Motorweek; 1707

This time on motorways the 98 line up from Chrysler an aluminum road rocket from Plano and 100 years out on the high road. So come drive with us. TV's original automotive magazine your home. John David. Welcome again to motor week we're glad to have you with us. This time we're going to conclude our look at what's new from Detroit's automakers for 1998. Our focus this week is on Chrysler. A company will have some of the most innovative and eye catching vehicles in automotive history. So the question is Will Chrysler rest on its own laurels or continue to push the envelope in 98. Hard to imagine but only a decade ago the Chrysler Corporation was saddled with an

extensive lineup of boring cars and antiquated trucks. Except for many abandoned vehicles Chrysler of the late 1980s looked like it was going to be poor ever left behind in the automotive dust of time. Yet today just a little more than two years short of the next millennium the Chrysler Corporation is arguably the most vibrant and forward looking of American car companies. Indeed Chrysler styling and niche marketing is among the most contemporary the car world has to offer. The only thing old about Chrysler is their practice of letting the best classic car designs influence the shapes of their future. No other mass production car company has a pair of limited edition sports cars anything like the Viper and the retro roadster Plymouth Brower. These cars are obviously hard designed to entice buyers into the showroom for their more mundane model. But there is nothing mundane about these cars. The new Chrysler Concorde and Dodge Intrepid sedans a major revision of the LH car that started their car revival five years ago and there are

now more exciting than ever indeed Concorde styling looks more like a Ferrari than family. The Oval grill and much brighter raised high brow headlights are about as racy as you can get with bore doors while wheel bases on chains. The Concorde has a longer body shell than Intrepid. So Concorde is a full size car by any standards. So is the interior the Concords instrument panel now has a more 3-D look for the center section for climate in stereo that seems to jump out to meet you. A larger clear instrument cluster remains but the seats have been improved for support and comfort. 3 across the bench is available. The back seat of the Concorde grows almost three inches in leg room while the generous Intrepid is slightly roomier than before. The Concorde provides a ski style passthrough to a big trunk while the Intrepid has split folding seat FX power trains are all new Both engines sharing all aluminum construction standard Intrepid and Concorde elex as a pressure 2.7 leader dual overhead cam 24 valve

B6 with 200 horsepower and £190 feet of torque. Intrepid e s and Concorde lxi scored a single overhead cam three point to leader with 225 horsepower and two hundred twenty five pound feet of torque. While a rework of last year's cast iron 3.5 leader. It really is almost an all new engine with heightened performance to match zero to 60 and 8 seconds. Road manners are also improved with a step or body a new suspension calibrations which also pay off and much quieter cars a constant complaint of the original LH model to more variants a new luxury LH and shorter European bound Chrysler 300 M are due next year. If you are among the few wondering what happened to the Eagle Vision LH car it's gone. The only eagle left is the Mitsubishi made talents for two Eagle Brand itself will be phased out for good after this year. Now for the truck story. Here is the long awaited Durango the first Dodge SUV since the demise of the Ram

charger. But like Ram charger This is a rugged body on brain model with rear leaf springs only in this case it's based on the middle weight of the coat of pickup. That's pretty obvious from the shared front end with its raised Kenworth Callan's 40 lowered chin and side has most of the Dakotas flavored too with a well-functioning dash and no nonsense air. But at this point dot engineers got very clever by lowering the rear body and gently raising the roof. The Durango can manage three rows of seats to accommodate a family of eight. The middle row is a trifle designed for maximum versatility and total cargo space is 10 percent larger than a Jeep Grand Cherokee power mirrors the Dakota 2 with a 175 horsepower 3.9 leader B6 a 230 or power five point two liter V8 is expected to be the volume engine and a two hundred forty five horsepower five point nine leader V8. It's borrowed from Big Brother ram the latter engine gives Durango a 70 200 pound trailer towing limit.

Or will drive Durango's can be ordered with the Dakota's part time system or a full time case similar to Jeep select truck. With a minimum of seven point nine inches of ground clearance. There won't be many places the Durango can't climb and they will likely climb out of Dodge showrooms fast. Now we understand why Jeep at the BI point nine leader be eight in the Grand Cherokee pricer good let its prestige just for by 4pm out run by the rough and tough Durango. Indeed the Grand Cherokee 5.9 Ltd is built for speed with 0 0 to 60 of 7.3 seconds. It's the fastest SUV week tested good since it actually has a smaller towing capacity than Grand Cherokees with the five point two liter V8. Other Jeep news is limited to a new Cherokee classic and Cherokee Limited trim grades. The wrangler was redesigned last year. 1098 is not without full size truck news from Dodge to the door wars have just escalated with a Dodge Ram quad with both of the optional rear doors open. You have maximum access like no pick up truck before it. Like

Chevrolet the rear door release latches in the door jamb and the front door must be opened before the rear door swings out. Little is going on with a mid-sized sedan trio Chrysler Cirrus Dodge Stratus or Plymouth breeze this year. Ditto for the Chrysler Sebring and Dodge Avenger and the Chrysler Sebring convertible as well. But the spunky dodge in Plymouth Neon is getting a real boost in Emmett Till the neon hard race proven hardware from their chip factory SCCA racing program into what's called street legal. Under the piper Racing Stripes is the familiar 150 horsepower Twin Cam 16 down to leader in line for here the engine computer gives a bit more performance latitude. Suspension tuning is also track ready with only the tires being street bred. The theme continues inside with a more serious player but in the end the neon RTA is a race ready street fighter that's pure fun but maybe not quite as much fun as

the Dodge Viper a large tan roadster. After being eclipsed by the group last year the roadster now at the hard top 450 or Towers weekend and most other improvements including the pure structure and real roll up window. Removable hardtop is now standard and it's the correct winter substitute for the still minimal Erector Sets Off the top. As for the company's other collectible song the Plymouth prowler will stay it's mild itself until it gets a new aluminum V-6 and added colors shortly after the new calendar year began. Finally if it ain't broke don't fix it. That's pretty much the story for the Plymouth Voyager and Dodge Caravan minivan. The benchmarks of minivans get a few tweaks like an upgraded one hundred eighty horsepower 3.8 leader V-6 and the powered airbags. The Chrysler Town and Country has a more glamorous front end with high powered headlights to better differentiated luxury missions. A company on a mission to set the automotive world on its ear is what Chrysler Corporation has been succeeding at for most of the 1990s.

Now is the decade and century named for a closed their 1998 new car and truck designs rush forward looking back only for inspiration. Coming up 100 years and counting. If you don't know what you're doing trying to fix the modern car can make you want to pull your hair out. But our top technician Pat Goss has a habit of pulling out the right answers to your Karkare questions. John seems like everybody is towing something these days. They tow cars they tow boats and trailers you name it. But many people don't pay attention to the basics of towing. First basic is read your owner's manual. See what limitations the owner's manual places on your vehicle as to how much it can tow and at what speed. But take it a step further because in the owner's manual you'll find that there will be increased maintenance thats required when you're towing. You need to find out about that and follow that maintenance schedule. Now

the big thing with towing is that it generates a lot more heat and heat is the enemy of every automobile. If you have an automatic transmission in your tow vehicle you need to keep it as cool as possible while you're towing. That will make it last a lot longer. But how do you go about that. Well here's the easiest way and dog Ziller E. transmission cooler. This will keep the transmission fluid at a lower temperature. That will make the transmission last a lot longer. Now heat is also the enemy of the engine. So there's a second cooler that you might want to consider. This is an engine oil cooler. It's added into the oiling system of the vehicle and again it keeps the oil temperature low. Lower oil temperature means longer engine life. But now there's another part under the hood that has to be kept cool and that is the radiator the cooling system and a lot of these automobiles and trucks today don't have the provisions on them for serious towing. So you

might want to consider one of these. There are a number of them on the market. These are all exhilarate electric cooling fans. They augment the existing fan. They do a great job of keeping the coolant temperature down. OK now you've made your tow vehicle last a long time. There's another important thing that you have to do. And that is you have to be able to see. You have to be able to see where you're at relative to traffic and it means you need trailer mirrors. Well here's one. These are very inexpensive. I don't recommend them because they tend to be very fragile and they frequently damage the doors on trucks. So that's not the greatest way to go. Here's one. This is extend a vision and this is by HELLO the way this works is that you turn in this and you're actually flipping the mirror over. And now it extends farther from the body of the car gives you good towing visibility. Now here we have probably the ultimate And this is the power of vision.

Now what this mirror is it's an add on mirror it replaces the original Power mirror it's fully powered. It's breakaway so that if it gets hit it doesn't break. It's extremely high quality and something that you might want to consider. And when you don't need it well all you do is push the button and in it goes like a normal mirror. And if you have a question or a comment write to me. If I use your letter I'll send you a motor week T-shirt The address is Motor Week always Mills Maryland 2 1 1 1 7. Our car of the week is 1960 Austin-Healey bug I sprayed it was rescued and restored by David Gold like and his son Nick a. Oh well Joe California. Now if you have a labor of love you'd like to share with us send two good color photos to motor week. Always Mills Maryland 2 1 1 1 7.

Here at Motor Week we've seen Mark's coming go from American roads from the arrival of Acura Lexus and Hyundai to the departure of Peugeot and AMC. So when the competitive U.S. car market a company that cranks out products for our consumers for 40 or 50 years has managed quite an achievement. One that does it for a full 100 years is very rare. One that has Where's the grand old name of Oldsmobile. This week Craig sing us help some celebrate out on the high road. Oh oh oh oh oh. Well this is it the day that everyone in Lansing has been waiting for. This is Oldsmobile 1 100th birthday and Lansing Michigan was the place to be for four days this past summer as merry Oldsmobile

large came from far and wide to celebrate a century of production. And yes. That just might. Be your father's Oldsmobile. Or your great great grandfather's as well. This is a 19 to Oldsmobile. The two like this one is a little four and a half arsed bar with a hundred in vampire real. As two speeds forward one reverse. Kind of fun to drive they all run twenty mile an hour maybe just a little over 20. The curvaceous olds once you've got them pretty well set up will run a lot of miles it's not unusual it's been. Several guys in the club have ran all way Cross United States and the scar from one into the other. He's on the field and that's that's pretty hard to do in one thousand two or three or four and it's not a piece of cake for a 978 either family or that they sacked go goggle not with a caravan in Chicago and came across by about 200 cars from Chicago to

Lansing. There's incredible people on the side of the road waving people standing on bridges taking pictures. Truck drivers pulled over on the side of the road waving. Talking on a CB pulled over and watched as come by here you got a string of 200 overall bills in a row it's quite an impressive sight. And then rolling in here in Lansing. There was. Lots of enthusiasm. People lined the streets pulled up for breath. The Michigan Avenue but a lot of fun with caravans arriving with cars from all over the country. A real sense of camaraderie in this event whether it was cranking in an enthusiastic curved dash olds or combing the flea market for just that right part. These folks had a genuine passion for anything. Oldsmobile Some opted for a bit of direct historical perspective by visiting B R E olds Transportation Museum Craigie Ariel's transportation museum's job is to tell

the story of a Lansing's contribution to the transport industry. And we tell that story through the metaphor of the very exemplary life of auto pioneer ransom Eli olds in our collection. We have the oldest Oldsmobile and original 1897 model on loan to us from the Smithsonian in Washington. We have the fastest ols a short tail Aerotech coupe that was clocked at 290 miles per hour in 1907. And just about everything in between in one. Yours Oldsmobile has contributed much to the rich history of the American automobile in 89 to ransom. Old was the first to sell a motor vehicle manufactured in Michigan. The curved dash was the first automobile to be mass produced on a moving assembly line in 1940. Oldsmobile was the first manufacture with a fully automatic transmission and after World War 2 it was one of the first with a modern high compression overhead Balbi gate engine. And in 1966 Oldsmobile debuted

Toronado the first modern V-8 front wheel drive production car with much to celebrate. Oldsmobile. And its fans were rightly proud. As they traded down Lansing's Michigan Avenue. But this time everyone had that other old song on their lives. A recent sales report noted that Chevrolets new venture minivan that's getting into the market leading Chrysler trio. No wonder the extended versions like our test 1997 venture LS take the Chrysler concept and improves on it in many small but important way. For one thing the extremely convenient individually removable seats are lighter than Chryslers and easier to store. Another venturer advantage is the power assist for the right side sliding rear door. Alas

on our van it continues to give us trouble. Operation is erratic and so for our dealer has been unable to fix it permanently after fifteen thousand nine hundred miles we are totally pleased with the nineteen point nine miles per gallon fuel economy. The benchers front drive 180 horsepower V-6 pull strongly and has plenty of passing power in reserve and at 8 months into our year long test time with the venture is also passing specs. Past also describes our 1970 Audi 8.0 do you have to look past its always on the road somewhere. We've stated before that the age is king of the super sedan. Nothing has happened to change our opinion. We did have some brakes wheel and since they look to be wearing regularly they were replaced under warranty after twelve thousand two hundred miles this robust V8 cruiser is returning a better than ever nineteen point one mpg. We're really looking forward to winter so the 8.0 all wheel drive can show its stuff. Also will be looking for any signs as to how snow melting road salt

might affect the whole aluminum skin. So anyone for skiing next week to Dodge Dakota pickup and Mercedes-Benz SLK roadster on motor weeks long term road test update. Now it's time to check in with Elisa Barrow for all the up to date news. Well Toyota will spend much of the 98 model year touting its new Sienna minivan. They have plenty going on in their bread and butter car line as well. 1998 marks the latest redesign of the venerable Toyota Corolla. The world's most popular nameplate. However rather than a major change in styling like the latest Camry the roller took a more evolutionary approach. The lines are familiar yet cleaner in that like the Camry the design of the new Corolla is simplified and easier to build. No the front turn signals have been moved to the headlamp housing to save parts and reduce low speed accident repairs. The interior also has been completely redone yet again is familiar. We especially like the new rotary style climate controls.

About the only thing not changed is the corellas short 97 inch wheelbase so the interior while larger than last year remained smaller than competitors like civic and cavalier. Living in either of those will offer side impact airbags and the Corona will power his own new with a fresh one point leader twin can 16 down in line for this is the first aluminum engine for cooling towers one hundred twenty four fifty more than last year. Well fuel economy is up to independent suspension is being tweaked and the body is different. On our initial drive however we did notice less appeal from the power steering. The new car oles in dealerships now with a base price starting at twelve thousand three hundred twenty eight dollars and that's it for this week's motor new one of the greatest things about America is that entrepreneurs are alive and thriving from computer software boutiques to microbreweries. We see many of the most innovative products come from the smallest companies. That's true of the car industry as well. This is the pain of the roadster. A two seat sports car that

combines wind in your face driving excitement with the best in aerospace technology. The result is a ride like no other. And one look at the pain owes a I-V will tell you this is a car that loves to be driven. This stuffy chunky balloon standard roadsters just cries out for a winding road. You can almost see the dappled sunlight floating across every curve and flipping off the chrome accents. There's hardly a straight line to be seen from his wife wedged right past the short mid section with its half doors to the classic brass rounded rump. Round headlights bumpers an exposed front suspension are throwback to an earlier motoring era. When you're a sports cars and street rods rule the back roads of America. The only disruption in the smooth lines is the oversized air scoop graphic of the hood. An evil made necessary by the hungry V8 lurking within the power plant is another Cobra link in this case the 4.6 leader quad can be a from Ford's

latest Mustang Cobra. It's 305 horsepower and bring hundred pound feet of torque makes the hood blister a trade off. We can live with like their previous efforts Peano's makes extensive use of board match components in the AIB roadster from steering brakes and systems to gauges and wiring harnesses. This not only makes it easier to build but simpler to service as well. At any local Ford dealer but the Peano's is far from a re body. Ford parts been queen the aluminum box frame is painted as his own design and your unit we've not seen body panels are also aluminum molded vs super flagstick forming by super warm USA and California. The result is a car that 70 percent aluminum with a curve weight of just twenty six hundred pounds. Hence the name stands for aluminum intensive vehicles. The cockpit is rather tight so it's best to limit passengers to close friends only. The interior is dominated by the large transmission tunnel slightly compromising hip elbow and foot

room. Entering is an exercise in graceful gymnastics. Do it right and you'll look like Fred Astaire. Or do it like us and you might resemble Fred Flintstone once in place the occupants are ensconced in a surprisingly large curious manner. Leather surfaces are set off with tasteful amounts of wood or carbon fiber trim. The Mustang gauges and controls look right at home here too. A tilt will in 180 watt CD stereo complete the package. Luggage space is generous for weekend outings in a tool box built into the trunk lid takes the worry out of that extended Sunday run. We got our ride around the dips and turns of Road Atlanta a challenging 2.5 mile road course owned by the pain of his family and made all the more thrilling by intermittent rain showers. The Ivy is not meant to be a track star but still tackle vast Christy's with alacrity with simple suspension soaped up the bonds and allow the little body roll while the b a good Ridge had plenty of grip to spare.

Zero to 60 romps or over in less than four and a half seconds and the quarter mile passes quickly in about 13 seconds at over 100 mph. Opera announced twitching as a high speed snow may relegate the plane nose to the realm of speed limited street. The task it performs quite well. When we first visited Danny Payne owes two years ago we knew then that this small company had big plans. Now this gorgeous Esperance a hard top convertible is waiting in the wings and a full plate racing program is already bearing fruit. The Pintos are one was designed and built by radar but still uses a good old fashioned Jack Roush board. After a promising outing at Le Monde this year the paino is making a name for itself in the Sports Car Championship Series. So far the GDR wanted rack up six first or second place finish of the day you know. The roadster is second to none as a distinctive personal cruiser and well above a certain limit on the driving excitement scale. That alone

justifies the pay noses. Fifty six thousand seven hundred fifty dollar price tag. The wind of the hair the rumbling exhaust and the grounds of passer bys. Well that part's brief for the taking and we'll take ours in red please. And I hope you'll join us next week for much more motorway. Well Tess Lincoln's New Town car and drive Nissan's revamp pick up the front here. Lisa Barrow checks out high tech automotive safety while back God shows us the latest and nifty aftermarket accessories. Plus we'll have all the latest Motor News. I'm John Davis. We'll see that. To order a video cassette of this program call 1 800 4 2 2 0 0 6 4 4 7 one thousand ninety five plus for ninety five shipping and handling to Motor Week Post Office Box 5 5 7 4 2 Indianapolis Indiana 4 6 2 0 5. This. Is. B.S..