Gladiator opens new doors for Jeep
Filed under: Weekly test drives, Autos
The Jeep Gladiator strikes a mystical image against Lake Superior at dusk.
By John Gilbert
The first time I saw a Jeep Gladiator in the flesh, it was almost surreal, as though I was looking at a cartoon and it suddenly sprang to life. Ever since World War II we’ve had Jeeps, best identified by the go-anywhere Wrangler, and the new Gladiator looked as though some Jeep designer thought he might play a prank by taking the rough, squarish outline of a Wrangler, fit a pickup bed on the rear, and put it out as a “concept car” to attract attention and stir conversation.
It’s possible that nobody at FCA (Fiat Chrysler Automobiles) would admit it if that were true, but if so, the resulting acclaim and fanfare from the public might have inspired FCA to order Jeep to make the vehicle.
At a large Midwest Auto Media gathering at Elkhart Lake, Wis., a year and a half ago, there was a prototype Gladiator there for us to drive, briefly, around the area highways. I did that, and was anxious to get my hands on one for a thorough test drive.
That took awhile, as in over a year, during which time demand skyrocketed and manufacturing took more time. By the time one was driven to my driveway up on the hill just north of Duluth, Minnesota, I was more than eager to get into it. Even then, the surreal overtones continued. It caught me off-guard, just by its color — “Gator” clear-coat — a most-unusual flat grey, unlike any gator I’ve ever seen, but certainly unique.
Bold and stylish in its Gator paint job, Gladiator has created its own demand.
The Gladiator is not a scaled-up version of a Wrangler, as I had expected. It has its own chassis, and don’t forget parent FCA also makes the award-winning Ram pickups, which is where a lot of the Gladiator basics come from. A 4-door pickup Jeep, and the name Gladiator fits its aggressive outlook on life.
At that time, I hadn’t seen a Gladiator on area highways or in Duluth. I’m sure there must have been a visitor-driven model somewhere along the line, but we just hadn’t seen one. My first impression was that it lacked the steering tightness of the new Wrangler, and the slight looseness made you feel that you had to pay special attention to avoid wandering. That made it a little unsettling as my wife, Joan, and I took off for a drive up the North Shore of Lake Superior.
Among other bits of lunacy, our family has a tendency to humanize our vehicles, and in my case, it’s a frequent changeover because it’s important to spend my week-long road-tests immersed into whatever car I’m testing, to observe how it fits into our lifestyle. Sort of like a short-term adoption. Sometimes, it seems that the car takes control. I joke about how any car I’m driving prefers to cruise up the North Shore Drive, which takes us through the tiny sailboat haven of Knife River, Minnesota. As we drive through Knife River, whatever vehicle I’m driving takes over and turns immediately into the small parking area out front of the Great! Lakes Candy Company. I’m powerless to prevent it. And why would I?
On that day in the Gladiator, it happened, and it just turned in, and parked, so we could follow the coronavirus protocol to submit our order online, via my iPhone, to get a selection of the absolute best homemade chocolate stuff, in this case, dark chocolate covered almonds with tiny toffee bits imbedded in the chocolate, and some almond bark. Once submitted, you get a response time for when the staff will set out a white paper bag with your name on it on a front porch table. Read more
Mercedes blends sports sedan, SUV in GLC43 Coupe
Filed under: Weekly test drives, Autos
The GLC43 Coupe scales new heights with AMG performance tricks.
By John Gilbert
Mercedes Benz has maintained a consistent trajectory onward and upward with both its sedans and SUVs, and as a virtual poster-child for the blending of cars and SUVs, the 2020 Mercedes AMG GLC43 Coupe is either a very sporty compact SUV, or a slightly taller high-performance sedan that will go off-road.
GLC is the standard designation for the company’s compact sports-utility vehicle, and it won Motor Trend’s SUV of the year award when it was born for 2019. Ah, but now it fits the appearance of a compact SUV that wants to fill a sedan’s shoes, it gets both the 4-door “Coupe” treatment, and the high-performance makeover by AMG engineers.
That all conspires to make the AMG GLC43 Coupe the ultimate tool of subterfuge to confuse the vehicle-buying public. AMG used to take the sportiest Mercedes sedans and give them a sporty upgrade in power and performance, expanding to include suspension, interior, seats, and even the steering wheel, and then it gained some identifying bits of added-on grooves, contours and special effects. AMG became so prominent that Mercedes took on its affiliate to make it part of the company.
Walking up to the GLC43, I was taken by the brilliant blue metallic paint — identified as “Brilliant Blue Metallic,” in a simple, straightforward description. It is not as dark as deep navy and not as bright as royal. As a compromise, it is a unique color, even to a blue-freak like me, and I believe I like it better than either navy or royal for a car’s exterior.
Room for four or five, AMG exhaust and suspension.
If you approach from the rear, you’re thinking you suspected it was an SUV, but you must be mistaken, because that sloped rear roofline has a sporty-car flair, and there are those four silver exhaust tips, and the rear decklid spoiler. From the front, the thin grille conveys more sportiness, so by the time you get ready to climb aboard, you’ve forgotten all the SUV-like traits, and once you get a look at the quilted white leather bucket seats and the high-tech, flat-bottomed steering wheel, you’re ready to drive a sporty sedan. Swiftly.
Under the hood there is a 3.0-liter V6 Biturbo engine, which means a pair of turbochargers feeding the two banks of the V6. It develops 385 horsepower and 384 foot-pounds of torque, which is not only a perfectly balanced distribution but is another example of what AMG can do with a perfectly good 3.0 V6.
You start up the engine, and it sounds calm enough, then you engage the gear lever — which I find odd, no matter how well it works. It is a thin little stalk sticking off to the right of the steering column, right about where most other companies would mount a windshield wiper stalk, while putting the shifter on the console, either as a lever or a rotating knob, or whatever. This little stalk can do three things: up for reverse, down for drive, or in the middle for neutral.
My trouble is that when cruising along, if you happen to hit a tiny bit a misty shower, you might flick the lever up or down, to get just one swipe of the wipers. Except in the Mercedes scheme, you have just shifted the gear selector as if trying to engage reverse — a no-no, for sure — or reinforced your desire to be in drive. My point is that when you intuitively go for the wipers, you are moving the gear shifter. Read more
‘Hot’ CT5-V gets sibling rival in CT5 Luxury
Filed under: Weekly test drives, Autos
The only green prettier than Duluth foliage might be the Evergreen Metallic of the 2020 Cadillac CT5-V Series.
By John Gilbert
Another quiz on new car identification? Park a 2020 Cadillac CT5 sedan between a CT4 and a CT6, with all of them pointing right toward you. Try to tell them apart, from the vertical rows of running lights on both front fenders to outline their “signature” grilles.
If the CT5 was the V-Series, painted Evergreen Metallic, as was my test car, that would be my pick, because I think it’s the most beautiful green I’ve ever seen on a car.
The near-identical looks are even more similar within the CT5 line itself, with the V-Series aimed at high-performance, and the regular CT5 targeting luxury. It all makes me wonder what I’d have done as a little kid, when my passion for cars far outstripped their aesthetic appeal and technical capabilities. In the 1950s, I would walk out to the top of the big hill we lived on, and watch for any approaching cars on our then-gravel road, and fix my gaze down a couple miles toward Lake Superior’s North Shore Drive. My plan was to see how close an approaching car would have to get before I could identify it. I could discern a 1952 Ford from a 1951 DeSoto, or a 1953 Chevrolet, from a 1950 Cadillac. There weren’t many different models back then, and the proliferation of models would make that a lot more challenging in later years.
The Plymouths and DeSotos of my childhood, as well as Oldsmobile, Pontiac, and American Motors, have all disappeared, among others, and now we’re evolving to fewer and fewer sedans and more and more trucks. But back then, I could discern a 1952 Ford as opposed to a 1951 DeSoto, or a 1953 Chevrolet, or a 1950 Cadillac. There weren’t many different models back in the 1950s, and the proliferation of models would make that a lot more challenging in later years.
Loaded interior of CTS5 Luxury features soft leather seats, high-end trim.
Cadillac, however, is still the pinnacle of General Motors, although its models have been reduced to those three remaining sedans. Forget Fleetwood, or de Ville — we’re into CT4, CT5, and CT6. Before they are further reduced, let’s check out the CT5.
I had occasion to get a pair of CT5 sedans back-to-back recently, with the first being a CT5 V-Series. Under the heading of “you can’t tell the players without a program,” my biggest question is why, with only three sedans left, would Cadillac want to make all three look practically identical? Furthermore, it’s interesting that there also is a distinction between the luxury CT5 and the high-performance CT5 V-Series high performer.
That V-Series designation means it was the hot-rod version of the CT5, with a 3.0-liter V6, twin turbocharged to deliver 360 horsepower and 405 foot-pounds of torque, through all-wheel drive. The horsepower peak is at 5,400 RPMs and the torque peaks at 2,350.
The CT5 V-Series was a treat to drive, with dark grey leather bucket seats, and refined comfort throughout. The most pleasant surprise is the V-Series suspension, which is listed as a “luxury compact” in size. It is plenty roomy, which no makes me wonder whether Cadillac is going to stretch the CT5 into the full-size region, or if the compact segment has grown to such dimensions.
The CT5 V-Series accelerates well, with a proper sporty car sound, and you can shift the 10-speed automatic with steering wheel paddles if you want to exploit its sportiest tendencies. The look, with quad tailpipes, and low-profile “summer only” run-flat tires on 19-inch ‘premium painted alloy wheels with pearl nickel finish,” if you’re interested in wheels to that extent. Run-flats work well if you suffer a blowout from a road irregularity and would rather drive on home than have to change a tire. But they are enormously expensive to replace, and they don’t just keep running indefinitely.
Optional red offers a classy glow to the CT5 Luxury model.
Rear seat room is good, even if you have to duck your head a bit to avoid the sloping roof, and the trunk is spacious. Overall, the CT5 V-Series lives up to its billing and is a very satisfying drive. Fuel economy is estimated at 17 city and 25 highway, with a 20 miles per gallon combined figure by the EPA, and if you switch it away from sport you still may have trouble getting more than 20 with all that tempting power.
With magnetic shocks that GM has tried on various Corvettes in the last decade, the V-Series handles very well, and with the blacked-out trim all around, it sets itself apart as a high-performer. Never mind all the creature comforts, with the rear camera, park assist, cross-traffic alert, forward collision alert, lane change alert with blind-spot, nd front pedestrian braking, and the driver awareness package that includes one keep assist with departure warning, head-up display, and “intellibeam” headlights.
Then we get back to the appeal of such a stunning dark green. My wife, Joan, thought it was black for the first night and day she observed me zipping in and out of the driveway. Then she, too, admired the green. We never had occasion to tax the all-wheel-drive system, but it added to the feeling of stability wherever we drove. Base price of the CT5 V-Series is $47,695, and the various upgrades lift it to $58,305. Read more
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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