Automakers: Page 435
-
Courtesy of WardsAuto
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 -
Courtesy of WardsAuto
Dollars Outnumber Deals Buyout Funds Eager to Invest in Automotive
In 1995, Butler Metal Group was a small stamping plant with a good reputation and excellent engineering.But the Canadian supplier was finding itself short of the capital it needed to keep up with competitors. Maintenance and operations were slipping.Enter Oxford Investment Group Inc., a buyout firm looking to build a new automotive stamping group. The firm bought Butler for an undisclosed amount and
By JEFF GREEN and TOM MURPHY • April 1, 1998 -
Explore the Trendline➔
Courtesy of Kia Corporation
TrendlineArtificial 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 -
Courtesy of WardsAuto
New Beetle: Expressive, And a Tad Expensive
ATLANTA - Cute. Cliched as that description is, it fairly well sums up Volkswagen AG's New Beetle (that's the official name, too): Plenty of style and a surprisingly equal amount of substance, despite lacking both the sound and the bargain price of the original.Despite its cartoonish looks, the new Beetle is no toy. VW has done its homework, and it shows. From its rounded fenders and silhouette, the
By SAID DEEP • April 1, 1998 -
Courtesy of WardsAuto
Little Cars Go Upscale at Geneva---Ford’s Escort replacement is show headliner
GENEVA - Small is "big" in Europe. In a trend diametrically opposed to the U.S. and its ever-larger, ever-thirstier light trucks and sport/utility vehicles (SUVs), Europe is hungry for efficiently sized, efficiently powered passenger cars - so automakers are raising the bar on small cars.Historically low-tech affairs that swapped high-tech options for fuel savings, small cars are now being built with
By SAID DEEP and PETER ROBINSON • April 1, 1998 -
Courtesy of WardsAuto
Shining at the Big Apple---Luxury car intros lead the parade
Ford Motor Co.'s all-new Lincoln LS6 and LS8 models (see story p.59) head the guest list at this year's New York Auto Show (April 11-19). But stepping out from those shadows at the exhibition - dominated by luxury car debuts - are the all-new Infiniti G20 and Volvo S40/V40 sedans and wagons.The G20 is the U.S. version of the European-market Nissan Primera, which has been on sale there in its current
By David E. Zoia • April 1, 1998 -
Courtesy of WardsAuto
Eaton sells leaf spring business to Oxford Automotive
Eaton Corp. exits the leaf spring business and agrees to sell it to Oxford Automotive Inc. for an undisclosed price. It is an all-cash deal and government approvals already have been obtained. The unit, based in Southfield, MI, has 1,126 employees and last year accounted for $126 million in sales, or about 2% of Eaton's total revenue of $7.6 billion.
April 1, 1998 -
Courtesy of WardsAuto
Heart attacks claim Chrysler Canada, Kia chiefs
Two notable auto executives, Chrysler Canada President Yves Landry and Kia Motors America CEO Greg Warner, died of heart attacks in mid-March. Mr. Landry, 60, an outspoken critic of the Quebec separatist movement and Chrysler's top executive in Canada since 1990, died March 15 of a heart attack while vacationing in St. Petersburg, FL. He was 60. He worked 29 years for Chrysler and regularly appeared
April 1, 1998 -
Courtesy of WardsAuto
Yo, NHTSA! We dare ya to slam this sucker into a Honda Accord
So crude oil prices are falling toward $10 a barrel. You're outgrowing that Navigator. The neighbors have just bought a new Hummer. The obvious solution: the Kenworth Pilgrimage. This fictional Satirical Utility Vehicle can be found on the Ultimate Poseur Sport Utility page on the Internet. It's the ultimate move-up vehicle. It fits under most bridge underpasses; is the first SUV to be rated in gallons
April 1, 1998 -
Courtesy of WardsAuto
Big Six? Big Seven? U-M study says transplants now ‘fully integrated’
Transplant automakers, tired of being treated as second-class citizens in the U.S., say they deserve to be considered on a par with the Big Three. And now they have a study to prove it.The University of Michigan's Office for the Study of Automotive Transportation (OSAT) releases a report that casts favorable light on the economic impact made by foreign automakers with manufacturing plants in the U.S.
By David E. Zoia • April 1, 1998 -
Courtesy of WardsAuto
German magazine threatens to sue Ford over use of Focus name
Focus magazine, one of Germany's largest weekly news magazines, wants Ford to change the name of its new subcompact model (see photo p.62) and is ready to go to court if it does not. "We are very serious about this," says Helmut Markwort, chief editor of the magazine. Ford's response: "We have registered the name with the German patent office," says spokesman Bernd Meier.
April 1, 1998 -
Courtesy of WardsAuto
UAW to target Mercedes, BMW plants
Having written off more than a decade of futile efforts to organize workers at non-union Japanese automobile assembly plants in the United States, the United Auto Workers union will try to organize workers at the two newest plants operated by German automakers Mercedes-Benz and BMW. The effort is expected to begin after the UAW's annual convention in June. BMW has about 2,000 workers at its plant
April 1, 1998 -
Courtesy of WardsAuto
2000 Lincoln LS6 and LS8 Can these new-century Lincolns really cut in onBMW’s turf?
Scan Robert F. Widmer's business card and it sinks in: with this all-new platform - the long-discussed DEW98 Ford Motor Co. and its Lincoln and Jaguar divisions are deadly serious.In Mr. Widmer's title, the first word is "performance." Performance/luxury vehicle line director-large/luxury car vehicle center. "Performance" as the primary ingredient for a Lincoln?Mr. Widmer, along with Helmuth Schrader,
By DAVID C. SMITH and BILL VISNIC • April 1, 1998 -
Courtesy of WardsAuto
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 -
Courtesy of WardsAuto
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 -
Courtesy of WardsAuto
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 -
Courtesy of WardsAuto
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 -
Courtesy of WardsAuto
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 -
Courtesy of WardsAuto
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 -
Courtesy of WardsAuto
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 -
Courtesy of WardsAuto
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 -
Courtesy of WardsAuto
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 -
Courtesy of WardsAuto
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 -
Courtesy of WardsAuto
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 -
Courtesy of WardsAuto
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 -
Courtesy of WardsAuto
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
Previous
