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?”
Bulldogs big-play opener puts Mankato on the Fritz, 23-18
Whether you call it “putting on the Fritz,” or “Touchdowns in the Mist,” a record-shattering performance by sophomore quarterback Ricky Fritz ignited UMD to a 23-18 victory over Minnesota-State Mankato Saturday before 3,181 fans at Griggs Field.
UMD, wearing new maroon helmets, reversed the trend of having suffered early-season losses to Minnesota State-Mankato each of the past four years, and may indicate that coach Bob Nielson’s rebuilding job is ahead of schedule. Nielson, starting his second season, had the Bulldogs well-prepared to spring the prestigious upset for the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference.
The Northern Sun allows only about half the football scholarships of NCC colleges, so it was no surprise UMD had lost its last 12 starts against Minnesota’s two NCC entries, Minnesota State-Mankato and St. Cloud State — this weekend’s Bulldog foe at Griggs Field.
Fritz picked up right where he left off last season, running a varied-look offense by accumulating 319 total yards, a UMD single-game record. The only criticism of Fritz was that he was too impatient — so impatient that he did most of his damage on the first play after the ‘Dogs gained possession, including 47- and 88-yard touchdown passes to Chris Walker, a freshman from Waukesha, Wis.
Although it took him nearly 10 months to do it, Fritz established a possibly unreachable successive-game record for total yards. Last season, when the Bulldogs sputtered to a meager 3-8 record, Fritz concluded his freshman term with a school record 306 total yards against Winona State.
Saturday night, in his next opportunity, the former Eden Prairie broke his one-game-old record with 294 yards on an 11-21 night passing, plus 25 more yards on 10 carries.
The victory required a total team effort, as the defense came through repeatedly in the second half, when the ever-increasing mist blew in hard off Lake Superior and led to several fumbles.
“I’m really proud of our kids,” said Nielson. “I think we showed the people of this community that we’ve got our pride back. I thought we lacked that last year. I could tell we had some confidence from hearing the guys talk this week. I think the people saw tonight the kind of offense we’re going to have. We’re going to make some big plays.”
On defense, freshman Shaun Fisher, from Milltown, Wis., led UMD with six unassisted tackles from free safety, and junior strong safety Kevin Westbrock had four unassisted and 10 assisted tackles.
But the whole unit contributed to a bend-but-don’t-break form that prevented the Mavericks from matching UMD’s big-play offense, despite yielding a 20-14 edge in first downs and 121-57 in rushing yards. Fritz outgained Mankato’s Ryan Dutton and spot-reliever Andrew Shea 294-146 in passing yards.
A pair of seniors collaborated for a pivotal turnover in the first quarter, as Justin Hipple’s solid hit jarred a fumble loose and Jimmy Malo recovered it at the Mankato 47. On first down, Fritz rolled left and passed back across his body to Walker, who sped up the left sideline for the 47-yard touchdown. Chad Gerlach’s kick gave the ‘Dogs a 7-0 lead.
The Mavericks countered when Dutton merely gave the ball to T.J. Schraufnagel, who carried on 15 of 19 plays on a 70-yard drive, including the final rush, from the 2, early in the second quarter. But the tying kick missed, and the Bulldogs still led 7-6.
After the ensuing kickoff, Fritz again ignited UMD with a first-play pass, this time a 41-yarder up the right sideline to Cloquet freshman Tim Battaglia, setting up Gerlach’s 28-yard field goal for a 10-6 lead.
But the chance to come undone availed itself later in the second quarter. Troy Gago mishandled a Mankato punt and Colin Bryant recovered for Mankato at the UMD 16. On first down, as if to provide a grim reminder of last season, the defense sagged, and Schraufnagel tore off right tackle for an easy 16-yard touchdown. But any similarity to last year vanished when the Bulldogs snapped back into focus and prevented Schraufnagel, a 6-2, 220-pound sophomore who carried 33 times for 108 yards, from any other runs as long as that 16-yarder.
“One of the toughest things to do in this weather was handle punts,” said Nielson. “I’m not sure we would’ve gotten any guys to volunteer to field punts tonight.”
The Bulldogs held their poise in the second half, and erased the 12-10 halftime deficit after receiving a punt at their 12 midway through the third quarter. With the wind at his back, Fritz launched a high, hard one on first down and Walker ran under it, tipping it away from the deepest two Maverick defenders before grabbing it and running away for the 88-yard touchdown and a 16-12 UMD lead.
The Bulldog defense stopped the Mavericks on downs at the UMD 31 late in the third quarter, and Fritz worked his magic yet again, firing a first-play, 33-yard pass to Steve Battaglia, the sophomore half of the Cloquet receiving brother tandem. Moments later, he found freshman Tim Battaglia for a 25-yard pass on fourth down and four that put the ball on Mankato’s 5, and Erik Conner scored from the 1 on the first play of the fourth quarter.
That made it 23-12, but the Bulldog defense had to come up with some big plays to hold the lead.
Cash Langeness, a freshman from Luck, Wis., intercepted a Dutton pass at the 39 to stop one series, but there was still time to crack. With five minutes left, Mankato’s Lubin Joseph recovered a low, slithering snap on a UMD punt attempt at the 21, and this time the Mavericks capitalized when Shea’s only completion, on third and 9, produced a 20-yard touchdown to Dan Weldon with 4:01 remaining.
“We had a couple kicking-game screw-ups that cost us touchdowns, but for the first game, we limited the amount of our mistakes, and we did a great job defensively. The big thing was we put them in a position where they couldn’t just run the football, and our defense stepped up for a couple of big series.”
True, UMD might have won more convincingly with tighter special-team execution, because two of the three Maverick touchdowns were the result of special-team turnovers. But at 23-18, the Bulldogs offense avoided turnovers, and the defense came up with key stops, ultimately holding the Mavericks on downs with 39 seconds left. One play later, the coach didn’t have to ask for volunteers to stream off the bench to celebrate a successful season opener.
Scuba diver, fish mingle at aquarium
A giant sturgeon seemed unimpressed at Saturday’s Great Lakes Aquarium opening by the invasion of a Scuba diver in the two-story Lake Superior fish tank that featured dozens of lake trout, salmon and other fish.
What does the backside look like?
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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