Touareg 2 makes roads easy, mountains possible
Critics questioned Volkswagen’s intitial logic five years ago when it decided to invade the world of SUVs with the Touareg, but the vehicle has proven to be solid and capable for any imaginable duty, including its basic and most logical use as a modern version of the good-ol’ family station wagon.
Now it’s time for updating, and VW has kept the basic size and shape but revised the important under-the-skin stuff to create the Touareg 2 for 2008. It is improved in every way, which means basic people-moving on normal highways is a snap, and even mountain climbing is possible. I had a chance to prove those capabilities, both during the Touareg 2 introduction, and for a later week on Minnesota roadways.
The most distinguishing feature of the 2008 Touareg 2 is the front end, where Volkswagen’s tweaking gives the new model the family resemblance, with the large grille separated by a horizontal chrome bar, similar to the new Jetta, Rabbit, GLI and GTI. The family resemblance makes good sense, and is one of the more attractive applications of that grille shape.
The Touareg was initially built with a companion version for the basis of Porsche’s high-performing Cayenne. The Touareg 2 has many subtle upgrades, with new seats a definite improvement, and the Audi-sourced 4.2-liter V8 is now direct-injected and runs smoother and with quicker response.
Its new grille is flanked by wider headlight openings and more intense lights, and its adjustable stiff or merely firm suspension, complementing the more supportive bucket seats, performs admirably on any freeway, highway, 2-lane, or lake-access road. Its weighty stance — from 5,100 to 5,800 pounds — makes it always feel stable and gives a good base for towing, although it’s difficult to avoid the impression that it’s overbuilt for mundane highway travel.
Base price is $39,320 for a Touareg 2 with the latest version of VW’s narrow-angle 3.6-liter V6, with 280 horsepower and 266 foot-pounds of torque. The one I drove for a week, starts at $59,320, loaded up with the 4.2 V8, with its direct-injection 350 horsepower and 324 foot-pounds of torque. Both engines are dual-overhead-camshaft pieces, and both run through 6-speed automatic transmissions. The V6 does just fine, unless you’re a power-hungry type. Fuel economy EPA estimates are 12 city and 17 highway for the V8, and 15/20 for the V6.
Volkswagen officials chose to introduce the refined Touareg 2 by whisking North American auto journalists away to Couer d’Alene, a little town on the skinny northern tip of Idaho that stretches to the Canadian border. The town, like the Native American tribe from the region, was named for its bargaining practices, which were “sharp as an awl.” For some, it was hard to reach such an out-of-the-way location, but for me, it was a pleasure.
My younger son, Jeff, had driven through the town a couple years ago, on his way west on I-90, and raved about how picturesque it is to come out of the spectacular Bitterroot mountain range on the Montana-Idaho border and descend to discover the beautiful Lake Couer d’Alene and the little town that adjoins it.
Volkswagen had gone for the ultimate, and hired Dan Mick, a Minnesota native famous as a tour and trek guide in the Moab desert of Utah. Since he is the undisputed king of Moab’s outrageous terrain for Range Rover, Jeep, Dodge trucks, and also the first Touareg introduction, VW brought him to Idaho to create the perfect and treacherous course for us to attempt with the Touareg 2.
Because of Volkswagen’s intent to show off the Touareg’s off-road capability, we drove a brief little sprint on the highway to get to a fantastic area where we could spend a couple hours on very challenging off-road trails. For that, the location was perfect. So we rushed off toward the east, cruising smoothly from the Couere d’Alene Resort, and after too little time on the mountainous roads, we turned off them.
Our incentive was a wonderful lunch served on top of the mountain, and getting there would be more than half the fun. I had met and talked with Dan Mick on several occasions, and our Minnesota ties always connected. He’s from Pine River, MN., a little town between Brainerd and Walker, but he’s made the Moab region his home and raised his family out there. Anyway, he asked if my co-driver and I would like to join him for the off-road trek, and I jumped at the chance to be guided by the maestro.
Unfortunately, Mick also wanted to be the last vehicle in line, so he could help anyone having trouble on the steep and unruly surfaces. So we were last, by design. Waiting for everybody else to clear was more of a pain than merely being last to lunch, but it was still an enjoyable day.
At several points he got out and directed us by hand-signal over the toughest areas, including one spot where the Touareg 2 would lift a front or rear-corner wheel a couple feet off the ground, and hold it there, like a German short-haired pointer. But instead of pointing to an unflushed pheasant, this beast was showing off its impressive structural rigidity.
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To be fully equipped for the battle, the Touareg 2 has switches to lock in whatever you choose. You can set the comfort range, and a pair of knobs allow you to set the firmness and height of the air suspension. The vehicle actually rises up off the suspension to enhance ground clearance for semi-tough or all-out demands, and will settle back down low and sleek for highway cruising.
We handled everything with ease, except for one very steep stretch where free-spinning vehicles preceding us had left hundreds of softball-size boulders lined up like so many marbles, and we spun too much to make sense of the climb. So we backed down and circled that hill.
When we finished off our belated mountaintop lunch, it was time to test the hill-descent control, which controls the steeply descending slopes without riding the brakes, and, in fact, without touching anything.
The ultimate evidence of the Touareg 2’s capability is that Dan Mick, who normally won’t leave his trusty short-wheelbase Jeep Wrangler while leading all other makes on Moab excursions or introductions, said that he now also wants a Touareg 2 because of its capabilities.
Still, the cynic in me had to point out that after two hours of off-roading, we had probably driven the new Touareg 2 off-road more than any customer is likely to drive a $40,000-$60,000 SUV.
As is often the case with German manufacturers, it is the capability of achieving what it is designed to do that seems to drive them. So to speak. I mean, a Porsche looks like it could go 175 mph, so it can, even though there is no chance any purchasers will be able to do that. And the Touareg 2 will perform amazing feats on the wildest terrain, even though about 95 percent of its buyers will spend 0 percent of their time venturing off road with any degree of difficulty.
Still to come, incidentally, is the return of the V10 twin-turbo-diesel in the Touareg 2, with 553 foot-pounds of torque, and will add the Bluetec exhaust-cleansing urea technology for 2009, to qualify as a clean diesel in all 50 states. That will increase power and fuel economy, and will make the Touareg 2 zip up cliffs so swiftly you won’t ever be late for lunch.
Honda’s 8th-generation icon dazzles Accord-ingly
BOSTON, MASS. — Honda seems like the Japanese version of BMW, a company so advanced in technology, and with such an impressive array of vehicles, that it doesn’t need benchmarks — it IS the benchmark. BMW’s 3-Series is considered the standard of mid-size “near-luxury” sedans, while the Honda Accord has been the icon of middle-class midsize sedans, having established the segment with its debut in 1976.
After briefly experiencing all that the new Accord is offering for 2008, it appears it provides everything any midsize buyer could look for. The long-awaited eighth-generation Accord has enough style, size and punch to be an immediate hit when it reaches showrooms in September, and it offers a flashy Coupe that is far more than just an Accord with two fewer doors.
Honda officials actually considered making the eighth-generation Accord slightly smaller, but then the Accord’s two primary competitors came out in all-new versions for 2007. The Toyota Camry, which had followed the Accord up the sales charts and then passing it for first place when it opened up sales to fleets and rental companies several years ago, held its usual, quite conservative position. The Nissan Altima, growing as a threat, had chosen instead to aim at the sportirer part of the midsize segment. While pointing its stylish new nose right between those two adversaries, the Accord also has become the biggest sedan in the midsize segment — so big, in fact, that its interior qualifies as an EPA large car.
The new Accord’s progressive styling sets it apart from those competitors, and also from the somewhat stodgy styling of the current Accord, which lasted from 2003 through 2007. With a low, wide nose, and a six-sided grille almost identical to the Coupe, the Accord Sedan’s longer and wider body is accented with a decisive side groove that is not unlike that on its upscale cousin, the Acura TL.
Honda also built the Accord with its latest safety concept. The Civic came out in 2006 as the company’s first car to use Honda’s ACE — Advanced Compatibility Engineering — body structure technique, focusing on higher-strength steel and crash-energy dispersal. The Civic was the first subcompact to get five-star crash-test marks, and in essence, the Civic might have been safer than the current Accord. Applying the ACE treatment to the Accord structure steps it up to the head of the safety class.
Larger in every dimension, the Accord requires a bit more power, and typical of Honda engineering, the quest for power does not leave emissions or fuel economy in arrears. The 2008 model pushes Honda’s exceptional dual-overhead camshaft, 16-valve, i-VTEC four-cylinder from 166 horsepower. 180 horsepower in the LX model (a 14-horse improvement), while the LXi or EX versions gain 34-horsepower, by hitting an even 200 horsepower. It should still be in the 30-miles-per-gallon range, and meet the strictest emission standards.
The strong 3.0-liter V6 with 244 horsepower in the 2007 Accord is replaced by the stronger 3.5-liter version, designed for the Acura MDX and Honda Ridgeline pickup, for 2008. In the Accord, the enlarged single-overhead-cam, 24-valve V6 makes 273 horsepower, a boost of 29 over the current model, and has a new variable cylinder management system that. In normal driving it employs all six cylinders when accelerating or climbing, and electronically cuts down to four cylinders for mid-range driving, or to three cylinders for highway cruising. That helps fuel economy and emissions, although it is seamless to the driver, who gets full power at the touch of a toe.
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Having a Coupe makes sense for the Accord, and brings back some history. When the first Accord came out in 1976, it was only a 2-door coupe. In recent years, the Accord coupe has been attractive, but only in the manner of a two-door version of the sedan. For 2008, Honda is designating the Coupe with a capital C, and it has earned the acclimation by being a separate car, with shorter wheelbase and its own sheet metal, despite the strong family resemblance.
A preliminary drive of the new cars from Boston to Cape Cod and back offered pretty convincing evidence that Honda connected all the dots properly, although a couple of interesting compromises does leave some room for the competition. The Coupe, obviously, has that sleeker roofline, with the kind of dramatic appearance that could lure sporty coupe buyers considering 2-doors, including Mustangs. With its front-wheel drive, the Accord Coupe also has no concerns about winter.
The Sedan also handles well, but with that large family-oriented rear seat and trunk, it lacks the feeling of agility so prominent in the Coupe.
An interesting fact is that the V6 Sedan comes with a 5-speed automatic, but no manual shifter, while the 4-cylinder Sedan offers a 5-speed stick or the 5-speed automatic. The V6 Coupe comes with either a 5-speed automatic or a 6-speed stick, while 4-cylinder Coupes offer either the 5-speed automatic or a 5-speed stick — but no 6-speed stick.
Since the Accord wants to be a sporty alternative, it should be noted that the Camry sedan comes with a 6-speed automatic to the Accord’s 5, while the new Altima comes with a second-generation CVT (continuously variable transmission) as its automatic. Honda officials say that their customers have complained about the strange feeling of Honda’s CVT, so it is not offering it until drivers become accustomed to the lack of engine-revving sound. Also, the cost of a 6-speed and the dwindling number of stick shift customers prevented Honda from including one in the sedan.
My question was with the Coupe. It is sporty and fast, and a worthy alternative to a lot of sports cars with the V6 and 6-speed stick. But it also is a capable sporty car with the 4-cylinder, which could benefit more from having a sixth gear than the larger and torquier V6. Honda officials defended their choice by saying they thought 4-cylinder buyers would be less interested in the all-out sporty attitude of the 6-speed.
The V6’s 273 horsepower peak at 6,200 RPMs, while its 245 foot-pounds of torque are attained at 5,000 RPMs. Meanwhile, the hotter version of the 2.4 4-cylinder shows 200 horsepower at 7,000 RPMs, and its 170 foot-pounds of torque peak at 4,500. So it seems that sporty drivers might enjoy having a stick shift in the V6 Sedan, just as they would in the V6 Coupe. Similarly, buyers watching their budgets might well choose the 4-cylinder Coupe, but might prefer the greater variation of a 6-speed stick to a 5-speed. Nissan’s new and sleek Altima Coupe may prove to be the Accord Coupe’s main competitor, and it offers a 6-speed manual with either the V6 or 4-cylinder.
So, apparently, Honda wants the Accord to be sporty — just not TOO sporty.
Nissan Rogue is a sporty, macho compact-crossover
BALTIMORE, MD. — Baseball season has so much to offer, even though the media coverage, in our win-or-else society, covers every game from July on from the perspective of the whole season — either praise for being in the pennant race, or scorn for not being there. To me, Major League baseball was meant to be a more individual but pastoral happening: go to a game with your family or a couple of buddies, do the concession stand-food thing, and enjoy that isolated game for whatever entertainment value it offers.
So an added incentive for accepting Nissan’s invitation to the Rogue introduction was that it would include a stop at the already-legendary Camden Yards for a ball game. The Baltimore Orioles aren’t very good this year, but who cares? Seeing them play the Texas Rangers in that ballpark would be a memorable treat, especially for a Minnesotan looking ahead to the building of an outdoor boutique stadium.
And the Rogue? What the heck is a Rogue, anyway?
Turns out, the Rogue was the big hit of the trip — for two distinct reasons. The first reason, and our focus here, was the vehicle itself. It proved to be a solid, agile, and quite fulfilling vehicle for roaming through the Maryland and Virginia countryside, out to the historic Gettysburg, where even if you don’t have an actual address, you can tour the battlefield and memorial cemetery.
Toyota and Honda dominate the biggest Japanese news in the U.S. industry, but Nissan does very well, even though it seems relegated to sublevel status, where Mazda also resides. Both are overachievers, because their technology and vehicle engineering is among the best in the world, and they also focus on making their cars fun to drive, and in Japan, Nissan is second only to Toyota in sales volume, and Honda seems underappreciated. Go figure.
Nissan is striving to change all that. Its new Altima is extremely competitive with the Toyota Camry and the Honda Accord, and its new Altima Coupe is a bargain-priced prize against those two. Nissan’s impressive fleet of SUVs range from tough and solid to luxurious, and its upscale Infiniti class of vehicles also ranks with the best. In fact, the Infiniti G35, and its newly introduced G37 Coupe version, tend to get compared to the best from BMW, rather than from Japanese or U.S. rivals. There was only one hole in the Nissan lineup: The Xterra takes care of the more rugged off-roading active lifestylers, but Nissan had no challenger for the Honda CR-V and Toyota RAV4, which have done so well in stirring up a compact crossover SUV segment, which also includes the Ford Escape, Mazda Tribute, Chevy Equinox, Jeep Compass and Liberty, the new Saturn VUE, Hyundai Tucson and Kia Sportage.
Enter the Rogue. Nissan’s marketeers threw us a flurry of PR-speak to claim the Rogue is aimed directly at the CR-V — which now is the largest-selling SUV in the U.S. — and the RAV4, as Nissan’s first attempt in the “small crossover” segment. It was built jointly with Renault, the hugely successful French company whose financial input lifted Nissan to its current upward mobility. To coin a phrase. Once the PR staff located its fixed target, it then went on to build a mountain of evidence of why the Rogue outgunned the CR-V and RAV4 from the standpoint of sportiness and agility as a lure to get more male buyers.
The first attraction is the appearance. The Rogue is compact, and its design is streamlined and slick from nose to tail. I like the silhouette and the rear view more than the front, which is fine, but seems like its egg-crate grille is trying to hard to gain a family resemblance to the larger Murano SUV. The appearance thing continues inside, where it avoids the normal attempt at being mainstream-attractive, and made everything almost German-stark, with a pleasing-to-touch but all black finish surrounding ergonomically correct gauges and switchgear.
Using the potent 2.5-liter, dual-overhead-camshaft 4-cylinder engine out of the Altima, along with the latest version of its CVT (continuously variable transmission), the Rogue produces 170 horsepower and 175 foot-pounds of torque. The CVT is standard, with no manual shifter available, but the CVT offers the option of steering-wheel paddle switches to simulate the manual shifts of a 6-speed. Liberal use of high-strength steel helps make an extremely stiff platform without unnecessary weight, and sophisticated suspension coupled with all sorts of traction and stability controls makes the Rogue steer precisely and handle with a flat attitude.
Those are sporty attributes, but they also are vital contributors to safety, where a crumple-zone design fore and aft leads to a strong and secure inner shell.
I only have one significant challenge to the whole campaign. The Rogue is clearly more sporty and more macho than the CR-V and RAV4, primarily because the CR-V and RAV4 are built and directed toward compact, budget family haulers, and without question, female buyers prevail in the decision-making that lead up to such purchases. Our society has reached the point where women make the majority of car-buying decisions, but an interesting occurence is that women are now so well-versed in studying their purchase that they will buy the vehicle they deem as correct for their purposes, regardless of whether it has a male or female attraction — while men are so fragile in their little ego-worlds that most will not consider a car popular with females. Apparently male self-esteem is incapable of brushing off heckles about having a “chick car.”
There are, then, a couple of other newcomers into that segment that might be better and more difficult targets for the Rogue. One is the Mazda CX-7, and the other Acura’s RDX. Both are similarly sized, and similarly sweeping in design, and both have turbocharged 2.3 4-cylinder engines with all-wheel drive. Both are decidedly sporty, and offer considerable competition to the Rogue — particularly the CX-7, which is priced about $10,000 less than the RDX and abou the same mid-$20,000 for the Rogue to hurdle. By avoiding mention with them, perhaps Nissan was playing a marketing game, to name only those more-mellow mainstreamers they can out-sport.
Nissan has been very busy for the past year, with new Altima, Sentra and Versa sedans introduced, followed by the Altima Coupe, a refreshed Pathfinder SUV with a V8 engine, and hiking the Titan pickup with a revision that gives it the longest crew cab box in the industry. Meanwhile, upscale cousin Infiniti redid the G35 and added an entirely new G37 Coupe with a bigger and more potent V6 that takes the venerable 3.5 up to 3.7 liters.
All of that has lifted Nissan’s car volume up by 18.9 percent for calendar 2007, with much more to come. In Baltimore, we examined the Rogue, which had first been displayed on the Auto Show circuit last winter, and the gracefull silhouette, called the “dynamic arch” by Nissan, tapers Murano-like to the rear, where the lower sill of the windows angles up to meet it.
Director of product planning Ken Kcomt, who seems to need a vowel more than another new vehicle, anticipates that 80 percent of Rogues sold will be SL models, the upper level above and beyond the basic S. Both models come front-wheel drive standard with all-wheel drive optional, and both have premium packages for upgrades.
The simulated 6-speed seems to conflict with the purpose of a CVT, but U.S. buyers are so put off by not hearing the revs build between shift points in a continuously-variable transmission, Nissan — like Audi — programs electronic steps into the manual override controls. In the Rogue, the CVT has electro-hydraulic control, so hydraulic pressure builds to reposition the metallic belt to hold a shift point and let the revs build, for what feels like a true manual.
All-wheel-drive models start out with 50-50 torque split front and rear for hard but sure start-up stability. Once going, torque distribution is pretty much front-wheel drive until the computer redistributes it. Combining the stiff body structure with electric power steering and high-performance shock damping on all four corners assures flat cornering, and the Vehicle Dynamic Control (VDC) runs via yaw sensors, wheel-slip sensors, steering angle sensors, and the all-wheel drive to vary the torque from front to rear. In a curve, even on slippery surfaces, the VDC system can anticipate where the driver’s steering wants the Rogue to go, and if the vehicle doesn’t comply, its redistribution of torque forces it to.
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Even male buyers are accompanied by females most of the time, so concessions are made to the logical side of the relationship with all sorts of neat storage areas, including a rear floor that tilts up sto display detachable partitions in a cargo-organizer. Nissan’s information says that’s to isolate dirty or wet items from that active-lifestyle gang, but apparently the PC Police wouldn’t apprehend you if you or your real or perceived feminine side used it for groceries or other shiftable parcels.
Kcomt said that folding the second-row seats down provides 57.9 cubic feet of storage space, and it has an enormous bin that is under-identified by the term “glove box.” It will hold 34 CDs, among other things. As for gloves, you could be talking baseball gloves. That enormous cavern is about the only feature I could call poorly devised in the Rogue. If the compartment had been built to slide, like an enormous drawer, the front passenger might be able to make it work. As it is, you hit the release and a gigantic door folds down at you, striking you just below the knees. To avoid immediate contact with an orthopedic surgeon, you can slide the seat back as far as you can, but then you can’t reach the release switch, or reach anything inside. If you slide the seat forward enough to reach the release, you get banged on the shins, and you still can’t reach much in there because the door won’t open farther than where it hits your legs.
If the “glove compartment” is big enough to house baseball gloves rather than driving gloves, maybe another of the many Rogue standard-equipment features should be catcher’s shinpads.
Speaking of baseball analogies, ‘way back at the start of this dissertation I said the Rogue was the highlight of the baseball-oriented introductory trip for two reasons. One was the vehicle itself, and the second is that we got to Camden Yards and entered the wonderfully boutique-ish ballpark early, then we were ushered to a suite, where, as the drizzle worsened, we feasted on brats, hot dogs, and crab-cakes made almost entirely of clumps of crabmeat — a Baltimore specialty. Big Al, from Detroit, took only a couple bites and tossed his in a trash bin. He saw my incredulous look and explained it was “too fishy.” Only a Detroit writer could accuse a superb crabcake of containing too much crabmeat.
By then, the drizzle had become a persistent downpour, and the game was postponed. Bummer. That took baseball out of the equation, although a later media wave saw the last game of the series, in which Texas scored a record 30 runs against the poor Orioles. That might have been memorable, from an oddity perspective, but even then, I suspect in evaluating the trip, the Rogue was the best part — and figuratively hit the most distinctive home run.
Good season ends, better one awaits — if Hunter signs
The Major League Baseball season ended with a thud for the Minnesota Twins, even as it transformed itself into league playoffs – the most exciting baseball of the year. All the whining and moaning about the dismal turn of events that left the Twins on the outside looking in this October have subsided, so we can concentrate on the daily news of whether the Twins will retain Torii Hunter.
The signature to this season for the Twins might have been the vision of Hunter coming out of the Metrodome dugout to tip his cap to the fans, who were giving him an ovation in case it was his last home game in a Twins uniform. If not, the signature might have been Hunter delivering a key hit in Detroit or Boston on the Twins season-ending road trip. Both of those images came to me courtesy of Fox Sports North, and if those prove to be the final image we hold of the Twins, it will be sad, indeed.
True, there are other challenges facing the Twins, such as Johan Santana going into the final year of his contract, but there is no more pressing issue with the Twins than signing Hunter.
Those who put total emphasis on whether the team makes the playoffs or not should examine other teams in other markets, and realize how special it is to get that far. It is unusual, and should be appreciated, because most teams don’t make it. The Twins have been fortunate enough to win a tough division enough – including last year’s last-day pennant-winning effort – to make media critics and the most narrow-visioned fans expect that it should happen every year.
Comparing this season with last, look at several factors. In 2006, Joe Mauer was batting champ and local hero; Justin Morneau was most valuable player and drove in a lot of runs; Torii Hunter routinely made scintillating catches in center field and hit well – particularly in September, when he often lifted the club to victory; Michael Cuddyer came through as a clutch hitter who could throw guys out with his laser from right field; Lew Ford was a surprising bright light; Nick Punto and Jason Bartlett were the “piranhas†who ignited repeated rallies and starred in the field; Santana was Cy Young (again); Francisco Liriano was an exceptional young lefthander who burst upon the scene; Brad Radke pitched courageously and wisely to give the Twins a “Big Three†and allow young prospects to fill out the rotation; Joe Nathan was the closer to a superb bullpen.
This season, Liriano missed the whole season after arm surgery; Mauer was again a brilliant hitter, but suffered repeated leg injuries that knocked him out of action; Radke retired; Morneau hit with awesome power, but not regularity, suffering long stretched of ineffectiveness between burst of home runs; Santana pitched hard and well, but acquired a knack for giving up solid hits and home runs as foes seemed to start focusing on either his fastball or his changeup, first-pitch-hitting him often and with success; Nathan was still good, but frequently got his saves only after getting rocked for a few hits and/or runs, and the rest of the bullpen seemed to fade; Ford disappeared and made only brief appearances; Bartlett and Punto started out hitting miserably, but at least playing brilliant defensively, and when Bartlett finally hit respectably Punto continued to flirt with hitting below .200 until finally getting it together in September; Cuddyer continued to hit well and play strong right field.
And then there was Torii Hunter. The man was again The Man in center field, and he hit well and consistently throughout the season. Despite the ineffectiveness of all those Twins from shark to piranha in the batting order, Hunter not only kept hitting all season, but he secured his position as the face of the franchise.
True, Joe Mauer is the heroic local-boy-makes-good story and is the single most important player to the franchise. His long-term employment is a given, despite those cynics who complained that he “only hit singles and doubles†when he was hitting .350, and wailed that they couldn’t figure out why, mysteriously, nobody was on base for the home runs after Joe was sidelined by his strained muscle injury.
But after Mauer, Torii Hunter is THE primary factor in the Twins lineup, in their clubhouse, and in their face to the media. Always willing to talk, candidly, Hunter always is upbeat, punctuating his assessments with that smile that can warm up a whole stadium.One Twin Cities columnist ripped the Twins a couple weeks before the end of the season saying that the future is so bleak that the Twins won’t win next year with or without players such as Hunter and Santana.
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I disagree. If Mauer stays healthy, if Santana finds a way to more effectively alter his pitching pattern, if Morneau develops a little patience to look for his pitch, if everybody leaves Bartlett and Punto alone and realizes that they are great defensively and will come through with less pressure offensively, if Cuddyer keeps playing the way he’ll keep playing; if Liriano comes back with any similarity to the pitcher he was in 2006 – then the only thing between the Twins and pennant contention is clear.
It is the image of Torii Hunter, portraying a seek-and-destroy missile in center field for the Twins, and frustrating those “by-the-book†analysts who hate it when guys swing at the first pitch. Hunter often swings at the first pitch, and, I would bet, probably leads the Major Leagues in hitting first-pitch home runs. The critics who go by the book in baseball need to get the new, unabridged “book†by Torii Hunter.
Owner Carl Pohlad is getting his new stadium, even though he is only financing one-third of it. The taxpayers weren’t asked for their vote in favor of their financial participation in underwriting the cost of building the stadium. But if I were to vote, my vote would hang in the balance – pending the signing to a long-term contract of Torii Hunter. He wants a lot of money, and he deserves it. He wants a 5-year contract, and I say, “Great! He’ll be around a while.Ââ€
For those who think no player is worth an exorbitant contract, they are right. But pro athletes get what they can get, and that’s the unfortunate but realistic state of pro sports these days. That said, very few Major League players are worth as much as Torii Hunter is to the Twins.
Some might say Santana is worth more. Not true. Pitchers are vitally important, and I love watching Johan pitch, even though Ron Gardenhire’s astute managing falls into the pitch-count trap that has prevented Santana from extending the length of his starts. He may never throw a complete game, and I heard a national television analyst say that he’s just not the type of pitcher who can go the distance. Of course he is, although he is now programmed to go seven innings instead of nine.
The fact is, Santana or any other starting pitcher has a chance to dominate and win a game one time out of every five or six games. In some of those games, a team’s ace will be going against an equal team’s ace, and then the odds of him winning drop to 50-50. Joe Mauer can find a way to help win every game, as long as he can stay healthy, but catching is such a rugged chore, he will definitely get some days off, especially with a backup as impressive as Mike Redmond. Justin Morneau can win some games when he’s on one of his homer hot streaks. But Torii Hunter is the player with the best chance of winning every single game of the season.
Skeptical? Consider the absolute worst-case scenario: It’s the spring of 2010, and the new outdoor ballpark (which should be named Pohlad Park if ol’ Carl had only chosen to spend a billion of his own on the project) has opened and the game is underway. One of the Twins socks a high, long drive to center field, but – curses! — the — the other team’s center-fielder leaps up and reaches over the fence to rob the home team of a home run. That center-fielder could be Torii Hunter, wearing a visiting uniform, committing his grinning larceny in a new ballpark…which we don’t need if the Twins fail to sign Torii Hunter.
Alpha moves H3 to forefront of Hummer battalion
Alpha signifies the start of the alphabet, or the No. 1 item in a group, such as the alpha-male as boss of a wolfpack. For 2008, Alpha could make the Hummer H3 No. 1 for a number of folks who are seeking a rugged-looking SUV but with a more civilized and user-friendly personality.
That is no less a feat than for a wolf pup to work his way up from pack outcast to alpha-male, because Hummer had established itself as a military-oriented vehicle that could be seen on every newscast, carrying soldiers in Iraq war circumstances.
The H3 is the baby of the Hummer family, and over the past three years it was considered the nice, but somewhat puny, newcomer. Measuring 16 inches shorter than the H2, with a wheelbase almost a foot shorter, it could get by with a 5-cylinder engine moving its 4,800-plus pounds. Not with much urgency, true, so even though it cornrered smoothly, it didn’t exactly make the turn with enough relish so you could play the hot dog. So to speak.
That’s where the 2008 Alpha upgrade comes in. The basic Hummer H3 still comes with the 3.7-liter, inline 5-cylinder, with its 242 horsepower, but if you add the name “Alpha†to the H3 designation, you have jumped to a much snappier vehicle with a 5.3-liter V8.
Now, the 5.3 isn’t exactly the leader in power or technology, even in GM’s arsenal. It is a pushrod V8, but it represents a huge increase in power, potential, and performance in the H3 that lifts it to a new level. It develops 300 horsepower at 5,200 RPMs, with 320 foot-pounds of torque at 4,000 RPMs. In actual performance, that move the hefty but compact H3 from 0-60 in about 9 seconds, which may not press your head against the headrest on takeoff, but feels like the Batmobile compared to the 5-banger.
The 4-speed automatic is OK, although a 5-speed would be better, and why GM didn’t equip it with its new 6-speed automatic is a question any prospective buyer should ask. But the H3’s agility, handling and steering precision are…well, think about it. You would never mention “agility, handling and steering precision†in the same sentence, when discussing any other Hummer model.
There is a price to pay to go Alpha. The base H3 starts at right around $30,000, while the new H3 Alpha starts at nearly $10,000 more than that. Still, it might be worth the difference.
If the original H3 was intended to lure less-aggressive guys, or perhaps capture the growing female segment, the H3 Alpha has a realistic chance for doing exactly that. The square exterior still has the squashed-down roof that leaves narrow windows, for a diminished outward view. But the revised interior is decidedly occupant-friendly. Instrumentation is new and nicely laid out, and from the inside, if you didn’t know you were in a Hummer, you would definitely think you were in some “normal†SUV.
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Same with the sound system. A six CD changer is among the featurs of the Monsoon sound system, which finishes off the super-domesticated interior of the H3 Alpha. Even a fairly contemporary feature, such as the rear-view video, has been given special treatment. On most vehicles, the navigation screen is where the rear video is displayed, but on the H3 Alpha, shifting to reverse causes a little screen to zip out from the right edge of the rear-view mirror. Having the display there means it is easily seen along with the normal mirror.
Such creature features are a departure for anything with the Hummer name, although differences in driving may be best appreciated by taking a turn in, say, the old H1. You climb aboard, and while it is easily the widest vehicle you’ve ever entered, there is a huge carpeted hump in the middle, which separates all four bucket seats by footage, rather than inches. The large and armored troop-carrying Hummer H1 also provides a regular test of lane-staying concentration in normal traffic, and the unbelieving looks from virtually everybody you could see through those thin-slit windows was another matter, because not all those looks were endearing. Even for a governor.
Yes, it could be obtained for the street, with a giant diesel engine. General Motors used to send engines and parts to Hummer, and the H2 came along as a smaller and less-warlike alternative to the H1, with its testosterone level reduced from overload to more reasonable levels with drivetrains from Tahoes and Suburbans. With General Motors having taken over the company , it followed that the next step would be to create a quite-civilized and manageable smaller vehicle.
So the H3, the third vehicle in the Hummer collection, began life in 2005, and was far more maneuverable than the H2, if also much less powerful. For 2008, however, the Alpha retains all the off-road-ability, as the two giant tow-rings in front and one at the rear might indicate, but the flashy red paint job tips off the Alpha, which make the H3 a logical alternative for those seeking the macho demeanor, or for anyone who wants a strong-running, modern and capable SUV.
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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