Motorweek; 1732

This time on Motor Week Mazda rejuvenates the Miata training teenage driver and now he's all purpose. So come drive with us. Television is a visual automotive magazine brought to you by Castro's super clean all wheel cleaner the cleaner that releases brake dust and grime from all types of wheels on contact no matter what age your car. Castrol super clean all wheel cleaner your host for Motor Week. John Davis and welcome again to motor week. We're glad to have you with us. When Mazda rolled out the first Miata for 1990 It's pure and simple design rejuvenated the sports car market. The Miata quickly became the two seater success story of the decade. Consumers love not only the price but it's fun to drive nature. Why the first Miata left ear to ear grins on

faces everywhere. And it was so successful that a slew of competitive roadsters followed. So now it's time for a new Miata and a chance for a Mazda to stir things up all over again. So designers and engineers at Moscow rose to the occasion and produced a Miata that offers many changes yet remains true to the spirit of the original car. That's because some of those changes are very subtle ones yet all are significant not the least of which is the styling which has taken on a more muscular look. Well you have to look carefully to pick up on it. It's most noticeable up front with the nose now wearing big oval headlights in place of the originals pop up units and a larger air intake while the side panels are scooped out between the new wider wheel arches and the tail gets a deeper bumper new tail light and a reshaped trunk lid which along with a relocated battery and spare tire expands trunk space to a still minimal

5.1 cubic feet. But one of the most important changes to Miata owners will be the introduction of a glass rear window and the border with a manual convertible top which greatly improves visibility in bad weather but doesn't interfere with the light weight top. Easy to use nature and still leave room for a newly available wind deflector behind the seats. But six boaters will be disappointed to learn that interior room has not been expanded to them though the seats themselves are now more supportive and in our car featured very nice optional leather upholstery. The still familiar Dash has more flowing lines a new steering wheel and relocated controls. The most welcome of which is the position of the latter option packages. Amazing Bose stereo and now sits at the top of the center pod where it's easier to operate while driving. All the standard dual airbags now come equipped with the passenger side cut offs which changes under the skin are important to one point eight leader four cylinder engine now sports new cylinder head camshaft and musters new variable intake control system.

It's 140 horsepower £119 feet of torque are noticeable improvement over last year's figures of 133 and 114 respectively and are fed to the rear wheels through a liter of five speed manual transmission for those real sports car fans or opposers for speed automatic. Price mean we had singing in the morning so what four seconds. Then ran the quarter mile in fifteen point five seconds at 93 mph. Our quickest Miata times ever. It's still not the smoothest four cylinder engine in the world however but it's wider powerband increase bottom end punch make it much more usable than before. The match the stronger engine. Mazda stiffened up the Miata chassis relocated the shock mounts and widened both the right and rear tracks giving the already nimble Miata a quicker turn in more rear end grip and a tighter more precise feel. Even on our ice cold winter Test Track Kudo's as well to the optional 15 inch alloy wheels which were larger stickier Michelin rubber than last year brakes

remained cool real best with our test cars optional anti-lock system average 110 feet in straight stable stuff from 60 mph. Out on the twisting back roads that are this car's forte. The 99 Miata produce more grins per mile than ever before. Car drivers particularly like the improved feel of the optional power rack and pinion steering additional traction from the force and limited slip differential which is also part of the optional leather package and the sweeter sound coming from the all new exhaust system which uses a larger muffler and stainless steel header. But the dips and bumps of everyday driving also reminded us that despite almost 10 years of development the Miata is still not a terribly refined car. There's still plenty of power shake over rough pavement and the ride especially will be optimal. What suspension can be harsh. Far cry from the refinement of competing roasters like the BMW Z3 and Mercedes SLK. But against all of them the Miata keeps an important ace up its sleeve.

Its price base price for the 1999 Miata is still only twenty thousand two hundred twenty dollars at airconditioning anti-lock brakes and a very comprehensive leather package which includes a range of power accessories and twenty five thousand six hundred forty five dollars is the final price. Even with all those options. That's at least $10000 less than the base price and many a bit more upscale European competitor. Which is why Bryce is number one on our list of hit closely followed by the improved handling in drive train. Then there's the new glass rear window in the convertible top. The more efficient dash layout and more muscular styling most misses are long time complaints. The leg room is still too tight for call boats the ride is nothing to write home about. And despite a stiffer chassis there's more body shake than we'd like. But on a warm summer day with the wind in your hair and the engine note in your hear. These good planes quickly fade away because for pure driving enjoyment a true blue sports car like the Miata is hard to beat.

Our brains at Automobile magazine made their feelings on the matter very clear when they call the Miata one of the best cars a person could ever own. A sentiment echoed by hundreds of thousands of adoring fans who had made this unpretentious little machine a benchmark for modern sports car marketing and design. In 1999 Mazda Miata will not disappoint them. It's still uncomplicated economical and a ball to draw on. It was a revolutionary return to the basics in 1990 and today in a market glutted with giant pickups and megabuck luxury sport utes pure or simple sports car like the Mazda Miata can still stir things up. Coming up teaching teenagers to draw on. You know if you want legal advice you ask a lawyer if you want to learn how to cook. You ask a chef. But if you want the best car carry advice going you ask Motor Week stop technician Pat Goss.

John one of the most dramatic moments of owning an automobile is when it gets its first stone chip and if you don't take care of that chip it can lead to some real serious problems. Things like we see on this door where it gets these big rust blisters or sometimes actual holes rusted right through the metal. So that's caused by moisture getting under the edge of the chipped paint. Now there's some things that you can do to help prevent that. The most simple and basic thing is right here. Clear nail polish. Simply code each one of the stone chips with it and that will keep the moisture from getting under the paint doesn't make it look any better though. So if you really want to do it right you're going to need some materials waxing grease remover to get rid of wax that has accumulated in those chips. Then you'll need a touch up brush you know just the regular little artist's brush. If you don't have one of those. Well you could use a paper mache stick the end of the match stick is fuzzy enough that it can be used to apply pain like a brush. Of course you'll need some touch up paint that matches the color of your particular car.

Then you'll need a magnifying glass to look at these tips closely. You'll also need a fine Exacto knife. This is going to be used to cut away some of the remaining paint under that chip. Then you're going to need a regular pencil with a new race around the end of it and some ultra fine sandpaper preferably about 600 grit wet or dry. You'll also need some glue and what you're going to do with all of this is you're going to take a small piece of the sand paper and glue it to the end of the pencil. More about that in a minute though. You'll also need white polishing compound one it's designed specifically for Clear Coat finishes because we want it to be very fine. Don't use the orange heavy duty type. Now we tape by doing one of these repairs earlier. So let's take a look at it and see how it goes. First thing that we're going to do is we're going to use the prep saw to wipe the wax and grease away from the stone chip. Then we're

going to use the magnifying glass to see if any of the paint has curled up. If it has curled up we're going to use the exacto knife and we're going to scrape and cut away any loose paint around the stone chip. We want to keep moisture from getting in there. Then we're going to use the pencil with the sandpaper on the end of it to sand it to get rust out of the bottom of the chip. Then we're going to clean the area thoroughly again and we're going to use the touch up paint. At this stage we're going to apply this very carefully into the chip. Now we want to get all of the chip and we want it to be thoroughly covered. Now once we've done that this has to sit and cure for about a day. Then we are going to use the white polishing compound. And we're going to polish the area smooth. Now that was done five years ago. And as we can see the

repairs still looks like new. And if you have a question or a comment write to me. If I use your letter on the air I'll send you a motor week T-shirt The address is Motor Week always Mills Maryland 2 1 1 1 7. Our star of the week is in 1967 Pontiac Firebird submitted by Paul high auto mechanics teacher in Denville New Jersey. Once a rusting home the car was completely restored by Paul students in the Morris County Vo-Tech school's auto body and technology classes. Now if you've got a car you're proud of submit at least two good color photos and a description of the car to Motor Week Owings Mills Maryland 2 1 1 1 7. Our high road reporter Craig saying he loves to drive but when he's not driving test cars he's a fierce competitor an amateur racing events and they keep his skills sharp and he's attended at least a dozen performance driving

schools. But to Craig the most important driving school is one that he doesn't have to attend. Right this. Is my son Christopher. He's a pretty typical kid. Loves loud music hates the clean his room. Back. He's also a novice driver. He attended traditional drivers education classes today for six months on a learner's permit and even won a couple more months before he actually solo. Still his mom and I do worry. Statistics show that a teen driver is almost four times more likely to have an accident than the rest of the adult driving population. And for 16 year olds that jumps to almost 10 times more likely. Now a lot of states including mine have adopted a graduated licensing system

which includes things like restricted nighttime driving zero drug and alcohol tolerance and tougher first driving offense sentences. Now you just can't teach judgment. Hopefully that comes with maturity. But I do think that there are some accident. Where you see. Things like threshold braking that can be cocked or enhanced. That's why Christopher and I came here to the Mid-Ohio school teen driving program. And. You can go there. Instructor Ryan till is a professional racing driver. Speed is not what the Mid Ohio teen driving program is about. I think it should be stressed that we're not a high performance driving program. We really try to make sure that go fast when everyone enters the picture here. The philosophy of the middle school especially the team driving program is one of continuing education. The teams get out short basic level of instruction and they learn to drive. It's certainly the best that can be afforded to him at the time with the

equipment and the skill that they have. But I look at it as continuing education much like we get out of high school going to college and they go to on to advanced degrees after that continuing education takes them to an opportunity and to a place with the ability to do exercises and test skills that the stars in the regular driver's education Mid-Ohio driving program has limited. We're going to work hard to deal with this for the one day session and it is a very. Kids know what's going on and they need to learn not only what to do but want to do it. I mean it needs to be explained to them why it gets done that way they understand it I think a lot of people don't believe that they're going to understand the physics behind all of it but I think if we can explain to them why things happen the way they do it makes the lesson a lot easier. All right. Release you're going to go back to our breaking exercise you know. You know.

They teach stuff you can't go anywhere else. I mean you got to just die or sad and this is especially like hands on second you get to actually get in a car and trial lawyers try to take the civics class when they go there and that's the end of it we have a large skid pad where we do all of the work for the teen driving school we never run on to the racetrack. Once again speed is not important. The skid car that we have is a platform ticket which enables us to do all kinds of handling scenarios understeer oversteer advanced degrees or both of those. And all of it gets done in a very low speed. Fifteen miles an hour it seems pretty fast I know I was going pretty slow but it seems pretty fast when you're in the car and you know when you first starts to rain and the oil comes off the road it feels like that earth feels like you're driving on ice. And since icy roads are something the christer is likely to encounter back home the first skids happened right here. They learned to believe in themselves and the ability of themselves as a driver and the ability of the car to get the job done to save their life or the

situation. That's what's successful to me. There is no denying the steady appetite for new sport utility vehicle Mitsubishi sold almost 32000 Montero sports during its first model year. This sold out SUV captivates buyers with its blend of modernised upright styling and unquestionably rugged body on frame construction. We noted earlier how Mitsubishi has added luxury features for the 98 model year and we still find the on road ride to be pitchy over expansion joints yet off road the Montero Sport is extremely agile with good rock running torque from its three leader 173 horsepower V-6 engine. But when it comes time to redesign the Montero Sport we hope wider rear doors are considered. They are rather narrow. Still after twenty three thousand seven hundred miles of travelling we're pleased with the fine for its class 20 mpg economy. We think the Montero Sport is a trouble free

SUV with a bright future. Speaking of appetites the public gobbled up two hundred fourteen thousand full sized board expeditions during its first year. In fact thanks to the expedition the market for full size SUV group 40 percent. No wonder the board or expedition offers room with a view superb all terrain capabilities and which is the consumer's thirst for V8 power which by the way has a big thirst for fuel. Our five point Corps leader expedition manages 14 miles per gallon tank full after tank full. But given the low price of gas these days it matters little to Expedition faithful. Our only cold snap of the winter brought two problems to our attention. The power mirrors seem to stick a bit on the gas struts that support the hatch are losing their arms fast. Still we understand Ford is planning to make even more expeditions this year and Dell surely sell every one of them with ease. Next week we'll see how our Nissan Altima sedan and Toyota Sienna minivan are holding off on motor week's long term road test update.

Now we turn from the daily drivers of our long term fleet to Lisa barrow with a report on a daily driver from the used car fleet. It's one of America's most popular family sedan. But will it be as popular with a second owner as it was with the first set. For years the Honda Accord has been popular among families. In fact it has such a good reputation it's the number one selling card to retail customers. And that's exactly why we picked the 1995 97 accord as a good used car buy from the accords beginning Honda has set the standard for user friendliness and well-thought out details. While the Accord styling may not knock your socks off didn't finish are excellent. The fifth generation accord is available in three body styles four door sedan two door coupe and four door wagon the sedan is available in three trim levels DX l x and x. Inside the seats are comfortable and

supportive. The instrument panel is well designed with controls in easy reach. Power comes from a two point two leader single overhead cam four cylinder engine. The upscale E X comes standard with the 145 horsepower four cylinder where you move out two point seventy. Six That will give you 170 horsepower. We've always liked the maneuverability of the accord the X is double wishbone suspension work fine. And right from. The extensive steering and rear stabiliser helped make easy work of Iceland. This. Morning to Pat Goss. The repair record of the accord is excellent. Only one major recall was issued for a corroded air conditioning condenser in regions with high road salt or acid rain problems. Prices range from $12000 for a 1995 order dx. To twenty one thousand six hundred fifty dollars for a 1997 Ford or effects with the basics engine. The Accord has a reputation as one of the most reliable cars on the market. And as used car by it's hard to go wrong

1995 through 97 Hondo. Motor Week staff of baby boomers found cruise and car culture in America to be an irresistible trip down memory lane. Author Michael Harwich has produced a serious study of the cruising phenomenon but it's also highly entertaining coffee table book filled with nostalgic photos and totally cool artwork of can't bash the text expertly explore subjects such as drive in dining and street racing while the excellent quality photographs and the illustrations practically leap off the page. One suited to adventurous spirits and strong spines. The sport utility vehicle has now become positively genteel. In fact the true ground pounders of the sport youth segment now take a backseat to their refined more car like competitors. And that suits the folks at Audi just fine since their new

84 Avant wagon can't be considered a sport utility in the truest sense of the word. But there is plenty of sport sedan beneath the stylish skin and with a long interior and the available surefooted Quatro system plenty of utility as well. But is that enough to make the A4 Avant a success. That depends on your definition of success. Because for those you don't need the rugged over deal offered by many as you yet appreciate the availability of all wheel drive in the roominess of a wagon. The 1998 Audi A4 Avant is already a success and good looking too as the unique styling makes it instantly recognizable as a member of the Audi family and sets it apart from the other wagons on the road. Admittedly not very difficult to do considering the sparsely populated market segment but to us the real standouts are its sports sedan like agility and strong grip evident

even in our front drive faster and its elegantly appointed interior that like the new A6 comes in three distinctive atmospheres and let buyers select colors and fabrics buried mixer bright trim and wood even the style of stitching. All at no extra cost. No front leather buckets are typically German firm but offering to Sayen lateral support as well as side impact protection and optional. The driver seat gets a power adjustment with a manual lumbar support. And faces an instrument cluster that includes oil temp an amp meter gauges and it's excellent laying out. The stereo controls however are still a tad too small although they are more legible than those found on the pricier 8. But the climate controls couldn't be simpler just select the desired temperature push the auto button and forget about it. Also worth forgetting are the funky two prong cup holders. The design is clever but not very useful. And unfortunately neither are the back seats where space is tight even for kids prompting us to recommend that this oven is better suited to a

couple seeking wagon versatility rather than family but there is adequate cargo space. Thirty one cubic feet with the seat up right sixty three point seven with it bolted and it's easily accessed through a rear hatch that swings high and away revealing the nice large company also easily accessed through the vinyl fluid filler caps in the otherwise tight engine bay. There's 2.8 leader dual overhead cam B6 includes 5000 technology variable valve timing and a variable geometry composite intake manifold in its bag of technical ability and delivers 190 horsepower and 270 pound feet of torque along with an impressive 25 mpg fuel economy and mixed city and highway driving. It also delivered us to 60 in a respectable. Seven point six seconds. With that strong pool throughout the powerband but under full throttle exhilaration the 5 speed automatic in tiptronic mode ignored higher points and instead ran to the red line where it shifted itself.

But the front tracked front drive system with all speed Traction Control told us nimbly through the slalom with minimal slippage on a 40 degree day and easily handle the high speed lane change at 60 mph almost making us pretty good that this wasn't a Quatro equipped us car. The heavily weighted steering is smooth as whip. Moderate speed turn ins are precise with just a touch of understeer before it hooks up and send you in the desired direction. Braking is also excellent or will bisque and abs are standard and brought us to a stop from 60 in a rock solid average of 120 feet. There's plenty of feedback to the pedal so you know this system is working. Out on the highway the ride is refined and supple. But on back roads the bore link Braunton torsion beam rear with gas pull over shocks at the corners. OK job it's soaking up the harshness from. Base price on their stylish little packages thirty thousand nine hundred sixty five dollars. I lightly option tester rang up at thirty three thousand nine hundred forty five dollars. If

that's too rich for your blood wait until when the old haunt will be available with a 120 lever turbo fork. That should bring the price down to around $25000. This Audi is a far cry from the woody clad highway boats we grew up with in 1998 Audi A4 Avant deliver sports sedan handling hand wagon versatility and an aggressively styled package loaded with technical innovation that should spell success with the A4 Avant in capital letters. And I hope you'll join us next time for more motor we will test the new Lexus r x 300 sport utility vehicle and Subaru sporting Impreza 2.5 r s lease a barrel logs on how to buy a car on the Internet. Bobcat Dawes has more advice on keeping your car in tiptop shape. Plus we'll have all the latest motor names. I'm John Davis. We'll see that motor week has been brought to you by Castro super clean all wheel cleaner the cleaner that releases brake dust and road grime from all types of

wheels on contact no matter what age your car's Castro super clean all wheel cleaner to order a video cassette of this program call 1 800 4 2 2 0 0 6 4. This is PBS.