Redesigned 2002 Explorer eliminates controversial problems
SEDONA, ARIZ.—The recent hassle regarding Ford Explorers with Firestone tires has been a major problem for Ford Motor Company, but there is a theory that it is just the tip of the iceberg, and when all information is disclosed, it will be a major problem for all sport-utility vehicles.
The problem is a simple one of physics. All higher-center-of-gravity vehicles tend to be less stable and more likely to roll over, especially when driven too aggressively. If you don’t think SUV drivers drive too aggressively, try cruising on the freeway, stretching the speed limit to 75 between Duluth and the Twin Cities, and take note of how many SUVs pass you, doing at least 85.
That is not to absolve Ford of any blame in the matter. There are some critics who will claim that the Explorer’s solid rear axle and rear suspension, which began life in an entirely different application on the Ranger pickup truck, didn’t help the vehicle’s agility, and that the flexibility of the frame might also have contributed to some instability, either in an emergency or if a tire gave out.
But if the Explorer problem is just the tip of the iceberg, Ford has the perfect solution: It built a better iceberg.
A herd of automotive journalists was invited to show up in waves this past week amid the stunning scenery and twisty mountain roads of northern Arizona to test-drive a group of early-production 2002 Explorers, which will go on sale in January or February of 2001.
The introduction was brief, but we got a chance to put the new Explorer through some pretty thorough paces. All of the test vehicles were equipped with the 4.0-liter single overhead-cam V6. We jumped into a black, Eddie Bauer model — ranking above the basic XLS and the upgraded XLT–right near Phoenix, and drove north and then east, into the mountains.
First impressions are that the new Explorer is amazingly smooth and stable, with a hug-the-road feel gained by lengthening the wheelbase and the width, but also by stiffening the frame and adding new suspension design and componentry. Ford engineers pulled off the trick of lowering the floor inside for ease of entry and exit and for the better feeling of road contact, yet raising the ground clearance for off-road purposes.
It was also amazingly free of wind noise, and felt generally tight all over, probably due to its computer-aided design, which made for closer tolerances between body panels.
When we went off the road, on a tiny elk-hunting road, we found snow and also mud. Lots of mud. The better to make deep ruts with. We drove along that road, and the Explorer cleared ruts and boulders with ease, down steep ravines and through trees as we swerved and slithered along in the mud.
A series of three switches on the dash activate the Control Trac four-wheel drive. We experimented with all three. The automatic four-wheel drive uses the rear drive wheels while reading your driving situation, and switches the torque to where you need it most, even if that means transferring 100 percent of the power to the front wheels. In that automatic setting, if you start off hitting the gas hard, all four wheels get torque to eliminate rear wheelspin, and once underway it might transfer all the power back to the rears.
Four-wheel-drive-high locks the axles and gives equal power doses, front and rear. Four-wheel-drive-low, which is good for climbing out of problem areas off road, and is outstanding for holding the Explorer back when going down steep off-road grades.
On the road, the automatic setting let us zip along the twistiest mountain switchbacks and on down Hwy. 89A from Flagstaff into Sedona, while the innovative suspension made the Explorer handle better than some cars.
REDESIGN WAS NEEDED
The old Explorer has been the largest selling SUV in the world every year for over a decade. For such a popular vehicle to suffer its current indignity, Ford, by an incredibly ironic twist of luck, might be in the best possible position to capitalize on its own agony. First, it just introduced the Escape, a more compact SUV that has the same interior capacity as the current Explorer, which gave concerned buyers an alternative right in the same Ford showroom. And in a couple of months, it will fill the nation’s showrooms with an all-new Explorer that overcomes every shortcoming of the current one.
To the masses, it might seem as though Ford made a hasty but effective adjustment to ease all the concerns. But really, it was a master stroke of good timing, because the entirely redesigned and renovated Explorer was scheduled to come out right now, anyway. The new Explorer resembles the current one, but it is entirely new from the pavement up.
“The dynamics targets for the new Explorer were to make it ride and handle better than ever before, which included making it more stable, safer, easier to drive, and more reassuring,” said Dale Claudepierre, the line director for what Ford calls “compact” SUVs. “In order to do that, we had to start over, and design the first purpose-built chassis for a Ford SUV. In the past, all of our SUVs were based on pickup truck chassis.”
Ford kept the same length and height, but stretched the wheelbase — the length from front to rear axle — and gave the new one a 2.5-inch wider stance. The frame is now comprised of boxed, girder-like bars, designed to have crushable, energy-absorbing front and rear sections, while increasing the torsional stiffness overall of 350 percent. Hmmm. The current one indeed WAS flexible, I guess. The resistance to bending is also improved by 26 percent.
WELL-TIMED CHANGES
The new independent rear suspension affects the ride and handling as well as the stability. The true secret of the new Explorer is based on what Ford has named its “porthole-in-frame” design for the rear axle and its components.
In solid-rear-axle vehicles, the frame must be designed to bend around the rear suspension and axle, so Ford engineers decided to run the frame posts straight back, and to carve a circular hole in each side of the frame, running a tube through the holes. The rear differential was thus mounted up high in the frame, rather than over it, saving precious inches of room that would be otherwise required for proper clearance. The upper and lower suspension control arms are mounted both above and below the frame rail, with those half-shafts sending power to the wheels through the tubes that pass through the portholes.
Moving the suspension parts up high increased ground clearance by one inch, and by not having to place the rear differential above the frame, engineers could lower the rear floor of the vehicle by seven inches.
While all of that is hidden from view, the result is that interior room is increased, and it was put to good use. A third seat gives the Explorer seating for seven, and the second and third row of seats fold down into a flat cargo area. There also is a deep storage bin at the rear, even with the seats up and in place.
Larger door openings and a lower step-in height, with grab-handles for every door, make entry and exit easier. Front seats have more longitudinal travel to aid comfort.
Under the aluminum hood, we drove the 4.0-liter V6, which has been increased to 210 horsepower and 250 foot-pounds of torque, as the standard engine. The V8 upgrade will now be the 4.6-liter modular V8, with a single overhead-cam instead of the old 5-liter pushrod engine. The 4.6 will be all-aluminum and have 240 horsepower and 280 foot-pounds of torque, with more than 250 available as low as 1,500 revs.
They’ve sold 3.6 million Explorers since it came out as a 1990 model, and if the current Explorer finds sales curtailed because of the bad publicity about vehicle and tire instability, Ford has countered with a swifter, more economical, and technically innovative new one.
[[[[[[CUTLINES:
1/ The 2002 Explorer proved its off-road capabilities on a muddy road in the Arizona mountains.
2/ Sunset in the Arizona mountains east of Sedona outlined the new Explorer.
3/ A pair of new Explorers were ignored by a pair of foraging Javelinas, mother and offspring.
4/ The redesigned rear of the 2002 Explorer has a smooth resemblance to the Range Rover.
Honda removes alloy wheels, some of the fun, from 2001 Civic
Whenever Honda upgrades a model, it is cause for scrutiny. The Civic, which has been a perennial best seller, is no exception.
While Honda has maintained a position at the top with both the Accord and the compact Civic, it always has been a technical leader as well as a user-friendly mainstay.
But there are some reasons for caution instead of the usual all-out list of accolades when it comes to the 2001 Honda Civic. I am both surprised and a bit dismayed by what direction the Civic has taken, both in its previous redesign and in this one.
For example, the 1991-94 Civic was the fifth version of the car and remains my favorite, for its sleek lines and impressive technology. When the sixth version came out in 1995, it made a couple of curious steps. Its engines were better than ever, and so was its chassis stiffness improvement, but Honda decided to raise the hood an inch or two to provide drivers a bit of front end to see in their previously clean view of the road. Honda claimed that was because of market research, which found some buyers complaining about not being able to see the hood.
Now, market research is a valuable tool, but let’s not have the industry’s technical leader letting the inmates have too much say in how to run the asylum.
Honda also responded to tightening money exchange in those days by eliminating rear disc brakes on the top-of-the-line EX model. Maybe nobody would notice any letup in braking power, but going back to rear drums was part of discontenting rather than any advancement.
Still, the Civic sold well from 1995 through 2000, and now it’s time for the seventh Civic to step forward.
When I got a new 2001 Civic to test drive, it was the EX sedan, the top model. I was unprepared for a couple of surprises. There was no price sticker, but the estimates are about $17,000 for the EX with the five-speed manual.
First, the car looked good from first walkaround, more like the Accord, in sleekness, and a bit taller and roomier. Few have noticed, in the continuing evolution of the Civic, that it has grown to be larger than the Accord of the late 1980s. Maybe that’s good, because the Accord keeps growing ahead of it.
When I opened the door, I was surprised to see cloth seats instead of leather, this being the EX model and all. But that’s OK. Some folks prefer cloth, and the fact that the car had a five-speed stick shift overcame my first disappointment in what I thought was more decontenting.
Closer scrutiny outside, however, also disclosed that those good-looking thick-spoke wheels were only wheel-covers! Sure enough, you can see the steel wheel underneath.
The interior layout is cleaner, and also more Accord-like, with the center dash area smoothed out and typically efficient.
The Civic was comfortable to drive, but even though the engine has more power — up to 127 horsepower at 6,300 RPMs and 114 foot-pounds of torque at 4,800 thanks to variable valve-timing — and the five-speed transmitted it efficiently to the front-drive wheels.
But gone was the familiar near-sporty-car feel of driver control and handling. Turns out, Honda has quit supplying the Civic with the superb double-wishbone suspension, which always had been a hallmark of transfering race-car technology to the mass-produced car.
Decontenting? Maybe. Must be. Something had to give, apparently, because Honda had done a fantastic job of packaging more interior room into a vehicle that actually is slightly shorter than its predecessor.
It is not like the new Civic handles poorly, or even noticeably poorer than its predecessor. But with the previous model, Honda offered a sporty coupe Si model that was a fantastic sporty coupe for both performance and handling. There may be a new Si, but not to start with.
In short, some of the fun of driving the Civic has gone south.
There certainly is nothing wrong with the powertrain, however. Not only was it quick and sprightly in its performance, but I got an actual 34.6 miles per gallon in hilly country driving coupled with city traffic on one tankful.
Maybe the new Civic will be tweaked as production ensues, but for now, it makes the usual end-of-the-model-year bargains something to definitely seek out, if there are any 2000 models still around. Or, if you can find a low-mileage 1994, all the better.
[[[CUTLINES:
1/ The 2001 Honda Civic EX is a bit taller for added headroom and interior space despite being slightly shorter overall.
2/ Smooth, but slightly boxier than its predecessor, the new Civic trades in some sportiness for utility.
3/ The interior is more efficiently laid out, and the bucket seats still provide the customary firm support.
4/ The good-looking wheels turned out to be wheel covers over steel wheels, even on the top-of-the-line EX model.
For chocolate lovers, Grand Forks is a short and satisfying trip
“There is chocolate, and then there’s chocolate,” says George Widman, quadrupling the accent on the second version.
To paraphrase, next time you stop to pick up a candy bar, pause a moment and ask yourself: Do you like chocolate, or do you REALLY like chocolate? If you can feel your taste-buds starting to salute just from thinking about it, then a day-trip to Grand Forks isn’t very far at all.
It takes a few hours, but it’s a scenic ride, directly northwest, up Hwy. 2. From Duluth, you have perfectly placed stops at about one-hour intervals, at Grand Rapids, Bemidji, and Crookston, before the last hop to the Red River. Once you cross it, you’re in Grand Forks. There are some well-known, major attractions in Grand Forks, not the least of which is the University of North Dakota’s perennial powerhouse hockey team, and there’s a nice, big mall, and an air base.
In fact, UND benefactor Ralph Engelstad, who built a perfect arena for the Fighting Sioux hockey team that once listed him as a goaltender, is now a big-money owner of hotels and casinos in Las Vegas, and he has underwritten the building of a spectacular new hockey arena, going up on campus right now, with completion for next fall. It will cost $80 million, and the people drive up every day just to watch the biggest crane in the world hoisting huge sections into place. Watching it being constructed is an attraction by itself, as a steady stream of passers-by drove up, even on a Saturday afternoon, to observe. When it’s done, it will have polished granite floors with marble inlays, and 48 suites, 46 of which already have been purchased at $28,000 for three years.
But to make this family trip meet with unanimous support is that you’re aiming for Widman’s candy store, located downtown, at 106 S. 3rd St. It’s right by the river, adjacent to the railroad tracks on one side and on the other to a joint called the “Plain Brown Wrapper,” which specializes in, shall we say, adult books. Not that it matters. Neither rain, nor snow, nor sleet, nor floods, nor the porno shop next door, can stop the steady stream of customers to Widman’s to buy what George Widman calls, with all due restraint, the best chocolate in the world.
“I don’t care how much money you’ve got, you can’t buy better candy than we make,” said Widman. “Whatever ingredients are called for, we use only the best. We don’t cut any corners. Everything in the store is better. And you know, it’s good for you. People say tea is good for you, but dark chocolate has four times the antioxidants of tea. Did you know that?”
Uh, yes, I did know that, the result of a lifetime seeking out such jewels of information to rationalize a constant craving for dark chocolate. (It has less sugar than milk chocolate, so it’s diet candy, right?)
George comes to work every day, and tells customers he’s 81. When you pin him down, he’ll admit his 81st birthday doesn’t come until March of next year. He’s the youngest in a family that includes siblings who are 89, 87, 85 and 83. “You know what our secret is?” Widman asked. “Eat lots of candy.”
Widman sent all six of his kids on to get college degrees, but a couple of them came back to run Widman’s candy stores in Crookston and Fargo. Even though the Crookston store dates back a full century, the Grand Forks place is now home base.
“I started this one after the war,” Widman said.
Which war? “World War II,” he shot back. “I was in the navy, and I came back here and started this place in 1949. I’m the third generation in this business. The first one was started in St. Paul by my grandfather, in the last century. Grandpa was a candy maker and baker, and my father was a candy and ice cream maker, and he started a store in 1900 in Crookston.”
One of Widman’s sisters ran the Crookston store, until one of George’s kids, also named George, took over. A daughter, Carol Widman Kennedy, runs the store in Fargo, so that makes it a four-generation family business.
When the Red River overshot its banks in 1997, the entire downtown area of Grand Forks was submerged. Watching the disaster on nightly television newscasts made us all worry about the people, about the businesses, and about the city of Grand Forks. I worried a little extra about Widman’s.
“Water was 4 feet high in our store,” said Widman. “There were only two businesses downtown that didn’t get any relief money — us and the porno shop next door. You know why we didn’t get any help? We rebuilt everything right away ourselves.”
Maybe it would have been politically indelicate to help out the adult bookstore, but the Widman family rallied immediately to bail out George — literally as well as figuratively. Offspring and sons-in-law helped rebuild, including replacing damaged essentials, which required about $75,000 in work by Widman’s estimate.
The quality of the candy is unquestioned, but the novelty quotient also is off the scale. Most chocolate lovers also like something salty and crunchy to offset the rich sweetness, and Widman’s signature item is chocolate-covered potato chips. What could be more appropriate? Potatoes are a dominant crop in the Red River Valley, so Widman’s takes ripple chips and dunks them in chocolate, milk, dark or white, and sells them as “Chippers.” The old chip commercial saying, “Bet you can’t eat just one” has never been more accurate.
“We just got through sending a couple pounds to Rockefeller in Washington,” said Widman. “Isn’t there some Rockefeller who’s a senator?”
But there are many other treats, and Widman is quick to push a sample on customers, knowing the rate of orders is unexcelled. There are nut clusters, with almonds, pecans, walnuts or cashews, and caramels, creams, and innovative mixtures. There is one with dark chocolate covering a layer of caramel topped with coconut.
“Did you try the chocolate-covered pickles, or olives?” asked Widman, later, over the telephone. I hadn’t.
It turned out, he was out of the dark-chocolate caramel-coconut things, called Suzie-somethings, the day I was there last week. He also was out of the dark-chocolate Chippers, although he had the milk chocolate and white chocolate ones. When he knew I wanted dark chocolate, he pulled out the huge, empty storage bag, rummaged around, and, sure enough, he found four dark-chocolate Chippers in the bottom. He insisted I take them, on the house.
He “forced” me to try two or three other varieties, too, as he had done with a dozen other customers there ahead of me. I didn’t buy any of the samples, but I did buy a half-pound of dark chocolate covered almond clusters, and a half-pound of turtles, with pecans and caramel inside that incredibly penetrating dark-chocolate coating. They were $4.50 for each white sack, making it $9 for the two.
“It seems like the word in business these days is to see how much you can gyp the customer,” said Widman. “You don’t get gypped here. You try to find candy this good for $9 a pound.”
Or, just try to find candy this good.
I told George I’d be back, because I go to Grand Forks at least once every year, under the guise of watching hockey games. Not a bad cover.
“Well, next time you’re coming, call ahead,” Widman said. “And I’ll make sure we’ve got enough dark chocolate Chippers.”
There’s always mail-order, too, but then you wouldn’t get to listen to ol’ George, which is worth half the tripÂ…Well, almost half.
Honda, Volvo try to find different answers to the SUV question
Presidents get elected (or don’t), nations resolve to clean up the air (or don’t), winter hits us with full fury (or doesn’t), sport-utility vehicles are stable and secure (or roll over), but through it all, SUVs continue to proliferate. Companies keep making ’em, customers keep buying ’em.
The companies that have several SUVs are adding more, in new and different sizes, and the companies that never had built SUVs are scrambling to jump into the lucrative and profitable segment. Coming in late is OK, but it’s a lot better if you can do it by combining a new idea into some sort of compromise niche, called the crossover segment, which is somewhere between a car, a truck, a station wagon, and whatever other elements you can cram into it.
Two such companies are Honda and Volvo, neither of which was very eager to build vehicles they may have reasoned were too big, too unmaneuverable, too inefficient, and not in keeping with their stately images.
For 2001, they have taken decidedly different approaches to having their names on SUVs.
Honda, which used to buy Rodeos from Isuzu and rebadging them as Honda Passports, has finally built its own SUV, and awarded it to its upscale Acura line, as — for those who like alphabetized nicknames — the MDX.
Volvo, which has always stuck with solid, safe and durable sedans and wagons, tried coming out with a special version of its station wagon, and now has promoted it — for those who like alpha-numeric nicknames — as the V70 XC AWD.
These are not the only companies belatedly invading the SUV goldmine. Audi has just introduced its allroad, which is its version of a crossover station wagon/SUV, and which was previously given an introductory review in auto/motives. And Hyundai has jumped in with the Santa Fe, which is reviewed inside today’s section, on page ((((())))).
When SUVs began life, there were Jeeps, and Land Rovers, and Land Cruisers. Then it grew to Broncos and Blazers, and then to Suburbans and Explorers. There was never much doubt that these early SUVs were trucks, built to take the kind of pounding that might be issued by thrashing off-road. Nowadays, as the number of available SUVs climbs to the 70s, there are car platforms with truck-like bodies attached, there are unibody trucks built the way smaller cars are built, there are trucks designed to be similar to cars, and cars disguised as trucks.
Here are two new ones.
ACURA MDX
Maybe it should have been predictable that when Honda ultimately got around to building an SUV, it would be a good one. How good remains to be seen, but at first test, the MDX could well wear the nickname of being the Honda of SUVs.
For comparison purposes, the MDX is most like the BMW X5 or the Lexus RX300. It is not aimed at being an off-road beater, with a shorter wheelbase but longer overall length than BMW X5 or the Mercedes ML320, but it is capable of mild off-roading. It does have 8 inches of ground clearance, which just about duplicates the X5, is more than the RX300, if not as much as some of the hardier SUVs.
It also uses all the technology Honda has accumulated from years of quality car-building and high-tech racing. First impression is that the MDX is a neatly styled capsule, classier than the truck-based SUVs, and low enough to have an easy step-in height. Seats are firm but comfortable, and there are two rows of seats with a third bench seat that actually could accommodate two or three residents. You also can flatten all the seats to create 82 cubic feet of hauling space, or to haul stuff that’s 4-feet wide on a flat rear floor.
The interior gives the driver a classy outlook, too, with woodgrain and leather abundant, a very businesslike center console with the familiar and impressive Acura navigation-system screen mounted up high where it is readily readable. The Acura navigation screen can be set to instruct you on how best to get to your destination, complete with voice instructions on where and when to turn, or to merely give you a map of where you are, which can be scaled up close or three-states wide.
Power comes from a comparatively small 3.5-liter V6, all aluminum with single overhead camshafts, tweaked to produce 240 horsepower at 5,300 RPMs and 245 foot-pounds of torque at 3,000 RPMs. That’s more horsepower and more torque than the BMW, Mercedes, Lexus, or Mitsubishi Montero, among others, although it’s possible to find others with the same or slightly more grunt.
Car and Driver magazine tested seven new SUVs in the near-$40,000 range, selected with luxury as a base quality, and ranked the Acura MDX has first overall, and fastest in both 0-60 and quarter-mile acceleration tests, over the BMW X5, Infiniti QX4, Land Rover Discovery, Lexus RX300, Mercedes ML320, and Mitsubishi Montero. Very impressive. The MDX towing capacity, however, is the same as the Lexus and less than all the others.
As for its all-wheel-drive, the MDX has full-time all-wheel drive, with a push-button control to isolate maximum torque to the rear wheels. It might go over 50 percent in some circumstances, but not more than 56 percent, although that only works at speeds under 18 mph and in first or second gears. That’s fine, because you’d only use that for getting up steep grades or out of rugged circumstances.
The MDX power is transmitted through a 5-speed automatic transmission, which worked seamlessly, and can be shifted easily by hand, which is important in light-duty off-road excursins. All in all, the MDX was as smooth and stable as a luxury sedan on the road. Four-wheel disc brakes with antilock, and pliable but firm-enough suspension combine for precise control whether steering, turning or stopping.
Other creature features include a 6-disc CD player in the dash, remote audio controls on the left of the steering wheel with cruise control switches on the right. Interestingly, Honda still puts an on-off switch on the dash that must be activated before you can operate the steering-wheel cruise switch.
Dual seat-heaters are nice in Up North cold, and the center console sort of continues on to provide cubicles and stashing places at two levels, then there’s a pop-up dual cupholder.
The heat-air controls are located on push-buttons above the navigation screen, with the audio controls below the screen.
The MDX comfort level is a subjective thing, of course, but Honda seats always seem to have the capability to be firmly supportive and yet comfortable. In actual measurement, the front bucket room ranks with the best of the others in its class, but the rear-seat comfort and room in the MDX are unequalled.
It feels more stable on tight turns and slaloms than the Lexus or Mercedes, and if it might be less agile in high-performance handling than the BMW, it is priced several thousand dollars less than the X5, coming in, loaded, right about $40,000. That price also puts the MDX just under the other “luxury” SUVs, making it a decent bargain for those looking for a bit more plush vehicle than the normal truck-based SUV.
VOLVO V70 XC AWD
No matter how you write it, the Volvo V70 XC AWD name looks a lot like what can happen if you doze off at your keyboard and your fingers hit a bunch of random keys. But it’s easy, if you remember that “V” designates the model, as in wagon, compared to “S” for sedan, and the “70” designates the Volvo’s size, compared to the smaller 40 and the larger 80, while “XC” is for Cross Country, and, of course, AWD is for all-wheel drive.
Think a model nickname might be easier?
Volvo has made the Cross-Country for three years now, adapting an idea Subaru started, of taking a station wagon, jacking up the suspension, throwing on some oversized tires, and maybe front, wheelwell and underside protective panels and calling it an Outback. Or, a Forester. That’s also the path Audi has taken with its allroad.
But the Cross-Country took over the larger share of Volvo’s hearty wagon sales, so Volvo has considerably upgraded the XC in the redesign of the vehicle for 2001.
It may still be difficult to get used to Volvos being anything but squarish, boxy, dull-styled drudges, but this new design is downright sleek. The familiar front end is slicked down to a grille that is surrounded by plastic cladding, which outlines the grille, the headlights and becomes the same as the bumper, then it extends to outline the wheelwell and widens as it follows the lower edge of the doors, resuming its arc again at the rear wheel.
The steeply-raked windshield provides an excellent view of the road. The sleek, new body houses a high-tech safety cage for construction, and businesslike touches to the driving controls.
Also, while every manufacturer may offer leather seats, no other vehicle has the same impressive scent of leather as Volvo. The seats themselves demand praise because they are comfortable and virtually assure you of fatigue-free driving. A neat touch is that the headrests are tapered, cradling your head in an added feeling of security.
Instruments are all typical of the Swedish car-maker, and an audio system with a disc player in the dash is above the heat-air switches. The audio is unnecessarily complex, with a 1-20 memory setting, and the disc changing knob on one side, and an identical knob next to it that can be pushed for scan, or turned to change frequency. If you’re on a trip and find a good station, you might push the knob to stash it as a memory stop, and you might instead have inadvertently hit the scan switch, losing your station forever. Similarly, you might want to change from FM to CD, but you hit the wrong button and get a change in radio frequency.
Sometimes Volvo tends to get a dose of its own over-engineering. You get two cupholders in the console, for example, and you can find a little spring-loaded vertical trapdoor in the dash that springs out to give you a third cupholder, in case the first two weren’t enough for the two front seat occupants.
The Cross-Country performs well, with a 2.4-liter, in-line 5-cylinder engine, made of aluminum, and boosted by a Mitsubishi turbocharger through those dual overhead-cams and four-valve-per-cylinder layout to give 197 horsepower at 6,000 RPMs and 210 foot-pounds of torque at 1,800 RPMs. The redline on the tachometer is 6,100 RPMs, and the turbo and variable valve-timing get you to peak torque at such a low reading — which means your takeoff is aided greatly.
A 5-speed automatic transmission has dual gates, so you can shift it manually, which is impressive both for maximizing acceleration or helping slow you down as you approach an exit or stop signal.
A tilting glass sunroof, foglights front and rear, a long aluminum handgrip for the passenger-seat occupant, and seat-heaters, all give extra quality. The Volvo, however, is not inexpensive, listing at nearly $43,000.
The unitized body lets the V70 live up to Volvo’s rich safety tradition, and while the vehicle obviously was not built to challenge the truck-based SUVs in off-road maneuvers, it does have 8.2 inches of ground clearance.
Wheels are 7 inches wide, mounted on 16-inch alloy wheels, which provide extra ground clearance.
The all-wheel-drive system in the V70 runs normally with 95 percent of available power going to the front wheels, with a viscous clutch transmitting as much of that power as necessary to the rear wheels when slippage is threatening. A stability system also automatically applies brakes on one side to shift poweer to the other side if it detects slipping.
The stately but secure feeling you get from a Volvo is amplified by all the features of the Volvo, and while it isn’t light, at 3,884 pounds, it is lighter than your garden-variety SUV. Plus, if skidplates and body-cladding doesn’t convince you the V70 XC AWD is a true SUV, just remember that it might be as smoothly satisfying a method for going “cross country” that you can find.
[[[[[[CUTLINES:
1/ The Acura MDX offers an entirely new way for Honda to approach the luxury-SUV marketplace.
2/ Inside the Acura MDX, the driver gets a feeling of luxury and control over any driving circumstance.
3/ The Volvo V70 XC AWD may have an unwieldy name, but it’s the ideal way to confront a snowstorm.
4/ Volvo’s redesigned V70 adds sleeker looks to the all-weather security of its top all-wheel-drive wagon.
5/ The scent of the leather seats in the Volvo V70 XC AWD is as enticing as the interior features are impressive.
A trip to Coleraine provides a no-frills experience of pure hockey
After 35 or so years of traveling around the state, around the country, and even around the world, to places such as Germany and Switzerland, to watch hockey games, I was caught off-guard on a live radio broadcast last spring when Mark Fleischer of WDSM asked: “What is your favorite hockey arena to watch a game in?”
I paused, but only briefly. “Hodgins-Berardo Arena in Coleraine,” I said.
That surprised a lot of people, and it even surprised me a little, because I had never pondered it before. Besides, if you truly like hockey, there’s no such thing as a bad hockey arena, just like there is no such thing as a bad hot fudge sundae. It’s just that some are better than others. There are better-known arenas, such as the Eveleth Hippodrome, which I love, and Cloquet’s new building, which, like Warroad’s Gardens, is almost too nice. Roseau, Hibbing and others also make the top 10 list, but let’s go to Coleraine.
The Hodgins-Berardo arena is a shrine to hockey. It is not fancy, luxurious or pretentious in any way. It’s a lot like the hardy people who live in on the West End of the Iron Range. What you see is what you get. Make the facility conducive to great hockey, and people will come to watch; give them a fancy place with lousy hockey, and they’ll stay home and watch an NHL game on cable. You don’t need luxury suites, spotlights, a darkened hall for introductions, or an announcer who ignores all elements of sportsmanship and/or good taste and screams for the home team. What you need are the basic elements, and the game should take care of the rest.
To get to Coleraine, you can drive up Hwy. 2 from Duluth, or you can take Hwy. 53 to Hwy. 169 and go back west on 169, and it goes right to it, or you can go to Grand Rapids and head northeast on 169. If you go up Hwy. 2, you should be alert for the Hwy. 10 cutoff in Warba, which goes directly into the easternmost tip of Coleraine — across the street from Bovey, and just down the road from Calumet and Marble. It’s only 7 miles from Grand Rapids, in the other direction.
Jimmy Hodgins and Jim Berardo were early hockey pioneers in the area. Berardo was better known as Chick Berardo when he was a goaltender who made it all the way up to the Detroit Red Wings, back in the early 1940s. So when the arena was built, right near Hwy. 169, it was named Hodgins-Berardo.
Based on my first trip to the arena, it could have been called Gernander-Antonovich Arena, because Bob Gernander was the coach and architect of a Greenway team that featured Antonovich as a 140-pound sophomore center who led the Raiders to two straight state championships back in the late 1960s. The Raiders never stopped trying, and now they again have one of the state’s elite teams. The coach is Pat Guyer, who also is manager of the arena, and, believe it or not, Chick Berardo’s nephew, and his sons, Gino and Andrew, are big parts of this team.
Take a trip to Coleraine, but arrive at the arena early, because fans start coming by 6 p.m. for a couple of reasons. They want to see the Junior Varsity game, and they want to get a preferred vantage point. That might be in the lobby area, where wide expanses of glass give a warm view from one corner of the rink, and you’re still in easy reach of the popcorn, hotdogs and Pizza Corner pizza at the concession stand. The hardier fans brave the elements.
It’s chilly inside by the rink, although there are those little overhead heaters that make a big difference. There are eight rows of bench seats, painted green and white, with a chest-high wall at the top. The traditional hard-core fans stand, and lean their elbows on that wall.
Natural wood beams crisscross to hold up the arched roof, and the opening for the Zamboni at one end of the boards is just right, and the Zamboni driver is experienced enough to simply duck his head to get under the above-glass netting designed to catch deflected pucks.
High above either goal — directly above — a goal judge sits solemnly, looking almost like an inmate in solitary confinement, or a tail-gunner in an early-vintage bomber. To get to their little rounded cubicle, they walk out through a long, narrow corridor to a spot located above the goals, and protected by heavy-gauge chain-link fencing. Deflected pucks can’t possibly reach them, and they’d probably be safe even from howitzers. Or at least anything the fans from Grand Rapids might throw their way.
On the end wall, a large, square clock is fastened. It appears to be a fragile, glass-faced clock, so, in a master stroke of efficiency, a large shield of heavy plexiglass is fashioned in front of it. You can tell the time, but you can’t break the clock.
That’s the way I remember Hodgins-Berardo Arena, and that’s the way it still is. I went there a few days ago, for a fabulous game between Greenway and Hibbing. Close, tough, but clean all the way, and even the public address guy seemed good-natured with his bellowing, although it comes dangerously close to being too modern-trendy.
Hibbing pulled its goalie and scored the tying goal with 53 seconds left. Greenway calmly lined up for the ensuing faceoff, and Gino Guyer calmly fired the puck into the Hibbing net 10 seconds later for a 4-3 victory. I was back in Duluth in an hour and a half. Great game, great atmosphere, great day-trip. And the popcorn is only 50 cents.
[[[[CUTLINES:
1/ The goal judge has a unique, safe view of the goal at the Hodgins-Berardo Arena in Coleraine. Note the plexiglass shield for the clock at left.
2/ Players and fans stood at attention for the National Anthem, knowing the game to follow would be pure, old-time, West Range hockey. ]]]]]]]
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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