New Montero takes on luxury SUVs on road, beats them off it
In the ever-expanding world of sports-utility vehicles, the Mitsubishi Montero has carved itself an interesting niche. When introduced, 17 years ago, Mitsubishi was not thinking about the current trendiness of SUVs, instead it wanted to build an all-terrain vehicle that would be big enough to house real people in on-road comfort but also durable and rugged enough to challenge such stalwards as Range Rover and Toyota Land Rover.
The Montero did it, with a tall, somewhat tippy-looking and eccentric vehicle. To prove its merit, Mitsubishi entered a factory team of Monteros in the Paris-to-Dakar rally across northern Africa — a 6,000-mile marathon through terrain that ranged from desert to awful. It won its first try in the marathon class, in 1984. Since then, the Montero has improved, with a second-generation vehicle that was larger, more people-friendly and more stylish coming out in 1992, and finishing 1-2-3 in the Paris-to-Capetown rally. Monteros also won the 1993 Paris-Dakar race, and in 1997 and 1998, Monteros swept first, second and third in that one.
Along the way, Mitsubishi had to notice the splurge in sports-utility vehicles, but we can excuse the company for turning up its nose at the stylish boulevard cruisers built with no intention of going off-road. For 2001, the third-generation Montero is out, and it is entirely new, from the roofrack to the wheels. Mitsubishi says it fits “between the Mercedes S-Class sedan and a Senegalese camel train.”
Not bad.
The point is, the new Montero is the best of both worlds. It will still run the wheels off legendary SUVs in the world’s toughest competition over any and all terrain, but it is so plush inside that you might feel reluctant to send it crashing through the woods.
It looks the part of an all-new vehicle, with a massive, and somewhat rounded, front end, thick and indestructable panels outlining the wheelwells, and a distinctive look from either the front or the side. Inside, you climb into a seat you’d be proud to have in your living room. Comfortable, supportive, and classy in black, inside a silver test vehicle, which was the Limited version.
That means it comes loaded, with the 3.5-liter overhead-cam V6 and a 5-speed automatic transmission that has both an auto-stick gate for clutchless manual shifting, and a separate stalk to lock the transmission in 4-wheel-drive high or low, or in 2-wheel drive for simple highway driving, or a full-time, all-wheel-drive setting that lets the ActiveTrac use an electric motor in selecting drive modes and can let a viscous-coupling keep the torque going smoothly in either rear or all wheel drive.
With four valves per cylinder and 200 horsepower, plus 235 foot-pounds of torque, the Montero may have a struggle to reach its maximum EPA estimate of 18 miles per gallon, although it may be well above the city estimate of 13. Additionally, it has a 5,000-pound towing package maximum with those monster 265/70 16-inch tires.
The functional advantages of the new Montero are simple. Unitized body structure is much tighter and rigid, longer wheelbase and wider track give it a better stance for stability. Front wheels now have 1.6 inches more vertical travel, and the rears have 0.6 more. The sophisticated, computer-designed body allows for a step-in height that’s 1.9 inches lower while the neatly packaged undercarriage is 1.7 inches higher off the ground.
The Limited has all the upgrades of the XLS model, plus leather interior, a thick and classy wood and leather steering wheel, four heated seats, power driver’s seats with 14 adjustments to the driver’s seat, heated outside mirrors that are huge, an enormous sunroof that almost covers both the front and second-row of seats, a bold display at the top of the center console that be switched to show direction, miles to empty, outside temperature, time, and who knows what else.
There is a price, of course, for all that. The base Montero starts considerably cheaper, but the Montero Limited starts at $34,997, and as tested, this one was $36,392.
The third row seats fold down to disappear flat into the cargo area, while the front seats have side-impact airbags built in. Separate rear air and heat controls, a keyless entry with an integrated security system that includes an electronic engine immobilizer, and an upgrade from the standard 100-watt Mitsubishi audio system is a 175-watt powerhouse with AM-FM-CD and seven speakers.
Yes, it is big, which means it is also tall, which means it feels a little tippy if you drive it like a sports car. But driven reasonably, the new Montero is a powerful and impressively stable entry in the luxury SUV category. Besides, you can do your crazy and aggressive driving off the road, while a whole flock of current SUV on-road pretenders would never dare follow.
[[[[[CUTLINES:
1/ The completely redesigned Mitsubishi Montero combines roomy luxury on the road, and rugged durability off it.
2/ The distinctly sculptured front end of the Montero give it an entirely new look, but it retains its heritage.
3/ The luxury of leather and wood highlight the interior and the plush bucket seats inside the Montero.
Lincoln Town Car is throwback to era of enormous luxury cars
Lincoln, as an automotive entity, seems to have rallied in recent years. The Cougar is a neat little sporty coupe, the Navigator has been a big success in the luxury SUV business, and the Lincoln LS has been an enormous hit among luxury sedans.
So when I got a Lincoln for a test drive, it was with some degree of shock that I spotted an enormous, black, stately, near-limousine sedan in my driveway.
The Town Car, Cartier model, is a vehicle that thrusts you into yesteryear, an overdose of déjàvu. I mean, years ago, maybe you saw cars like this; you may have even ridden in them before, or driven them, but maybe you forgot that they’re still being built.
The Town Car, in a word, is huge. You could say that Lincoln went to great lengths to make the Town Car roomy.
What kind of length, I hear you ask? Consider that the Navigator is a very large sport-utility vehicle, right? It is Lincoln’s version of the Ford Expedition, and it is 204.8 inches long.
Hah! That’s NOTHING. The Town Car is a foot longer than the Expedition. OK, not quite a foot, but the Town Car is 215.3 inches long. That gives new meaning to the term “two-car garage,” because most folks who need a two-car garage envision it being side-by-side.
It is the good-ol’ version of luxury car, which is to say soft and squishy, plush at every touch.
With a sticker price of $39,000, you expect world-class luxury, and you get it. The interior is beautifully done, with neat wood on the steering wheel, and high-polished woodgrain stuff on the dash.
The seats are leather, in the case of the test car a classy light grey leather that looked good with the black exterior. They are quite comfortable, with eight-way power adjustment, including an inflatable lumbar support. The window and lock controls, and other remote push-buttons, are mounted on the door panel.
But if you’re buying a Town Car, you should also have the need for an enormous rear seat and trunk. You could carry several kids in the trunk, it would seem, but certainly you could carry enough golf bags for a foursome. The capacity is 20.6 cubic feet.
Inside, you won’t find a car with more room in the rear seat than the Town Car. Again, luxury and soft, cushioned comfort. The rear has 41.1 inches of legroom extension, while the front seats have 42.6. The Navigator doesn’t have that kind of room in its front, back or way-back seats.
All of that room takes the excessive length of the Town Car, and it weighs in at 4,121 pounds. And it takes 42 feet of width to turn this boat around — also longer than the Navigator.
The Town Car accelerates well, with the 4.6-liter V8 pumping out 235 horsepower at 4,750 RPMs, and 275 foot-pounds of torque at 4,000 revs. With a 4-speed automatic, the Town Car takes off quite well and holds cruising speed with ease. It has a 2,000-pound towing capability, as well.
With all its heft and comfort, though, you can’t expect great handling. Twin-tube shock absorbers on all four corners give the Town Car some stability, but when you turn a corner hard, it can’t help but wallow a bit, just because of its weight.
The front-engine power goes through the rear wheels, which probably aids towing and mere performance in such a long car. But it would be a true handful on icy roads, despite all the latest touches of traction control and antilock brakes on the 4-wheel discs.
Obviously, the only competition for the Town Car is the Cadillac DeVille. The top German and Japanese luxury sedans are aimed at an entirely different market, which is to say they demand lean, agile performance from a handling standpoint as well as power. Most U.S. manufacturers have revised their aim and gone after that same sophisticated BMW-Mercedes-Audi-Lexus-Acura segment with cars like the Cadillac Seville, Lincoln LS, and Chrysler LHS.
The Town Car, however, provides an answer that maybe only aging or extremely wealthy buyers are still asking. Those who grew up with the bigger-is-better philosophy that used to be common among domestic manufacturers might still consider the soft-as-a-cloud comfort of something like the Town Car to be the pinnacle of luxury.
Parking the Town Car is another chore. Parallel parking is tough enough, because of the length, but even in a shopping center you have to be careful. No matter how closely you pull up to the car facing you, there will be several feet of overhanging rear out in the traffic lane at the rear.
Style-wise, the Town Car is impressive. The familiar grille is integrated nicely into wraparound headlights, and the rear pillar slopes gracefully down to meet the trunk.
The Town Car has a small, and dwindling, but specific market segment. Extremely wealthy folks may demand one, and those with a chauffer on call may also. Or, I suppose, a family of means with three kids who like to be chauffered around. Then there are business possibilities. My family suggested that the likeliest businesses looking for a car like this these days would be funeral directors, or secret service men.
CUTLINES:
1/ The massive length of the Lincoln Town Car, Cartier Edition, provides luxurious interior room, but is nearly a foot longer than a Navigator.
2/ There is unquestioned, and possibly unexcelled, room to stretch out both front and rear, in the Town Car.
3/ The woodgrain dash and wood and leather steering wheel set off the luxury touches in the Town Car.
4/ The grille and headlights wrap around the front of the Town Car as a modern touch to an old-style luxury sedan.
Audi ‘allroad’ equipped to rise to occasion in luxury SUV niche
Too nice…Too classy…Too expensive. Those thoughts of excesses continue to percolate in the back of your mind as you willingly drive the Audi allroad quattro over a roadway that is less than two trails on a hillside — in fact, it is two trails between which is something like an 8-inch crevasse, as they say in the mountain-climbing business.
We are confronting some obscure roads in the mountains near Vail, Colo., sharing the driver’s seat in one of a dozen or more vehicles, assembled by Audi to introduce what it hopes will be yet another major conquest in a string that includes the A4, A6, A8, Avant, S4, S6, S8 and TT coupe and roadster. That’s a pretty impressive string for the German automaker in the last six years.
The allroad quattro is pretty certain to be yet another.
When the driving conditions get tough, REALLY tough, just “turn it up.” And we’re not talking the stereo system, either. The allroad can be switched to rise up on pneumatic suspension to clear 8-inch obstacles. If you’re on the road, and someone says “turn it up,” you can tap your toe on the lgas and it will respond, with twin-turbocharged power that thrusts the allroad from 0-60 in 6.8 seconds with the 6-speed manual, or 7.3 with the 5-speed automatic.
The car itself is loaded to the ceiling with features, which makes it seem more ironic that the name “allroad” is spelled with all lower-case letters, same as “quattro,” Audi’s exceptional all-wheel-drive system, which has proven dependable for 20 years. But for all its technical refinement and class, the design of the new allroad quattro is distinctly understated, which makes the particular spelling trick seem rational. It is written that way to stress its understated style.
What it is, is a new idea in the burgeoning sport-utility vehicle market. Audi hasn’t had one, and may, in fact, have figured the whole SUV business was a marketing meteor headed for burnout. But there is a growing segment of buyers who, faced with 50-some choices, are going after luxury SUVs. When Lexus, then Mercedes, and then BMW came out with SUVs, it only became a matter of time until Audi would try to confront them. The question was, how to make a truly different SUV?
At a glance, the allroad looks a lot like a slightly bolder version of the A6 Avant, Audi’s slick, roomy station wagon. Imagine taking an Avant, then lifting it up off the chassis and changing everything under there — from suspension, to wheels and tires, to wheel clearance, to brakes, to floorpan, to protective plating.
Changing the suspension is the key. Audi didn’t just change shock pressure and spring rates. It brought out a truly unique new idea in suspensions, with its 4-link front and trapezoidal rear adapted from the A6, but with the track widened and the geometry altered. Then load sensors were mounted at all four corners, calibrated to monitor exactly where each wheel is at, and it’s all coordinated with pneumatically adjustable air shocks and springs.
GIVE IT A LIFT
A little switch on the dashboard lets you raise the car from its low-slung highway demeanor, which is just about an inch taller than the basic Audi Avant wagon. You have four choices for settings, and when you get up to the top one, you’ve extended the ground clearance from 5.6 inches to 8.2 inches. Now, you wouldn’t want to drive with the body up there at the top setting on the highway, but if you want to go off-road, you can confront some pretty risky terrain with over 8 inches of ground clearance.
Audi engineers developed the suspension with counterparts from Continental, and as the allroad is raised a notch, it becomes more compliant, and as it is lowered, it becomes firmer. That’s because on the road, you need firm control for cornering and driving swiftly, but off the road, you need more flexibility, in order to get over rugged terrain or boulders.
The only vehicle that truly is similar enough to be competition for the allroad is BMW’s X5, which is a lot like a BMW 540 with its suspension jacked up. Audi says it also is aiming at the Mercedes ML320, the Lexus RX300, and the Volvo V70 Cross Country. So it has figures all ready for comparison. When it comes to going off-road, the ML320 has 8.4 inches of ground clearance, the Volvo 8.2, the RX300 7.7 and the BMW X5 7.1. So the allroad challenges them with a suspension that ranges anywhere from 5.6 to 8.2.
While the choice of settings is quite the novelty, the allroad takes into account that drivers tend to forget what they’re doing. So the allroad is what might be called “idiot-proof,” protecting the dimmest of drivers from themselves. If you put it in automatic setting at the No. 4 or highest suspension level, when you accelerate past 22 miles per hour, it automatically lowers to the No. 3 position; at 50 mph it lowers to No. 2, and if you get to 75 mph, it lowers to No. 1. If the sensors analyze the bounciness of the terrain, and you try to lower it to No. 1, it might overrule you and stay in No. 2.
Brilliant. You go faster and the allroad rides lower, for better aerodynamics and safer control with minimized under-body air turbulence.
ALLROAD OBJECTIVES
Audi marketing executives Len Hunt and Walter Hanek spelled out the targets for the allroad.
“Our mission is to capitalize on the emerging segment of crossover buyers interested in all-wheel-drive in a high utility vehicle, and to provide a viable alternative to SUVs, for SUV defectors,” said Hanek. “We wanted the versatility of an SUV, with the uncompromising on-road qualities of a German touring sedan. We think we have come up with a unique vehicle both on and off road, with our height-adjustable, multilink suspension, our 250-horsepower, 30-valve biturbo V6, a choice of Tiptronic or 6-speed manual transmission.”
Hunt is an Englishman who counts Jaguar among Audi competitors, and he pronounces it “Jag-you-are.” He can spew the figures of 28.9-percent growth for Audi in the U.S. last year, second only to Jaguar, while selling twice as many vehicles in the U.S. as Jaguar. He also is a performance nut, enjoying the companies current dedication to racing with such conquests as the 1-2-3 finish at LeMans, and winning the current American LeMans series. He says the racing fits Audi’s more aggressive image, as does the allroad.
“We have to meet four objectives with all our vehicles,” said Hunt. “They are, advanced technology, design, performance, and emotion.”
The allroad will meet those targets, Hunt says, just as well as the TT, or the race cars.
Product planner Marc Trahan put the company objectives into two other categories. “We want the best of both worlds,” he said. “We want the allroad to have both the capabilities of a high-performance German touring sedan on the road, and the Jeep Grand Cherokee off the road. We think this is the first time any manufacturer can make that statement.”
With 73 cubic feet of cargo space in the rear, which can be partitioned off with netting, the allroad has greater capacity than the Grand Cherokee, and it will seat six or seven, with the optional rear-facing rear bench. The engine is small, at only 2.7 liters, but twin turbochargers, each with intercoolers, and Audi’s 5-valve heads, with three intake and two exhaust valves on each cylinder, it also has variable valve timing, with a separate coil on each cylinder. The 250 horsepower is impressive, but more impressive is the 268 foot-pounds of torque, which are regulated to peak at only 1,800 RPMs and stay on a flat curve to 4,000 RPMs.
Along with a lot of on-road punch, the allroad has 3,300-pound towing capability.
When you get the Tiptronic feature on the 5-speed automatic, you get fingertip controls on the steering wheel, with a rocker switch operable by either thumb. Press up and you upshift, press down and you downshift. With the Torsen all-wheel-drive unit adjusting torque from front to rear, it also has ESP, which corrects the tendency to understeer or oversteer.
Remarkably, while the allroad doesn’t have a locking gearbox for low range, the Tiptronic in first gear held the vehicle in tight check, at a sustained 5 mph going down a steep, rutted road.
Stability is further enhanced by 17-inch alloy wheels, with specifically made tires by Goodyear and Pirelli, and inside those wheels are 4-wheel disc brakes, with 13-inch front discs with four pads. The car also has built-in safety, with front and side airbags, plus a sideguard safety air curtain that drops down to protect in side or rollover incidents. The new-design and specially bolstered seats are heated, front and rear, and you can get a heated steering wheel.
There also is a solar sunroof, with cells that can keep the interior cooler in hot weather, and once it reaches its thermostatic level, it transfers solar power to replenish the battery.
With all those features, the allroad’s sticker price of $41,900, with leather and the 6-speed manual, is not bad at all. Plus, you need to realize that Frank van Meel, a 34-year-old Dutchman who was the chief engineer in charge of the allroad suspension, has tested the car strenuously. When I met him, I made a smart-aleck remark to him that the allroad must be the perfect vehicle to drive at 140 mph either on road or off.
“I don’t know how to compute it exactly,” Frank said. “The fastest I’ve driven the allroad is 210 kilometers per hour off-roadÂ…” — (That is 135 mph.) — “Â…and 237 kilometers per hour on the road.”
Turns out that first impression of the allroad was right on. Too nice, too classy, too expensive — to be taken off the road for a pounding. But, if Audi wanted an SUV that was more than an SUV without really being an SUV, the allroad is right on.
[[[[[CUTLINES:
1/ Audi’s new allroad quattro — lower-case letters, please — found no troubles in the snowy upper reaches of Colorado’s mountains.
2/ The allroad is equally at home off the road as well as climbing mountain roads or on the freeways.
3/ Hidden beneath the Audi allroad sheet metal is a powerful engine, all-wheel drive, and suspension that can be raised by push-button.
Alma, Wis., provides unique meeting with Tundra Swan migration
Driving south from the Twin Ports on Hwy. 35 generally means taking the freeway — Interstate 35 — south out of Duluth to the Twin Cities, or to Des Moines, or even Texas, if you feel the urge. But there’s another Hwy. 35, with a rich and unique reward for anyone looking for a day or weekend advanture — Wisconsin State Hwy. 35 out of Superior.
Actually, you can take any route you choose to get as far south as the Twin Cities or Interstate 94 as it crosses Wisconsin, and many of them are faster. The important part is to take Wisconsin 35 south of I94, where it runs along the westernmost border of Wisconsin along the shore of the Mississippi River. It takes about 4-5 hours, one way, from the Twin Ports to reach Alma, a tiny town on the Wisconsin border that is just a bit south of Wabasha on the Minnesota side.
The purpose for singling out Alma as your destination has to do with Tundra Swans. Maybe you’ve never seen, or heard of, Tundra Swans. They are enormous birds, with bodies over 4 feet long, and wingspan of about 7 or 8 feet, and they weigh about 15 pounds. They are stunning white, enhanced if you happen to choose a bright, sunny day for the trip, with black beaks.
Tundra Swans reside on the tundra or marshland of northern Canada, near the Arctic Circle, or Alaska. They also live in eastern areas, near Chesapeake Bay. When they migrate south, they can get from the northern reaches of Saskatchewan or Alberta to the marshland of North Carolina in about two days. They fly high, at elevations of 6,000-8,000 feet, and they sail along at 100 miles per hour, if the wind is right.
They also stop at only a couple of choice locations on their annual flight south, and one of those is Rieck’s Lake, a marshy lake at Alma, Wis. The lake has a lot of weeds and vegetation growing out of its area, and it is separated from the Mississippi River by Wisconsin State Hwy. 35. The Tundra Swans apparently like to reach those long necks down through the shallow lake to reach all sorts of roots to eat.
The Tundra Swans return in the spring, but in irregular patterns from March through May. But the more regular stopover, and therefore the most appealing time for viewing, is right now. They start assembling in mid-October, then they continue to arrive until mid-November, arriving in surrealistic form of gigantic “V” flight patterns, then circling, descending and joining the already-gathered birds, although they retain their small family seclusion within the group. They remain at Rieck’s Lake as their number increases, waiting until the end of November, or when hard-freezing provides them with incentive to head south.
Watching the Tundra Swans coming in for a landing is remarkable itself, sort of like a whole platoon of 747s dropping out of the sky. You lose perspective of how large these birds are until getting up close, then you notice how much larger they are than the Candian Geese nearby, while the mallards and other ducks that mingle with the Turndra Swans look about the size of sparrows.
A well-structured viewing stand is located by the lake, with helpful informants to give you all the information you might want, beyond the informative signboards. There also is a small campground at the south end of the parking lot, and various little towns along the way have motels or bed-and-breakfasts.
Ideally, you’d want to get an early start, so that you can be driving down that stretch of 35 and appreciate the jagged plateaus of the Wisconsin shoreline to your inland side. You also should plan to cross over to the Minnesota side, and drive north of Wabasha and Reads Landing for another remarkable glimpse of nature. The big river stays open because of the power plant nearby, so eagles gather near Reads Landing and stay there throughout the winter.
Last week, when we were driving to Winona, for what turned out to be a sensational UMD football game, my wife and I went down Hwy. 61 — yes, THAT Hwy. 61 — along the Minnesota side. We stopped at a roadside rest stop perched on the cliff just north of Reads Landing, and we saw over a dozen eagles within five minutes, then crossed over at Nelson, Wis., and headed south to Alma, then beyond, crossing back at Winona. That makes an interesting and attractive circle route, taking the Wisconsin shore one way and the Minnesota shore the other.
You can hit the Cheese Factory for a great sandwich in the town of Nelson, or stop at any of the small-town restaurants along the way. If you cross over to Wabasha, where they filmed the movie “Grumpy Old Men,” you will find several exceptional restaurants, and more await you in Lake City or Red Wing, on the way north.
Of course, if you don’t want to spend an exhaustively long day driving down and back, you could find many places to stay overnight. Then you could double your time enjoying two days of unique and spectacular scenery and wildlife nestled in that easily-reachable region.
[[[[[CUTLINES:
1/ Viewers assemble on the platform at Rieck’s Lake in Alma, Wis., to observe the arriving Tundra Swans on their annual stopover from Canada to warmer winter homes.
2/ Tundra Swans are 4 feet long, with 7-foot wingspans, and their size can best be noticed by comparing wildfowl such as ducks mingling with them.
3/ Alma remains the annual migratory stopover spot for Tundra Swans, which fly at airplane altitude and at 100 miles per hour.
4/ An eagle flew down from the bluffs of Read’s Landing to do a little fishing on the Minnesota side of the Mississippi River.
Toyota racing influence clearly reflected in new Lexus IS300
Imagine the daily drive taken to the max in pure pleasure. You’d climb in, start the engine, appreciate the sound of power, then you’d take off. Both hands on the steering wheel as you step on the gas and the car surges forward, smoothly and evenly, but with a kick of power as the revs build. You’re nearing the redline on the tachomter now, so you squeeze your finger — either right or left index finger — without leaving your grip on the steering wheel, and the car willingly upshifts with another surge of power.
Do that five times, and you’re at full sail. Time to slow down, so you press down with your thumb, and the 5-speed gearbox downshifts. Do it again, it downshifts again. Just like driving a Formula 1 car on the morning commute. But it’s not a Formula 1 car, it’s the new Lexus IS300, which is making a bid at being the next best thing.
You don’t drive a race car on the street, and you wouldn’t want to, because race cars are harsh and uncompromising and lack all the amenities we’ve come to expect from regular streetable vehicles. However, Toyota has come out with a rash of new sporty vehicles in the last couple of years, and for the 2001 model year, it has provided its upscale Lexus brand with a new IS300, which pretty well lives up to the Lexus reputation for luxury, but fires well beyond any preconceived ideas of Toyota/Lexus stodginess.
If Germany’s BMW 3-Series or Audi A4 rank as the top sporty sedans in the world, then the new IS300 is the Japanese equivalent. It is almost a Japanese version of the BMW M3, which is high praise, indeed.
In the always-competitive world of auto racing, there is no compromise on performance and durability. A race car must be swift and strong to win, and it must finish the distance to have a chance to win. In the real world of automotives, everything seems to be a compromise — fast cars also try to be comfortable, luxury cars also seek performance, economy cars try to be sporty, and all of them either pretend or profess to have durability.
Similar to the path Honda followed several years ago, Toyota adapted some of the brilliant technical concepts from racing for its consumer autos, such as double-wishbone suspensions and variable valve-timing methods that adjusted engine operation to cope with varying driver input. The result is that Toyota has updated its always-dependable street engines with a solid dose of high-performance fun, with the Lexus GS300 and GS400, the new Celica, or the hot, new MR2 as prime examples. Now add the IS300, and Toyota has successfully tilted its own playing field away from its reputation of building steady, dependable vehicles with all the panache of appliances..
Being lighter and more compact in exterior dimensions, the IS300 became a workable tool for quick response to every influence of horsepower, steering and handling that Toyota engineers chose. And they chose well. The more compact size also allows the IS300 to be kept to a reasonable cost, which is just over $30,000.
POWER AND PERFORMANCE
If the BMW 3-Series was Toyota’s target, the most obvious element of the Lexus IS300 is the front-engine/rear-drive layout of BMW. That allowed chassis engineers to set up the balance as they chose, although the trade-out for those of us Up North who face five months of snow and ice may find that is too much of a compromise. Having made that decision, nonetheless, Toyota chose the same in-line 6-cylinder engine from more the expensiv GS300/400 models. That was interesting, because Toyota makes 3-liter engines in both V6 and in-line 6 designs. BMW, incidentally, also uses an in-line six of similar dimensions.
The engine in the IS300 has dual-overhead-camshafts with four valves per cylinder, and an advanced variable-timing system to keep those valves open longer for maximum performance. It is tuned to deliver 215 horsepower at 5,800 RPMs and 218 foot-pounds of torque at 3,800 revs, with a redline of 6,400 RPMs. The variable valve-timing gives the engine the flexibility to meet anyone’s demands for low-end power, as the 7.1-second 0-60 times indicate, and also carries that punch through the midrange and on up to the high-revving power near redline.
The in-line engine is mounted just behind the center-point of the front axle, by 2.2 inches, which reduces the amount of weight ahead of the axle and thus allows for better balance. Double wishbone suspension geometry, which simply is the best and most precise, keeps the car’s stance stable while delivering that power to the road.
The 5-speed automatic transmission is an exceptional addition to the whole picture. You can use the shift lever with its big, steel ball, to simply go into “D” for drive, or manhandle it as a clutchless manual. But why bother? Go with the buttons on the steering wheel. Upshifts are snappy, sure, and feel good. When you downshift, you can only go to “2” to prevent you from hitting the super-steep first gear.
I am a manual-shift zealot, although the hills of Duluth are a good argument for an automatic. But with the “E-shift” feature, you genuinely get the best of both worlds. Once you get used to it, it is as much fun as any manual shift, but it takes awhile. It’s easy to get coordinated with the downshifting, because the little oval switches on the steering wheel facing you say “down” right on them. But the buttons for upshifting are on the backside of the steering wheel, where you can’t see them or read them, and you must make a mechanical effort to use them and then spend the time to make their use instinctive.
Porsche was first with this sort of shift, with the Tiptronic, now also used by Audi. Chrysler put in its AutoStick, which lacks the steering-wheel buttons, and most other companies now offer some form of manually shiftable automatics. But of all of them, the Toyota/Lexus concept is unexcelled in some ways.
First of all, when you start up and upshift a couple times, then slow down and stop for a red light without downshifting, the E-shift starts you out in low gear anyway. When you upshift to, say, third, the car’s computer assigns the best choice of first, second or third to your driving. In fourth, it’s the best of 1-4, etc., and upshifting to fifth is a lot like being in “D.” When you’re driving along, if you fail to glance at the instruments to see the large number designating what gear you’re in, you might easily lose track. So, if you’re in fifth and you hit the button to upshift, a little beep tells you you’re already there. Same with trying to downshift under first when you’re waiting at a red light.
All of those ideas, along with the surety that if you neglect to downshift it starts you out in starting range anyhow, the whole thing becomes, as they say, idiot-proof even for the most forgetful drivers. Taken alone, the car’s great power and slick shifter would be outstanding. But when added to the quicker, more precise steering and the wonderfully firm suspension that seems to anticipate your turning whims, it is a truly impressive package.
CREATURE FEATURES
The IS300 is shorter and stubbier on the outside, because designers wanted to make it compact, and they did it by reducing the overhang. The front wheels are extremely close to the front end of the car, which both aids the stability by stretching the wheelbase to the maximum, and helped leave room to position the engine rearward of the front axle. It also means the shorter exterior doesn’t wipe out rear seat room or trunk space.
Inside, sportiness takes precedence over luxury, but luxury is certainly not overlooked. The black leather seats have suede inserts, although it’s actually fake suede, but classy nonetheless.
The instrument cluster is evidence that no matter how many models of cars have been built, there’s always room for somethng new and different. At first glance, the gauges look like they must have been designed by Rolex. There is a definite sports-watch look, with a round speedometer, flanked by a smaller tachometer on the left and fuel gauge on the right, but located inside the speedometer circle are three smaller dials, one that calculates your miles per gallon, one for battery and one for coolant temperature.
It would be interesting to see a study on how much an imaginative cockpit can influence the feeling of satisfaction a driver has with his/her car. I mean, the exterior looks are important, as are other characteristics of adequate room. But once in the car and underway, a driver is totally consumed by what is necessary to drive the vehicle — visibility, performance, comfort, switchgear, the “feel” of control, and certainly the instrumentation.
Safety is another important characteristic, and the IS300 has the structural build, plus side-airbags mounted in the seats to augment the frontal airbags. Other nice features are the audio system, a 240-watt monster with eight speakers and in-dash cassette and CD players.
One other sporty touch is the use of aluminum, perforated pedals, and, combining style with substance, when you step on the perforated aluminum brake pedal, the IS300 stops! Immediately! Huge 11.65-inch front and 12.09-inch rear disc brakes are perfectly tuned to the touch of your toe on the brake pedal.
An interesting facet of the IS300’s marketing is that Lexus already has an ES300, which also has a 3-liter 6-cylinder engine. The difference is that the ES300 is a slick, sporty base luxury sedan with a V6 instead of the in-line 6, and front-wheel-drive, which is better for the masses. Typical of Toyota, the ES300 is sufficiently sporty, just as the IS300 is sufficiently luxurious.
The difference is that Toyota, perhaps because of its increasing role in auto racing, wanted to build a no-compromise, inexpensive sports sedan. And it hit that target, directly.
[[[[CUTLINES:
1/ The IS300 is a new, stylishly sporty sedan from Toyota’s Lexus division, and it is set off by fresh design and refreshingly potent performance. Call it a Japanese BMW M3.
2/ Plush leather seats with suede-like inserts are firmly supportive, and the IS300 interior — from instruments to steering wheel to drilled pedals, to sporty shift knob — makes it a pleasant place to be.
3/ The rear has an upraised lilt to it that resembles the costlier Lexus GS 300/400 models, and sets off the large, businesslike tailpipe.
4/ The gauge package resembles a sports wristwatch, with dials-within-dials, with a readout indicating the gear you’re in.
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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