Automakers: Page

Audi A8L 6.0 is New Flagship Sedan

DETROIT – Audi AG uses the North American International Auto Show to stage the world premiere of its A8L 6.0 quattro. Audi introduces A8L 6.0 quattro. The sedan features a 6L 12-cyl. engine under the hood and a new front fascia that becomes a central styling cue for future Audis. The A8L 6.0 features corporate parent Volkswagen AG’s W12 engine, which produces 450 hp and 428 lb.-ft. (580 Nm) of torque,

By Kevin Kelly • Jan. 5, 2004

Honda Launching Hybrid Accord

DETROIT Honda Motor Co. Ltd. must be causing the Big Three to break a sweat yet again. The Japanese auto maker dropped a bombshell here at the North American International Auto Show by announcing a Honda Accord with a hybrid drivetrain that includes a cylinder-deactivation equipped V-6 gasoline engine will be on sale in the U.S. by the end of this year as an ’04 model. In addition, Honda’s all-new

By Tom Murphy • Jan. 5, 2004

Explore the Trendline➔

Top 5 stories from WardsAuto

Automakers are evaluating their long-term strategies, revisiting their product mix, and approach to both retail and manufacturing approach along the way.

By WardsAuto staff

Infiniti Comes Out Swinging with QX56

DETROIT – Like a batter coming out of a slump, Nissan Motor Co. Ltd.’s Infiniti luxury division has been swinging for the fence as of late. Standard features are generous on Infiniti QX56. And in the case of the G35 sedan and coupe and FX35/FX45 cross/utility vehicles, Infiniti has at least a few homeruns under its belt. Its newest product, the QX56 fullsize luxury SUV, just now is approaching the

By Tom Murphy • Jan. 4, 2004

Mustang Gains New Life, Look From New Platform

DETROIT The ’05 Ford Mustang sheds its 1970s-era Fox platform for an all-new, purpose-built architecture to usher in the fifth generation of an American icon, unveiled here at the North American International Auto Show. The latest pony car grew from a clean sheet of paper and rides on a modern body structure and chassis that can be had for under $20,000. Ford Motor Co. is confident it has spawned

By Alisa Priddle • Jan. 4, 2004

GM to Invest $100 Million in Wilmington Plant

DETROIT – General Motors Corp. will spend about $100 million to renovate its Wilmington, DE, assembly plant to prepare the facility for ’06 Pontiac Solstice production next year. Pontiac Solstice will be built at Wilmington, DE, plant. The plant also plans to add jobs when more new vehicles are assigned to Wilmington. Mark Hogan, GM’s product development chief, tells Ward’s here at the North American

By Brian Corbett • Jan. 4, 2004

Toyota, Ford Win North American Car, Truck of Year

DETROIT – Hybrid-electric vehicle (HEV) technology wins another important endorsement with Toyota Motor Corp.’s Prius winning the prestigious North American Car of the Year award at the North American International Auto Show here. Ford F-150 wins 2004 North American Truck of Year, Toyota Prius (below) named American Car of Year.   The all-new 2004 Prius – the second generation of Toyota’s groundbreaking

By Bill Visnic • Jan. 4, 2004

C6 Corvette: Shorter, Narrower, Faster

DETROIT It’s faster, shorter and narrower. It’s the sixth-generation Chevrolet Corvette, unveiled here at the North American International Auto Show. “Our goal is to thrill Corvette loyalists and capture new enthusiasts,” says Dave Hill, Corvette chief engineer. The ’05 Corvette thrills and captures the attention of the media attending the car’s debut. Chevy shows only the coupe, which will go into

By Brian Corbett • Jan. 4, 2004

Carving a Niche

The '04 Chevrolet SSR roadster pickup has been on the road barely four months. But already, Paul Wilbur, president and CEO of ASC Inc. of Southgate, MI, declares the vehicle program a success on many fronts: It secured union jobs and brightened the future of General Motors Corp.'s Lansing, MI, Craft Centre; program costs are lower because ASC shouldered about 70% of the development and ships 42 separate

By Tom Murphy • Jan. 1, 2004

Smart Renames Models

The original Smart cars built at DaimlerChrysler AG's Hambach plant in France will be renamed Fortwo on Jan. 1, which the auto maker says will help bring brand awareness to the Forfour models that go into production in the Netherlands next year for delivery starting in April. The original CityCoupe becomes the Smart Fortwo coupe, and the CityCoupe cabrio becomes the Smart Fortwo cabrio. The Smart

Jan. 1, 2004

General Motors Picks Dealer for Harlem Mall

Otis Thornton, currently a Buick dealer in East Brunswick, NJ, will be the owner and operator of Chevrolet and Saturn franchises at the Harlem Auto Mall that General Motors Corp. is building in New York City. Otis Thornton has been a valued GM dealer since 1993 and has shown strong entrepreneurial skills, says John Smith, GM group vice president of sales, service and marketing. We are very pleased

Jan. 1, 2004

Ford to Consolidate Focus Output

Ford Motor Co. will consolidate production of its Focus compact car in North America, moving assembly of all Focus models to its Wayne, MI, Stamping and Assembly plant by 2006. Currently, the 3- and 5-door Focus body styles are built at Ford's Hermosillo (Mexico) assembly plant. Jim Padilla, Ford executive vice president and president of the Americas, says the production shift is accompanied by a

Jan. 1, 2004

Stow ‘n Go

Chrysler Group spent $400 million to accommodate a 2-row, fold-in-the-floor seating system for its '05 family of minivans, updating a platform that will continue to serve as the underpinnings for its next minivan, due out within the next two years. The massive changes to the underbody structure technically do not constitute a new platform, says Wolfgang Bernhard, Chrysler chief operating officer.

By Kevin Kelly and Alisa Priddle • Jan. 1, 2004

Alfa Aims For German Rivals

Alfa Romeo SpA is about to unleash the most ambitious new-model program of its 94-year history. Between 2004-2008, the Italian sports-car maker plans to renew its entire range, enter new niches (including a small cross/utility vehicle to take on BMW AG's new X3 and a 400-hp supercar to rival Porsche's 911 Turbo) and introduce a range of all-new 4-cyl. and V-6 engines. The strategy culminates in the

Jan. 1, 2004

Cubic-inch Madness

The warning signs started the minute the Audi S4 appeared on our doorstep. Judges would show up after a long lunch with illegal smiles, giggling like kindergartners. You know what I’m talking about: cubic-inch madness: Hundreds of lbs.-ft. of torque available at about 5 rpm. It’s addictive, and I watched helplessly as a majority of our judging panel was seduced. I kicked the habit in the early 1980s,

By Drew Winter • Dec. 30, 2003

Honda 3L SOHC V-6

There’s probably no better measure of engine-development progress than a contemporary automotive V-6. When Ward's launched the 10 Best Engines competition a decade ago, V-6s were only beginning to account for a meaningful portion of sales in middle-market vehicles particularly for imported nameplates and power levels were unassuming. Here are the power/torque ratings for the four V-6s that won Best

By Bill Visnic • Dec. 30, 2003

DaimlerChrysler 5.7L Hemi Magnum OHV V-8

No other business rewards the latest design quite like the auto business. So one of the surest tests of a 10 Best Engines winner’s “staying power” is how well it can fight off brand-new engines particularly when they also happen to be direct competitors in terms of size, cylinder count and market segment. When an incumbent winner outshines newer rivals it battles directly in the market, it’s a testimony

By Bill Visnic • Dec. 30, 2003

Putting on the Right Spin

Retired auto technician Pete Wright had been working on rotary engines for a few years when, in 1978, Mazda Motor Corp. put one in its new RX-7 sports car. Soon Wright was fixing a lot of clutches. “People were burning them out right and left, pushing their RX-7s,” he recalls. “One owner blew out three clutches in a year. It was a hot car.” The RX-7 ended its North American run in 1995, and its unconventional

By Steve Finlay • Dec. 30, 2003

Nissan 3.5L DOHC V-6

Nissan Motor Co. Ltd.’s sublime 3.5L “VQ” V-6 needs no introduction, being that it’s won a 10 Best Engines award each and every year since the competition’s inception in 1995. That the VQ has cemented itself as the dominant V-6 benchmark is without question a decade after its introduction, the VQ, amazingly, remains the admitted development target of rivals who will discuss such details. “No doubt

By Bill Visnic • Dec. 30, 2003

Toyota 1.5L DOHC I-4

When Ward's named Toyota Motor Corp.’s original hybrid-electric vehicle (HEV) powertrain as a 10 Best winner in 2001, nobody was sure if the thing even qualified as a competitor to standard internal-combustion engines. After all, HEV powertrains rely on an electric motor to in some way “aid” the IC engine; both engine and motor team to deliver torque to the drive wheels. For 2004, we’re still not

By Bill Visnic • Dec. 30, 2003

General Motors 4.2L DOHC I-6

The first time Vortec 4200 chief engineer Ron Kociba showed his creation to the press almost three years ago, his face had an expression, if you can conjure the image, combining cat-that-ate-the-canary satisfaction with the cautious optimism of a poker player betting a good, but not totally airtight, hand. Kociba knew his team had developed a pivotal engine. Of that he was certain. Problem was, the

By Bill Visnic • Dec. 30, 2003

Audi 4.2L DOHC V-8

We already know what you’re going to say: The 10 Best Engines judges were suckered by the same formula that worked 40 years ago for Detroit muscle cars. Stick a big V-8 in a small-bodied car and watch the concoction go like hell. It’s a good strategy, really. One that can make just about any big-displacement V-8 perform like a hero. Audi AG’s 4.2L V-8 actually isn’t all that big (only Volkswagen AG

By Bill Visnic • Dec. 30, 2003

Subaru Fuji 2.5L DOHC turbocharged H-4

Three hundred horsepower. Three hundred pound-feet of torque. Thirty thousand dollars. That’s probably enough to summate 90% of the winning formula for Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd.’s Subaru 2.5L turbocharged DOHC H-4. The only engine with a performance-per-dollar quotient like this is DaimlerChrysler’s 2.4L turbocharged DOHC 4-cyl., and it barely missed making the cut. This is Subaru’s first-ever 10

By Bill Visnic • Dec. 30, 2003

Accounting as Weapon

When Toyota announced it would make a profit on the new version of its Prius hybrid car, it got me thinking. Are Toyota's engineers really better than everyone else's, or is something else going on? I think there's something else. For one, what does Toyota mean when it says As anyone who has studied the most rudimentary basics of accounting knows, there are different ways of reporting profits. There

By John McElroy • Dec. 1, 2003

Old Olds Store Now Bob-Boyd Lincoln Mercury

An old Oldsmobile store is the newly renovated home of Bob-Boyd Lincoln Mercury, a 33-year-old Columbus, OH dealership that takes its name from its co-owners first names. Bob Dawes and Boyd Fackler spent about $500,000 renovating the east-side facility. It's five miles from a smaller building the dealership previously occupied. Since moving, the 65-employee store has doubled floor traffic and boosted

By Maynard M. Gordon • Dec. 1, 2003

SVT Goes Upmarket; Pipeline Runs Dry

Ford Motor Co.'s in-house purveyor of high performance, the Special Vehicle Team (SVT) is recasting itself in light of a product-development black hole that means SVT won't have anything to sell until 2006. By second-quarter 2004, SVT officials confirm all of its three currently available products the SVT Mustang Cobra, SVT F-150 Lightning and SVT Focus will be out of production. The Cobra and Lightning

Dec. 1, 2003