Indholdsfortegnelse for August 1982 i MotorTrend

My name is Archibald Mason. I am a wool merchant from New Zealand. New Zealand has more sheep than people. Our lambswool rugs are the finest in the world. Every year thousands of Americans travel to New Zealand and buy our lambswool rugs and car seat covers. I began selling lambswool rugs by mail in the United States in 1978. Since then I have supplied many rugs to American homes and offices, and every week we receive further requests for rugs from people who cannot visit New Zealand just yet. I have often been asked by Americans if we can supply car seat covers. New Zealand was the first country to use lambswool car seat covers and we have been making and using them for over 20 years. About three…

’84 BUICK B-CAR MT staffer Jim Hall and contributing artist Duane Kuchar recently ran across an obvious GM prototype vehicle with an ’82 Buick escort vehicle paired up, driving through the heart of Hollywood, presumably on an early emissions test run. They followed the car for 20 miles, pulled alongside it, and then traveled in front of it for several miles in order to bring you this sketch of what seems to be an ’84 Buick Le-Sabre B-car. It’s front-wheel drive, with an X-car beam axle rear suspension, and presumably a 3.0 -or 3.8-liter transverse V-6 engine driving the front wheels. P-CAR SURVIVES LAST HURDLE It’s official. GM top management has finally approved a $250 million program for final development of Pontiac’s proposed 2-seat, mid-engine, rear-drive fiberglass sports car, which…

For a good many years, they asked the question, “Wouldn’t you really rather have a Buick?” And for a good many years, the answer was a resounding, “No!” There was simply nothing in the Buick line that had any lasting appeal for an enthusiast driver. There was an occasional ray of hope, like the factory hot rod GS400 and GS455 models with the Stage I and Stage II engine packages back in the ’70s, but by and large, Buicks were family cars. In the middle ’70s, though, the stodgy image started coming around, with the advent of the 231-cu-in. turbocharged V-6 engine and an aggressive Indianapolis 500 pace car program concocted by aggressive management. At one point, with turbocharged Rivieras, LeSabres, and Regals, Buick by itself was producing half the…

When Rolls-Royce unveiled the Bentley Mulsanne Turbo at the Geneva Auto Show last spring, there were two distinct schools of reaction. One, the automobile-as-appliance school, questioned the practical value of a bluff-bowed, 2.5-ton, leather-lined cruiser readily capable of 135 mph-plus. The other school—ours—said, “Right! When can we get our hands on it? Pleeeeeeez!?” And before you could say $120,000! there we were, sailing nonchalantly down Le Mans’ Mulsanne Straight at a lordly 120 mph, thinking that life really is pretty good after all and what kind of speed radar did you say they’re using in France these days? Rolls-Royce chose Le Mans for its official hands-on introduction of the Bentley Mulsanne Turbo to emphasize as plainly as possible its commitment to making a separation between Bentley and Rolls-Royce that goes…

I don’t know when I originally called Tony Krivanek, but the first thing I remember was arguing over the phone about how many automotive angels could dance on the head of a wrist pin. Then there was the “Rochester” car that I found in the slum body shop: “Tony, I found this car, I think you need to come see it; built by Emil Deidt for Eddie Anderson back in.…” “You mean the Rochester car, the one in Motor Trend back in maybe ’52, ’53? I’ll be right down.” Krivanek and I do that. Another friend calls it “garbage mind.” It stems, I think, not just from some mental aberration but from ordered priorities. At least we don’t memorize batting averages or World Series stuff. But would you like to…

The quick answer, of course, is with skepticism. Those cryptic little mousetype messages, reduced to the comprehensibility of Gaelic or a set of military marching orders by the classified advertising encoders of the Daily Bleat (or Reaper or Clarion-Bugle-Watchdog or whatever), often make promises they can keep. But just as often they emit a powerful odor of mendacity. Or perhaps an even more common odor, the one associated with barnyards and pastures. By applying a jaundiced eye as you sift through the disemvoweled language of the used-car wants, you can, at the very least, save yourself a lot of telephone message units and, at best, a lot of money and/or headaches. For example, if the ad is down there among the ordinary private party listings but concludes by offering “E-Z…

Lucky you, the hapless klunk buyer. Lucky because—in spite of your temporary poverty—you don’t have to go through half the nonsense those other buyers do. While they’re all rolling marbles down the cracks between hood and fender to make sure of perfect alignment, you’re going to be looking for important stuff, like how many wheels the car has and if the front crossmember is-still there. What you’re after is maximum service for minimum dollars. So let’s put some limits on how much you’ll spend and what you can expect to get for your money. Suppose you have somewhere between $200 and $600 to dissipate (try not to think of it as an investment) on a car; you have no sinking fund with which to maintain it; and if it lasts…

When it comes to the economics of doing business, Motor Trend is no different from any other American firm. We try to cut costs, increase profits, and get maximum return on capital investments just like any profitmaking operation. To that end, we’ve recently retired the Silver Bullet, our aging 1980 Ford 8-passenger window van with its pop-out seats, 302-cu-in. V-8 engine, custom interior, and megadollar Clarion component stereo system. While the old van served us well and truly for several years, we ultimately determined that it was too much truck for our current and foreseeable needs. So, like many another business, we downsized our fleet of one and got ourselves into a brand-new Ford midipickup, which we’ve already dubbed Rodney Rangerfield. And unlike the real Rodney, this one gets plenty…

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Are you ready for this? Are you ready for an automobile—a regular production car now, not a research one-off or a nutball 3-wheel commuter—that gets 60 mpg? Meet the Sentra MPG from Nissan. And just a few droplets behind that, with mpg numbers solidly into the 50s (and much nicer accommodations to boot), comes Honda’s Civic 1300 FE. Each of these remarkable economy cars, the latest additions to their respective families, represents efforts on two separate and not always related fronts: (A) to inflate the EPA mileage estimates by every legitimate means; and (B) to maximize the cars’ actual over-the-road gas mileage. Happily, both Nissan and Honda have met both goals. At this moment, the Sentra MPG and the Civic FE are the two most fuel-efficient gasoline-powered cars sold in…

Model year 1982 for the domestic automobile industry was simultaneously a sales disaster and a technological success story; another painful milestone in the modernization of America’s largest industry, and at the same time a marvelous display of can-do tenacity. Giant General Motors spent enough billions to launch three whole families of new cars in a single model year. Ford targeted ’82 for introduction of its topmost luxury car, the Continental, and reintroduction of the Mustang as a true performance car. Chrysler launched half a dozen new products based on its very successful L- and K-body platforms, including a pair of factory convertibles and a new sport truck, the Rampage. AMC counted heavily on its French partner, Renault, to bring excitement to the showrooms with the Fuego sports coupe. And VW,…

If the primary attraction of a used car is a low price, then it follows that the lowest prices should be on the most-used cars. But since owning almost any used car involves some repairs, you can expect the most-used cars to need the most fixing up. So the question is: To save money, what things are reasonable to consider fixing—by spending money? Three major areas of repair concern most used-car deals: mechanical/electrical, exterior, and interior. Before deciding what condition you can accept or must reject, you first have to determine exactly why you’re contemplating that particular car. Let’s break those possible reasons into two main categories: (1) You need the car for transportation. (2) You’re buying the car out of a particular interest, to keep, perhaps to restore, and…

In the course of an average week, the Motor Trend phones are swamped with hundreds of calls from readers wondering, “What kind of used car should I buy?” Our usual response is to find out what kind of car the reader really wants to buy, and then, unless it’s a real long shot, tell him or her that is indeed the car to buy. This article is not for those folks. They’ve been told how to spend their money. So if you’ve called us in the last year, stop and go on to the next article. This segment of the Used Car Spectacular is for all of you who are clutching the phone receiver and ready to squander this week’s pay on a hideously expensive long-distance call. (Or, worse, planning…

Wait. We know what you’re thinking. What can a Citation and a Turbo Saab possibly have in common, and who would seriously compare the two? In answer we say: more than you might think, and we would. The XI1 is the high-performance runner in the Citation family. A few months back, it had a close brush with oblivion when former Chevrolet General Manager Robert D. Lund pulled the plug on the low-volume special. But when Bob Stempel replaced Lund at the division helm last February, he reconsidered. Thanks to no small amount of urging from within his own engineering ranks (and even, we admit, from MT’s editorial offices), Stempel revived the sporting X-car variant. Partly in celebration of that decision, and partly to see exactly what the package delivers, we…

A PECK OF TROUBLE It’s not easy walking a tightrope between safety advocate and deregulator. Ask Ray Peck, the beleaguered head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), who has been taking his knocks lately on Capitol Hill. In recent appearances before the House and Senate subcommittees that oversee and approve the NHTSA’s budget, Peck has been accused of lying, filibustering, and trying to take his agency back to the safety mentality of the ’50s with an “undo” rather than “can do” attitude. When Peck took offense at suggestions by the House Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Adam Benjamin Jr. (D-Ind.) that his figures could not be believed, and asked to be put under oath, Benjamin refused and abruptly adjourned the hearing. In both House and Senate hearings, former NHTSA…

Mustang Stampede Let me see if I’ve got this right. Kevin Smith, in the Mustang/Camaro comparo (May ’82), says: “The Mustang has the better powertrain. It has more absolute ability, and its noise and vibration control help make the GT easier to drive and the more pleasant of the two to live with in everyday tooling around. “But as a total package considering roadworthiness (what did you just describe above, about the Mustang?), visual appeal, and design derring-do (what’s so hard about designing a squared-off Porsche 924?) the Camaro undebatably represents a superior job.” How can you be so wishy-washy? Come on, boys, we’re talking about street cars here, not Trans-Am race cars. Please! Call ’em as you test ’em! Please! Dana P. MoudyNo Address Given Thank you for the…

AUDI PODNER! As these, “unoffical” photos show, the 1984 Audi 5000 will be a very different beast from the current offering. The restyled version, scheduled to be displayed at the Paris Motor Show next month, looks to have been designed in the wind tunnel. While the ’84 5000 is all new outside, the mechanicals are pretty much carried over from the ’83 line. Powerplants will include the 2.1-liter fuel-injected 5 cylinder, the turbo charged version of the same engine and the newly introduced turbodiesel. A 5-speed will be the only manual transmission offering. The 3-speed automatic with E-mode introduced on the ’83 turbodiesel will be proliferated across the board. The exterior lines have been softened to reduce the aerodynamic drag. Both the windshield and rear window have been flush-bonded to…

Everyone knows how to calculate a car’s fuel consumption: You see how much gas it takes and divide that into the miles covered since the last fillup. Easy. Readings will vary according to how you drive and how you top-up at the pump, but over time, some consistency will emerge. That’s good enough for the average driver who’s just interested in what kind of mileage the old boat’s getting. But if you want more specific information, you need a slightly more accurate technique. As economy cars get more fuel efficient, they consume less gasoline over a given distance, and the opportunity for error in figuring exact mileage increases dramatically. The problem is not the arithmetic, but rather the handling of the gas pump. To find out exactly how much gasoline…

Frank Schneider went to Europe recently. He flew from Los Angeles to Stuttgart and took a cab to near-by Sindelfingen, a suburb distinguished only by his destination, the Mercedes-Benz works. The tab for Schneider’s ride to the plant and a passable lunch was picked up by Mercedes. A factory tour followed, and then Schneider slipped behind the wheel of a brand-new turbodiesel, filled the tank at the company pump, and drove off for a grand tour of the Continent. Schneider, a West Coast architect who frequently travels to Europe, was taking advantage of Mercedes-Benz’ European delivery program. He’d ordered his car months before from a Los Angeles dealer. The arrangements were handled by the dealer—things like shipping, insurance, and registration. All Schneider had to do was pay for the car,…

What’s a Trans Am? Conjures images of cross country airlines, tennis tournaments, and for car enthusiasts, Pontiacs with spoilers and fancy paint jobs. The Sports Car Club of America’s description of their TRANS-AM Racing series is: “A series of races featuring close competition between various makes and models of stock-appearing, mass-produced, sold-in-the-U.S. high performance production cars.” Mass-produced, and sold-in-the-U.S. are easy enough, with 1000 units in a 12-month period satisfying the requirements. The typical line-up for these races includes Chevrolet Camaros and Corvettes, Pontiac Firebirds, Datsun Z-cars, Ford Mustangs, and Porsche 911s and 924s. “Stock-appearing,” is not quite so easy to define, and rules interpretation has been elevated to a fine art in the past few years; practitioners of the art must possess the imagination of George Lucas, with the…

The value of a used car, its worth on the market, is not something that can be determined with absolute precision. It is a function of the car’s make, age, condition, and your desire to own it. Aside from these factors, the price of a used car will fluctuate in response to such intangibles as the price of gasoline and the public’s taste at a given moment. For example, after the gas crunches of 1973 and 1979, big cars dropped in value considerably; in the late ’70s, convertibles jumped in cost because they weren’t making them anymore. Economic and political events have as much of an impact on car prices as they do on the stock market. Prices will vary from day to day, and it’s important to be armed…

Audi’s 4-wheel-drive Quattro burst on-to the U.S. professional rally scene with a vengeance this spring. In the hands of five-time SCCA PRO Rally titlist John Buffum and navigator Doug Shepherd, the 330-hp turbo terror swept to outright victories in its first three outings, at the Nor’wester, Olympus, and Northern Lights rallies. Buffum and Shepherd are out to unseat the Mazda RX-7 of 1981 PRO champions Rod Millen and Bob Raushaar. No simple task, considering that the triumvirate racked up eight wins in 12 outings last season. The Quattro first saw action in the international rallying arena midway through the 1981 schedule. The two-car effort matched ex-World Champion and principal development driver Hannu Mikkola with Arne Hertz, and Michele Mouton with Fabrizia Pons. Although only competing in selected events, the awesome…