Car of year finalists are RX-8, Prius, Cadillac XLR
Every publication picks a car of the year these days, and in many cases there is at least the suspicion that the winner is closely associated with a company that agrees to advertise. That’s why the North American Car of the Year (and Truck of the Year) competition feels so legitimate – there is no advertising connected, and the jury of 50 selected automotive journalists actually pays dues to participate.
The award will be issued at the North American International Auto Show at Detroit the first weekend in January, and the three finalists for both categories have just been announced. The North American Car of the Year will be the Mazda RX-8, or the Toyota Prius, or the Cadillac XLR, while the top truck will be the Ford F150, the Nissan Titan, or the Cadillac XLR. Worthy candidates, all.
When you assemble 50 esteemed but opinionated auto writers, getting them to reach accord, you should pardon the expression, is a lot like the cliché about herding cats. The voting for 2004 has been completed, with 49 ballots in and documented. We don’t know what happened to No. 50, but it doesn’t really matter. We award 25 points for each category. We may give a maximum of 10 points to one, and only one, vehicle, and spread out the remaining points as we choose.
Normally, we have cut the list to a final 10, but this yearÂ’s close competition left us with 17 candidates for the car award. That should have indicated how tough the competition would be this year.
On the preliminary vote, for example, two of my top picks were the Volvo S60R, a special high-performance version of Volvo’s midsize sedan, and the Lancer Evolution, a racy version of Mitsubishi’s compact. Neither of them made the cut. Nor did the Mazda3, that company’s new and spectacular compact replacement for the Protégé. If those had been the three finalists, we would have ultimately declared an excellent winner from among them; instead, all three missed the cut to the final 17.
But thatÂ’s the political process. Once we got the nominees, and evaluated all we could get our paws on, I distributed my points in the following order: Mazda RX-8, Acura TL, BMW 5 Series, Toyota Prius, Cadillac XLR, Volkswagen Phaeton, and Nissan Quest. My truck votes went, in order: Ford F150, Nissan Titan, Lexus RX330, Volkswagen Touareg, and Cadillac SRX.
Those votes excluded a lot of very impressive cars, including the Acura TSX, Audi A8L, Chevrolet Malibu, Chrysler Crossfire, Chrysler Pacifica, Jaguar XJ8, Nissan Maxima, Pontiac GTO, Toyota Scion xB, and Toyota Sienna. Same with the trucks, where the BMW X3, Chevrolet Colorado, Chevrolet SSR, Dodge Durango, GMC Canyon, Infiniti FX45, Nissan Pathfinder Armada, and Porsche Cayenne, were close but left off.
With no idea how the other 48 jury members voted, it was interesting to note that Motor Trend has named the Prius as its car of the year, while Automobile Magazine named the Lancer Evolution as its car of the year, with the explanation that their staff came down to a choice between the Evolution and the RX-8.
The RX-8 won my vote because it scored high on all categories on my personal ledger: overall styling appeal; technology and technical advancements; creature-features and comforts; affordability; safety; real-world usefulness; and a large final category called fun-to-drive. The RX-8 signals the return of the rotary engine, and its slick, six-speed manual shifter makes it hum. Comfortable bucket seats, and an innovative rear seat with access through rear-hinged half-doors, sets it apart. It looks futuristic and fantastic, and it is extremely fun to drive – the areas where the aforementioned Evolution and S60R also excelled. The $27,000 RX-8’s handling on snow and ice would be the only area where it could be questioned, because it has rear-wheel drive, but at least it’s balanced at precisely 50-50 on the two axles.
The Prius is ToyotaÂ’s latest example of hybrid engineering, so it also ranks high on the technology scale, with electric/gasoline motors sharing the power. It is redone as a midsize car with dramatic lines, exceptionally styled and comfortable, even though the 60 miles-per-gallon EPA estimates may be difficult to attain (I got 42 and 40 on two test tanks). It is fun to drive, mainly from the standpoint of monitoring the instruments and striving for economical efficiency, and itÂ’s only $20,000.
CadillacÂ’s XLR is a spectacular demonstration of the new look of the corporation, a $75,000 car that is both an edgy coupe and hideaway-roof roadster to compete with the world-class Mercedes. The car has the magnetic-ride suspension that will be in next yearÂ’s Corvette, plus the Northstar V8 reworked with variable valve-timing on its dual-overhead-cam layout. Technology abounds, and its rear-drive traction-control was efficient even in making the XLR surprisingly adequate in snow. I ranked it high, but its price tag cost it points on my ballot.
My other leading vote-getters had substance, too. The Acura TL is a total redesign, looks fantastic, and has 270 horsepower through front-wheel drive. Furthermore, while the previous TL has a sporty “Type-S†model, the new one offers a slick six-speed manual version and equips it with wider, grippier tires. High-performance, and winter-driving ease combined. Amazingly, magazines have criticized the TL for not having rear-wheel drive. Car and Driver showed supreme arrogance by belaboring the point, overlooking the TL’s excellence by maintaining it needs rear-drive for all-out performance – even while naming its cousin, the far-stodgier Honda Accord, is one of the 10 best cars in the world.
The BMW 5 Series is clearly one of the most technically advanced vehicles ever set on a roadway. Rain-sensing wipers, adaptive headlights, brakelights that flash with greater intensity if you jam the pedal harder, and fantastic interior accommodations abound. It has rear-wheel drive, making it a handful on snow and ice even with traction-control, but it also has typically good power and steering/suspension features that are unexcelled. I was able to test the new 5 in emergency-handling maneuvers without the new active steering and then with it, and the difference was flat incredible.
With it, the 5 reacted instantly to steering input, and so precisely as to virtually eliminate over-correcting, all while feeling race-car coordinated and natural. Strange, then, that Car and Driver also ridiculed the new 5Â’s active steering for being “no more stable†than its predecessor, and for “unpredictability,†and feeling “artificial and a bit distant.†Maybe it wasnÂ’t arrogance; maybe they just missed the comparative handling at the 5 Series introduction and tried to go by memory – “the new 5 handles well, but the old 5 handled well, too.Ââ€
My picks of the all-new F150 and Nissan Titan were simple. The Titan came out before the F150, and it was aimed at beating the existing full-size pickup regulars, the F150, Chevrolet Silverado and Dodge Ram. It did that, with a new 5.6-liter high-tech, dual-overhead-cam V8 with tremendous power, and with innovations such as the near-180-degree rear-hinged second door on the extended-cab for easy rear access. If the Titan actually raised the bar on the established pickups, Ford then connected all the dots on the new F150, raising its own standard from the ground up, and focusing great attention on the interior. They are, arguably, the two best pickups ever built, and deciding between them is tough.
The Cadillac SRX is sort of an outsider in this company. I love the vehicle, because it combines the best attributes of a minivan, SUV and large station wagon. Because it is based on the CTS sedan platform, and has both the new high-feature CTS V6 or the slick Northstar V8 out of the XLR, it is obviously more car than truck. But it is exceptional, both in ride, drive and interior amenities, such as a huge sliding roof.
My other top truck vote-getters were solid, too. The RX330 is ToyotaÂ’s replacement of the segment-leading midsize SUV, and it is filled with fantastic features, such as adaptive headlights, backup video camera on the navigation screen, an exceptional navigation system, and excellent driveability from an upgraded V6 with high-tech features.
The Volkswagen Touareg, on a platform and body built alongside the Porsche Cayenne, is a fantastic crossover SUV that is priced many thousands under the Cayenne, with its no-compromise performance and price. The Touareg was Motor TrendÂ’s SUV of the year, which doesnÂ’t influence us, but indicates some credibility in the vehicleÂ’s capabilities. I drove it up near-vertical rocks in the Moab Desert of Utah, and in foul weather in Northern Minnesota, and it attacked every drive like another opportunity to show off. If its looks are a bit unusual, its performance and interior amenities are first-rate, as is the technology, such as adjustable ground clearance.
(John Gilbert writes weekly auto columns; he can be reached by email at cars@jwgilbert.com.)
Badger women show intentions with split at UMD
A funny thing happened when the Wisconsin womenÂ’s hockey Badgers were about to create a six-skater closing attack last Saturday night: They didnÂ’t need it. The Badgers scored, and scored again, startling Minnesota-Duluth and snatching a 3-2 victory to gain a split that was both important to the WCHA race, and compelling in the intense rivalry between the two.
The whole weekend at the Duluth Entertainment and Convention Center had not been particularly kind to Wisconsin, which played well Friday night but was shut out 3-0 by the Bulldogs. So, when SaturdayÂ’s rematch got into its final five minutes, and Wisconsin trailed UMD 2-1, coach Mark Johnson knew what he had to do to make one final bid for the equalizer.
“I was just planning how we’d pull our goaltender,†said Johnson, smiling at the irony of being unable to execute his plan.
A Wisconsin penalty expired just as Sara Bauer, who had scored WisconsinÂ’s first goal in the second period, flipped the puck up the right boards. Lindsay Macy alertly sped past retreating UMD defenseman Krista McArthur, won the race to the puck, and passed to the goal-mouth, where Sharon Cole smacked it past UMD goaltender Riitta Schaublin with 4:15 remaining. The Badgers erupted in celebration, although it was only 2-2.
“Macy made a great play on the tying goal, just to get to the puck,†said Johnson, after his freshman winger from Ellendale had turned in the pivotal assist.
Johnson immediately changed tactics, from plotting the removal of his freshman goaltender, Christine Dufour, to trying to make sure his team was refocused on not giving up a counter-attack goal. So many times, over the past four seasons, UMD has been able to score a goal or several goals in the closing minutes to save victory after victory. But times have changed.
With two minutes and one second left, Wisconsin senior Meghan Hunter snared a pass and shot. Schaublin blocked it, but Carla MacLeod converted the rebound, and the Badgers suddenly led 3-2. “Carla was real patient on the rebound,†said Johnson.
The assist by Hunter gave her the all-time Wisconsin career women’s scoring record, with her 6-5—11 ledger this season boosting her to 78 goals, 82 assists and 160 points. That eclipses by one the record held by Kendra Antony, and Hunter, a center from Oil Springs, Ontario, has the rest of the season to raise her standard. Johnson pointed out that Hunter had a spectacular scoring season as a freshman, but every year since then, the overall caliber of the WCHA has prevented her from even more points.
Bauer, a freshman from St. Catharine’s, Ontario, leads the Badgers in scoring with 12 points, on only two goals and 10 assists. It took her two-point Saturday night to get there, because Nikki Burish, Steph Millar, Karen Rickard and Hunter all are tied with 11 points, while MacLeod and Molly Engstrom have 10, and Jackie Friesen – the team goal-scoring leader with 8 – has nine.
ThatÂ’s the kind of balance Johnson wouldnÂ’t have dared hope for, although he might hope they all had a few more goals. When Johnson took over as coach of the University of Wisconsin womenÂ’s hockey program, he intended to create a strong foundation of fundamentals. Now, halfway through his second season at the helm, the Badgers are already paying dividends.
Johnson isnÂ’t ready to call his Badgers a threat for the WCHA title. Not yet, anyhow. Besides, Minnesota is unbeaten and seems to have a stranglehold on first place. But going into the Duluth Entertainment and Convention Center, the Badgers, after one night of frustration, showed enormous quantities of character by swiping that 3-2 victory in the second game.
The result leaves Wisconsin 8-4 in the WCHA, second only to MinnesotaÂ’s 9-0-1 mark, while three-time defending NCAA champion UMD is 5-3, and technically in fourth place behind Minnesota, Wisconsin and Minnesota State-Mankato (5-3-2). Furthermore, Wisconsin is 12-4 overall, also second only to MinnesotaÂ’s 13-0-1 among WCHA members.
The 12-4 record stands as the halfway point for Wisconsin. The Badgers take a holiday break of over a month, returning for a nonconference series against Northeastern Jan. 10-11, then they return to WCHA action the following weekend – against UMD.
UMD and Minnesota have had a personal duel every year since the WCHA started, there are some who anticipate it may come down to that again. Wisconsin will have plenty to say about that, however. There was nothing flukey about the split in Duluth – Wisconsin outshot Minnesota-Duluth 35-19 while being shut out Friday, and outshot the Bulldogs again, 36-27, on Saturday.
“We need a couple of people who can put the puck in the net,†said Johnson, the former Badger men’s scoring champion and son of former Wisconsin coaching legend Bob Johnson. “UMD has Jenny Potter and Caroline Ouellette, and Minnesota has Natalie Darwitz and Krissy Wendell. We don’t have anybody like that, but we are real balanced.
“Comparing the two, Minnesota has got a quick team, and passes real well. IÂ’m not sure they have many weaknesses. Jody Horak has always made it tough for us to score against Minnesota. Both Minnesota and UMD play at a high tempo. You know itÂ’s going to be a fast game.Ââ€
UMD and Wisconsin have as intense a rivalry as there is in women’s hockey, dating back to their first season of play, when they met for a wild first series at the Kohl Center in Madison. UMD won big the first night, and won close the second game, which ended with a couple of fights – a shocking climax considering actual bodychecking is illegal in women’s hockey. “I saw the first games,†said Johnson, who was an assistant to men’s coach Jeff Sauer back then.
Maybe WisconsinÂ’s record book doesnÂ’t look that impressive at 6-11-3 against the Bulldogs, but consider that UMD never has lost more than five games in any of its first four WCHA seasons, and it indicates Wisconsin has represented a constant threat against the Bulldogs.
“Sometimes a team plays well against certain other teams,†said Johnson. “IÂ’ve been so impressed watching UMD play, IÂ’d like to watch Shannon Miller run a practice because her teams always skate and stickhandle so well.Ââ€
The historical part of Saturday night’s Wisconsin victory might be that, while the Badgers have beaten UMD in the past, this one might have been the first one that was not an upset. The Badgers may not have the individual firepower of Potter and Ouellette, or Darwitz and Wendell, but the Badger balance has earned a solid spot in the national rankings. Minnesota, Dartmouth, Harvard and UMD look like a solid top four in the ratings, but the Badgers have pried that group open to make it a fabulous five.
Durango, Armada move into big-SUV competition
The Dodge Durango is moving up, and the Nissan Pathfinder Armada is moving in, as the two newest challengers of the full-size SUV category, and both pose real threats to the established world of the Chevy Tahoe/Suburban and Ford Expedition.
In the world of trucks, which encompasses more than half the vehicles bought in the United States these days, the sport-utility vehicle phase shows no sign of waning, although specialization has expanded the SUV field to include compact, midsize, crossover and various other niches off the original. Those vehicles seem to be taking customers away from the good-olÂ’ full-size SUV, but that region is still lucrative.
Lucrative enough that Dodge has repositioned its all-new Durango, and Nissan has decided to crash the party, so to speak, with the new Armada.
DURANGO/When the Durango was introduced six years ago, it had a distinct appeal, with sort of a Coke-bottle curve to its shape, and some excellent touches, including one-touch fold-and-tilt rear bucket seats that allowed easy access to the third row bench seat, and stadium seating, meaning the second and third rows were slightly raised to allow occupants to see over the front occupants. The original Durango was spun off from the mid-size Dakota pickup.
For 2004, the Durango has grown, to 200.8 inches in overall length, and gained its own specific platform, a hydroformed design that borrows from the large Ram pickup. Gone is the Coke-bottle curve, replaced by smooth sides and roofline, and added is seven inches of length, two inches of width and three inches of height. If you folded the third seat down, the Durango has 67.3 cubic feet of cargo room, more than the Tahoe, Expedition or Toyota Sequoia. Fold the second row, too, and you get 101 cubic feet.
The Durango has a solid rear axle to go with the stiff frame, and suspension tuning makes it compliant over bumps and rough pavement, although it always reminds you that youÂ’re in a truck, not a crossover. It is tall, and so very large, but it goes and feels much more agile than it must look to those compact drivers hoping to share the road. In light of last weekÂ’s declaration that truck makers would make their large vehicles safer in confrontations with smaller cars, the Durango has its bumper designed at the proper height to engage the safety structure of cars in an impact.
All-wheel disc brakes, with huge (13.1 inch front and 13.8 inch rear) discs further add to the feeling of safe and secure performance, and a new traction control system enhances the optional four-wheel drive system. In the Upper Midwest, of course, anyone buying a truck should be looking at four-wheel drive, especially with the abundant power available.
Dodge has dipped into its history to recreate the “Hemi†V8, a 345-horsepower and 375-foot-pound torque out of 5.7 liters of displacement, which equates to an 8,900-pound towing capacity. With a curb weight of 4,671 pounds, that power can be put to good use, but again, the refinement of the chassis, suspension and steering make the Durango feel much more agile. Also available are the smaller, but efficient, 4.7-liter V8 and the 3.7-liter V6, the latter of which is standard on the two-wheel-drive Durango.
That range of engines, and accompanying trim levels, lets the Durango run from $26,000 to over $40,000, and it will be difficult to pass up some of the interior options. The interior itself is well appointed, with a neat and efficient placement of controls in an appealing arrangement. A simple dial allows you to switch from two-wheel drive to four-wheel high or low settings, making the Durango well suited for serious off-road duty.
ARMADA/Nissan attacked the full-size pickup segment with the impressive Titan for 2004, and it actually built the Armada alongside it in its Canton, Miss., plant, and got it out ahead of the heralded pickup this fall. The Armada also is enormous, but feels much more agile than most large or full-size SUVs.
Like the Durango, the ArmadaÂ’s second and third row seats fold down, making a 6-foot-1 length of flat, carpeted area that could allow it to serve as a perfect mini-camper setting on a long trip, or when going deep into the wild.
Nissan has long been a leader in SUVs, with the venerable Pathfinder joined by the smaller Xterra, then a raft of specialty SUV crossovers, such as the Murano, and the Infiniti FX35/FX45. So the Armada fills out the roster, giving Nissan a full-size truck-based player.
For power, it has a U.S.-built 5.6-liter V8 with dual-overhead camshafts and four valves per cylinder, turning out 305 horsepower and feeling positively sporty with its quick-revving performance. There are no other options, but that engine is so fine, and refined, itÂ’s the one to get. All the Chrysler and General Motors full-size SUVs have pushrod engines, so the sophisticated new Nissan engine will start out at the high level of Toyota.
Styling is an edgy project on the Armada, with curves and contours that are not conventional, but help it make a striking image. The front end is imposing, although not as imposing as the DurangoÂ’s Ram-oriented front. At a price range of $32,000-over-$40,000, the Armada, with a well-arranged and contemporary interior, can meet all demands.
Interestingly, I got a shiny black Durango to test drive in late November, when there was no snow on the ground, and I got the Armada after a blizzard. To my surprise, the Armada had a lot of neat equipment, but it did NOT have all-wheel drive. My test week proved once again, and conclusively, how foolish it would be to buy such a vehicle with rear-drive only. I spent some of the time moving forward, some of the time trying to correct against going sideways, and most of the time leaving the Armada parked to collect snow. I had previously driven a four-wheel-drive version, and that switchable powertrain was far superior, regardless of cost.
When it comes to SUVs, I always have felt that anything bigger than what you need is too big, but for those families who need the size and room of a full-size SUV, the Durango and Armada deserve a close look.
(John Gilbert writes a weekly auto column. He can be reached by email at cars@jwgilbert.com.)
Hyundai translates into competitive array of vehicles
There might still remain some doubters, who canÂ’t quite believe that Korean vehicles can rank up among the better Asian brands. But a visit to a Hyundai dealership, which might be attracted by anything from the flashy Tiburon sports car to the under-$10,000 Accent, or to the Santa Fe SUV, will astound the most cynical skeptics.
Those vehicles are all improved, but they also are joined by an entirely new Elantra compact, a surprisingly luxurious XG350 sedan, and a very impressive midsize Sonata. IÂ’ve had the chance to road-test an assortment of Hyundais in recent weeks, and one almost-embarrassing surprise tells a lot about how far Hyundai has come.
I attended an “introduction†for the 2004 XG350 and Santa Fe, out in San Diego. Perhaps, I thought, they should have held it in Santa Fe, but what do I know? At any rate, the Santa Fe and the XG350 were both very impressive, although neither had been significantly changed, only the addition of the 3.5 V6 to the SUV, and minor trim revisions to, say, the headlights and lower facia of the sedan.
Most recently, I drove a new sedan in the real world, and I was impressed with its tightness, agility and performance. It crossed my mind that the revisions to the XG350 must have been done well, but after a couple of days I noticed the emblem on the rear decklid: It was a midsize Sonata, and NOT the larger XG350. Good catch! But it tells how improved the midsize sedan (priced from $18,000-$20,000) is, that it is comfortably spacious and well-appointed enough to be mistaken for the $24,000 XG350.
At the introductory session, incidentally, I was able to corner a Korean official of the company and ask him a question that has lingered for over 20 years in my mind. When introduced, Hyundai wanted so badly to go mainstream in North America that it made a sweeping campaign to insist that its name should be pronounced, simply: “HUNN-day,†just like Sunday. I always wondered about that, and, sure enough, my source conceded that the name actually is more like “HYOON-die.†By now, of course, HUNN-day is pretty universally accepted.
When Hyundai introduced its Korean brand of cars to North America a couple of decades ago, the Excel was a decent subcompact version of a Mitsubishi Mirage, which was sold in North America as the Dodge Colt at the time. Mitsubishi licensed Hyundai to build their cars and sell them, but Mitsubishi was renovating their Mirage at the same time, so the similarities were few.
The Excel sold well, mostly on the West Coast, and Mitsubishi actually got some Excels back to sell as entry-level Mitsubishi Precis models. So Mitsubishi was selling its new Colt/Mirage, and essentially also marketing its previous Colt/Mirage as the Precis. From the start, quality was pretty good, but with automotive technology moving forward rapidly, the suspicion remained that by merely doing a good job of copying, Hyundai would always be some distance behind the automotive forefront.
As the new millennium arrived, Hyundai started building their own cars, although its engines were direct copies of the very good Mitsubishi engines, and continued to improve quality control, add features, bolster the warranty until it was the best in the industry, keep the prices down, and when the midsize SUV Santa Fe came along, it showed Hyundai could build its own vehicle from the ground up.
Now it’s 2004, and Hyundai deserves more impact than it has achieved from the motoring press. Take the October new-car issue of Motor Trend, for example. In grid-capsule format, all the new cars are listed in alphabetical order, including the full stable of Hyundais. It correctly points out that the best-selling Elantra is all new for 2004, but it indicates its price-range is “$26,500-$35,500, estimated.†That might seem outrageous for the model that is sized between the $10,000 Accent and the $18,000 Sonata – and it is. I test-drove a pair of Elantras, and both were priced in the $14,000 bracket, loaded with options.
The Elantra has a new and contemporary look, a bit blunt up front and stylishly shaped all around. It had a base price of $13,299, rising to $14,505 with an upgraded audio system and cruise control. I also drove the Elantra GT. Both are four-door models, with dual-overhead-camshaft 2.0-liter four-cylinder engines. The GT adds rear-wheel disc brakes and antilock, plus sport steering and suspension, and the cruise is standard, but the cost remains just a tick under $15,000.
Standard on both cars are 5-speed manual shifter that extracts some sportiness out of the 138-horsepower engine. Stabilizer bars front and rear, power rack and pinion steering, tilt steering, power locks, windows and mirrors, variable wipers, remote trunk and fuel door release, keyless remote entry, and a 60-40 split folding rear seat also are standard, even on the base model.
If you havenÂ’t driven the Sonata for a while, you, too, might be surprised that itÂ’s virtually unchanged for 2004. The similarities to the luxury XG350 run from the grille to the headlights, and on back, although I think the headlights on the Sonata are more impressively designed. The base car comes with a 2.4-liter four-cylinder, while moving up to the test-version GLS gains the use of the very responsive 2.7-liter V6, with dual overhead cams, 24 valves and 170 horsepower. A premium sound system with both CD and cassette player, and 16-inch alloy wheels also mark the GLS.
The top LX version of the Sonata adds power to the adjustable seats, which are also leather in LX form, and an automatic climate control also becomes standard.
The Tiburon remains unchanged, the Santa Fe and the XG350 with their modest upticks, give Hyundai impressive entries in the sports car, SUV and base-luxury classes, and the Accent remains a strong entry-level car. The Elantra and Sonata, however, jump right into the most competitive compact and midsize categories, where Mazda3 newcomers join Civics, Corollas, Proteges, Focuses, and Accords, Camrys, Altimas, Jettas and Mazda6 models have strong followings. A few years ago, it would have been easy to overlook Hyundai in such company. But for car-buyers on a tight budget, they deserve a long, hard look – and a test-drive.
(John Gilbert writes weekly auto columns; he can be reached by email at cars@jwgilbert.com.)
Mazda3 runstogether compact size, feature upgrades
Despite the flurry of extremely worthy candidates for 2004 Car of the Year, some of us on the voting jury may have realized this past week that we may be missing the best new vehicle. The reality check
came after Wednesday’s first hands-on media exposure to the Mazda3 – the all-new compact car that replaces the Protégé.
Mazda seems intent on running numbers into letters, and a cynic might
suggest that a Mazda3 must be about half of a Mazda6. That, in itself, would be impressive, but the Mazda3 actually takes the compact category to a new peak of proficiency, and it would just as soon take a winding road to get there.
The Mazda3 comes in either a sleek four-door sedan or a five-door wagon, with the two aimed at different targets, both filled with features and a choice of two engines, starting at sticker prices under $14,000 for the sedan and under $17,000 for the squareback.
“We like to think of ourselves as taking the ‘Road Less Traveled,’ ” said Jay Amestoy, Mazda’s vice president for public and government affairs, when introducing the car at a makeshift parking-lot site on the University of Michigan campus. “For Mazda to succeed, we have to do things differently, and be far more clever.”
The Mazda3 is about as clever as a compact can get, although Mazda didn’t submit it for Car of the Year consideration, even though it is a 2004 model-year car, and will reach showrooms by the end of November. Mazda didn’t want to dilute the chances of the RX-8, or to duplicate last year, when the Mazda6 was delayed reaching media test-fleets, so it pretty well got overlooked by the jury of the nation’s
top selected automotive journalists.
Actually, I voted for the Mazda6 first last year, followed by the
Mini-Cooper, Nissan 350Z and Infiniti G35. My 2-3-4 picks wound up 1-2-3,but my No. 1 choice was justified when the Mazda6 gained car-of-the-year status in a dozen different countries, and piled up numerous other technical awards elsewhere before finding belated success in the U.S.
At the compact level, meanwhile, the Protégé has been very competitive against the best – Honda Civic, Toyota Corolla, Volkswagen Golf, Ford Focus and Nissan Sentra. Still, a brief trial
run in both models of the Mazda3 indicate that by taking distinct cues from the RX-8 and the Mazda6, the Mazda3 sets new standards of sportiness, sophistication, and upscale features for the compact market.
Compact buyers always have been willing to compromise, accepting obvious cutbacks in rear-seat and trunk room, and knowing that lucrative features of larger and costlier sedans wouldn’t be available. Those include structural strength and safety; four-wheel disc brakes; high performance power, handling and braking; interior amenities; navigation systems; alloy wheels; even tire-pressure monitors.
The Mazda3 includes some of those features standard and the rest within a lengthy option list, which includes a navigation system with a pop-up screen atop the nicely textured dash, leather seats, alloy wheels in 15, 16 or 17-inch diameter, and even the Xenon high-intensity discharge headlights generally available only on premium luxury cars. Overdoing the option list to get all the airbags and audio items could jack the four-door price from $13,680 up to around $18,000, or take the five-door from $16,405 up to $23,000.
But even in base form, the Mazda3 meets the company’s objectives for stylish design, technically advanced driving dynamics, and quality craftsmanship inside and out. All Mazda3 models, for example, come with four-wheel disc brakes – no compromising or “decontenting,” as some of Mazda’s top competitors cloak it.
Mazda benefits by its worldly alliance with Ford Motor Company, which also owns Volvo. “This is the most successful collaboration so far,” said Robert Davis, senior vice president of marketing and product development for Mazda. “The Mazda3 is built on a shared platform that also is being used by the new Volvo S40 and the European Ford Focus. In the shared engineering, Mazda was responsible for the powertrains, Volvo for the chassis structure and safety, and the suspension came from Ford of Europe.”
From there, each manufacturer designed and built unique features into the cars. The Mazda3 is by far the most adventurous in styling, from the Mazda6/RX-8 look of the grille on back.
Mazda took its exceptional new 2.3-liter four-cylinder engine, designed and built as the base powerplant for the larger Mazda6 a year ago, and spun off a 2.0-liter version by shortening the stroke. The 2.0 is the base engine for the Mazda3 “i” model, and is quick and lively in the 2,700-pound car with 148 horsepower and 135 foot-pounds of torque. The 2.3 is available as an option, and is the only engine in the five-door. It boosts levels to 160 horsepower and 150 foot-pounds.
The aluminum engines both have chain-driven dual overhead camshafts and four valves per cylinder, and using a chain means there is no worry about changing a timing belt. Horsepower peaks at 6,500 RPMs, which is also the redline for maximum revs, conservative though that may be. The larger 2.3 has variable valve-timing. A five-speed manual transmission with pleasantly wide ratios, and an option is a four-speed automatic with a manual-shift gate.
The Mazda3 is 2.9 inches longer than the outgoing Protégé, with a wheelbase of almost an inch longer, and 2.2 inches taller and 2.0 inches wider. That translates to more interior room in both versions, except in front legroom, which is compensated for by a slightly raised seat position, which have a higher hip-point and therefore legs are slightly more vertical from the knees down, so a 0.3-inch decrease in legroom equates to more room. Besides, there is almost a full inch increase in rear legroom.
Chief designer Hideki Suzuki created the Mazda3 with careful integration of the interior and exterior. He has worked both at the California design studio and at Mazda’s home in Hiroshima, Japan. His English is pretty good,and he has mastered such phrases as the stress on “the emotion of motion” of Mazda’s corporate objectives, involving an attitude both “athletic and energetic,” featuring the “unexpected details” such as the head and taillights and even the door handles, enhancing “greater function and practicality” than a buyer might anticipate from a compact, as well as the promise of “agile movement” from “muscular form.”
The four-door and five-door have completely different shapes and all
different body panels, with the four-door expected to attract buyers who prefer a touch of sophistication, prestige, and maybe even elegance, while the five-door is intended for the more aggressive, athletic and advanced-utility buyer. Suzuki said that he was striving for a tasteful fusion of “sporty excitement and comfort.”
A standard of compacts is fuel economy, and the Mazda3 hit EPA marks of 35 highway/28 city for the 2.0, and 32 city/25 highway for the 2.3, while achieving such low emissions that Davis said that in California, “the Mazda3 exhaust is cleaner than the air taken in.”
Safety starts with the redoubtable Volvo structural design, which has a strengthened unibody that is 40 percent more rigid to flexing, and is augmented by Mazda’s structural design to disperse force of impact three ways, down and around the passenger compartment. Antilock brakes and six airbags are available, while softer, rounded interior features, a rear structure to limit intrusion, and whiplash-countering seatbacks are standard, and Davis said in-house tests make Mazda confident the Mazda3 will attain the highest five-star awards in government crash-tests.
Davis bristles at questions about demographics discovered through market research. “We don’t do demographics, we do psyche-graphics, because we’re concerned more with lifestyle than age of our customers,” said Davis. “Our buyers like a little fun in their driving, they enjoy driving, and they might be more youthful and active.” He acknowledged the versatility of the Mazda3, but added, “Our buyers may be looking for enjoyment rather than
utility.”
Mazda overall is slightly down in U.S. sales for 2003, but company officials say that’s because Mazda moved away from fleet sales, which made up as much as 15 percent of their sales, and they anticipate a 3-4-percent increase overall by the time 2003 ends. They would like to increase by a modest 5 percent for the 2004 model year, which would be between 290,000 and 300,000 vehicles.
Of that total, the Mazda3 is anticipated to account for25-30 percent, or about 70,000 cars. About 40 percent will be the five-door, which comes only as the “S” model, with the larger engine. As for packages, 20 percent of the total should be the basic “i” model, and 30 percent the “S” upgrade, with the sport package, and the rest will be somewhere in between.
Maybe Mazda is the victim of its own cleverness. They could have withheld the Mazda3 for introduction for another two months, declared it a 2005 model, and immediately become the front-runner for next year’s Car of the Year.
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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