2003 Expedition feels comfortably at home on road or mountain
When Ford introduced the Expedition as a 1997 model, it did it by summoning the world’s automotive media to Alaska, which was pretty near perfect as a place to experience off-road capabilities.
We were able to drive the Expedition around fjords, adjacent to glaciers, on and off all manner of highways — just about anywhere. The years have whizzed by, and it is time for Ford to introduce an all-new Expedition as a 2003 model, so Ford summoned the journalists to British Columbia, where we could take the new beast into the Canadian Rockies and try them on rugged mountainside terrain, and through the ice and snow on top of a mountain.
Talk about hitting the high spots!
While the new Expedition carries over many of the identifying cues of the first one, it is far different in a variety of new and improved ways. First, it looks sleeker, with an angled grill that tapers down and continues below the bumper.
There aren’t many ways to make a large, boxy vehicle look sleek from the side, so Ford did something better by making it feel sleeker and more stable. In the process, the new all of that vast Expedition interior room is more usable, and in a wide variety of ways.
Key ingredients in the redesign include an all new chassis, following the impressive lead made on the new-for-2002 Explorer. Off-road or all-wheel-drive vehicles require more rear suspension travel, because on a large bump or change in terrain, the vehicle might buck and the shocks must stretch to accommodate. Previously, the side frame rails of the chassis have had to rise up high, up and over the rear axle to assure leaving adequate room for suspension travel.
In the new Expedition (as in the new Explorer), Ford has engineered a patented new method of cutting a hole in the frame rail, which is a large, girder-like bar of protective iron. Then a sleeve is placed through the hole, and the axle shaft runs through the sleeve. As if by magic, the ground clearance can stay the same or even improve, while the floor can be lowered several inches. On the Expedition, the opening is a vertical oval, more than a circle, increasing the travel even more.
Ford claims the new Expedition chassis, which is an inch and a half wider, is also 70 percent stiffer than the previous one. That aids stability, allows for installation of independent rear suspension — a first on such a large SUV — and it also enhances flexibility of the interior room. Ford makes use of that room by offering a variety of seat arrangements.
The front buckets are backed by two more rows of seats, either mid-row buckets or bench, and a rear bench, so you can choose to seat seven or eight. In fact, you can even get a front bench if you’re determined to carry nine occupants, I guess.
The key is that you can fold down the second and third rows of seats, and not just down, but out — out of sight and out of the way. The second row, which can slide fore and aft by 11 inches for easier access to the rear, is 40-20-40 by percentage, and the third row 60-40. The front seat, if you chose the bench, would be 40-60. Everything folds every which way, and you could even haul large things of great size. Or, with a sleeping bag, you could take a nap back there.
On our introductory test, obviously, we were more consumed with how the Expedition goes than how it rests or hauls, although the cargo area ranges from 20 inches behind the rear seat to 52.6 inches if you have the rear seat folded down, and to 87.2 inches if you fold down both the second and third rows. In total volume, that equates to 20.6, 60.9 or 110.5 cubic feet.
The overall length of the Expedition is 205.8 inches, and the curb weight is anywhere from 5,271 pounds to 5,689 pounds, depending on whether you get the 2-wheel-drive or all-wheel-drive versions.
Big as it is, aimed at taking on Chevrolet’s Suburban, the Expedition handles amazingly well. Not only is the whole platform more stable, but the suspension has been redone, using more aluminum, and the steering is now rack and pinion, making it far more precise, and providing far less unsprung weight to deal with.
A lot of modern technology has gone into the Expedition, too. Bigger wheels — 17 inch — get their traction delivered by ControlTrac, which is Ford’s electronic sensing system to distribute 100 percent of all available torque either front or rear is it detects slippage, and the optional AdvanceTrac, which is a system to electronically shift torque from side to side as well.
In tests we ran through, the Expedition would start and pull out of situations where three tires were on rollers and only one had any traction. Other vehicles on display would merely spin or sit helplessly, because their traction-control devices wouldn’t shift fully. If it only isolates front to rear, for example, then the spinning tire would cause the power to be diminished to both, leaving you at a standstill.
The stress on the Expedition also has been to eliminate noise, and great care has been done to pack foam into all joints where vibrations might be transmitted.
Another upgrade from previous models is under the hood. The standard 4.6-liter V8 is now made with an all-aluminum block, while the optional 5.4-liter V8 has been refined to be quieter and more powerful. The 4.6 has 232 horsepower and 291 foot-pounds of torque, and the 5.4 has 260 horses and 350 foot-pounds of torque. That gives you a tow rating of 8,900 pounds.
Such numbers are impressive, but not as important as how the whole package feels, and the Expedition feels strong in every phase, whether cruising down — or up — a twisting mountain highway, or cavorting off-road. We went up and down some mountain sides, and were directed to thrash through a deep, seemingly bottomless mud puddle, and go up and down cliffs that were so steep you couldn’t see over the snout.
That is my only complaint with the Expedition. Designers raised the hood something like 3 inches to satisfy those drivers who whined that they couldn’t see the outer corners of the fenders when parking. I would rather loose the 3 inches and gain whatever visibility of the roadway ahead — or the off-roadway — would be regained by the sloping hood.
Ergonomics are good, even when you’re at a really strange angle on the steepest part of a mountain course. And while nobody tested the safety stuff by rolling down a cliff, the stronger platform, much bigger brakes, and a Safety Canopy side air curtain augmenting the other airbags, gives the Expedition a double five-star rating in the government’s crash testing.
We drove from the mountain city of Kamloops to the resort town of Whistler, and the next morning we rode snowmobiles to the top of Caribou Mountain for the final test. I was eagerly anticipating the chance to really test how the Expedition would work on snow and ice, but it was too warm. The snowmobile ride was fun, alongside mountain streams and cliffs, and we got ‘way up high, but spring rains had already arrived overnight instead of high country snow, and we were reduced to sloshing through slush more than good-old Northland ice and snow.
Still, the Expedition handled it all smoothly, and, once back on the highway, it sailed back to Vancouver smoothly. While the vast majority of buyers who are going to spend about $40,000 for the all-wheel-drive versions of the Expedition may never go off the road, the new Expedition will handle all highway chores much more smoothly, and it’s not bad to also realize that if you did want to venture way off the road, or up a mountain, it’ll handle that, too.
[[[cutlines:
1/ A row of 2003 Expeditions rested while halfway up the mountains for some energetic off-road tests at their British Columbia introduction.
2/ A new Expedition virtually disappeared while being plunged through a muddy puddle on the side of mountain near Whistler, British Columbia. ]]]
Revised EuroVan leads way to future VW Beetle and GTI
Now that we’re through the heavy part of the 2002 Auto Show season, and marveled at the new and fancy concept cars displayed mostly by US and Japanese car-makers, it would be irresponsible to also check the scoreboard in Europe, where some of the advanced technology is already available.
Volkswagen, with a healthy assist from its corporate partner Audi, is a sufficient example. Car fanciers are aware the Volkswagen Golf is a solid, sturdy compact coupe, with surprisingly spacious room inside that squirt back — differentiating it from the Jetta sedan — and that the sporty model of the Golf is the GTI, which has firmer suspension and better power, in most cases — although Volkswagen cheated a bit for a few years and offered a base GTI that was little more than a Golf in sporty trim.
Similarly, everybody is aware of the enormous impact the New Beetle had when it was reintroduced as an incurably cute retro version of the old Beetle, but now riding atop a contemporary front-wheel-drive Golf platform. But a lot of folks may have forgotten that Volkswagen also has been turning out compact vans over the years, most recently the European, which is a vehicle that no longer should be overlooked.
While Volkswagen should never be accused of putting the proverbial cart before the horse, it has almost done that for 2002, because it has reintroduced the European in extremely impressive form, and it has armed it with a powerplant that will not only dazzle sporty-car-driver wannabes, but also has established new standards from which the newest sporty GTI will spring. In fairly rapid succession, I was able to spend a week test-driving the New Beetle S Turbo, which is a decidedly upgraded hot-performer, plus a GTI in interesting form, and a EuroVan, with all the trimmings.
First of all, a couple of decades ago, Volkswagen came out with a new V6 called the VR6, with a unique design that features a “V” angle so narrow that the cylinders are staggered in serpentine fashion because they would be too close if the two banks were directly opposed to each other. Conveniently, the engine uses one single cylinder head to cover both banks, which conserved space, as well as expense. The engine, with single overhead-camshafts and two valves per cylinder, was potent, in all forms, and was the mainstay of the GTI, as well as the late, great Corrado. Finally it also was installed in the EuroVan.
Meanwhile, Audi came out with the little sports car, the TAT, and developed a really slick 1.8-liter 4-cylinder engine, with five valves per cylinder — three intake and two exhaust — and dual overhead cams, plus a low-pressure turbocharger that stopped short of being neck-snapping when the boost kicked in, but electronically was patterned to provide the engine’s full torque all the way from barely above idle to 5,000 RPMs, well into the power band.
Volkswagen plucked the 1.8 Turbo from Audi’s engineers, and put it in the New Beetle, as well as in the Golf and Jetta. With those engines, Volkswagen was ready to take on the toughest fuel-economy and emission standards, while also retaining sufficient power and durability. In our current culture of increased speed and power, however, fuel efficiency seems to have been left behind. Volkswagen was ready for that, too.
By changing computer chips, among other alterations, the 1.8 Turbo can turn out amazing amounts of power, first up to 150 horsepower, and now up to 180. So Volkswagen now offers the New Beetle Turbo S — guaranteed to take the little car from incurably cute to near-hot-rod status. It is practically a GTI Beetle. The 180-horse version of the 1.8, and a six-speed manual transmission runs up to the redline smoothly, and also still delivers 25-30 miles per gallon.
The test car was brilliant silver with color-coordinated front airdam incorporated into the body, with neat high-intensity foglights imbedded into the bodywork. It also has drilled aluminum pedals, great leather seats with that encapsulate the driver, 17-inch alloy wheels, firm suspension, and a weird little noise that sounds like the hatch has come unlatched at various times. I stopped repeatedly to make sure it was closed tightly, and then I learned that the Beetle Turbo S also has a speed sensitive rear spoiler, that comes out when you go at highway speed and recedes back into the bodywork when you slow down.
Loaded, with electronic stabilization, antilock brakes, heated front seats, a power sunroof and premium sound system including a CD changer, the Beetle Turbo S listed for $23,950.
The GTI was about what I anticipated, a fast, slick-handling vehicle that offered a different scope of performance. It had the same 1.8 Turbo with 180 horsepower, but instead of the Beetle Turbo S’s 6-speed manual, the GTI had the 5-speed automatic that can be operated either in “D” or by moving over to a smaller gate, in the automanual hand-shifted Tiptronic.
Otherwise, all the goodies were pretty much the same, although the 17-inch wheels with their low-profile performance tires were an option up from the standard 16-inch. Options included a luxury package, along with the automatic, the leather seats and leather seats, running the price tag up to $22,525.
But great as the Beetle Turbo S was, and as good as the GTI, the real charmer of the trio was the EuroVan.
A year ago, Volkswagen announced that its van sales had slipped and recognized the fact that the van was still good, but it was underpowered and overpriced. So the company lopped about $6,000 off the price, tightening production along the way, and came up with yet another new engineering wrinkle to take care of the power thing.
Remember the VR6 narrow angle engine? Well, Volkswagen engineers found a way to squeeze dual overhead cams on both banks, with four valves per cylinder, just as a means to get sufficient power to run the solid but heavy EuroVan. The move worked brilliantly.
The 2.8-liter VR6 suddenly went from 174 horsepower to 201 and the torque shot from 181 foot-pounds to 195, which made all the difference in the world to the EuroVan. The package still seems too good to be true, with low-speed traction control, anti-slip regulation and an electronic stabilization program, with fully independent suspension, the power not only is surprisingly peppy for a van, but the thing corners with remarkable stability.
The EuroVan seems taller than most compact or minivans, and it is. You sit up high, and you have a high roof, which would seem to mean that the van should be more tippy than lower-slung ones. Instead, it can be hurled into tight turns with predictable steering response and come out the other end as if it thought it was a sports car.
The two front bucket seats are stable and firm, and the test vehicle was set up with two rear-facing bucket seats behind them. That is different, and, typical of Volkswagen it’s different with a purpose. Those seats slide fore and aft and can be reclined, and they face a third-row bench seat with contours to house three more occupants. On the driver’s side wall, there is a large flat panel, and while it is securely fastened and without vibration, you can pop it up and it locks into place in an upright position as a nice-sized table, perfectly placed between the bench seat and the rear-facing bucket on the driver’s side.
Great for kids on a trip, to play a board game. Even better for folks of any age to stop and have a picnic — or to not stop and have a picnic in motion. Proves you don’t have to be at an event to tailgate, or to use the tail, either. The very large side glass is also a benefit for rear occupants, who feel as if they’re watching the world go by through picture windows.
There is still more to the EuroVan. If you get out through the large and very accessible sliding side door and walk around to the rear, you notice the hatch tilts up, very high and very long. The perfect small roof if you were to tailgate. Inside, you notice a shelf about halfway up, with out-of-sight storage below it. On top of the shelf is a thick foam pad, covered in soft cloth. Turns out, that rear bench seat can be pulled forward, just as the rear-facing buckets can be tilted out of the way, and the whole thing can turn into a double-size bed.
To complete the scenario of an impromptu camper, or the perfect pause-for-a-nap rest area device, the EuroVan comes with a curtain that can be fastened along the inside just above the very large side and rear windows, and you can close off the outside world with ease.
Obviously, such manipulations of the seats can enhance hauling capabilities, too.
The EuroVan is swift, agile and would make a fine everyday vehicle, or the perfect trip machine, or both. The powerful new VR6 can get 20 miles per gallon, or less if you decide to jackrabbit away from stoplights — which the EuroVan also is capable of doing. With a load of options that includes a huge power glass sunroof, thoughtfully installed with a tilt feature outside and a screen to keep North Shore mosquitoes at bay on the inside, and heatable front bucket seats, the EuroVan MV goes from $27,700 to a sticker of $29,990. The table and chair set is standard.
The final chapter to the story of the three Volkswagens is that the four-valve, dual-overhead-cam VR6 has been so impressive in its first application — the EuroVan — that Volkswagen has made a rather obvious decision. Starting this summer, the hottest GTI just got significantly hotter, because Volkswagen will start installing the new VR6 and shipping a true screamer — with 201 horses instead of 174 — as the upgrade from the very strong and flexible 1.8 Turbo version.
While companies from the rest of the world are bragging about what they might come out with in future cars, Volkswagen simply continues to provide perfect answers for the here and now.
[[[cutlines:
1/ The Volkswagen EuroVan dwarfs the GTI coupe, but the roomy van is loaded with surprisingly usable features.
2/ After all the success of the New Beetle, now there is a New Beetle Turbo S — a hot rod Beetle that goes and handles.
3/ Inside the EuroVan, high vantage points, rear-facing second-row buckets, and a pup-up table make use of the rear bench seat, which can fold into a bed. ]]]]]
Honda’s high-tech DN-X leads array of futuristic automobiles
Bob Lutz spoke to the assembled hundreds of media types at the New York Auto Show last week, and he made some pertinent points about the U.S. approach to the future of the automotive industry. Lutz, who was lured to General Motors to take charge of product development after doing wonders to straighten out Chrysler Corporation, stressed that the booming (and highly profitable) truck segment would continue to surge, while cars would continue moving toward more power and performance.
Lutz also said some intriguing things about how the government shouldn’t try to dictate more fuel economy, but should raise the price of fuel to the point where consumers would get the message on their own and demand cars with better economy.
“It doesn’t make sense to have congress mandate that we should have cars averaging 35-37 miles per gallon, when the technology doesn’t even exist to do that,” Lutz said. “We can’t turn a knob that says, ‘OK, we’re going to get 37 miles per gallon now. To mandate that we can increase fuel economy while also reducing our dependence on foreign oil is a lot like asking the clothing manufacturers to solve the nation’s obesity problem by making only small sizes.”
Great analogy. Lutz can turn a phrase, can’t he? But while General Motors, Chrysler and Ford were promoting the high-profit trucks as their top new things, several foreign companies also introduced a batch of new trucks and SUVs at New York, but they also showed off extremely advanced technology aimed at the future. Now, these companies may be foreign, but they are building cars in the U.S. While U.S. car-makers continue to build many of their cars in Canada and Mexico, and GM particularly links up with top foreign companies to build more fuel-efficient cars so that GM can keep building bigger and more profitable trucks, the difference in technical approaches is pretty obvious.
Honda was the most impressive company at New York’s show, introducing several trucks and sport utility vehicles that at least split their vision between utility and economy. And it was Honda that showed up with the absolute star of the show — the DN-X concept sedan for its Acura division.
Increasing fuel economy and reducing emissions while also turning out adequate power is a huge challenge, but while Lutz, GM and other U.S. manufacturers may lobby our government into easing off on requirements to improve fuel efficiency in a thinly-cloacked ploy to allow them to continue to build bigger and more powerful vehicles — that are clearly more profitable — Honda was only one of the companies that seemed up to the challenge.
The DN-X, for example, is perhaps the most stunning vehicle at the show. While the super-sleek NSX Acura sports car remains one of the world’s top exotics, the DN-X has a 0.23 coefficient of drag that is 25 percent better than the NSX, and the DN-X is designed to be a four-seat, four-door sedan. While it has a spectacular interior arrangement, the most impressive thing about the DN-X is how it operates.
It has a high-performance V6 integrated with an electric motor assist. It is aimed at driving enthusiasts, with the V6 located as a mid-engine that turns out 300 horsepower through a 6-speed clutchless manual transmission, shifted by buttons on the steering wheel, like a race car. The INA system — for integrated motor assist — provides electric power to all four wheels, adding another 100 horsepower of balanced energy. That boosts power to 400 horses, and still delivers 42 miles per gallon. The electric motors are recharged by regenerative braking.
The body is all aluminum, and the normal mechanical connections from driver controls to the vehicle have pretty much all been replaced. Steering, throttle and braking are all done by wire, meaning electronics control the functions that cables and mechanical parts have always done. Fully independent double wishbone suspension and wheels that are 18 inch in front and 19 at the rear enhance handling stability.
But there’s more. The DN-X has something called intelligent driver support, which includes a series of special cameras that detect lane markings on the highway. If the car happens to wander across one of those lines, an audible warning sounds, and the steering is automatically adjusted to recenter the car in its lane. The system also uses laser radar to track the speed and distance of the car ahead of you, and uses cruise control to maintain the interval.
A Night Vision system is like Cadillac’s, which uses infrared cameras to detect things down the road, beyond the visibility of your headlights, and read out the thing or creature on a center display.
Complementing that are active headlights. Get this: The lower portion of your high-tech headlights shine straight ahead, normally, but the upper portion of the headlights respond to steering input by you, the driver, while the computer reads the mapping from the global positioning system and shines toward an upcoming curve, possibly before you realize there IS a curve.
That’s in addition to a feature that uses voice-command units to provide access to internet, cellular phone and e-mail.
It may be awhile until the DN-X is built for the streets, but this is Honda we’re talking about. The hybrid gasoline/electric motor system has already been proven in the Insight, and has just been introduced in the Civic. SUV usage in several vehicles is coming, so the heartbeat of the DN-X is already out there, being perfected.
Honda also displayed two new SUVs, one of which is the Pilot, a larger-than-CR-V vehicle. The other is the Element, a tall, sporty thing with seats that fold every which way for maximum utility. The Element has reverse side-opening doors that open a huge, pillarless area for easy access, and, in this case, the Element is ready for introduction as a fuel-efficient, low-emission and extremely safe vehicle.
Nissan was also busy, turning out sleek sports cars both for the Nissan and Infiniti brands, and also offering a new concept Quest, a sleeker minivan that looks more like a crossover between a van and an SUV. That apparently will be the Quest of the future.
Mazda had its new 6 — formerly 626 — models out for scrutiny, and the new RX8 sports car, which remains an exotic-looking beast, with small reverse-opening side doors that make easy access to the rear two seats.
And Volvo not only unveiled its new SUV, but showed off a fabulous concept sport-wagon.
There were others, of course, but those were the highlights of the best ways foreign car-makers see for us to meet our automotive demands. And if they keep building their cars and trucks in the U.S., while U.S. companies continue to build more and more vehicles in Canada and Mexico, or to import captive vehicles from foreign companies, our next generation of buyers might have no idea what we’re talking about when we try to differentiate between foreign and domestic cars.
[[[[cutlines:
1/ The Acura DN-X was the highlight of the New York Auto Show, with 400 horsepower of hybrid gas-electric motors, all-wheel-drive, 40-plus miles per gallon, a lane-centering control and lights that shine around corners.
2/ Honda’s new Element is a versatile, sporty SUV ready for production.
3/ The Volvo SCC concept wagon has smoothly flowing lines that look more like a sports car than a station wagon.
4/ Nissan intends to replace its Quest minivan with something closer to this Quest concept vehicle.
5/ The Mazda RX8 brings the rotary engine back into production in an exotic, four-door, four-seat layout. ]]]]]]]
Newly introduced SUVs expand to all niches at New York show
NEW YORK, N.Y. — If driving is in your family’s future, you take a flyer on an Aviator. Or a Pilot. Or you could settle for a Navigator. If you’d rather be more down to earth in your Quest for adventure, keep your Ion a Cadillac Cien, or your Vision could go from here to Infiniti as an Outlander making an Expedition toward Discovery of the Elements, and you could be an Ascender to look for Ions. If you had a Scion, would he want an Ion? Or maybe not.
If retro is your favorite thing, it won’t be long until you can select a Mustang Mach 1, or, if you’re Holden on, a Pontiac GTO, or a Nissan Z-Car, or a Mazda RX-8, to say nothing of the Thunderbird, or the PT Cruiser — the king of retro — which will be coming in a turbocharged alternative, just to keep up.
For those wondering where we’re headed in regard to the cars we’ll be driving in the near future, the New York International Auto Show might provide the most comprehensive glimpse.
New York is through being the last “big” U.S. auto show, and letting Detroit, Los Angeles and Chicago have all the glory. No question, Detroit is the industry king of U.S. auto shows, L.A. is the glitter capital, and Chicago has become the biggest spectator show, but New York is the media center of the universe, and to increase the unmistakable impact of the New York show, various manufacturers have held off the introductions of their newest vehicles just to introduce them at the Jacob Javits Center in Manhattan.
After two days of roaming through the press-conference-every-half-hour pace of the press days at New York, several things are very clear. We have not yet seen the end of the sport-utility vehicle craze, in fact, it will be enhanced by all the new vehicles that were in New York.
The new Lincoln Aviator was unwrapped at a pre-show gala by Ford Motor Company. At first glance, it appears to be a Lincoln version of the Mercury Mountaineer with a Navigator-style grille, and while that may partially be valid, Lincoln brought out an all-new Navigator for New York, as well.
With the Navigator already in the stable, Lincoln may have wanted to name its new SUV the Pilot, but that name has been taken by Honda, which brought out two all-new SUVs — the Pilot and the Element. The Pilot looks like a CR-V that has gotten a dose of steroids, expanding it up to about the size of the Ford Explorer, which Honda says is a prime target. The Element is smaller, but taller, with ultimate versatility, as Honda joins the ever-expanding list of companies trying to capture the youthful sporty market — underscoring the “Sport” in sport-utility vehicle.
It is apparent that merely keeping up with all the new SUVs is a daunting task. Here are just some, which push the number of combining available and soon-to-be-available SUVs to somewhere around 70. Land Rover has a new Discovery; Chrysler has a new Pacifica introduced as the first 2004; Nissan has a Murano; Volvo is coming with an XC90; Toyota is looking very square with BBX as the flagship of its new “Scion” youth-oriented division; Mitsubishi has completely redone the Montero, and adds to the menagerie with an all new Outlander; Ford has upgraded the Expedition and added an Everest version; BMW has had such success with its X5 it is going to add a smaller X3 from its Spartanburg, S.C., plant; Mercedes is calling its Vision a Grand Sports Tourer (GST) instead of SUV; Nissan has a concept version of its Quest minivan and new SUVs for both Nissan and Infiniti; Isuzu is coming out with an Ascender; Kia has a new SUV too, and Acura has an RDX concept on display.
Those are just the SUVs, and they prove that while New York show goers get to see all the trick stuff from Detroit, L.A. and Chicago, they also get a healthy dose of new stuff.
Moving to sports cars, everybody seems also to be trying to come out with new sporty coupes, if not all-out sports cars. Cadillac’s all0out sports car is the Cien, and it is a beautifully done, wedgy car that is low to the ground and looks more like the Cadillac LeMans racer than the actual race car, from some angles.
That’s what prompted Ford to declare it will build a version of the old GT-40 road-racing car that won LeMans back in the 1960s, and it also is rekindling the old Mustang Mach 1 name with another specialty vehicle.
General Motors will do a similar routine, with a throwback to the old GTO nickname for the ’60s musclecar of the Pontiac line. This one will be a revised and rebadged version of a hot performer from Holden, which is GM’s Australian division. The Munaro coupe has a 5.7-liter V8 and a six-speed manual transmission. It should arrive as a show car in time for next year’s auto show circuit, and be available by summer of 2003.
Hitting other highlights of the show, and of dealerships in the not too distant future, the big news of the Saturn Ion is more PR fluff than hot news. Saturn began life with a neat compact sedan and coupe. It expanded by adding the L midsize sedan, and just recently hit the streets with the VUE, a progressive, polymer-bodied SUV. So now, the folks at Saturn apparently realized they didn’t really have a name for the original car, beyond “Saturn,” so they came up with the new name — Ion. It’s neat, and it’s a progressive looking sedan in redesign, while the coupe has the unique Saturn reverse-opening doors, with a small, rear-hinged door for easier access to the rear.
The Mazda RX-8 has that same feature, and even a new and impressive Mercedes Vision concept wagon has that style door openings. Mercedes also introduced a stunning new SL55 coupe/roadster that it let affiliate AMG convert into the fastest Mercedes street vehicle ever, with a supercharged 5.5-liter V8 turning out 493 horsepower, and tossing the SL55 from 0-60 in 4.5 seconds.
Chrysler, indeed, put a turbocharger on a new version of the PT Cruiser, jacking up the 2.4-liter 4-cylinder with 12.9 inches of boost to 215 horsepower and 245 foot-pounds of torque. The Turbo Cruiser gets beefed up suspension and steering as well. Chrysler’s other big news was the Pacifica, which is a large station wagon that fits somewhere between a station wagon and an SUV, although Chrysler went to enormous pains to convince the world that it was a segment buster, defying definition by either of those terms.
Toyota might have made the most out of the least at the show. With a lot of new stuff out in the last two years, such as the Celica and the Matrix, and a couple more SUVs, Toyota didn’t really have anything new. So it went to the smoke and mirrors bit, with one executive even having the audacity to imply that only Toyota realizes there is a huge new population boom just reaching driving age, and only Toyota is preparing to attract that group with an all-new division called Scion.
Scion will work with selected Toyota dealers to market new, youthful vehicles. As such, Toyota showed off the new BBX, which is a square little mini-wagon currently on sale in Japan. Toyota also introduced a flashy CCX concept sports coupe as the other Scion vehicle, but executives were very careful to say that when Scion starts business, it will get a version of the BBX, and “may get something similar” to the CCX.
So while SUVs continue to grow and fill every size from mini to compact to intermediate to midsize to full size and to enormous, with sport and luxury versions filling in between, sports cars and sporty sedans, along with compact fun-cars can fill all the booths at a place like the New York Auto Show. And soon they’ll fill dealerships, and make the choice of your next vehicle a lot more perplexing, perhaps, but definitely a lot more fun.
[[[[[cutlines:
1/ Lincoln introduced a new Aviator SUV along with a thoroughly revised Navigator at the New York International Auto Show
2/ Cadillac continues to speed into the future with the Cien coupe, a flashy race-car-like vehicle that might challenge Corvette for GM supremacy. ]]]]]]
Kia builds a hot, new contender in the impressive minivan sector
There were a lot of years, over the past two decades, when the United States automotive customers desperately needed a new and different minivan. I’m not sure that this is exactly the best time for that, but we don’t always get to choose the best time.
In all those years when the only really popular and successful minivans were made by Chrysler Corporation, other manufacturers couldn’t seem to dent the Caravan/Voyager tandem. But in the last few years, Ford and General Motors have improved their contenders in that category, and Nissan, Toyota and finally Honda have come out with exceptional minivans, while Chrysler has also improved its gold standard in the field.
So right now, while a lot of minivan customers are going off in search of sport-utility vehicles, along comes Kia with the Sedona. Yes, Kia, a South Korean manufacturer, is shaking off the close-but-not-quite image of Korean auto-builders and sending off some very competent vehicles to the U.S. market. The Sedona might be the best example.
If there were no such thing as a minivan, and you were going to design one from the tires up, consider what you would want to include:
Compact size, maybe between the Caravan and the Grand Caravan, so let’s say 194.1 inches, with a wheelbase of 114.6, just over an inch longer than Caravan’s.
Good power but don’t overlook gas mileage, so we can go with a V6, but let’s make it a big one, at about 3.5 liters, and jazz it up, say, with dual-overhead camshafts and four valves per cylinder. Because a lot of driving has to be done in the snow-belt, and because it has advantages in a long, flat floor as well as improved traction, we’ll put front-wheel-drive in the thing. That could put out 195 horsepower, and still could achieve 20 miles per gallon.
Innovative transmission, because a three-speed is no longer good enough, and a four-speed isn’t quite right, either. So let’s put in a five-speed automatic, even though no other current minivan has such a thing.
Three rows of seats inside, preferably two rows of buckets that fold down and flip out of the way, with a rear bench seat that also folds down. For convenience, the four buckets all recline, so let’s have the rear bench recline, too, and all of them can slide fore and aft as well as being removed. The front buckets, incidentally, should have eight-way power with a lumbar support, and 4-way power for the passenger seat.
Maximum access, so we want a good, high-lifting tailgate, and we also want side sliding doors, but definitely two of them, one on each side.
Safety is more and more important, so we want to make the Sedona solid, with a steel, unibody platform, large (10.87-inch) front discs, and make antilock an option. MacPherson struts are tried and true for suspension, so we’ll put that up front, with coil springs all around, and stabilizer bars both front and rear for handling. So while it will go, handle and stop, it also is strong enough to get a five-star rating in crash-testing by the U.S. government.
Price is also a major factor, so let’s make it inexpensive — a base price of under $20,000 and a top-line, loaded model for under $24,000. And, prices being what they are these days in the industry, the warranty matters, so give it the best you’ve ever heard of — 10-years, or 100,000 miles, just to prove you believe in its durability.
We want goodies, too. Plastic wood is OK, if you insist, but let’s make sure there are dual heat-air vents, front and rear, and a great stereo system, plus cupholders and cubbyholes — lots of them. Throw in not one, but two glove compartments, one right above the other; an extra storage drawer under the front passenger seat, and a center-dash pull-out cupholder and storage bin, plus a neat little goodie tray with a pop-up cover up on top of the dash, where it’s usually just wasted space.
Believe it or not, Kia set out to accomplish those tasks, and made it. The Sedona I drove was surprisingly quick, the benefit of the big V6 and the dual-overhead-cam power. The 5-speed transmission also puts you in the right gear without as much overlap, working or hunting. And the comfort and convenience also is surprisingly good.
Standard equipment on both the LX and EX includes three power plug-ins, front, rear and in the rear storage area, plus power windows, mirrors, door locks, dual air-conditioning, and map lights in the overhead console, plus reading lights in the second and third rows of seats, courtesy lights in the doors, which are a nice touch, and a light in the rear cargo area, but with an on-off switch, so you don’t have to leave the light on. Cruise control, full instruments including a tachometer, electric rear defroster, tilt steering column, and variable wipers front and rear.
I test-drove an EX model, which is the upgrade from the basic LX. When you move up to the EX, you get an upgraded audio system with a CD player on top of the AM-FM-cassette unit, and a couple of added speakers.
The EX also has standard roof rack and front foglights, and privacy side glass.
On the option list, the test vehicle had antilock brakes for $595, leather covering on the seats for $850, a power tilt and opening sunroof for $575, and two-tone paint for $195.
That ran the sticker price from $20,995 for the EX up to a total of $23,805 including destination.
That is a tremendous bargain, especially these days. And when you figure you could eliminate some of those options, or back off to the LX model, and be UNDER $20,000, and still get the same engine, transmission, suspension and warranty, we’re talking a major bargain.
I called Kia of Duluth, where the Sedona can be obtained for 0-percent interest on a 36-month loan, but I couldn’t get through to the sales manager, because he was too busy. That may be a good sign. A salesman told me the new Sedona, which just hit the marketplace a couple of months ago, is selling well, fitting in with the Spectra sedan and the Sportage compact SUV. I explained I was writing a column and has test-driven a Sedona, and was very impressed, which was just enough ammunition for the car-salesman.
“So,” he said, “ya wanna buy one, or what?”
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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