. It starts at a base price of $19,350, and goes up to $24,005 if you load it up. The convertible top actually goes down over the rear seats and limited cargo area only, leaving the front two buckets under a hardtop and rollbar arrangement. Sort of a rumble-seat approach to SUVing.
The hardtop version has the unique design of two sunroofs in that enclosed roof, which is fiberglass where the soft-top is soft, and it ranges from $20,250 base to $24,435 loaded with optional air-conditioning, power windows, locks, cruise, audio upgrade with 6-disc dash CD player,limited slip differential and alloy wheels.
Light and agile, and more than a foot shorter than the Rodeo, the Amigo has that same Rodeo engine available, giving it the thrust of 205 horsepower, and a towing capability of 4,500 pounds. Fuel economy ranges from 18-21
It has a 7.9-inch ground clearance, with its 16-inch alloy wheels, but this is based on the rugged, all-terrain platform that is more trucklike than the car-based SUVS. This baby will go off-road, and, more importantly, is an absolute joy to drive around after Up North blizzards.
SUZUKI GRAND VITARA
We had a few misidentifications while driving the new Grand Vitara. As a joke, I called it the “Viagra” instead of the Vitara, and it became known as that to the family. Maybe it’s appropriate, because the Grand Vitara is a young-at-heart vehicle, light and inexpensive, as a contender with the Honda CR-V, Toyota RAV4 and various Subaru Outbacks.
And the Vitara has the added potency (there’s that Viagra influence again) of a V6 engine. Granted, it’s a tiny V6 at only 2.5 liters, but it does the job, particularly with its four-door, four-wheel-drive total weight of only 3,197 pounds. It has 155 horsepower, which isn’t overwhelming, but is more than adequate.
While the Grand Vitara — 4-cylinder models are merely Vitaras — stays on the same wheelbase as the Sidekick/Tracker of past years, its overall length has grown, almost four full inches, which translates to a much roomier feel inside.
Suzuki also, we should point out, deserves high marks for the good looks of the new Grand Vitara, which leaps like a butterfly out of the old simple-but-spartan Tracker coccoon.
The Grand Vitara is Suzuki’s effort to go onward and upward from the Samurai and later bigger and more stable Sidekick it used to make. Those were tough little SUVs that were so lacking in creature-comforts that they were unfairly criticized, even though they more than fulfilled their objectives.
Suzuki portioned off the Sidekicks to General Motors, which sold them as Geo Trackers. With the Grand Vitara replacing the Sidekick, GM has quit using the Geo name and now calls those partnership vehicles by Chevy surnames. This time, however, Suzuki was smart enough to give Chevy only those Grand Vitaras with the 2.0-liter 4-cylinder engine,.
The optional 2.5 V6 is a gem, benefitting by Suzuki’s long history of strong, over-achieving motorcycle engine building. The Tracker/Sidekick/Samurai engines were strong little things, too, but Suzuki was aiming at all-out economy and settled for minimal power with those. The 2.5 horsepower peak is at 6,500 RPMs and its 160-foot-pounds of torque peaks at 4,000 RPMs. It likes to run up in the revs, even though it sounds buzzy as it rises to redline. But the 24 valves run easily off a two-stage timing chain, instead of a belt, adding to the durability that can be anticipated from Suzuki.
Amazingly, the Grand Vitara has 8-inch ground clearance, although its towing capacity is only 1,500 pounds. That’s enough to haul a boat trailer, certainly, although we can assume folks wouldn’t single it out as a tow vehicle. No, the real-world aim of the Grand Vitara is to be an inexpensive alternative for those who would like the ability to barrel through the snow and get to the mall without regard for weather problems.
Say ‘Hi’ with more respect to restyled 2000 Neon
Remember when Chrysler Corporation first came out with the Neon? They had a great advertising campaign, with billboards that flashed the almost-happy-face front end of the car, suggesting we all “Say Hi to Neon.”
The whole idea was to establish the Neon as a user-friendly car by taking it to extremes. The car was so friendly, you were supposed to say “Hi” to it.
Neon has done right well for Chrysler, whether in Dodge or Plymouth livery. But for the 2000 model year, it’s time for an upgrade. As it turns out, the 2000 model Neon is already out, and I got to test drive one. Guess what? If you talk to this Neon, you’d better be a bit more formal — maybe bow and say, “Hi, sir,” or “Hi, maam.”
The new Neon has grown up, become sophisticated, and has taken on the mature look of something more than a cutesy car aimed at capturing a cult market.
Since the Neon first came out, Chrysler has learned a few things about building cars, and came out with slick new computer-designed versions of the Dodge Intrepid and Chrysler Concorde when it was the turn of those full-size sedans to be revised. Now, it’s the Neon’s turn, and you can measure how much Chrysler has learned by the look of the Neon.
At first glance, it looks a lot like a downsized Intrepid, which is high praise, indeed.
Gone is that bug-eyed look, replaced by more aerodynamic headlights and a grille accented by a horizontal bar. The stance, in silhouette, has a gracefully rising and tapered passenger compartment, coming down to a high-backed rear end, with a well-sculptured rear panel, flanked by stylishly cut taillights.
In overview, it looks like a slick, expensive little compact sedan, which would be OK, but that’s only half right. It is slick, but it is not expensive. The test car carried the Plymouth nameplate, a Plymouth Neon LX, and in its fully-loaded form it cost a mere $15,955.
That keeps the Neon in the heat of competition against some of the best economically compact sedans in the marketplace: Honda Civic, Saturn, Toyota Corolla, Mazda Protege, Cavalier and Escort. All of them come in at just around $15,000, and all of them represent bargains in the ever-escalating world of car prices.
The Neon had fallen behind in that segment, but the new one is certain to thrust the Neon right up to the top of that pack.
NEON LIGHTS UP
With cars averaging over $21,000 these days, and people willingly shelling out over $30,000 a copy for SUVs, it’s refreshing to find a quality vehicle in the $15,000 range. And Neons can be had for much less.
The LX test car had a base price of $12,390. For that, you get the 2.0-liter 4-cylinder engine with a single overhead-camshaft and 16 valves — the only engine available. You also get the manual five-speed, which has a smooth shifting action that would put a lot of sportier cars to shame.
Standard features include airbags, side impact door beams, front disc/rear drum brakes, power steering, four-wheel indepencdent suspension with stabilizer bars front and rear, a rear defroster, intermittent windshield wipers, a full console, six-speaker stereo, and a trunk light.
But the test car truly came alive, thanks to the LX option bin.
A $2635 option package includes air conditioning, power front windows, central power locking, heated outside mirrors, keyless entry a security alarm, power trunk release, oversized 15-inch wheels, tilt steering column, foglights, and leather-wrapped steering wheel and shift knob. Another option package for $740 gets you four-wheel disc brakes with antilock, and traction control. Cruise control costs $225, and stylish aluminum wheels cost $355.
A couple of factory discounts go along with those packages, keeping the sticker to $15,995.
Most significant among those options are the wheels and brakes. The 15-inch alloy wheels add a great deal of flash to the design, especially with that Intrepid-like wheelwell opening in the front. And the bigger tires add to the Neon’s handling, while the four-wheel disc brakes make a big difference in braking distances.
The original Neon had a 2.0-liter engine, same as now, but you could get an optional, dual-overhead cam version with added horsepower. You also could get a coupe. No longer, the 132-horsepower version is the only one. That engine, when the car was introduced, was a new powerplant, and it was loud. That is a trait of four-cylinder engines in need of refinement.
The same engine in the new Neon has been smoothed out a little, but it still can get loud when the revs build toward the 6,500 red line, and the car is fun to drive with the five-speed, so you tend to rev it a lot. The buzziness as the revs build is OK with me, in fact, I tend to like the concept of hearing and feeling an engine when the revs get up near shiftpoints — sort of an audible tachometer.
SAY ‘HI’ TO THE INSIDE
The big news to the Neon is the exterior, where the body has been stretched by about 2.5 inches, and the wheelbase is about an inch longer than the original. It also is marginally wider. That gives the interior more room, and the trunk is definitely roomy, especially considering this is a compact. Rear seat room is comfortable for a 6-footer, and spacious for anyone shorter than that.
I had mixed feelings about a couple of interior features.
First, I like the textured, two-tone vinyl that now covers the dashboard. It isn’t just the same old seedy-looking plastic that a lot of inexpensive cars use as a kiss-off. It’s still vinyl, but it’s got a neat feel to it, like it’s higher class.
White-backed instruments also add a touch of character, which I like. And the heat/air controls are rotating circular switches, which are the most efficient for adjusting without taking your eyes off the road. Cruise control is actuated by switches that require both thumbs — the left to set the cruise, and the right to cancel or resume. The optional power windows are only in the front, with crank-down windows in the rear, which isn’t a bad idea, when you think about it. The only worry with power windows is that small children might fiddle with the switches or possibly get a finger caught. Crank windows in the rear solve those concerns, although they also prevent the driver from being able to lower or raise the rear windows while driving.
I liked the seats and the steering wheel less. The front bucket seats are covered with thick and luxurious stuff, and they look good, but I found them to be too soft where I hoped they’d be firm.
Steering wheels are pretty easy to create. You can have narrow or wide bars from the hub to the outside of the wheel, and you can make it sporty or classy, or just…there. In the Neon, there is a wide, horizontal bar, reaching the outer rim of the wheel with two struts each, left and right. The only thing is, the wheel looks upside down, regardless of which way you have it pointing.
Those, however, are nitpicks, and would be, whether the car cost $30,000 or $20,000. At $15,000, those little things are a lot easier to live with. Especially since the Neon LX accelerates well, corners with very good agility — thanks to the larger alloy wheels and 185/60R15 tires, and stops smoothly, but with surprising suddenness, because of the four-wheel discs.
All in all, the original Neon was still worth saying “Hi” to, but a lot of customers, faced with the very strong competition, might have been saying “Goodbye” instead in recent years. The 2000 model year Neon LX will bring them back, and proves that you can still find good, enjoyable transportation without spending much over $15,000.
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.
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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