GS400 adds pizzazz to lofty Lexus reputation
[Cutline info:
#1 (blue GS400) The GS400 is the newest member of the Lexus clan, and is claimed to be the fastest available 4-door sedan.
#2 (gold LS400) All signs point to the LS400 as the flagship Lexus luxury sedan.
#3 (LS400 navigation system) The LS400’s optional navigation system is complex to program, but pinpoints car location and destination.
#4 (ES300) The least-expensive Lexus, the ES300 is a thoroughly renovated upscale version of the Toyota Camry. ]
Every manufacturer claims to build quality cars, but Toyota is in the odd position of being critized because its cars are too good.
Toyota’s reputation for high technology, dependable and trouble-free operation, and long-lasting durability was enhanced when the company also retained customers who were moving upscale by fashioning an entirely separate luxury network under the Lexus nameplate. Lexus dealers aren’t plentiful across the country, although you can find a couple of them in the Twin Cities. They all emphasize treating customers with great sensitivity and care, wiping out the fast-hustle reputation car-sellers have spent so many years earning.
About the only complaints of Toyota/Lexus cars came from driving enthusiasts. I think fun is an important ingredient in driving, but some of these types started out fixing their car’s problems so regularly that they still equate hauling an MGB’s engine into the kitchen for repairs with a car having “character.” Toyota products work equally well for car-haters, so they gained a reputation for being appliance-like.
Toasters and refrigerators simply keep on working without complaints, but you also don’t hear many people praising them for being fun to operate. Test-drives in all three new Lexus models indicates that the appliance reputation may have to go.
The LS400 luxury sedan started out very good and has evolved as a classy $60,000 factory flagship. The Lexus ES300 is basically a $30,000 Toyota Camry, revised with numerous and effective feature upgrades. And the GS400? Ah, that’s the prize that should change the appliance image once and for all — a $45,000 sizzler that gives instant credibility to the claim of the fastest four-door sedan available.
GS400 ROARS
To fully appreciate the GS400, you have to realize that it is the latest stopgap between the top-end LS400 and the entry-level Lexus ES300. A year ago, both a GS300 and GS400 were introduced, with styling that makes a surprising splash in the Toyota/Lexus swimming pool. Instead of the blunt, squarish formal look of the LS400, or the sleek, sweeping lines of the ES300, the GS models have a fast-drooping nose, rushing up and over the passenger compartment and finishing in an abruptly chopped rear end. It resembles other Toyota/Lexus models in the way a NASCAR Winston Cup race car resembles a showroom sedan.
The GS300 is an excellent car with excellent handling and a steady 3.0-liter six-cylinder engine, costing about $35,000. Compared to other Toyota/Lexus models dipping one toe into the pool to test the temperature, the GS300 is a safe dive off the low board. But the GS400 is a triple-somersault off the high board.
The GS400 has the 4.0-liter V8 of the bigger LS400, but it has been tweaked with valving to spew out 300 horsepower and 310 foot-pounds of torque, 10 more on both counts than the heftier LS400. It also has a measured top speed of 149 miles per hour, which not only is BMW-like, but would be a lot of fun to drive on an autobahn.
The GS400’s looks are not unattractive. It has a mean and hungry demeanor, to say nothing of a very impressive 0.29 coefficient of drag. The test vehicle was enhanced by being painted “Spectra Blue Mica,” which is P.R.-speak for a distinctive, penetrating blue color that is a bit darker than royal but brighter than navy. It gets my vote as the best car color of the year.
The electronic five-speed automatic transmission seems a letdown, particularly if Lexus expects the GS400 to challenge the hottest German sedans, but the car comes through on that count, too. There are two little oval buttons located on the steering wheel shafts, identical left and right, just next to where your thumbs rest while gripping the wheel. There are similar buttons on the backside of the steering wheel, where you can’t even see them.
They are shift buttons, just like on Formula 1 race cars. You can take off, then use your fingertips to upshift by pushing either button on the back of the wheel, or you can use either thumb to downshift one gear at a time by pushing the buttons on the front. When I first drove a GS400, I assumed they were audio control buttons, and the word “Down” on the buttons meant you could turn down the volume. Coincidentally, when I accelerated hard with that car at first, I apparently gripped the wheel extra hard as the revs built, and wondered why the car upshifted again and again so soon.
It was worth a chuckle, and then a lot of fun, after I realized that those logically-placed buttons I had squeezed were there for upshifting. Being front-engine with rear-drive, the GS400 would be a handful in slippery circumstances, even with high-tech traction control, but it unquestionably is a handful of fun in the dry.
The GS400 handles well, thanks to four-wheel independent, double-wishbone suspension with gas shocks, and speed-progressive rack-and-pinion steering. And the discs on all four wheels stop the 16-inch wheels and their high-performance tires swiftly.
Typically, the car has all the latest safety stuff — dual front airbags, front seat-housed side-impact airbags, and pretensioning harnesses with force limiters. The leather seats with genuine walnut dash trim and dual-zone climate control with automatic recirculation and smog and air filters, plus a seven-speaker audio system with 215 watts, may seem more in the luxury line than the sporty image the car generates, but they are standard. So is the power tilt and telescoping steering wheel that tilts away when you enter or exit.
The test car jumped from a base price of $45,505 to $49,146 because of the added in-dash six-disc CD player, the one-touch sunroof, heated front seats, and high-intensity discharge headlights.
LS400 CLASS
The top-of-the-line LS400 is, like the GS400, front-engine/rear-drive, and it weighs 200 pounds more, at 3,890 pounds, to house the extra room inside. It also is 196.7 inches long (compared to the GS400’s 189), and a 0-60 time of 6.6 seconds (in Automobile magazine’s trial run) compared to a 6-flat by the GS400.
The car was good when it came out, and has been refined, cautiously, since then. The biggest trouble is the fluctuation of the Japanese yen. When it came out, the LS400 was a bargain-priced copy of a Mercedes; now that the Germans have tightened up their production and lowered prices, the LS400 is now plenty costly by comparison.
One impressive new feature is the optional navigation system package, which costs $5,405, including an in-dash CD player, sunroof, heated seats and gas-discharge headlights, in addition to a computerized navigation system.
The navigation system has a dash-mounted video screen, which can summon up destinations by address or intersection, and displays your whereabouts on that screen, which you can zoom in or out for size perspective. It worked very well, although I must say that setting it was much more complex than necessary. It was complex enough that you should pull off the road to input your destination, and it informs you of how dangerous it is to take your eye off the road — every time you start up.
The LS400 has all the safety and handling features of the GS400, and it had them first, of course. Having the same engine is responsible for the swift performance, although the engine is tuned to be a subdued-sounding thing that purrs, while the same powerplant is tuned to sound like the monster is can be in the GS400.
ES300 FEATURES
When I first drove the current version of the ES300, it was within a couple of weeks of my first test-drive of the then-newly designed Toyota Camry. In talking to some factory folks, I was informed of the hundred-and-some upgrades done to the seats, the instruments, the engine and transmission, the instrument panel, and virtually everything else on the ES300.
I was a bit dismayed at the $32,000 price tag back then. But two weeks later, when I got the new Camry, all I could think about were the numerous enhancements made for ES300 form, and when the Camry’s sticker was $28,000, it seemed that the ES300 was truly a bargain.
Years pass. Now you can get a loaded Camry up to $30,000, and the test-car ES300 base price was a mere $30,905. In test form, it had risen to $36,412, because of the leather trim, memory driver’s seat settings, a six-disc changer in the dash, a power sunroof, heated front seats and vehicle skid control.
In silhouette, the ES300 is the same as the Camry, which I find very pleasant to look at, and a vast improvement over the previous Camry styling, which looked like different committees had done each segment.
The 3.0-liter V6 has dual overhead cams and continuously variable valve timing, with a four-speed electronically controlled automatic transmission with traction control. With all the safety devices of its more costly brethren, the ES300 also has genuine walnut interior trim and electroluminescent (Toyota’s term) instrumentation.
With all three Lexus models, the traditional dependability is built in, and must be well-appreciated by its owners. The GS400 helps toss aside that old cloak of dullness, and it reeks with character, even if you’ll never need to overhaul that engine in your kitchen.
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.
BMW 740, 540 and 323 all stand as instant classics
[cutline stuff:
The BMW 323, redesigned a year ago, has adequate room and exceptional performance.
Clear headlight lenses give the BMW 540 a distinct hawk-like look.
The flagship 740 BMW provides an enormous rear seat and trunk.
(for the accent shots…)
Optional Xenon gas-discharge headlights light up the night with bright precision.
The simplest cupholders of the 323 hold any size cup firmly in place better than more elaborate devices in the 540 or 740. ]
“Beemers,” they call them, a catch-phrase to denote any vehicle made by BMW. That includes the 3-Series sedan and coupe, the 5-Series sedan, the 7-Series sedan, and, more recently, the Z-3 sports cars.
At Bavarian Motor Works, it seems that every model turned out is a classic on its way to being identified. As luck would have it, I recently had the chance to test-drive the 323 entry-level sedan, a 540 Touring sedan, and a 740i Sport sedan. Let’s clear up one thing right away. BMWs are loaded with technical advancements and always combine luxury appointments with spectacular fun-to-drive characteristics, but they are expensive. The 3-Series is BMW’s lowest-priced, ranging from $26,000 on up to the test car’s $30,000. The 540 costs about $54,000, and the 740 about $63,000. All are front-engine/rear-drive, which makes them a handful in Up North winter conditions, even though they are designed to be extremely close to 50-50 weight distribution, front and rear, and have a highly advanced traction-control system.
BMW’s formula goes by body style and engine displacement, with the first of the three letters denoting the body size and the second and third numbers denoting the engine displacement. Simple. No birds, beasts or fish, or computer-selected word inventions for its models.
740 means luxury
You can get a 7-Series BMW either as a 750, with a 5.0-liter V12, or as a 740, with a 4.4-liter (but formerly 4.0) V8. The V8 is plenty, because it comes with four valves per cylinder, pumped by dual overhead-camshafts on each bank, and all choreographed by BMW’s variable valve timing technology. Those four cams and 32 valves responded well to the 5-speed automatic Steptronic transmission, which adapts its shiftpoints to the way you drive it, and which can be shifted manually if you choose.
The 740 Sport has larger 18-inch wheels and tires and firmer suspension, and specially firmed up seats that are adjustable 18 different ways. With memory settings, it is about as comfortable as you can get in a car, and there’s room for a small convention in the rear seat. The test car had light grey leather interior with its real-wood walnut trim on the console and dash.
It would be the car any sane person might choose if he or she could pick any car in which to drive, or ride, cross-country in style, comfort, and with a sporty flair. I got 24 miles per gallon on mostly highway driving, and the always responsive V8 whipped the big sedan around like a lightweight, although it weighs 4,255 pounds. That engine delivers 282 horsepower at 5,400 RPMs, and 324 foot-pounds of torque at 3,700 revs. The V12 offers 326 horses and 361 foot-pounds, but the difference isn’t noticeable, unless you can feel the difference between 6.9 seconds for the V8 to go 0-60, compared to the V12’s 6.6 seconds.
The 740 is most recognizable by its extended rear end, where most of its longer, 196.2-inch length adds to the rear-seat room and trunk space.
There are useful little doors and pockets throughout the interior, and the test car steering wheel had remote audio on the left and cruise controls on the right.
The test car’s base price of $62,400 rose $2,600 with the Sport package, and, even though I got 24 miles per gallon, it had to assess a $1,700 “gas guzzler” fee, which seems pretty silly as legislation goes in this era of 11-miles-per-gallon SUVs. The sticker total was $67,270.
540 Sport is potent
Moving down in size, the 5-Series sedan is 3,748 pounds and 188 inches long, but the 540 gets the same dynamite 4.4-liter, four-cam, 32-valve V8. That allows it to reduce the 0-60 time to 5.8 seconds with the six-speed manual, which has a top speed electronically limited to 155 mph.
The silvery 540 had rich, dark grey leather inside, and more real wood, and the Sport suspension was the perfect complement to the sophisticated hot-rod engine and the stick shift for providing an all-out sporty feel.
The strong engine and the weight of the sedan, coupled with a heavy clutch, made the car occasionally a handful to run up swiftly through the gears. It was always breathtaking, if not always easily mellow.
With more than adequate room in the rear seat, the 540 sets a pretty high standard, and at the price difference, it may be difficult to justify an extra $10,000 or more to get the longer 7-Series, because other than the all-out aura of luxury, the 5-Series offers plenty of everything.
Style wise, the 5-Series also was just redesigned two years ago, with the sleek nose taking on a more hawk-like appearance with the eyelid covers on the headlights.
And the headlights on the 540 test car were the $500 optional Xenon gas-discharge units, which are absolutely the best headlights I’ve ever seen on a car. The light cast is a truer-light blueish hue that makes the foglights appear yellowish. The headlights look almost like gunsights, and they shine with an amazing cutoff that shows brilliant light up to a precise, optically cut horizontal line that leaves total darkness above.
That makes it great for oncoming cars, because the intensity of the light cuts off at about the grille and doesn’t shine in driver’s eyes. Problem is, the blueish light is so stunning that oncoming drivers tend to stare at the BMW headlights, then later complain that they’re too bright.
BMW 323i
The 323 cheats a little on the engine formula, because it has a 2.3-liter engine, but BMW had a “325” model years ago, and used “323” to give the car a new name.
Used to be, the base sedan got the 1.8-liter four-cylinder, but for 1999, BMW decided to go to the 2.5-liter in-line six. Since the 328 has the 2.8-liter in-line six, the move up from the 1.8 to the 2.5 in the 323 was a significant upgrade.
The 2.5 has dual overhead camshafts and 24 valves — four per cylinder on the straight six — with the same variable valve timing. In fact, if you didn’t know there was a 328, the 323 would be plenty hot-performing for anybody’s taste. It is now made with an aluminum block, another upgrade that reduces the weight of the powerplant by 51 pounds, and it delivers 170 horsepower at 5,500 RPMs and 181 foot-pounds of torque at 3,500.
Because BMW never has overlooked the importance of fun in the equation, it offers a manual transmission in its sedans. The test 323 was such a dark green that it almost looked black, with parchment-color leatherette interior — felt like real leather, but wasn’t.
It also had a 5-speed manual transmission that shifted smoothly and had an easy, positive feel. It was quick, agile and delivered 29.5 miles per gallon, no matter how hard I drove it or how consistently high I revved it. At 3,100 pounds, and with an overall length of 174.5 inches, the 323 doesn’t need as much power to zoom from 0-60, achieving it in 7.1 seconds. Rear seat room is not as vast as its two bigger siblings, but it still is adequate for 6-footers.
The 323 has sensational seats, with every form-fitting bulge you could hope for, including a little pull-out front pad under your knees. It felt every bit as comfortable as the 540 seats, and firmer and with better lateral support than the big 740, for my taste.
And there was one other amazing feature — the cupholders. Now, cupholders are alien to German car-makers, simply because when you’re cruising along at 135 miles per hour on the autobahns, you are so focused that you don’t even think about cupholders. So they are for U.S. market cars, specifically. In the 740, and in the 540, there were neat little pop-out or fold-out devices to hold cups or pop cans, and they worked…OK, but no better.
In the 323, there were two simple little indentations in the center console, with four spring-loaded little clips inside each of them. Whatever size coffee mug or pop cup or can you had, it plunked firmly down into those receptacles and was held precisely in place. The more expensive cars had much more elaborate cupholders, but none of them worked as efficiently as the 323’s, once again proving one of BMW’s most-basic concepts — simple is best.
Once again, BMW has done such a phenomenal job with its lowest-priced sedan, that at a base of $26,400 boosted to $30,545 — and with the same phenomenal seats and Xenon headlights as the 540 — there is no question that the 323 represents a tremendous bargain for any car, and particularly for a BMW.
The people’s choices
At the time I drove the three cars, BMW had a special charity promotion going, where it would match the number of media-test-miles with dollars of corporate donations. The charities did well by me, because it was difficult to NOT drive the BMWs during their assigned weeks.
While buyers would have to go as far as the Twin Cities to find BMW dealerships, that’s not a problem for enthusiasts, which include car-fanatic magazines.
Two of the more prestigious of automotive magazines, Automobile and Car and Driver, rank the 10-best cars in the world in various categories. Car and Driver conducts a readers’ survey, and for the best midsize luxury sedan it picked the 3-Series BMW; for the best sports sedan, it picked the BMW 540 Sport; for the best large luxury sedan, C&D readers picked the 7-Series BMW; and for the best coupe, the choice was the BMW Z3.
Automobile’s list of 10 didn’t go by such specific categories, more going for selections that disregarded size, and it included the 3-Series BMW, the 5-Series BMW and the Z3’s “M” coupe among its picks.
Hardly seems fair. To have three or four selections among the top 10 didn’t leave much room for all the other manufacturers in the world. But that’s simply how good BMWs are. They are, at every level of size and/or price, the standard of driving enthusiasts.
SVT Contour proves FWD can spell F-U-N
[Cutline stuff:
#1 Ford’s SVT Contour sedan was parked among the specialty Mustang Cobra and F150 Lightning, all of which challenged the handling courses at the Dakota County Technical College in Rosemount.
#2 Like all the Special Vehicle Team projects, the Contour has been thoroughly modified with special engine, suspension, interior, wheels, tires and brakes. ]
When it comes to hot cars, there are stock vehicles, modified vehicles, and all-out toys. But when it comes to Ford’s Special Vehicle Team (SVT) projects, all three are united into factory specialty vehicles, built in limited quantities and sold at bargain prices.
I had the chance to drive the latest Cobra, which is an SVT model of the Mustang, when that car was introduced at Road America’s 4-mile road course at Elkhart Lake, Wis., a few years ago, when all the media types got thorough emergency-driving instruction from the expert Bob Bondurant driving school instructors — including Bob himself. And I knew the chance to drive the newest SVT project, the Lightning pickup truck, was coming for an upcoming column.
But when I got the chance to join some SVT owners for a special driving event last Saturday at Dakota County Technical College in the Twin Cities suburb of Rosemount, I knew I could get my hands on an SVT Contour — my personal favorite of all the SVT cars ever built.
It also meant another opportunity to prove my theory about high-performance driving, which is that a well-prepared front-wheel-drive car can not only match, but sometimes outshine traditional rear-drive performance cars.
What I didn’t know was that the facility at the Rosemount campus includes some specially designed short road courses — one a .6-mile circuit with about 13 turns in both directions, plus a half-dozen more kinks arranged by cones to prevent speeds from getting out of hand — plus a second course with longer straights that included an optional run into a flooded skidpad area to test steering control around cones during antilock braking on a slippery surface.
The event officially was an SVT owners on-track day, and an assortment of owners of SVT Contours, Cobras and Lightnings were there for a seminar on enjoying their cars’ quite-amazing capabilities in nearly all-out race-quickness situations.
As it turned out, I was the only media-type invited, and I had the keys to a jet-black SVT Contour for four hours.
We all first sat through a seminar on handling characteristics of the cars and how to control them at the edge of traction, then we rode in vans while Bondurant instructors took us around a couple of slow laps, both to acquaint us with the twists and turns and to explain how best to take each turn. The primary trick is to make a “late apex” out of each turn, because in performance driving, it’s not how hard you go into a turn but how swiftly you can come out of a turn that allows you to turn the best lap times.
Going into a turn too fast means you have to get off the power and on the brakes while the actual apex of the turn becomes past the geographic apex, then you’re left without power and having to start up again. If you try to follow the geographic apex, you come into the turn fairly fast, and you come out of the turn fairly fast. Ah, but if you set up wide and drive into the turn carving the apex beyond the geographic apex, you can get around the turn with smooth control and be accelerating hard at the same moment that the early-apex driver is coming off the brakes and fighting for control.
Between sessions on the track, we all were treated to specific seminars on the capabilities of each of the three SVT-built cars.
CORPORATE HOT RODS
Ford’s in-house performance types formed the Special Vehicle Team, which allows them to experiment and use their engineering expertise to take factory cars and redo them in a conversion that stresses higher performance, better handling, but always with a focus on making them sophisticated and easily driveable in everyday circumstances. On top of that, the styling differences follow a neat but subtle tendency.
The Cobra is one example. In Mustang GT form, it is a well-mannered, peppy coupe, and the 4.6-liter V8 performs well enough, with its single overhead camshaft and two valves per cylinder. When the SVT guys get their hands on it, they rebuild the same engine out of aluminum, entirely by hand, with two engineers per engine, and they sign their names on the valve cover of each engine. The result is an engine that is as close to a performance shop’s blueprinted modification as exists, and the horsepower goes up to 320. That proves the benefit of technology, because it matches the hottest Camaro/Firebird engines, which are a full 5.7 liters — 1.1 liters larger than the Cobra engine.
The F150 pickup truck gets major renovation as well, going from a strong-enough 4.6 or 5.4-liter V8 and coming out of the SVT shop housed in a stunning vehicle. An Eaton supercharger boosts the 5.4 form a stock 260 horsepower to 360 horses, with 440 foot-pounds of torque.
The Contour, meanwhile, goes from being a nice, perky 4-door sedan to a subtle screamer. The Duratec V6 retains its stock 2.5-liter displacement, but after thorough and careful revisions to the intake manifolds and expert tuning, the littleV6 turns out 200 horsepower. That equates to 76.8 horsepower per liter — absolutely the best output from any engine made in the U.S. and normally aspirated.
Naturally, all three vehicles are jacked up in price in SVT form. The Cobra goes from the Mustang’s approximate $20,000 to about $32,000, and the Lightning takes a $20,000 pickup and turns it out as a $30,000 boy-racer special. But the reason I like the Contour best is that a very good $18,000 sedan gets radical improvements in power, suspension, braking, wheels, tires, seats, instrumentation — everything — and still costs only $23,000. But consider that the care and engineering in the modifications of each of the three would cost an individual probably over $20,000 to do singly.
The problem is that limited production of these vehicles means not every Ford dealer has them. In Minnesota, Tousley Ford in White Bear Lake and Apple Valley Ford are among the SVT dealers, and a test drive in any of the three is pretty convincing.
ON THE TRACK
That’s what we were about last Saturday, test-driving.
On the 0.6-mile handling course, we lined up for a continuing sequence of three-lap runs. First out in our group was a silver SVT Contour, and when he was about one-third of a lap around, a fellow was waved out in a Cobra. When he got a third of the way around, it was my turn in the black Contour.
Having done a little road racing, and having attended a number of similar seminars, undoubtedly gave me a slight advantage over some of the SVT owners present. And my determination to prove the quickness of the front-wheel-drive Contour had my adrenaline at overflow.
Hard on the throttle, straight, through the quick right-left chicane, then around a sweeping left curve, followed by a kink to the right, then back to the left, then an extremely hard right and a hard left, then a straightway where the little 2.5-liter V6 could rev in second gear up to the 7,000 RPM electronic fuel-shutoff point just as we reached a hard right, back to a left kink, another left, then a little right, swinging back to the left…a short straight to a 90-degree left, then more cones for a right-left sequence, than a sharp right that led to a gentle left, heading back for the first turn.
Focusing completely on hitting every turn properly, the Contour’s power coupled with front-wheel drive performed just as I had anticipated. With rear drive, you need to get off the power or be hard on the brakes at a couple of spots on the track, or you’d simply spin out as the rear drive-wheels sought to overtake the front; with the SVT Contour, when you reach those same moments of crisis, you simply stay on the power and steer through the turn, letting the front wheels pull you straight while the rears simply follow along.
As if to find instant gratification, I overtook the far more powerful Cobra before the end on one lap, and its driver pulled off after one lap to let me by. By the end of the second lap, I was on the rear bumper of the silver Contour, and on the third lap I proved I could make every turn just by modulating the throttle — never once hitting the brakes.
We had time for a dozen more three-lap circuits, and it was nothing short of exhilarating.
It was similar on the second course, although it was not as ideal for the Contour’s potential. The second track’s longer straight stretches made me run out of revs in second gear, and hitting third gear meant going too fast and needing to stand on the brakes to get around the turns. The car would do that, and I learned quickly that getting off the power a bit earlier, and stabbing the brakes hard just as I started to turn caused the Contour’s nose to settle flat and aimed at the apex.
Roaring on into the soaked-down segment created an unexpected situation. Instructors advised us to go into that area fast, at about 50 miles per hour, and hit the brakes at the second cones, which should allow us to approach lockup, activating the antilock brakes so we could experience how good the steering remained to negotiate a quick left-right chicane.
I went in at 50, but found I could speed right through the chicane without hitting the brakes, because the Contour handled so surely and evenly. I tried it at 65, and while I hit the brakes firmly, it slowed enough so again I could get through without chattering the antilock. An instructor told me to go harder still, so I finally went in at over 75. Finally, the antilock system chattered to life and, sure enough, I could steer around the cones while braking.
However, I came away more impressed with the car’s handling than the antilock system’s sophistication.
Of all the high-performance cars built, the SVT Contour is the closest thing to an American BMW M3, except that it has front-wheel drive, which means it can work in Up North winters, too.
SVT’S FUTURE PLAN
While the SVT group will continue building Cobras and Lightnings at sellout levels, the future of the SVT Contour is limited.
The Special Vehicle Team seems capable of three simultaneous projects, and nobody will say what the third one will be, but it is certain that the Contour will be discontinued after the 2000 year model run. The problem is this country’s fixation with trucks and SUVs, which is where corporations make their biggest profits these days. Ford currently has the F150 pickup, the Taurus, Ranger, Explorer and Escort among the nation’s top 10 vehicles in sales, but the stock Contour has sort of slipped through the marketing cracks.
Sales of the car in Europe, where it is known as the Mondeo, remain strong, and the Duratec engines built in the U.S. are sent to Europe for use on the autobahns in those German Fords. But in the U.S., the corporate decision has been that the Contour plant could be used to build more SUVs, so the Contour is only scheduled to be produced through 1999 and 2000.
For SVT, that means the current outstanding Contour will finish this year, carry over through 2000, then will be built no more.
With some cars, being discontinued means plunging resale value. With the SVT Contour, discontinuing it means trying desperately to find one to buy, enjoy, and keep for as long as possible.