Automakers: Page 432

Getting Beyond the Hysteria There is no epidemic of killer SUVs running rampant

Yes, it's true. When a Ford Explorer weighing 4,120 lbs. (1,869 kg) smashes into the side of a Honda Accord weighing 2,980 lbs. (1,352 kg) at 33.5 mph (54 km/h) none of us would want to be an occupant in the latter.But before sport/utility vehicle (SUV) haters cast automakers into the same politically incorrect purgatory reserved for tobacco companies and handgun makers, let's look beyond the headlines

By GREG GARDNER • April 1, 1998

Riding High - Mercedes A-Class turns heads in California

SANTA BARBARA, CA - Mercedes-Benz has no plans to import the new A-Class commuter car into the U.S. any time before the next century, but there's at least one on the road, and it does not belong to Mercedes.It's a long way from the land of moose (remember the Swedish reporters who tipped the A-Class over during a moose-avoidance test last fall?), but the freeways of Los Angeles can still prove to

By JOHN RETTIE • March 1, 1998

Explore the Trendline➔

Artificial Intelligence

Automakers and dealers alike are increasingly seeing the use case for AI within their operations. Explore some use cases in this trendline.

By WardsAuto staff

Ford: Global or Bust - If at first you don’t succeed, try .

This happened a few years ago at an introduction of the CDW27 in America. That's Ford Motor Co.'s global car, the Mondeo in Europe, the Ford Contour and Mercury Mystique in the States.One of Ford's highest ranking executives said softly to me: "If this doesn't work, we'll never try it again." Well, it hasn't worked. The Contour and Mystique are not great successes, but Ford is trying it again anyway.Think

By Jerry Flint • March 1, 1998

Shrinking Time - Can Japanese bring a car to market in 18 months?

TOKYO - With last autumn's introduction of the Mazda Capella and Honda Accord, Japanese carmakers have again raised the bar for bringing new products to market.If pressed, most manufacturers can now develop a model in 36 months from initial concept to production. However, they prefer to work within a48-month time frame. The period is somewhat longer for luxury cars like the Niss an Cima/Q45 and Toyota

By Roger Schreffler • March 1, 1998

Small is Big - Europeans push towar ‘3L’ car

The small car is alive and well in Europe. Without exception, European carmakers (together with Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Corp. European offshoots) are fast shifting to super-light small cars to meet increasing fuel costs, emission standards, parking restrictions and the possibility - make that probability - of limitations on car usage in major cities.For all of its problems, it seems certain

By PETER ROBINSION • March 1, 1998

LX 470: King Kong Muddies His Tux

WHISTLER, BC - Here I am on the edge of this narrow logging trail in the newLexus LX 470 on a pine-covered mountain, and I can see a pink flag marking a run-off ditch that looks to be about a yard deep and 2 yards wide (a meter deep and a coupla meters wide).To our left the mountain slopes into a craggy ravine at a perilously steep drop-off, maybe 75 degrees. Even for a guy who is used to negotiating

By GREG GARDNER • March 1, 1998

Off to California Lincoln Mercury looks for a new start

Ford Motor Co. is making a bold move by sending its Lincoln Mercury Div., bogged down in something of a mid-life crisis, packing to Southern California.The whole idea, of course, is to distance the upscale marque from Ford Div. in terms of its products, market position and image. Mercury has struggled to establish its own identity almost from its birth in 1939.Over the years, every new divisional

By CHRISTOPHER W. CEDERGREN • March 1, 1998

Design Debate - Who’s the father of the Jeep Grand Cherokee?

This is a story the late, gifted designer Larry Shinoda wanted told.It's a tale of alleged deceit, insult, intrigue and outright fraud. The object of his attack is the decade-dead American Motors Corp. (AMC), acquired by Chrysler Corp. in 1987.Auto shows, especially the nation's top offerings such as Detroit's North American International Auto Show, are normally a time for celebration and enjoyment.

By AL Rothenberg • March 1, 1998

No More Guesswork Mercedes-Benz sensor tells when to change oil

The new Mercedes-Benz 3.2L V-6 can do many things very well. Among them: taking the M-Class sport/utility vehicle (SUV) up steep and rocky inclines and speeding the new CLK coupe effortlessly along the autobahn.It can also tell a driver when it's time for an oil change.The three-valve per cylinder V-6 engine, which also appears on the midsize C280 sedan, is equipped with a special dielectric sensor

By Tom Murphy • Feb. 1, 1998

Big Three Sell ‘Green’ at Detroit Show

DETROIT - Detroit's Big Three automakers appear to have decided performance doesn't sell - at least for 1998. Taking up where their Japanese counterparts left off with their home-market Tokyo auto show last October, Detroit automakers blitz the press with an unprecedented message of eco-friendliness at January's North American International Auto Show (NAIAS).Chrysler Corp., Ford Motor Co. and General

By Bill Visnic • Feb. 1, 1998

The California Influence It’s the home of 15 automotive design studios

LOS ANGELES - Is California's weather affecting global automotive design?It might sound like a strange question. And, it has nothing to do with El Nino.When Ford Motor Co. chose J. Mays as its new head of design last October it raised many eyebrows. He was an outsider, a relatively young designer (42) who'd gotten most of his hands-on design experience in California and Europe, not Detroit.Mr. Mays

By JOHN RETTIE • Feb. 1, 1998

GM Trucks Jump Back in the Saddle - A whole lot is riding on GM’s newfullsize pickups

It's really impossible to overstate the importance of General Motors Corp.'s new GMT800 program.North American market share, executive bonuses, production workers' profit sharing checks, advertising revenue for every major television network well as the heaviest hitters in magazine publishing all depend on how well GM competes in the lucrative trench warfare of full-size pickup trucks and sport/utility

By GREG GARDNER • Feb. 1, 1998

ETC, ETC . . . Delphi electronic throttle control packaged for LS1

Just ask the engineers at Chevrolet how tough it was to package a hulking 5.7L V-8 engine inside the relatively small front end of the new Corvette, and you're likely to get an earful.So when electronic throttle control became a viable option to allow for easier packaging as well as provide responsive acceleration, the engineers just had to have it.The LS1 is the first passenger car engine from General

By Tom Murphy • Feb. 1, 1998

The Little Shop that Could - Extrude Hone pumps an additional 5 to 10 hp inFord’s Contour SVT

Editor's note: Last month, Ward's named its 10 Best Engines of 1998 and announced the winners at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit. While BMW, Ford, General Motors, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, Toyota and Volkswagen get the credit - and the awards - a number of suppliers played key roles in the engines' success. Here's a look at three.Larry Rhoades refers to it as an "interesting

By Tom Murphy • Feb. 1, 1998

Ford 5.4L SOHC Triton V-8

Somewhere in a Ford Motor Co. meeting room, probably about seven years ago, some genuinely prophetic minds got together.The truck folks were firming up the replacement for the 17-year-old F-150. The engine crowd had mapped out an all-encompassing new modular V-8 engine program. Those engines all would have overhead camshafts.The truck folks talked to the engine crowd and it was agreed these modular

By Bill Visnic • Jan. 1, 1998

Ford SVT 2.5L High Output DOHC V-6

Check out the Ford SVT 2.5L High Output V-6 specs and you might dismiss it as hardly worth the effort. Twenty-five more horses and a torque rating identical to the bog-standard 2.5L Duratec V-6 might not appear to be the formula for a "cooking" version of a volume-production engine.But the Special Vehicle Team's reworking of the 2.5L Duratec - itself a winning engine in our inaugural Best Engines

By Bill Visnic • Jan. 1, 1998

BMW 2.5L DOHC I-6

BMW inline sixes have always been something special - and nobody knows that more than BMW. The company has offered decent 4-cyl. engines for those who craved a BMW and had to do it on a budget. But BMW made customers lay out more serious cash for the privilege of possessing one of its exhilarating 6-cyl. engines.That brings us to this year's new 2.5L DOHC I-6. Proving that even BMW acknowledges how

By Bill Visnic • Jan. 1, 1998

General Motors LS1 5.7L OHV V-8

The winning formula for General Motors Corp.'s entirely new LS1 OHV V-8: It's the most horse-power that can be had for less than $40,000. By a long stretch.The GM V-8 price-to-horsepower ratio is legendary, though. What makes the LS1 different is that although it's tied genetically to Ed Cole's original 1955 small-block V-8 - the bore centers are the same hallmark 4.4 ins. (11 cm) apart and its valvetrain

By Bill Visnic • Jan. 1, 1998

Mercedes-Benz 3.2L SOHC V-6

When a company with the engineering reputation of Mercedes-Benz embarks on a totally new engine program, everyone takes notice.First, the Germans stunned the business when it was learned the new engine program, a modular range consisting of a variety of 6-cyl. and 8-cyl. powerplants, would do away with the longstanding inline 6-cyl. engines - a design for which Mercedes had become nearly as famous

By Bill Visnic • Jan. 1, 1998

Nice Guys Don’t Finish Last Chrysler’s Tom Stallkamp is living proof

James (Jim) Clinton Jones was not only among the best reporters and writers ever to cover the auto industry, he also was among the most cynical. But that also made him a digger par excellence, resulting in some spectacular scoops.Newsweek's Detroit bureau chief from 1955 until he retired in the late 1980s, Jim always had the same response when I'd mention that some Big Three executive who'd gotten

By David C. Smith • Jan. 1, 1998

Toyota/Lexus 4L DOHC V-8

Look out. Toyota Motor Corp.'s upscale Lexus Div.'s got it in their collective heads that performance sells. You know what happens when Lexus sets its sights on uncharted territory.The performance aspect of Lexus' cars has generally been okay, it's just that at Lexus, performance hasn't ever been the real focus.Now Audi, BMW, Cadillac and Mercedes will have to pay attention to their respective and

By Bill Visnic • Jan. 1, 1998

Taking It to the Streets ITTA’s chief leads campaign to boost ABS market

A year ago, as winter was bearing down hard on Michigan, Frank Macher probably envisioned a summer filled with leisurely boat rides with his wife and an occasional sampling from his fine wine collection.The Ford Motor Co. executive had retired at the end of 1996 as vice president and general manager of Ford's Automotive Components Div., which evolved recently into Visteon, the $16 billion parts operation

By TOM MURPHY & David C. Smith • Jan. 1, 1998

Wired for Weight Loss Multiplex wiring makes its way into small-car market

It seems every great innovation in automobiles celebrates its coming-out on fancy luxury cars. You name the feature - from power steering and automatic transmissions to power windows and tilt steering wheels - and a Cadillac, Lexus or Mercedes-Benz was probably the first to serve it up for consumer consumption.But some creature comforts are just too appealing or too practical to be hogged by the rich.

By Tom Murphy • Jan. 1, 1998

Volkswagen 1.8L DOHC turbocharged I-4

Start out in the morning with Volkswagen's turbocharged, 5-valve 1.8L 4-cyl. engine and you feel like you've just signed up for a day of training with an Olympic decathlete: you're a collaborator in an exercise of speed, power, agility and flexibility - all in a neat, compact package that's efficient and effective.The VW 1.8L is tiny compared to contemporary base 4-cyl. engines. The Passat's import

By Bill Visnic • Jan. 1, 1998

Mazda 2.3L Miller-cycle DOHC V-6

A few years ago, there was a lot of talk from interior stylists and designers about a "surprise and delight" strategy - offering the customer features that are thoughtful and more than is expected.Mazda Motor Corp. ought to make the pitch for the Miller-cycle V-6 as the largest single lump of surprise and delight in the business. Besides the hugely overlooked Miller, only two other engines have been

By Bill Visnic • Jan. 1, 1998