(…cutlines for auto show and column pictures…)
Chicago auto show cutlines:
1/ The Pontiac REV is a concept exercise that will be brought to life as a production vehicle blending performance, innovation and “functionality.”
2/ Toyota used the 100th anniversary Chicago Auto Show, which starts this weekend, to introduce its RSC — for Rugged Sports Coupe — as a combination sports car/SUV in coupe form.
3/ Ford’s Special Vehicle Team’s high-performance SVT Lightning pickup now has a concept brother in the Lightning Rod.
4/ Before the new Thunderbird hits the showrooms, Ford has unveiled another new/retro vehicle, called the Forty-nine.
5/ Chrysler has probably brought the most concepts to production life, and the new Crossfire sports car could be next.
6/ Buick had three concept vehicles on display at the Chicago Auto Show, and the 4-door LaCrosse was the most intriguing.
7/ The Toyota RSC looks equally futuristic from the rear, as a sleek, sporty RAV4 platform derivative.
[DODGE RAMÂ…]
1/ Dodge was careful to keep the familiar indentifying look to the 2002 Ram pickup, but it is entirely new, from the wheels, suspension, brakes, engine, transmission, body, and interior.
2/ At the Chicago Auto Show press introduction, the new 4-door body of the Ram was lowered out of the rafters of McCormick Place to fit onto the chassis and show off the roominess and flexibility of the new interior with its foldaway rear seat.
Dodge Ram for 2002 retains boldness during complete upgrade
CHICAGO, ILL.—The Ford F-Series pickup truck is the largest-selling single vehicle in the world. The Chevrolet 1500 series pickup is No. 2 only to Ford in U.S. and, therefore, world sales. Back in the early 1990s, Dodge also made pickup trucks, but made a major decision to become competitive in 1994.
The latest version of the Dodge Ram was designed then, and it startled the cautious, conservative pickup truck world. Instead of being square of front, square of occupant compartment and square of pickup box, like the Ford and Chevy and previous Dodges, the Ram went off the deep end.
“We singlehandedly changed the way people looked at pickups by daring to add design to a pickup truck,” said Rich Schaum, Dodge’s executive vice president for product development. “We decided that it had to be more than just a big, strong, boxy worker, so we made it the boldest full-sized pickup truck. It was both powerful, and had conveniences customers never knew they needed in a truck.”
Ford, of course, countered with a very stylish and aerodynamic remake when it came time to alter the F150, and GM upgraded its styling, although it has spent more on interior features than on doing anything too dramatic with styling. But the hot styling of the Ram was love it or hate it among onlookers. Some were dazzled by the way it looked like a downsized semi, others thought it was ugly. But everyone noticed it.
The Ram was a hot story in pickups. It had been moving along, selling 70,000 units a year, which was insignificant comapred to Ford and Chevy. But in the first year after the redesign, Dodge sold 200,000 Ram trucks. Two years later, it was up to 350,000. By 2000, it was the largest selling vehicle in the entire Chrysler stable, even outselling the minivans.
But now it’s time to restyle again, and Dodge brought out the new 2002 Ram amid great fanfare. A lot of auto show introductions are heavy on flash and light on substance. Chrysler Corporation has established itself as being at the forefront of the show-business tricks, but usually with substance to what is being introduced in recent years.
The new Ram was driven out onto a stage, and a rolling chassis of another one was next to it. From out of the rafters, the body and box dropped down, with the seats folding and unfolding, until the whole body nestled down on top of the platform. Very slick.
The substance, however, prevails again. And that’s probably important, because Chrysler has taken some serious financial hits in the past year, partly from a faltering intensity of the buying public, and partly because Chrysler has just finished major and costly introductions of the PT Cruiser, the Stratus/Sebring, the revised minivans, and the Ram.
The all-new Ram has new front bodywork that curves the bold grillework a bit for aerodynamic improvement, there are new quad headlights and foglights, the hood and windshield are raked at a steeper angle, and the doors wrap around the pillars, too, for reduced wind resistance.
Neatest of all is the Crew Cab model, which has a full four doors, with the rear doors opening to an 85-degree angle, which is almost perpendicular, allowing easy access in and out. The rear windows roll all the way down, too. And there is room in the back seat to climb in and sit with comfort, thanks to a decision to lengthen the cab. Dodge engineers took three inches out of the bed length, reducing it from 6-foot-6 to 6-foot-3, and adding those inches to the rear of the cab.
The front seats have a 40/20/40 split, and can be used for seating for three or for two with a large storage area in between, which Dodge has designed to be a business console, capable of holding a laptop.
The rear seat is a 60/40 folding deal, where you can carry more passengers, or some luggage, at your choice. The seats also fold up, and away, leaving room to haul tools, or whatever.
But with all the promotion of the size and roominess of the cabin, and of the styling and functional purpose of adjustable pedals, dual-zone climate control and improved passive restraints that include the first full side-curtain rollover and side-impact airbag on a full-sized truck, and other improved interior features, the working end of the new Ram is almost overlooked.
Under the hood is an entirely new base engine, a 3.7-liter V6, with overhead camshafts, which allow for higher-revving power. It turns out 210 horsepower at 5,200 RPMs and 230 foot-pounds of torque at 4,000 RPMs. The new engine has aluminum heads and a balance shaft for smooth operation.
Any question about the power capabilities of the overhead cam design are flushed when you realize the previous 3.9-liter pushrod V6 had 175 horsepower. The new engine is smaller, with more power, and improved fuel efficiency, at 16-21 miles per gallon, city and highway.
You can upgrade to the 4.7-liter V8, also an overhead-cam design, with 235 horsepower and 295 foot-pounds of torque, which replaces the 5.2 liter V8, which was a pushrod unit with 230 horses. The older but still strong 5.9-liter pushrod V8 with 245 horses and 335 foot-pounds of torque remains an option, but Richard Ray, the general product manager, said he has driven the new Ram with the 3.7-liter V6, and he says he believes customers will be surprised and impressed at the power.
A new 4-speed automatic transmission also accompanies the new truck, for those who choose to go beyond the 5-speed manual. It has an alternative second gear to be used for heavy towing or grade-climbing circumstances.
With all that power, maximum towing capability goes up from 7,650 to 8,350 pounds.
The suspension, too, has been thoroughly revamped. Ground clearance is 9.5 inches, and suspension travel improves to 8.5 inches. Ride quality and stability were focal points of the upgrades. Same with the brakes, where the largest four-wheel disc brakes in the segment are used. Rear wheel antilock is standard, with four-wheel discs optional.
Even the wheels are new, with standard 17-inch rims, and optional 275/55R20 tires on polished, cast-aluminum, 20-inch wheels.
Talking to different engineers and design types at the introduction, some, like Ray, were most impressed with the power of the new V6. Others thought the interior room was the biggest advantage of the new Ram. Still others insisted the precise handling was the best feature.
The good news for Chrysler, of course, is that they might all be right, and the new Ram might be another advancement to get the new DaimlerChrysler moving onward and upward.
Auto makers rush to outdo each other in sales, creative concepts
CHICAGO, ILL.—It used to be that Detroit was king of the U.S. auto show circuit. All the manufacturers wre eager to display their newly introduced wares in Motor City, and it was the closest thing the U.S. had to the enormous auto shows of Frankfurt, Paris, Geneva and Tokyo.
In more recent years, there were huge splashes from Los Angeles and New York to displace Detroit from its superior position. But almost quietly, Chicago’s Auto Show has simply taken over. Last year, there were more customers — paying spectators — to the Chicago show than any other U.S. car show. The manufacturers, who used to save up their introductions for Detroit, still spend some of them there and at Los Angeles and New York, but the Chicago Auto Show that starts this weekend is celebrating its 100th anniversary with its biggest display.
Dodge kicked off the show by beating Wednesday’s media preview day with a Tuesday night introduction of the completely revised Dodge Ram pickup truck. At first glance, the look might be familiar, but the truck is thoroughly redone from the bottom up, including engines, suspension, brakes, transmissions and safety and comfort features. [See “The Road Up North” column, page 2.]
Then on Wednesday, Toyota, Ford, Pontiac, Saturn, Mazda, Volkswagen, Hyundai, and other companies rolled ouut a steady stream of new vehicles and concept cars that might offer a glimpse into futuristic cars that could take over our roads in years to come. Also, of course, the new vehicles first displayed at Detroit or Los Angeles also had prominent displays at Chicago, providing the best of the new and the futuristic, all at McCormick Place South.
The show itself opens this weekend and runs through Feb. 18.
Concept vehicles always attract large audiences to the displays, and different companies have taken different approaches to marketing their concepts. Foreign companies have long built concept cars for show, but with the intention of measuring spectator response before refining the cars for production. Audi did that with the TT sports car, among others, and Honda, Toyota and Nissan also have commonly used that technique.
The U.S. car-makers have taken different approaches.
Chrysler, for example, stunned the auto world by building the Viper, then the Prowler, then the PT Cruiser, all off concept vehicles that proved to be show-stoppers. Ford is going to build the don’t-call-it-retro Thunderbird, off a retro concept vehicle of a couple years ago.
So General Motors, which had built concept cars as one-off attention grabbers with no intention of builging them, decided to jump into action and, to the horror of most observers, made that move at the time when it had a truly weird concept vehicle on the show floors, which is how the Pontiac Aztek came about. The Aztek has been so universally criticized for its odd looks that word is, Pontiac is redesigning it now, while it’s still in its first year.
It all adds to the aura of the auto show season, however. For example, Buick has three concept cars on display — a stunning LaCrosse 4-door sporty car, the previously seen Bengal, and the Rendezvous, which, it must be said, looks like a restyled Aztek. We can’t be sure how serious General Motors is about building these three, but the LaCrosse gets my vote.
Pontiac has its Vibe GT, and introduced the REV, which is a sporty, all-purpose vehicle intended for production. Cadillac showed the Vizon, and even poor old Oldsmobile has a flashy concept car up on its display stand. Sadly, the Olds concept vehicle looks pretty good, but doesn’t even have an official name, and, since GM is going to make the Oldsmobile name disappear over the next couple of years, the chances of the Olds concept coming to life are nil.
Ford followed up its rave reviews for the Thunderbird by showing off a Thunderbird roadster at Chicago, and also has a decidedly retro, slinky ’50s-style convertible called the Forty-nine.
Ford’s biggest news, however, was the show of the new SVT (Special Vehicle Teams) Lighting Rod pickup truck, which takes the SVT concept of heightening performance all around in the existing F150 Lightning, and giving it a true custom hot rod look.
But on top of that, SVT boss John Colletti introduced his outfit’s latest toy — an all-new Ford Focus SVT, with a hotter engine, stiffer suspension, trick wheels, a six-speed manual gearbox, and 170 horsepower, 85 more than the hottest Focus currently available. Currently, the Focus has hit Ford’s target with European and Asian marketing, and is the largest selling car in the world. But for those who find the Focus too mundane in spirit, SVT roars to the rescue.
“The Focus SVT is only the beginning,” said Colletti. “We have a whole palette to look at, and we’ll have more coming. We usually have three or four vehicles going at a time.”
The Mustang Cobra still is the product of SVT, as is the Lightning pickup, but Ford discontinued the Contour, so the Contour SVT naturally disappeared. The Focus SVT will go into production in November, and the initial aim is 7,500 a year.
At GM, Pontiac is carrying the objective of attracting new and younger buyers, and Ron Zarella, president of GM North America, said seven new vehicles aimed at the youth market will be introduced over the next four years. The Pontiac Vibe is one of those, and the newly introduced REV is another.
“The REV gives a strong indication of the future design vocabulary of Pontiac,” said Zarella. “It showcases the features you might expect from Pontiac, with high performance, surprising functionality, innovative features, and an attitude, based on Pontiac’s athletic style.”
Chrysler, which has had the Dodge Hemi8 out for a while now, also had the new Crossfire up on a revolving pedestal. The latest in a continuing string of dazzling, sleek sporty concepts, this one looks like a winner from the front or the rear, and the only hesitation might be because Chrysler already is making cutbacks under DaimlerChrysler management because it lost a lot of money on introductory costs of the PT Cruiser, Sebring/Stratus coupes and sedans, minivans, and now the Ram pickup.
All the maneuvering by Ford, Chrysler and GM are to answer to the ever-increasing challenges from what they still call “imports,” which is an interesting term these days, with Ford, Chrysler and GM building so many cars in Canada and Mexico, while “import” companies are building more and more vehicles in plants in the U.S.
The great improvements indicated by the U.S. companies doesn’t mean the foreign nameplates are sitting still, however.
Toyota, for example, has the new Matrix, a 4-door, squareback, hot subcompact, with high-performance exuded by its foglights and sleek front, and by a giant tailpipe on the exhaust. And that’s before showing off the RSC — which stands for “Rugged Sports Coupe.”
Similar to the Pontiac aim with the REV, Toyota is bringing out the RSC, which looks like a Celica on steroids. With impressively aggressive bulges all over the place, the RSC is designed to be a strong performer that might prove capable of bridging the sports car/small SUV niche.
Hyundai introduced the HCD6, which is both evidence that the Korean company continues to try to build exotic cars at budget prices, and that automakers are pretty well exhausted when it comes to dreaming up new names.
But the concepts are fun, and thought provoking. There are fewer alternative-energy displays than in recent years, as car companies instead seem to be veering over toward the fun, flexible — and extremely profitable — segments like SUVs, sporty cars, and the combinations of both.
Auto show’s most impressive concepts are headed for showrooms
The Chicago Auto Show is still going on, through this weekend, and it is anticipated that the 100th aniversary version of the show will again lure the most spectators to McCormick Place of any U.S. auto show. The array of futuristic concept cars from all the domestic and many foreign companies can be so dazzling that the newly introduced real-world cars can be overshadowed.
It requires another round of scrutiny to examine the most impressive new stuff, as well as the concepts most likely to make it into the real world.
We dealt with most of the new domestic manufacturers last week, and, frankly, the majority of new and concept ideas are from foreign companies, both because there are more of them, and because the U.S. companies seem to have tightened up their number of introductions for the upcoming year.
But one of the most impressive introductions in Chicago was from Saturn, the maverick arm of General Motors. It is impressive that with GM tightening for the current downturn in auto sales by eliminating Oldsmobile, it chose to keep Saturn, which has been the free-form branch of GM. After adding a second sedan last year, Saturn next is going to bring out its own sport-utility vehicle — the VUE — and it was shown along with first looks at a couple of additional concept VUEs in Chicago.
The VUE itself was first displayed in Miami last October, but production will start later this year, and it should be on sale, with a target market share of 70,000 vehicles, by about October of this year. It is admittedly a little boxy, but the VUE has an identifiable link with the Saturn sedans from the front grille. Inside, the VUE keeps up with Saturn’s idea of being ergonomically sound and useful.
Most impressive is the interiors of the concept cars. Now, face it, making an extremely neat dashboard and interior can’t cost all that much more than making a boring, dull interior, and the VUE has a futuristic look inside. Plus, while a lot of vans and SUVs are now offering tiny television monitors to keep the kids occupied with video games on trips, the VUE has the novel approach of installing two rear monitors in the backs of the front headrests.
A couple of other concepts that I’d like to see come to life come from Volvo and Nissan’s upscale Infiniti line.
Volvo, which has had an amazingly effective redesign plan to eliminate its traditional squarish, boxy shapes, showed two new safety concept cars. Volvo and safety are intertwined, and have been since the Swedish company’s inception, notable in the U.S. for five decades.
The Volvo SCC, for Safety Concept Car, has beautiful sculpted lines, front, side and rear, and the rear angle bears a resemblance to the late, lamented 1800-sports-wagon, but with a modern flair. And, of course, the design has not compromised for safety, but instead has been done to augment the company’s great safety tradition. Volvo also displayed a completely different station wagon safety concept vehicle. While the Volvo SCC looks pretty far out, it is a logical progression from where Volvo went from its sedans of five years ago to the current models.
Nissan introduced new revisions of recently-released new vehicles, with both the Frontier pickup and the Xterra getting new life. The new Frontier has a full crew-cab, 4-door body, plus a full-length pickup box, while the Xterra has a revised nose on its hard-working SUV face. But the key new element to both the Frontier and Xterra is that Nissan is now going to offer an Eaton supercharger on the V6 engine in both vehicles, boosting it to 210 horsepower, 246 foot-pounds of torque and a 5,000-pound towing capacity. With companies expanding their audio offerings, Nissan also is plugging in a 9-speaker, 400-watt Rockford-Fosgate audio system specifically designed for the pickup cabin.
But the flashiest thing on the Nissan display was at the adjacent Infiniti stand, where the FX-45 concept car lurked. I thought it was relatively homely from the front, but the side and rear of the FX-45 are stunning in design. It looks from the side and the sculptured rear that the FX-45 is as sleek a coupe as you might find, and then you realize that it’s actually a 4-door sedan in coupe clothing.
What is most appealing about such a diverse show as Chicago had this year is the realization that some of these cars on display are headed for the showrooms, some of them immediately.
Honda, for example, which also had a boxy SUV on display, had a stunning blue Acura RS-X coupe rotating on a stand. Acura, Honda’s upscale arm, is discontinuing the Integra name, and its full-line of Integra 2-door and 4-door vehicles, but it is bringing back the coupes under the new name of RS-X. From its introductory look, it will be a sure winner in the sporty coupe segment.
Toyota, meanwhile, also is branching out in the high-performance compact end, with the Matrix. At first glance, it looks like another subcompact 4-door wagon, and it is aimed at combining sportiness with utility. But when you get close enough, you spot the businesslike foglights carved into the front fascia and flanking the grille, then you spot the prominent upper lip spoiler at the rear, and — the surest giveaway — the single, huge tailpipe. The standard 5-passenger Matrix will have a 130-horsepower, ultra-low-emission engine, but the sport model has the 180-horse engine out of the Celica.
Even more pragmatic in their approach to new car introductions are Subaru, and the Korean Hyundai company.
Subaru has always taken pride in building durable, tough cars with flat-opposed engines and full-time all-wheel-drive. With the Forester and Outback compact SUVs on top of the Legacy sedan/wagon and smaller Imprezas, Subaru also has gone racing, although the company has done it, typically, in the harshest of rallies rather than on high-speed racetracks. So for 2002, Subaru is going for performance amplification on its new models.
At Chicago, Subaru showed off the 2002 Impreza WRX, which is an all-out performance version. It also introduced a new Impreza WRX Sport, a sedan that was identified as “blaze yellow,” which, translated from the Japanese, is the most pale yellow I’ve ever seen on a car. The best news is that the sportier Impreza 2.5 RS with the 165-horsepower version of the 2.5-liter 4-cylinder engine can be bought for $18,995, and the wagon for $17,495, while the Impreza Outback Sport with 16-inch wheels and other upgrades, is still only $18,695.
Hyundai, which has battled for respect as Korea’s top automaker, has made great strides with its sedans and compacts in the last two years. But I wasn’t prepared for the first Chicago look at the HCD6, a concept roadster sports car, with dramatic styling and the 215-horsepower, 2.7-liter dual-overhead-cam V6 from the Hyundai Santa Fe SUV. This is only a concept car, but it is stunning, and will probably see life as a $20,000 roadster. All I can say is I hope it’s soon.
[cutlines for auto/motives…]
Cutlines for auto/motives 2-15:
1/ The new Acura RS-X will take over as a high-performance coupe replacing the entire Integra line.
2/ Hyundai introduced the HCD6 sports car concept in Chicago, and it could well become a roadster-on-a-budget for the Korean company.
3/ Nissan’s upscale Infiniti has the FX-45 concept car that is so sleek it belies the fact it’s a 4-door sedan.
4-5/ The Saturn VUE is a compact SUV for General Motors’ most progressive branch, and it offers some unique interior ideas, including television monitors in the backs of the front seat headrests.
6/ Subaru redesigned the Impreza, and gave it a Sport model with 165 horsepower, all-wheel-drive, “blaze yellow” color, and an under-$20,000 sticker.
7/ Toyota’s Matrix is a compact wagon with a sporty flair, especially the Sport model, with the Celica’s 180-horsepower engine.
8-9/ Volvo’s SCC, for Safety Concept Car, has softly flowing lines for a distinctive look, front and rear.
[FORD ESCAPE:
1/ The Ford Escape’s impressive first year is only enhanced when you drive through the worst winter has to offer.
2/ Even the daily blizzard routine in Houghton, Mich., failed to bother the Escape with its front-wheel or 4-wheel drive.
[DAYTRIP TO HOUGHTON:
1/ Parking meters have to work to keep their heads up as the snowfall in Houghton heads toward 200 inches — again.
2/ Downtown Houghton retains its rustic look from years ago, but is a haven for the hardy “Yoopers” from the daily snow.
3/ Annual Winter Carnival sculptures attract constant throngs of viewers and Michigan Tech alumni, despite sub-zero cold.
4/ Houses and driveways require frequent shoveling, or else the patience to wait a few months for the spring thaw.
5/ Drivers are required to Stop! Maybe. A pelting snow left only the faint outline of this stop sign in Houghton.
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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