Innehållsförteckning för July 2003 från MotorTrend

2 Fast 2 Fresh Borrowing a page from a carmaker’s playbook, Motor Trend Online has been given a mid-year facelift. The sporty new appearance will make it easier to find the most popular sections, such as the Buyer’s Guide and Future Vehicle Forecast. Our new Auto Price Reports will help you research and configure your new vehicle choice. Options, safety ratings, and invoice price—it’s all there. You’ll also find more efficient packaging of content, links, and archived material. Wrapped in the fresh appearance is a trunkload of exclusive editorial, including coverage from the New York Auto Show and the Electronic Entertainment Expo—the video-game equivalent of the Detroit auto show and SEMA rolled into one extreme event. An expanded version of our look at the film “2 Fast 2 Furious” and…

As you will read elsewhere in this issue, the perky Scion xA and xB are polished, high-value automobiles that give Toyota a sound product platform for launching its youth-focused division. The basic wisdom of inventing a separate channel for younger, Gen-Y buyers has been thoroughly questioned already. (They don’t want to be marketed to? Well, who does? They want efficient, fun-to-drive cars? Well, who doesn’t?). Now we’ll just have to wait to see how the business of Scion pans out. But there’s another, more subtle twist to Toyota’s great, downmarket experiment, one that hasn’t had much air time. And it just might represent the most significant KEVIN SMITH aspect of the whole EDITOR-IN-CHIEF exercise: Toyota is redefining the role of the dealer. Not so dramatically that anyone will get pissy…

General Motors Performance Division is following up the Cadillac V-Series with Saturn’s Red Line models. Designed to “appeal to the intender who wants a little more performance with his product,” according to Division Chief Jill Lajdziak, the Red Line performance series is looking for younger, and more male, buyers. First to get the treatment are the Ion Red Line (access door) coupe and Vue sport/utility. The Ion, squarely aimed at the sportcompact market, gets an intercooled, supercharged 2.0-liter version of GM’s Ecotec l-4, pushing 12 psi of boost and rated at an estimated 200 horsepower (or more) and 200 Ib-ft of torque. The Red Line package also features suspension and brake upgrades, Recaro buckets, 215/45-17 Continentals on six-spoke wheels, body modifications, including a host of rear-wing options and electric power…

This time last year, the big news was how Toyota had sold more new cars than Chevrolet. Now it’s Honda’s turn to haul in Chevy. Although it’s early, the second largest import brand appears to be headed that way. More shocking is that Toyota outsold Ford in new-car sales during March. It was only ahead by a few hundred units, so it’s unlikely that Ford will allow Toyota to continue the trend. And Chevrolet may attempt to keep Honda from staying ahead by improving incentives still further. With all the economic and political turmoil distracting buyers during the first few months of the year, it’s been difficult to accurately project long-term trends. If you expected truck sales to drop, there was little evidence of it in the numbers. The market…

FIRST LOOKS DRIVES 2004 Porsche GT3 The hard-core 911—for hard-core 911 lovers The Porsche Carrera is a terrific piece. But there are clubs of committed Porschephiles who feel the current car is too large, too soft, and too water-cooled. Naturally aspirated Carrera RS and late-’60s/early-’70s 911S models are the stuff their dreams are made of. Porsche has found and redistilled this most elemental of 911 formulas and injected it into the current 996 Carrera platform. The result is the new GT3. The philosophies that drove its development are simple: more power, less weight, and a more direct driving experience. While it’s not a stripped- out club-racing special, anything that doesn’t support this less-as-more idiom just isn’t there. This model is the second GT3 to come to market, but the first-generation…

Hold the Grey Poupon, pass the sauerkraut Buckingham Palace probably hasn’t been this confused since Prince Charles got married without telling his girlfriend. But get this, Winston: Everlastingly British Rolls-Royce has just released an all-new model born in…Germany. The Germans largely responsible for the new car, dubbed the Phantom, are the engineers at BMW. Tinkering with British automotive icons is becoming something of a hobby for the Bavarian maker: BMW’s credits now include a successful updating of the Land Rover lineup and the introduction of the highly praised Mini. Now comes the Phantom, a legendary moniker whose resurrection began shortly after BMW acquired the rights to the Rolls-Royce nameplate in mid-1998. The new Phantom may be ethereal in name, but it’s elephantine in price: The sticker, including destination charges and…

What happens when you cross a sport sedan with an entry-level luxury car? This sounds like the setup for a joke, but there’s little humor in the answer. The “entry level” and “sport-sedan” combo usually means six-cylinder BMWs, Infinitis, Audis, Mercedes-Benz, and Jags that tease with $29,999 base prices. But, in many cases, that come-hither sticker can easily swell to $35,000, $40,000, or even $45,000 after you add in the options and roll out the dealer’s door. By then the laugh could be on you. Three prestige carmakers offer entrylevel sport sedans that come nicely equipped for $28,OOO-$33,OOO, sip premium unleaded with four-cylinder engines, and entertain with six-speed manual gearboxes. One player is naturally aspirated. One is supercharged. The third is turbocharged. Are these four-cylinder sedans worth the half-step between…

Ford stylist J Mays has now officially emptied the tank on his “retrofuturism” design language. In pursuit of a retro-themed/tall-sedan/crossover vehicle, Mays and company have produced an unabashed knockoff of a 1914 Model T. And if J tried to go any farther back than the 2003 Ford Model T-100, he might end up with something that looks like the 1886 Benz Patent Motorwagen three-wheeler. Okay, the Model T-100 isn’t really Mays’ latest production design. But Ford has built a half-dozen perfect 2003 replicas of its iconic Model T to commemorate the company’s 100th birthday this year. They aren’t for sale (yet), but they are touring the country, and you can get a ride in one at the Ford Museum in Dearborn. Ford replicated the 1914 edition because it was the…

You probably know that Scion is Toyota’s experiment to market cars expressly to Gen-Y, the 18-34 crowd that constitutes what the company calls, “an emerging culture of new-car buyers.” The plan has been the subject of much debate and op-ed wrangling (e.g., Todd Lassa’s “Perspective,” Motor Trend, February 2003) centering on the advisability of targeting an audience that resents being targeted and whether a big company can successfully make something these young consumers will deem cool. The strategy makes an intriguing marketing story, and discussions about it will continue for years. But, for the moment, let’s put that aside and do something we haven’t been able to do until now: take a drive in the hardware at the center of this exercise. Because no matter how the marketing resonates with…

Source: CEC 310/230-3900 www.cecwheels.com WHAT’S HOT • 125 horsepower more than stock Turbo; 84 more than GT2• Short-throw shifter is huge improvement over stock• Low stance without jarring ride WHAT’S NOT • Complete package sets you back about $40K• Stage II power kit available only for manual-trans 996s• Even softer-compound tires are needed to hook up If you crave a rock-solid, bulletproof, go-ridiculously-fast machine, Porsche’s wickedly potent 911 Turbo may be your answer. With major rubber, stellar suspension, and a stout 415 horsepower, the AWD Turbo packs an almost unbeatable punch—on dry road or wet. But, for some, even all that fortitude isn’t enough. Techart can help. Germany-based Techart (imported to the United States by CEC in Los Angeles) has earned a name for its potent tuner upgrades and its…

2003 PORSCHE CARRERA 4S A few months ago, Porsche Cars North America gave as a ring to ask if we’d like to add a 911 Carrera 4S to our one-year-test fleet. Duh. The looks of a 911 Turbo, with the driveability of the normally aspirated 3.6 plus AWD, left us slobbering. “Yeah, that’d be okay.” Starting at a base price of $81,800, we added the custom Cobalt Blue Metallic paint ($2245), self dimming mirrors and rainsensor wipers ($705), a set of wheel caps with colored crest ($175), and the Parking Assist System ($795). Since we planned many a weekend getaway in the 4S, we tacked on the Bose high-end sound system ($795), three-spoke steering wheel and full leather interior ($1280), aluminum instrument surrounds ($855), metal sill plates ($425), aluminum/leather-trimmed shifter…

Recently, my wife, my three-year-old daughter, and I spent the day at Disneyland, which means we spent most of our time corralled in Fantasyland. While I’ll sheepishly admit to liking this stuff more than I should (Mr. Toad is my copilot), it was nearby Tomorrowland, just over the Matterhorn, that beckoned. It’s there, when I was just a kid myself, my mouth formed a big oval as my head tilted back watching a guy fly high overhead with a rocket on his back. Aboard the magic-carpet-like People Mover, whole families leaned forward to study Disney’s City-of-the-Future diorama as it hummed with meticulously detailed superhighways pulsing with tiny cars apparently KIM REYNOLDS driving themselves. CONTRIBUTING EDITORx Speculating on our transportational tomorrow was a delightful diversion, and it didn’t get any better…

Chevrolet calls the Maxx a five-door extended sedan. We’d call it a small sport wagon marginally disguised as a sedan, but one that packs some extended utility. Although its wheelbase is six inches longer than the standard Malibu four-door, the neatly proportioned Maxx is a half-inch shorter overall. A rear liftgate makes it handy for bulky cargo. The stretched wheelbase, reclining seatbacks, and fixed rear skylight ensure that the rearseating area (the seat slides seven inches fore and aft) is big-car comfortable. A laserblue SS version on P245/40ZR18 tires and polished aluminum wheels was shown at New York—cool, but not yet slated for production. Its 3.9-liter/245-horse-power OHV V-6 (versus the standard 3.5-liter/200-horse V-6) coupled with a four-speed automatic should provide properly enthusiastic motivation for this lowered, sporting variation.…

Nissan put domestic full-size truckbuilders on notice with January’s introduction of its all-new full-size Titan pickup. With the mechanically related Nissan Pathfinder Armada sport/utility and Titan (four-door) Crew Cab, the revitalized carmaker is building logical, and highly profitable, variants on the Titan’s full-size truck architecture. Despite their upsized look and obvious mass, both will be more than adequately powered by a 5.6-liter DOHC V-8 cranking out 300-plus horsepower and 375-plus Ib-ft of torque through a five-speed automatic transmission. The Armada has three rows of seats and should ride like a big passenger sedan with its independent rear suspension. Both products arrive in showrooms this fall.…

A rather more spirited set of wings Prestige cars are all about alternatives, offering customers unique ways to indulge their passion. Aston Martin has added a subtly repositioned alternative to its successful DB7 range: the sportified GT. Fitting between the DB7 Vantage Coupe (420 horsepower and $145,500) and the Vanquish (460 horsepower and $235,000), the new $160,000 GT blends modest visual upgrades with a slightly firmer chassis and a 435-horse tune. The active bypass exhaust system and recalibrated fuel and ignition maps deliver the bump in power. The six-speed manual (a five-speed Touchtronic automatic also is available) works with a twinplate clutch and a shorter-throw shifter. The rear-axle ratio is tightened from the Vantage’s 3.77:1 to 4.09. Snappier acceleration is the intent, and the GT does pull with real authority.…

Kings are great. Kings are powerful. Kings are rare. Kings get all the attention. Kings get all the girls. Kings park up front. Kings rule. Yes, it’s good to be the king—unless another king butts in with his crown jewels. Then somebody’s gonna lose his head. Cadillac’s newest claimant to the throne has entered a rarified market niche occupied by not one but two well-established kings. Result? A trio of chopped-off crania. Fortunately, all three tops popped right back on at the touch of a button. We were there to witness the excitement. Cadillac’s entry, a agship designed to cast a halo of magnificence upon the entire division, is the just-released ‘04 XLR. This is an all-new rear-drive two-door roadster with a power-retractable hardtop, a lusty Northstar V-8, more electronic…

In today’s corporate landscape, it’s hard to imagine a large business enterprise so completely dominated by a single personality. That is, until you consider Henry Ford and Ford Motor Company. More than just a name on the side of the headquarters, Henry Ford’s larger-than-life persona permeated the clanking assembly plants, billowing foundries, and peripatetic transportation hubs of his namesake’s operations in the earlyx 20th century. From the first moving automotive assembly line, to the first $5 workday wage, to numerous “green” enterprises Im the areas of soybean-based parts manufacturing and waste-oil recycling, Ford approached everything with a long and innovative view. Beyond the smart business moves and industrial breakthroughs, there was an overriding philosophical agenda. Henry saw the automobile as an agent for social change, an implement to afford a…

The Ford Century You don’t have to be a car enthusiast to become absorbed in this pop history of the Ford Motor Company. Amply illustrated with more than 500 images, “The Ford Century” is as much a portrait of 20th-century America as it is about the company and products Henry Ford built. The book’s timeline bounces back and forth in years with chapters on Henry and the Ford family, changing business fortunes, technical innovations, and corporate citizenship each assuming its own chronology. One of the most fascinating sections is a pictorial roll call of 25 notable Ford vehicles displayed with the objects and personas of their time; the ‘65 Mustang spread, for instance, includes period photos of Martin Luther King, Andy Warhol art, and Ed Sullivan in a Beatles wig.…

Drizzle peppers the handling course. What a day to work the kinks out of a million-dollar development mule. The lone windshield wiper is out of a Focus or an Escape, and it works, but only if you push the wiper lever down for one swipe at a time. Four-point-six liters of V-8 make a high-pitched race-car whine behind our ears as the intercooled Roots-type supercharger kicks in. We’re in third, exiting a phony chicane constructed with orange cones to keep us from getting too hot around this replica of Ford’s Dearborn test track. Despite the lightly wet (and thus potentially slippery) tarmac here at the Harley-Davidson test facility in Naples, Florida, we’re able to plant enough power into a right-hand sweeper to enter the next turn hitting about 75 mph.…

WeatherTech Cargo Liner WeatherTech custom-made cargo liners provide excellent cargo and trunk area protection. Their raised lips^ contain spills and protect floors from wear and tear. Perfect for hauling gardening supplies, golf clubs, or construction material, these custom-molded liners won’t curl, crack, or harden—even in sub-zero weather. They’re available in tan, black, or gray and for over 900 applications. WeatherTech also has a wide variety of foul-weather floormats, wind deflectors, and pet barriers. We’ve sampled WeatherTech’s wares, and they work great and look factory correct. $69.95; 800/441-6287; www.weathertech.com Xtreme Travel Shocks for H2 For those H2 owners set on extreme four-wheeling their civilian Hummers, Edelbrock now offers its new Xtreme Travel shocks. Delivering extra travel, more precise suspension modulation, and a remote oil reservoir for cooler operation, the shocks incorporate…

2003 FORD SVT MUSTANG COBRA We’re finally finished breaking in the powertrain on our Deep Shadow Gray Cobra drop-top, and we’ve regularly been flexing its muscles on backroads, canyon passes, and freeway onramps. Since our SVT gets a lot of spirited driving, we elected to follow the severe-duty service schedule and took it in at the 3000-mile mark for an oil/filter change and tire rotation. Total cost: $51.64. We can’t get enough of the ferocious power, and accolades pour in for the Tremec T-56 tranny. But SVT really needs to address the shift lever, which requires a side-arm pitch to reach the third and fifth gates. Nearly all our editors agree that this is one of the best Mustangs built, but its aging platform (the roots of which go back…

1995-1999 BMW M3 Affordable thoroughbred BMW introduced the third-generation 3 Series (E36) in 1992. Europe got the hot M3 version shortly thereafter, but enthusiasts in the States had to wait another three years. The M3 has always been a well-balanced convergence of performance hardware and the E36-based version—with its torque-rich but high-rewing six-cylinder engine, stiff sport suspension, viselike brakes, tasteful body modifications, and discrete badging—is a particularly satisfying car to drive. BMW’s motorsport background is evident in the M models, and the M3 is the most affordable of them. For ‘95, the M3 coupe featured a 3.0-liter 24-valve DOHC inline-six engine. BMW brought in 2953 ‘94 M3s, but they were sold as ‘95s. This sonorous, rev-happy powerplant made 240 horses at 6000 rpm, with max torque of 225 Ib-ft coming…

NOTABLE QUOTABLE C6 Corvette, April 2003 “Haven’t we seen that face somewhere before? Can Camaro/Firebird DNA predispose the Corvette to suffer their same fate?”Nathan WrightEvanston, Illinois CORVETTE CELEBRATION I loved your package on the Corvette in the April issue. It’s the only car in the world that deserves to have 20 pages dedicated to it. The Corvette has the performance of a Ferrari at a quarter of the price, and no other car can say that. There’s nothing else like seeing a Corvette drive down the street. It shouts: “I’m proud to be an American.” In another 50 years, I’ll be reading about the 100th anniversary of the Corvette, the true American sports car. Steven DibbMuskego, Wisconsin I loved your special Corvette issue and especially appreciated that you included some…

Bye Bye Birdie A supercharger in the Ford Thunderbird’s future has been perhaps the worst-kept secret in Dearborn. But the SVT program to give the two-seater serious horsepower is dead. Unofficially, the program is on the shelf as SVT spreads its wings and works on Lincoln Mercury products. As for the standard T-Bird’s future, Ford Motor President and COO Nick Scheele reminded the New York show crowd that “initially, we announced we would build it for four years. That’s our plan.” That will likely make the ‘05 T-Bird the last of what has lately become a slow-selling model. Escalade-V Cadillac’s second V-series General Motors Performance Division-developed product will be a truck—the Escalade—and it’ll be the first Caddy with a V-12 since 1937. The Cadillac Escalade-V will feature the new 7.5-liter…

If you own a sport/utility vehicle, you’ve likely dreamed of real adventure, not just off-road but out of the country, even off the continent. Sebastien Ledoux is living such a dream. Ledoux was in his late 20s and had a good job in sports marketing when he convinced friends to join him in exploring the world, its people, and their cultures. To realize his dream, he needed a ride. He convinced the Land Rover distributor in his native France to lend him a pair of Discovery TD5s. Ledoux chose Discos because “Land Rover has a spirit, and it is the car that discovered Africa and went to Asia.” He also knew there would be dealers everywhere, whether he was camped in a remote village in Africa or South America or…

Product makes the world go ‘round. While Detroit, Los Angeles, and Geneva got the sphere rolling, New York supported the orbit with another handful of product introductions. Look closely at the new Mitsubishi Galant midsize sedan, and you can see the ‘05 Chrysler Sebring/Dodge Stratus sedan replacements—they’ll share the same rigid platform. Similarly, the Mazda 6-based Ford Futura will spawn at least nine other midsize sedans and wagons, including a sub-$30,000 all-wheeldrive Lincoln sedan. Chrysler’s big news—literally and figuratively—was its new reardrive platform, shown in Hemi V-8-powered form (“First,” June 2003). 2006 Ford Futura Wearing the 427 concept’s nose and Focus sedanlike taillamps, the Futura will feature flexible fold-down seats and a standard 2.3-liter four, the same peppy unit developed for the Mazda 6. A 3.0-liter V-6 engine will be…

Top-down capability, quality, class The CLK Cabriolet has been Mercedes’ license to print money in recent years. The previous-generation car was so hot that dealers still have little or no inventory, even with the much-improved replacement car arriving imminently. The new CLK’s fluid SL- inspired styling, spacious interior, and pumped-up powerplants should accelerate demand for the 10,000 convertibles Mercedes expects to sell in the U.S. each year. The niftiest new feature could be the remote-controlled convertible top. Now, drivers can lower the roof as they approach the car, using the key fob. The top stows itself under the Batmobilesque hard-tonneau cover in 17 seconds and goes up in 20. Inchthick padding and slippery aerodynamics (0.30 Cd) make the convertible nearly coupequiet inside at speed, and reinforcements boost chassis stiffness 12…

“The Fast and the Furious,” a celluloid-fueled cultural phenomenon, returns in a crossed-up drift as its inevitable sequel, “2 Fast 2 Furious,” brings the import-dominated street scene to theaters this month. Protagonist Brian O’Connor (Paul Walker), this time finding himself on the other side of the law, teams with ex-con Roman Pearce (Tyrese Gibson) to again work undercover to infiltrate the world of crime and street racing. The actors compete against the cars for star power in the Miami-filmed “2F2F,” with hot machinery from around the globe dressed for either a track showdown or tuner-magazine photo shoot. To create the colorful sheetmetal tableau, Universal Studios rented a 66,000-square-foot warehouse in Miami to serve as a skunkworks shop for transforming a multitude of cars into Gen-Y fantasy rides. An experienced team,…

By simultaneously wearing the titles of president, chief executive officer, and chairman of the board of the Ford Motor Company, his constituencies include the corporation’s directors and officers, stockholders, 28,000 dealers, and some 350,000 employees. Add to that: Wall Street, the international banking community, countless suppliers, and multiple labor unions. Did we mention government regulators, political and environmental interests, perhaps 100 million customers, and Detroit Lions fans? Plus a large and powerful family whose considerable fortune depends on the value of Ford stock? For the privileges described above, he currently draws no salary. In spite of pressures that may at times seem as large as the world itself—because you can buy a Ford car or truck in just about every part of it—William Clay Ford Jr. seems confidently at ease…

Ford Motor Company went public with a stock offering in 1956, but it remains a family company, one worthy of a Martin Scorsese saga or Ken Bums documentary. Old-timers in Dearborn, Michigan, still call the world’s Number-Two automaker “Ford’s,” as if it were a mom ‘n’ pop grocery store. And three of the five most important Ford execs over the last 100 years have the same last name as the one on the World Headquarters. Henry Ford Bom of Irish immigrants on July 30, 1863, he launched his third auto company, the Ford Motor Company, on June 16, 1903 (the second, cofounded with Henry Leland, became General Motors). He argued his cars should be built for the working class, while his coinvestors favored the automobile as a luxury item. Ford…

You know the deal: Boy is car guy. Boy buys what someday could become car of his dreams. Boy invests tankerloads of blood, sweat, and gears rebuilding and upgrading it—until it does become car of his dreams. Boy’s car appears in magazines and at car shows; he drives it to cruise nights and at club track days. Car is hot, and boy is envy of all. Then, boy meets girl. Boy courts girl. Boy marries girl. Boy’s life now includes house payment and Japanese four-door midsize sedan. You know what’s next: Boy and girl beget baby number one. Then baby number two. Writing on garage wall is clear: Car of boy’s dreams has got to go—to pay for safe and practical sport/utility of girl’s dreams. And that’s where our story…

Blossoming sport/utility-vehicle popularity has led to a proliferation in body configurations, styling, and packaging; yet, somehow, there are still niche opportunities to be exploited. Suzuki deftly targeted the slice between compact ‘utes and increasingly upscale midsize SUVs with the XL-7. The value-conscious automaker followed a vehicle strategy as old in concept as capitalism itself: Offer more for less. From the platform and drivetrain that spawned the Vitara and Grand Vitara, Suzuki created a three-row SUV with a true 4x4 system (including low range) and standard V-6 engine and kept the base price under $20,000. The price-leading base 2WD XL-7 boasts such popular amenities as power windows/door locks/mirrors, cruise control, air-conditioning, and keyless entry. We stepped up a few trim levels to the 4WD Touring with an automatic transmission for our…

The Model T Field More than 15 million served In “Ten That Mattered” (Motor Trend Presents “100 Years of the Automobile,” 1985), T.C. Browne opined that “Henry Ford understood the motor car and grasped its potential better than anyone alive.” Nobody can argue that the automobile industry would look wildly different had not Ford popularized mass production and created the ultimate car for the masses, the Model T. It cost just $850 in 1908 and would stay on the market in countless configurations through 1927. A million were built by 1915, 10 million by 1924, and more than 15 million of these simple, most often black-painted machines occupied the world’s roads by the time the T was replaced for the ‘28 model year. It wouldn’t have been illogical for Mr.…