A little icing alters luxury-performance car selection
Holiday time is always special, snow or no-snow, with family gatherings for Christmas that always seem to overlap to also cover New Year’s celebrations. This year became special on the road as well, because by chance, I had the opportunity to simultaneously road test three of the best mid-luxury sports sedans – the Infiniti M45 Sport, the Acura TL Type-S, and the Audi S6.
If you like winter, this Christmas season was pretty wimpy, especially in Minnesota. While the southern half of the state got a couple storms, the Duluth and North Shore area has been remarkably free of snow. It was, in fact, one of only four times in history that the Duluth area had a “Brown Christmas.Ââ€
Meanwhile, if you like luxury cars, but also want your car to rise above standard-issue models in quick and agile performance and handling, youÂ’d choose a car that lacked the ultra-soft or ultra-quiet features of pure luxury. In that mindset, if you had a choice of vehicles to drive across the country, but for combined comfort and excitement, the M45 Sport, Acura TL Type-S, and Audi S6 would be a perfect hat trick.
Two things made this exercise particularly worthwhile. First, the Infiniti M45 Sport, with a 4.5-liter V8 (325 horsepower and 336 foot-pounds of torque), is front- engine/rear-drive; the Acura TL Type-S, with a 3.5-liter V6 (258 horses and 286 foot-pounds), is front-engine/front-drive; and the Audi S6 with a 5.2-liter V10 (435 horsepower, 398 foot-pounds) is quattro-loaded with front-engine/all-wheel drive.
All three cars had high-performance automatic transmissions with paddle-control manual shifters on the steering wheel. All of them had the most sophisticated new traction-control and stability-control technical stuff.
So-called “performance†magazines universally prefer rear-drive, and it’s fun to apply power until you hang the rear end loose for an exhilarating way to take a tight turn on a race track. Conservative types in the worst winter climates prefer the security of all-wheel drive, although Audi’s quattro system was aimed at all-out performance handling, with the outer two wheels getting more power for cornering,, and handles foul weather as a side effect.
In the Upper Midwest, front-wheel drive not only was accepted but was embraced by all who ever white-knuckled a rear-drive car in a winter storm, and front-wheel-drive remains the preference, because they have most of the traction assets of all-wheel drive without the added weight or expense.
Now we return to Christmas weekend. For the journey 150 miles north from the Minneapolis-Saint Paul area to Duluth, the three vehicles were apportioned. I drove north first, in the Audi A6. My wife, Joan, came later that afternoon, in the M45 Sport, and our two sons would come the next day.
It was only drizzly with a chilly rain when I left, but I saw a few snow flurries on the trip, so when I heard that the rain had turned to snow in the Twin Cities, I called Joan. She had started, but said the driving was treacherous enough that she had slowed to 40-45.
“Oops,†she said, “the car next to me just went off the road.Ââ€
Because the storm had caught us by surprise, I hadnÂ’t worried about the M45 Sport being rear drive. The snow grew in severity and blew across the whole central part of the state, and Joan arrived late, but intact. Barely.
She then relayed the story about how, two-thirds of the way through the trip, she was driving 40 in the right lane, with no traffic around her, and only one car reasonably close behind. Suddenly, without any input from Joan, the M45 SportÂ’s rear end started to swing out to the side.
She knew she was on glazed ice, and she didnÂ’t panic. She said she tried to remember some of the things we had discussed after various emergency-driving courses IÂ’d been through.
One of them was to turn the steering wheel into the skid, but don’t make the common mistake of turning it all the way to lock – and, more important, once the car reaches the “point of no return†and is destined to spin out, bring the steering wheel back to straight ahead and take your foot off the brake and the gas.
Sounds strange, but if you keep the wheel turned, the skid will be encouraged to make the car go around and maybe around again. Bringing it back to neutral, and getting off the pedals, will cause the car to seek the path of least resistance in the skid – which is straight ahead, where the tires want to roll.
Well, she admitted she forgot the first part, but held her cool. The rear end of the M45 Sport swung briefly to the inside, then went to the outside — all the way around, a full 360-degrees. To her amazement and eternal relief, it finished the full spin and continued straight ahead, straddling the center line, but with no contact, no ditch expedition, no problem.
The engine had died from the skid, and before she could restart, the car behind her slowed and asked if she was OK. She gave them a wave and said she was fine. I wondered what went through the minds of the people in that car, when they watched, in some degree of horror, as this shiny new Infiniti up ahead gently and smoothly spun an entire 360-degree spin and all was OK.
Our whole family was relieved that Joan had come through her sudden emergency without a problem. We also had reinforced the belief in the inherent advantages of front-wheel drive, or all-wheel drive.
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Performance magazine writers ridicule front-wheel-drive cars for lacking the all-out performance feel of rear-drive, and whine about front-wheel-drive vehicles having a little torque-steer when driven beyond reasonable limits in tight corners. I would love to see one of those hot-shot drivers transplanted into the driverÂ’s seat of that M45 Sport at the moment Mother Nature decided to prove who is really in charge.
The M45 Sport is an exceptional car. Its high-tech V8 has variable valve timing, and the 5-speed automatic has a feature that matches revs whenever it is called upon to downshift. It also has a unique rear suspension that flexes enough to act as four-wheel steering. And, it has EBD, BA, VDC and TCS – which translate into electronic brake-force distribution, brake assist, vehicle dynamic control, and traction control system. These are the sophisticated devices that cause rear-drive zealots to insist we could all get through winter with rear drive.
They overlook the obvious, which is that the same devices on front-wheel-drive cars enhance their ice-driving superiority. The whole point is merely one of physics. If the rear wheels push the car, then on slippery surfaces, the front wheels are coasting, while the rears spin with power and might want to try to pass the fronts – which, in a nutshell, is the definition of a spinout.
There are ways to make the best of a threatening situation, by installing winter or all-season tires. My preference remains Nokian WR all-seasons. But, again, such tires can help a rear-drive car survive winter, but they also can be mounted on front-wheel-drive or rear-wheel-drive, where their traction attributes can make winter driving enjoyable, rather than threatening.
Ironically, there wasnÂ’t a flake of snow in Duluth from that storm. So we didnÂ’t get a chance to test the comparative assets of the Audi S6, which is the high-performance upgrade version of the A6, or the Acura TL S-Type, which is the high-performance upgrade of the TL.
If we had encountered the same glazed freeway stretch, however, we would have slowed down and continued in a straightforward vector. It might have taken just as long to get there, but it would have been minus the heart-in-the-throat moment of terror during a 360-degree spin.
You donÂ’t have to take my word for it. Ask Joan.
Acura’s 2007 MDX sets luxury-performance standards
The 2007 Acura MDX seemed like it would be little more than a stylish upgrade of an already very good SUV. It is much more than that, which might not have been readily discernable except for a late-summer downpour that struck a Pennsylvania road-racing track just as we were about to test-drive several SUVs, and challenging the elements proved the new MDX might be the most capable performer among all SUVs.
More recently, I further test-drove an MDX for a week in Minnesota, and could better appreciate its comfortable seats, technical potency, and superb ergonomics. The MDX may deserve at least a B+ and maybe an A, just for the comfortable appointments and interior features, but recalling its response while being hurled around that rain-drenched race track boosted its marks to A+ all the way.
The MDX is a strong candidate for North American Truck of the Year, although competition is fierce, with AcuraÂ’s more compact and sporty RD-X, plus the Mazda CX-7, GMC Acadia, Ford Edge, Toyota FJ Cruiser, Dodge Nitro, Audi Q7, Hyundai Santa Fe, Suzuki XL-7, Jeep Wrangler, Saturn Vue Greenline, Chevy Silverado and Tahoe, and the all-new BMW X5.
The current 2006 X5 was good enough to be Acura’s overall benchmark, and if someone had quizzed me about which of the dozens of luxury, full-size, or crossover SUVs would be the best high-performer, I probably would have picked either the BMW X5 or the Porsche Cayenne. But that was before I was among the automotive journalists at the 2007 MDX introduction, where we drove it against some targeted rivals at BeaverRun road-racing track.
We got acquainted with the MDXÂ’s features by driving a herd of them through the rolling-hill countryside to the track. After lunch and race-track-oriented technical talk, I was looking forward to driving the enlarged MDX on a road-course, through challenges it will never face in real-life.
Acura officials tuned the new MDX suspension at GermanyÂ’s Nurburgring, the most torturous road-racing track in the world, but I was impressed to see a BMW X5, a Porsche Cayenne, and a Volvo XC90 V8, all parked alongside a string of MDXes in pit lane. They could have picked less-challenging but equally prominent competitors. The plan was for us was to drive one at a time around the track, as hard as we dared, alternating between an MDX, then a competitor, then another MDX, and so on, until we had driven everything.
Trouble was, the sky opened up just as we were getting started, and a front being pushed up from the south by a late-summer hurricane was heavy enough to send most of the media types under a tent for cover, then scurrying inside for shelter. My thought was that we were test-driving a new, all-wheel-drive SUV on a road-racing course, so what could be more ideal than to do it in foul weather? A couple other journalists shared my willingness to get a little drenched while hopping back and forth among the vehicles, and the rest must have thought we were out of our minds.
The X5, the Cayenne, and the XC90 all did pretty well in those circumstances. All of them were fine on the straights, and, if you used a little care, you could go fairly hard through the turns. The X5 felt the most rigidly firm, although I didn’t get a feeling that it would warn me if I was overdoing it. The Cayenne was more flexible through the corners, but the V6 didnÂ’t have enough oomph to power out of them. The Volvo XC90 had V8 power, and while it leaned the most in the curves, it felt secure and stable, if not as performance-oriented.
The surprise was that with the MDX, I felt far more comfortable going much harder into the corners than in any of the competitors, to the point that my confidence level led to something approaching reckless abandon. The MDX has an all-new 3.7-liter V6 – the largest and most powerful engine every put in any Honda production vehicle – and it also has a new SH-AWD system, which brought along an assurance that whatever I did, the vehicle would respond with precise steering and suspension to handle it. I got aggressive enough to try to “dirt-track†it in some curves – cocking the steering wheel sharply enough just before the apex of a turn to coax a slight, high-speed weight shift to the outside, then hammering the gas and blasting, or splashing, through the turns, right on line.
SH-AWD is for “super handling†all-wheel drive, modified from the system introduced on the luxury RL sedan a couple of years back. In most systems, the drive wheels – front, in the MDX – get maximum power until the computer detects a tendency to spin, at which time it apportions some power to the other axle. With SH-AWD, torque also can be transferred by accelerating hard, where the weight shift sends power rearward. In normal cruising, a maximum of 90 percent torque to the front of the MDX has; while accelerating, the ratio goes to 50-50; and whenever full weight shift goes to the rear, as in climbing a steep hill, anything up to a maximum 70 percent of torque goes to the rear axle. The secret to SH-AWD is that if you swerve abruptly, as if to dodge a deer that darts out in your path, or go hard around a sharp curve, up to100 percent of whatever power is directed to the rear gets shifted to the outside rear wheel.
All of this technical weight-transferring is seamless, and all the driver feels is that the right-rear drive wheel which is most likely to lose traction under those circumstances instead gets the largest dose of stability-controlled power to push the MDX around the curve in a perfect trajectory. In real-world driving, Large, 13-inch front and 13.2-inch rear disc brakes have four-channel antilock, and Acura tests show the MDX beats the Cayenne, X5 and XC90 in braking tests, and that the stability system plus SH-AWD makes the MDX the best in class in snow tests. Redesigned front strut and rear multilink suspension, combined with the Delphi active-damper system, and 18-inch alloy wheels, help the SH-AWD to exceptional handling.
A normal owner may never approach the limits we sought in that rain, on that race course, but it’s a secure feeling to know it can handle any such maneuver. Acura claims it exceeded its benchmark aimed of the BMW X5 for performance, with active roll control, and Delphi electromagnetic dampers that use 15 sensors to react instantly to stiffen as required in a revision from the shock absorbers Delphi designed for the new Corvette and Cadillac XLR roadster. With a console switch to set either sport or comfort settings, Acura also claims the MDX exceeds its other benchmarks – the Cayenne for handling, and the RX350 in ride comfort.
Chassis engineer Frank Paluch calls the targeted spread family moms and driver dads, based on the previous MDX owners. “Moms would drive the MDX all week, while dads drove the other family car to work, then drove the MDX on weekends,†said Paluch. “Our intention was to keep the moms satisfied, and add enough driving excitement and other missing attributes to attract the dads as well.Ââ€
The high-nose look was designed to resemble a racing yacht, and technical upgrades give a performance feel to the driver, without compromising the comfort for all occupants, in a package worthy of taking a client to lunch, or three friends golfing, of for a family with two or more kids who can sit three across in the second row of seats, or, if theyÂ’re young enough to be spry, flip up the two occasional seats in the third row.
If performance was the key new ingredient, Acura found it with the 3.7-liter V6. By increasing bore and stroke from the 3.5, enlarging the valve diameter, and using special silicon-aluminum sleeves in the cylinders, engineers also installed oil-jet piston cooling. The 2006 model’s 3.5 engine felt potent at 253 horsepower, but the new 3.7 has 300 horsepower – gaining its aggregate 47 horsepower by getting 20 from increased displacement and compression ratio,15 from the new intake ports and the VTEC cam-timing, and 12 from the revised induction and exhaust system. Torque also increases by 25, to 275 foot-pounds.
The 5-speed automatic transmission is smoothly efficient, and adds more than just sports-car fun with a manual shift gate, and little tabs behind the steering wheel to let the driver upshift with the right hand or downshift with the left, without looking away or taking either hand off the wheel. The MDX goes beyond being sporty to drive with a 5,000-pound towing capacity, which could be a boat, or a 24-foot camper trailer. An electronic trailer stability assist helps sense and eliminate any tail-wagging the vehicle-trailer might be tempted to develop from a lane-change or emergency swerve.
With a lowered stance, the MDX is 2.2 inches longer, 2.4 inches wider and about a half-inch taller than its predecessor. It seems inconceivable that anyone would use the MDX for serious off-roading, but its 26-degree approach angle, 24-degree departure angle, and 20.2-degree breakover angle mean it would be willing to handle the assignment.
Safety, a major focus at Honda/Acura these days, is built into the all-new structural platform of the MDX. Over 60 percent high-strength steel is used in construction, compared to 13 percent in the current model. The 360-degree safety strategy encased in all the assorted front and side airbags includes rollover protection. In a frontal impact, the structure sends some of the force up the front pillars and the rest down to the frame perimeter, rather than penetrating the safety cage. A quad ring that encircles the rear hatch opening further stiffens the structure.
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The interior ergonomics are excellent, and some subtle but effective touches include high-resolution instrument lighting that adjusts automatically to ambient light conditions; an intuitive navigation system, which has been ranked as the best in the industry (although I still like the Nissan/Infiniti unit best) uses an 8-inch screen on the dash, which doubles for rear-view-camera video display; real-time traffic information about congestion in 31 major U.S. cities; rear-seat 9-inch DVD screen with wireless headphones; hands-free voice recognition controls; plus a choice of exceptional audio systems, both with XM satellite ratio. The stock MDX audio is 253 watts with eight speakers and a 6-CD changer with an auxiliary iPod jack. The upgrade is to the superb Panasonic ELS DVD 5.1 surround system, with10 speakers, and 410 watts – a unit that I declared the best in the industry when it was introduced as standard equipment in the Acura TL.
For over-the-top features, there is a GPS-based, solar-sensing, tri-zone climate control system. And, for safety and convenience, you can transfer up to 1,000 cell-phone contact names, each with up to 10 numbers, to the MDX hands-free system, so you can then access any of them for voice-command calling.
Acura aims at selling 60,000 units in the first year of the new MDX, at prices that range from $41,000 to $48,000. Buyers can add sport, technology or entertainment packages, or buy items from those packages as free-standing options. As it is, the MDXÂ’s impressive technology and features make its prices seem reasonable. And thatÂ’s without knowing about how fantastic it is while frolicking around a road-racing course in what would normally be considered treacherous conditions.
Volkswagen Eos brings new dawn to all seasons
The race for 2007 North American International Car of the Year is wide open – wider open, in fact, than any year I can recall. As one of the jury members who will vote on the winner, let’s check out the Volkswagen Eos as evidence of how stiff the competition is.
I’ve had the opportunity to extensively drive the Eos at the media introduction in Portland, Ore., where we drove east down the Columbia River Gorge and on out to the majestic Mount Hood, and then even more extensively when I got a press-fleet model for a week of driving from the Minneapolis-St.Paul area up through Northern Minnesota.
In Greek mythology, Eos is the goddess of dawn, defined as the one who “rises up from the depths of the ocean each morning in her chariot to bring daylight to mankind.” In less romantic and more pragmatic United States culture, we use the comparatively grim technique of daylight savings time, and delude ourselves into thinking that giving us more light when morning is normally still dark is such a good thing that we don’t mind condemning ourselves to darkness when we should all be enjoying afternoon daylight.
Ah, progress.
At Volkswagen, the Eos has a novel approach to letting the light shine in, no matter what time dawn arrives in your driveway. The car is fashioned out of what appears to be a combination of the Golf – oops! – make that Rabbit, and the 4-door sedan Jetta, converted to a 2-door coupe with a trunk. At the touch of a button, a panel above the trunk lid swings open like the jaws of some other type of deep sea creature, and it promptly swallows the 45-piece roof, which folds itself up for deposit. Just like that, a stylish coupe becomes a stunning convertible.
This trick is not unprecedented, of course. You can find a Mercedes sports car that pulls it off for about $90,000, and you can find the new Volvo C70, which makes a stunning transformation from pillarless 4-seat coupe to convertible. More recently, the Mazda Miata has acquired a hardtop that also disappears, and the Pontiac G6 also has a model that will hide its roof.
The Volvo C70 is one of my favorite vehicles available on the market, even though it costs something on the north side of $40,000, because Volvo has managed to incorporate its legendary safety tricks within those seductive lines.
But the Eos has a few features unique to itself, and accomplishes the same trick as the C70 for about $10,000 less. In fact, the Eos starts at $27,990, so you can get quite a bargain in a tightly built, highly refined coupe/convertible. It’s also quite likely you will be tempted to dip into the option bin and run the price up to the $36,110 that my week-long test-drive displayed.
Anyhow, here’s where the 2007 Car of the Year deal comes in. There are some quite-likely favorites in the field, such as the midsize Toyota Camry, Nissan Altima, Saturn Aura, Chrysler Sebring, and Infiniti G35, plus refined/economy entries such as the Honda Fit, Dodge Caliber, Nissan Yaris, or Hyundai Elantra, or costlier luxury models such as the Mercury S-Class, Lexus LS460, or Jaguar XK.
Where, I hear you ask, are the Volvo C70 and the Volkwagen Eos? Where they are, it turns out, is on the outside looking in. That’s correct, while I would rank the Eos and the C70 right at the top of the list – as well as the new BMW 3-Series Coupe on the higher end, and the Suzuki SX4 on the less-costly end. But I’m only one of 50 voters, and the majority rules. The majority also is capable of making a few mistakes. The dozen finalists all have their merits as they currently fight for our vote a month from now. But it would be conceivable that some voters could rank the C70, Eos, BMW 335i, and Suzuki SX4 among their top four. So I was astonished, and disappointed, to find that our preliminary vote to cut to a workable dozen left all of them out.
Convertibles have made a strong comeback in the last few years, and they seem to be even more appreciated in colder climates, where every available day of moderate warmth finds the top down, compared to southern areas where folks tend to seek protection from the sun. In Great White North areas of the Upper Midwest, or New England or the Pacific Northwest, or Rocky Mountain areas, for that matter, what could be better than a stylish, front-wheel-drive, 4-seat convertible that can fit itself with a solid, weather-proof steel roof to take on the worst blizzards and most frigid temperatures of winter?
Maybe the C70 has a slight edge in sleek looks – for those who still haven’t adopted the new and glittery large-mouth grille that is VW’s new signature design – and all-out safety, but the Eos has some major advantages of its own, beyond the lower initial cost. The roof itself, is one thing. And the basic engine is another.
The Eos roof is not all-steel, because the front half of it is plexiglass, so you can unsheathe it to see the sky even when it is closed. At the touch of a button, the glass vents upward at the rear, and another touch slides it open to a massive, full-width sunroof that is indeed a new twist on a retractable roof. Push the button yet again, and the heavy-gauge side tracks unhitch from the top corners of the windshield, two steel sections sandwich the glass, and the whole apparatus folds itself away in 25 mesmerizing seconds.
A trunk panel must be in place for the top to retract. The trunk is spacious, with 10.5 cubic feet, and locking the hard panel in its slots merely cuts off the top of the trunk space, reducing it to a still-generous 6.6 cubic feet. It also is a neat barrier to prevent any outside stuff to come in contact with whatever you’ve stowed in the trunk.
The test car came with the “base” engine/transmission, which is Audi’s superb 2.0-liter 4-cylinder engine, a direct-injection, double-overhead-camshaft gem that is also turbocharged to deliver 200 horsepower and 207 foot-pounds of torque. The shifter was a 6-speed stick, and it put the engine through its considerable paces very nicely. The beauty of that engine, which can also be found in the Audi A4 and A3, and in VW’s GLI model of the Jetta and GTI model of the Golf/Rabbit, is that its electronic engine-management system thrusts it to its torque peak at a mere 1,800 RPMs and holds it at a plateau to 5,000 RPMs, while its horsepower curve also has an expanded peak from 5,100-6,000 RPMs.
Those numbers mean that when you tap your toe on the gas, the drive-by-wire throttle gives you a blast-off level of full torque at barely above idle speed, and holds it right up until you reach the high-rev horsepower peak.
Also available is the 6-speed automatic that I drove alternately with the stick at the Eos introduction. As I’ve written before, that particular direct-sequential unit is the first automatic transmission that I found to be more fun and even preferable to the manual. It upshifts and downshifts instantaneously, with a neat little turbo-blip of its own between shifts.
Another option is an upgrade to a 3.2-liter V6 with 250 horsepower and 235 foot-pounds of torque, and the same 6-speed automatic that is optional on the 4 is standard with the V6. That engine pushes the base price of the Eos to $36,850, which would be fairly reasonable, if you needed the bigger engine. Personally, I think the 2.0-liter 4 is one of the best engines in the industry, right there with the high output 4s from Honda, and now Mazda, so I would choose the 2.0.
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My week with the Eos proved my theory, because while always being quick to accelerate, I conductged my own real-world tests to compare against its EPA estimates of 23 city/32 highway. I am a staunch skeptic of EPA mileage estimates, although while running the car fairly aggressively in city driving and then from the Twin Cities to Duluth, using liberally high-RPM shift points, I got combined fuel economy of 29 miles per gallon.
On the freeway, returning from Duluth to Minneapolis amid the usual late-Sunday afternoon congestion on I-35, I set the cruise control to run with the traffic flow, which was an SUV-dominated 78 miles per hour (what gasoline shortage?). The computer indicated 30.5 miles per gallon. Then I dropped down to 75 mph, reset the cruise and the computer, and the reading improved to 33 mpg. Although traffic flow made me feel like a roadblock, I set the cruise and computer again, exactly at 70 mph, and over a 25-mile stretch the computer indicated the Eos was attaining 35 mpg.
Aside from staunch performance – either power or economy, and usually both – the Eos is loaded with creature features. The rear window glass is heated, for example. The bucket seats are eight-way adjustable manually, or with an optional 12-way power control. Climate control has a pollen filter and dual-controls are available. A 600-watt audio system specifically designed by Denmark’s Dynaudio is an option over the standard 8-speaker unit. A DVD navigation system is also available, and was a feature on my test car. The test vehicle had the Sport Package, which includes leather sport seats, leather wrapped steering wheel with multiple remote switches, brushed aluminum interior trim, rain-sensing wipers, satellite radio, all-season tires on 17-inch alloy wheels, and a 6-CD changer.
Full airbag protection, including a side bag-and-curtain system, comes standard on all Eos models, as are 4-wheel antilock brakes, electronic stabilization, and antislip regulation. Fully independent rear suspension works with stabilizer bars front and rear and self-leveling shock absorbers.
While the Eos provides all the fun and wind-in-your-hair enjoyment that makes any convertible special, it also is built so substantially that it is free of vibration and shakiness, even with the top down, and is quite silent with the top up. And if you live in the Great White North, where you aren’t going to be tempted to drop the top from November until April, you’ll just have to pretend you’ve parked the convertible away for the winter, while you enjoy having a very solid coupe that is quick, agile, and capable of 30-plus miles per gallon.
If it all makes the Eos sound like a very strong car-of-the-year candidate, I can only agree.
Ford puts fine Edge on line for crossover battles
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIF. — WhatÂ’s in a car name? Well, the 2007 Ford Edge could be said to have edgy styling, and it could give Ford Motor Company an edge over the competition as U.S. vehicle buyers edge away from oversized/full-sized SUVs to compact/crossover size.
It also could claim to be good enough to eat – at least from the names of its available colors. The colors are dazzling, and the names are even better, with crème brulee, dark cherry, French silk, light sage, lime gold, Merlot, orange frost, and white chocolate. Choose a color, and take a little drive out for dessert.
In the highly competitive world of current automotives, where crossover SUVs (CUVs) may become the most heated segment in the industry, any old edge will do, and the just-introduced Ford Edge is far beyond being just “any old†edge. Introduced to automotive media for test drives through the city streets of San Francisco, and the twisty, hilly roadways north of the Golden Gate Bridge, up to Point Reyes, the Edge showed good performance, a solid and comfortable feel of security, and the potential for economy that the big, truck-based SUVs could never pretend to have.
Ford unveiled the vehicles at a public courtyard near the Bay Bridge, on the Embarcadero, a busy boulevard running along the San Francisco waterfront. While a couple of waves of journalists got scheduled walkarounds of the EdgeÂ’s various assets, a lot of normal citizens walked up and asked all sorts of questions. There is no question, the Edge attracted considerable attention, and interest, from those passers-by.
Built at a renovated Oakville, Ontario, plant in Canada, the Edge has a fairly tall, blunt appearance, with the striking chrome horizontal grille bars familiar from the year-old Fusion sedan. Ford spent time and effort to make the Edge handle just right, which means softer edges in cornering than what European or some top Asian crossovers might have. That means compromising all-out performance handling for a more American edge in comfort. Oops, thereÂ’s that word again.
The undulating trends of American vehicles have taken us from station wagons to wildly popular minivans where baby-boomers grew up, then to sport-utility vehicles as boomers grew up and sought family tricksters that made minivans seem stodgy. Gasoline prices that rose to shocking heights this year, before subsiding from near $4, may have provided the impetus to bring us to our senses from 13-miles-per-gallon truck-based giants. Even though gas is back toward the lower $2 level, we may have learned that money saved on gasoline works quite well for other expenses.
Ford, among other manufacturers, claims that this year will see car-based crossover SUVs (or CUV – crossover-utility vehicles) surpass larger SUVs, and that by 2010 there will be 3 million CUVs sold. Consider that in 1996, as we lusted after large SUV trucks, there weren’t any CUVs. In 2000, there were a half-dozen of them. This year, there will be 40 different CUVs, on its way to 70. They will account for 2.4 million sales for 2006, while larger SUVs will be 2.1 million, and declining.
Minivans, meanwhile, havenÂ’t disappeared. Led by the Honda Odyssey, Toyota Sienna and Nissan Quest in pursuit of the dominant Chrysler corps, minivans are better than ever, but Ford claims its numbers will drop below a million in the next year. We in the U.S. have almost forgotten about the fantastic new station wagons that are dominant in Europe, from Volvo, Audi, BMW and Saab, while driving them and buying more of them would take us full circle. For now, the trend is CUVs, which are at least closer to the rational station wagon genre than their inefficient, truck-based forebears. Ford says that when you combine design, safety, performance, fuel economy and value, the Edge has the opportunity to be the best of the new breed.
The Edge has FordÂ’s new corporate Duratec 3.5 V6 engine, with 265 horsepower at 6,250 RPMs, and the low-end punch of 250 foot-pounds of torque, running through the new six-speed automatic transmission Ford has built jointly with, ahem, General Motors. It has an estimated fuel efficiency of 25 miles per gallon in two-wheel-drive form, or 24 with all-wheel-drive. The Edge will start with a base price of $25,995, while the upscale SEL model starts at $28,000, and adding all-wheel-drive adds $1,650. So the price point is very competitive.
In all of its very informative and interesting press sessions during the Edge introduction, Ford’s demographic research may have missed one group – automotive journalists. We have spent the last two months on whirlwind introductory trips to drive some outstanding new vehicles, many of which are crossover SUVs, or CUVs. There is the Acura RDX, Acura MD-X, Honda CR-V, Mazda CX-7, Mazda CX-9, Dodge Caliber, Jeep Compass, Dodge Nitro, Suzuki XL-7, Suzuki SX4, Mitsubishi Outlander, Hyundai Santa Fe – all of which closely followed such vehicles as the Toyota RAV4, Kia Sportage, Hyundai Tucson, Chevrolet Equinox, Saturn VUE, BMW X3.
Among others. All of those are CUVs, and all of them have one thing in common: In each case, the manufacturer has said that while all the blossoming CUVs are very competitive, all have a stodgy SUV-like appearance, and “ours is the one that’s different.†Ford says it hasn’t yet seen the “iconic CUV,†which leaves the door open for the Edge to claim that turf, with what it claims is its most important launch of the year.
Overall, driving the Edge, or riding in it, is impressive. A solid feel, as if Ford tried to dial in a little of the larger Explorer’s strong stance, is evident. The Edge lets occupants sit up high, which Ford officials stressed as an important ingredient to consumers – never mind that when you are up high in one, but behind another SUV, you’re “commanding view†of the road is cut off at one car-length.
Truly useful features abound in the Edge. The 60/40 split rear bench seat folds down readily, including by remote switch just inside the uplifted tailgate. The front passenger seat backrest flips forward to form a flat surface, which extends stowage length to 8 feet from the tailgate.
When the rear seat is upright, not only is it roomy and comfortable back there, but the backrest reclines far enough for a restful ride or power-nap. A DVD navigation system is available. Power-points for such plug-ins as computer recharging are standard, and so is a jack for MP3 or iPods to play your own music through the 9-speaker audio system.
An enormous sunroof is available, and when you hit the switch it slides back for a vast expanse of sky view that entertains both front and rear occupants. The Vista Roof has a panel measuring 27.3 by 29.4 inches that tilts or slides open, and a 31.3 by 15.8 inch fixed rear see-through panel that combines to make a 9 square foot patch of upward visibility. With the Vista Roof open, wind noise is baffled, too, but when you close the windows and the sunroof, you realize the vault-like insulation from road and wind noise that surrounds you inside the Edge.
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The secure feeling inside the Edge is reinforced by the knowledge that the most important safety stuff all come standard on every Edge. The list of safety features ranges from an array of airbags that includes side and side-curtain bags, high structural rigidity, four-wheel disc brakes with antilock, and AdvanceTrac traction control with FordÂ’s spectacular roll stability control (RSC) first featured on the Volvo XC90. ItÂ’s nearly mandatory to have such features available these days, but to make them standard on even the base models is a high plateau, indeed.
Mom and dad care mostly about safety, but the kids care about being entertained as you head over the river and through the woods. For them, the usual ceiling-mounted DVD player folds down for rear-seat dwellers, but you canÂ’t get it with the panoramic sunroof, naturally. For those who want to have their cake and eat it too, choose the sunroof and a dealer-installed option of a pair of video screens in the backs of the front seat headrests. I blew a Ford guyÂ’s mind by asking if you could order the ceiling DVD screen AND the twin headrest screens for a three-screen overload. You can, of course, if you want to rise to the category of wanting to have cake, and ice cream, and to eat it all at once. Or, if you have three little twerps who could sit back there in potential harmony with the absurd possibility of three separate videos.
Driving the all-wheel-drive Edge hard around twisty mountain roads, it responded well enough. I might prefer a bit stiffer setting on the independent multilink suspension, to the point that I would be willing to put up with a bit of harshness to attain. The Edge could never be accused of even approaching that sort of stiffness.
The engine was responsive too, and the six-speed automatic handled all chores well. Well, almost all. In descending a steep hill, I was advised to click the overdrive switch on the gear lever to off, helping with engine-braking. I did, and it slowed slightly, but not well enough for my taste. I asked why Ford had not put a manual shift-gate onto the shifter, so you could manually up- or downshift, and I was told that FordÂ’s market research showed interested consumers didnÂ’t care about having that controlling edge.
OK, but as CUVs charge ahead to become the most competitive single segment of the industry, my feeling is that the RDX, Outlander, and others are extremely fun to drive because they not only have manual shift-gates, but fingertip control paddles on the steering wheel or steering column. They are fun to use in accelerating upshifts, but they are most beneficial in downshifting, whether descending a steep hill, or merely leaving a freeway, when you might prefer to drop down to fourth, or even third, to prevent the automatic from hunting and searching to match your gas pedal urging.
It seemed that Ford officials were condescending in acknowledging my question, but if the CUV segment is as competitive as Ford says – and I believe it is – then deal-breakers will be such things as that reclining rear seat, the convergence with electronic gadgetry, fuel-efficiency, and features like manual overrides on the transmission.
Technically, I learned later, deactivating overdrive drops you two gears, and if you’re still descending too fast, hit the brakes sharply and it electronically drops the transmission one more gear. At that point, downshift the lever to low, and it goes down one more gear — to second — and holds it. Nobody at the Edge intro seemed to be aware of all that. Seems to me, a manual gate, and paddles, would have been far simpler.
A brief drive down to FishermanÂ’s Wharf, then up some of the wonderfully abrupt San Francisco hills in the base two-wheel-drive Edge was also impressive. However, if you dropped the temperature 50 degrees and coated those streets with ice, you would have Duluth, and you would probably want that all-wheel drive.
Audi’s S8, S6 make powerful claims for proper respect
MONTREAL, QUEBEC — It was an impossible choice. Driving the new Audi S8 – the high-performance version of the A8 luxury sedan – was an exhilarating exercise in mastering some challenging woodsy two-lane roads in the hills north of Montreal. Driving the same roads in the new S6 – AudiÂ’s high-performance version of its hot-selling midsize luxury A6 sedan – was even more exhilarating in some ways.
In Minnesota, where driving on ice and snow is a way of life, Audis have been popular and well-appreciated, because their standard front-wheel drive or quattro all-wheel drive eliminate most of the hazards that rear-wheel-drive vehicles confront annually from December to April. BMW and Mercedes – Audi’s two traditional German luxury rivals – have historically depended on front-engine/rear-drive for what they claim is a performance advantage.
Around the rest of the U.S., Audis are considered nice, safe cars, maybe just a slight distance behind the more prestigious cars from BMW or Mercedes. ThatÂ’s a sore point for Johan de Nysschen, executive vice president of Audi of America, who addressed journalists at the media introduction for AudiÂ’s newest cars in Montreal by making it clear Audi intends to make a bid to gain its rightful position. “We feel our brand is under-appreciated and under-recognized in the U.S.,†said de Nysschen. “For example, how many people in the U.S. know that our current S6 outsells BMWÂ’s M5 and the Mercedes AMG (E-Class) in Germany? And how many know that our A6 is the best-selling mid-size luxury car in the world?Ââ€
Most of us were surprised that Audi had surpassed those traditional foes in the home market, to say nothing of the world. The newest introductions, meanwhile, are to prove that while Audi’s sedans compare well to BMW and Mercedes counterparts, Audi also aims to outrun the high-performance AMG cars from Mercedes, and the “M†models from BMW.
That made the North American introduction of the S8 and S6 particularly intriguing. Both cars have the same basic 5.2-liter, Lamborghini-based, direct-injection V10 engine, and the same performance-oriented quattro all-wheel-drive system, but the cars make distinctly different impressions. Switch the S8’s air-suspension system to “Dynamic†and the big sedan hunkers down and feels planted on the curviest pavement. On the same roads, you could hurl the shorter A6 around the same curves, with a greater feeling that you are provoking the precision. You never think of “tossing†the S8 into a curve; it feels like it’s on rails. The S6 feels as though it needs your manipulations to send it sweeping smoothly around those curves.
That makes the S6 feel considerably quicker, which led to another surprise. One one segment of the drive through the hills, I noticed pushed the S6 at as spirited a pace as felt comfortable, enjoying the drive immensely, while a friend of mine did the same in another car up ahead, pretty much maintaining the same interval about 100 feet ahead. When we reached our stopping point, I was surprised to see that he was in an S8. The larger S8 is the classier, more luxurious car, while the S6 felt distinctly lighter and more agile, and I appreciated that sportier feel.
But leave it to those Germans. They decided they wanted the S6 to be ultimate hot midsize luxury sedans, and it has 435 horsepower and 398 foot-pounds of torque from its 5.2-liter V10. To prevent hot-footed S6 drivers from breezing past any larger S8s, the same size V10 in the S8 is tuned to 450 horsepower and 398 foot-pounds of torque. It seems the lighter S8 should be able to offset those extra 15 horses, but, the larger, longer S8 is only 100 pounds heavier than the S6, because its totally built of high-strength aluminum, with space-frame construction blessing the platform, suspension, body — everything.
The S8 will go 0-60 in 4.9 seconds – a vicinity only Corvette-Porsche-Viper type sports cars might visit, to say nothing of a large, four-door sedan with all-wheel drive and filled with opulent leather and wood. The rear seat could be the site of a board meeting, but it would be the fastest-moving board meeting imaginable.
Other competitors for Audi include Lexus, Acura, Infiniti, Volvo, Jaguar and Cadillac, but Mercedes and BMW are its primary rivals, because they share the autobahns, and they compete in motorsports. Audi counters by beating them – and everybody else – at the 24 Hours of LeMans, and on the Amercian LeMans series. Audi’s dominant R8 won five LeMans races, and 63 of 80 it competed in. This year, it was retired in favor of a new R10 TDI, which became the first turbo-diesel to ever win LeMans.
Race-bred performance in luxury models doesn’t come cheap. The smaller S4 may be a bargain, but the S6 starts at $72,000, and the S8 has a base price of $92,000. One S8 I drove, loaded with options including a $6,300 Bang and Olufsen audio system with 1,000 watts of power and 14 self-contained speakers, each with its own amplifier, had a sticker that topped $110,000. As with many of Germany’s finest cars, these beauties with Audi’s “fanatical attention to detail†are exorbitantly priced – and probably worth every penny.
With impressive success around the rest of the world, de Nysschen is impatient about focusing on the U.S. “We are headed for a record year in 2006 for our sales in the U.S.,†de Nysschen continued, “because of our newest A6, A4 and A3, and the introduction of the Q7, which has exceeded all our expectations. We introduced the Q7 just as large SUVs were slowing down, but we have delivered 3,200 Q7s since it was introduced last April, which means itÂ’s outselling the BMW X5 and Mercedes ML. We now also have the highest residual value.Ââ€
Audi, based in Ingolstadt, Germany, is not a huge company, but being between niche manufacturers and enormous companies is a benefit, and, de Nysschen added, Audi intends to capitalize on it.
“You must respect your competition – especially if they have larger market share,†he said. “Mercedes, unfortunately, has tarnished its reputation about quality a bit, and that is an opportunity for us. BMW seems to be very determined to become a volume brand, but when you do that, there is a threshold where you are no longer exclusive. We would like to have that problem, but for now, it can work to our advantage.
“In the past, we didn’t do as well as we should have,†de Nysschen said. “From the standpoints of marketing, and distribution, it was different in the U.S, than elsewhere. U.S. profits were not being reinvested in U.S. marketing. For many years we were behind BMW and Mercedes and had a lot of catching up to do. Whenever we got a car right, the economy seemed to go bad; and when the economy was good, we didn’t have the proper portfolio.
“We think the time is now. We have 267 dealerships in the U.S., with 97 of them exclusive Audi dealers. We are not a big company, and we can’t be all things to all people. But Audi has a passion to lead by technology,†he said, ticking off features such as quattro, the new sequential two-clutch automatic in the A3 and A4 that can be manually shifted in .2 of a second – faster than any human can shift a manual, and the passive and active safety measures that have gained accolades for the A3, A4, A6 and the soon-to-be-announced Q7 ratings, as well as the aluminum space-frame construction of the luxury A8.
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The S6 doesnÂ’t have the three-position suspension setting of the S8, but it has a comfortably firm stance. I particularly like the little styling touch on the S6 that includes a little row of five LED daytime driving lights up under the crossbar on either side of the now-familiar Audi grille.
Great attention has been given to making larger audio knobs, carefully finished details that might even be out of sight. The wipers, for instance, are positioned out of the airflow for aerodynamics, and when the outside temperature falls under freezing, the wipers raise themselves every so slightly to avoid sticking to the windshield overnight.
“We donÂ’t just build cars for our customers,†said de Nysschen. “We build cars for ourselves, too. Our engineers do thing to the very best level of what they are capable of. Those things look great, and feel great. Do they sell more cars? Probably not. But we like it, so we do it. We use real materials. If it looks like wood, it is wood; if it looks like leather, it is leather; if it looks like aluminium, it is aluminium.Ââ€
Europeans always include the extra syllable in aluminum, to make it “al-you-MIN-ee-um.†But the point is well-taken. I was at a rival luxury vehicle introduction recently, and when I asked if the wood trim on the dash was real, it led to an argument among the engineers, and nobody really knew. I laughed and said that if they couldn’t really tell, then it was pretty good stuff. But I like the Audi approach better. If you are going to put wood on my dashboard, make it real, or not at all.
Similarly, if you want the ultimate high-performance luxury sedan, and you want ultimate control around twisty curves — or icy Minnesota roadways — the S8 and S6 make powerful arguments.
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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