Motorweek; 2622

We run the gamut of the newest compact utilities to see how they clear a family or figure. Out the roundup. Next. Week. Hi I'm wrong fixing funky looking headlights this time my boss says Karrar I am Henrico has this week gone over the edge. I don't want to rally with Mercedes-Benz. And Saturn soars into crossover space with the outlook. So come drive with us. Now. Kelly. Brought to you by Carr's dot com. Let's say your looking for a car. Cars dot com can help research locate even contact a dealer. Cars dot com find the right car for you. And buy the tire rack. Ever notice how tires are like shoes whether it's every takeoff or seasonal for real performance. The Tire Rack knows

how to help you dress appropriately. You could learn more and by Valvoline the motor oil for guys who love working on their cars for more than a century Valvoline has shared this passion and he put it by testing our product on the track in pursuit of the best possible engine protection Valvoline 100 years under the hood and by Dunlop tires. The search for a true performance is part of our heritage. Dunlop is proud to present the Dunlop drivers Cup where amateurs from around the world compete head to head and on and off road competitions. Information at Dunlop tires dot com. Your host for Motor Week John Davis. Following welcome again to motor week. We're glad to have you with us. Over the last two years unpredictable gas prices have drastically cut America's appetite for midsize and full size SUV. But that doesn't mean that buyers are willing to give up on their capability and flexibility. So auto makers are responding with a crowd of new compact sport utes and

crossovers to fill the bill. All designed to make you more of a stranger at the pump. No doubt compact utility vehicles are growing in popularity due to their fuel efficiency. But just because these Utes are smaller doesn't mean they skimp on being lifestyle savvy. We stacked a trendy compact utilities in crossovers up against each other to see which grants the most room the most power and the most mpg. We concentrated on many units that are available in front drive and all wheel drive all can handle four full size adults comfortably on a growing family of five in a pinch. To even have seven passenger third row seating. First up the 2007 Ford Escape hybrid. A new age gasoline electric fuel Separ behind a rear hatch is a cargo bay that can hold 65 cubic feet of stuff and it has wide and tall as the larger Ford Explorer.

Powered by a two point three leader Ford cylinder and a 70 kilowatt electric motor. The Escape Hybrid outputs a combined 155 horsepower this strong hybrid power train is mated to a shiftless continuously variable transmission. Government fuel economy ratings are thirty six city thirty one highway for a front driver like our tester. It returned an impressive 32 mpg in real world driving but with a premium hybrid price of twenty six thousand three hundred twenty dollars. Next up is the all new 2007 Honda CRV. This segment benchmark is stylish outside and. Yes but his traded signature sign opening rear door for a conventional hatch. With a big cargo capacity of seventy two point nine cubic feet. The CRB has a stackable dual deck cargo shelf for better use of space. The CRV is powered by a 2.4 leader for yielding 166 horsepower. Both front end all wheel drive models use a 5 speed automatic transmission.

Government fuel economy ratings are 23 city 30 highway with front wheel drive are all wheel drive tester achieved to find 27 mpg sticker prices for the CRB start at a reasonable twenty one thousand one hundred ninety five dollars. Hyundai's latest compact utility is the 2007 Tucson blast with clean swept back styling cargo capacity totals a class typical sixty five point five cubic feet access is through a lift gate run an all wheel drive. Power comes from either a 2 meter for rated at 140 horsepower or a 2.7 leader V-6 with 173 horsepower. The 4 comes with either a manual or automatic transmission while the P6 is automatic only front drive four cylinder Automatic government fuel economy ratings are 22 City 27 highway. Our tester was a V-6 and returned a disappointing 18. The four will do better pricing for the Tucson starts of the low seventeen thousand four hundred ninety. Known for its off road heritage Jeep ventures into urban terrain with the all new

2007 compass crossover utility a seven slot Jeep grille fronts a chassis shared with the Dodge Caliber the interior is roomy with a maximum cargo capacity of sixty point seven cubic feet a rear hatch an available flat folding front passenger seat. Make long loads a snap. Compass power as a 2.4 lieder four cylinder rated 172 horsepower buyers can choose from crowd or single speed for will drive with clocking center differential with a high speed manual or CBT. Front drive manual government fuel economy ratings are 25 City 29 highway. Our four wheel drive manual delivered a loop of 26 MPG compass pricing is super affordable starting at fifteen thousand nine hundred eighty five dollars the lowest of our lineup the sportiest crossover going is the 2007 Mazda CX 7 with the CX 7 Mazda So all of a sports car trademark comes alive for Pete.

Moving. The interior is equally sporting and well-equipped but the arched body reduces cargo capacity to a less than par fifty eight point six cubic feet. The smallest of our group on the other hand a few Point 3 liter turbo charged four cylinder delivers a very strong 240 horsepower mated to a six speed automatic in front and all wheel drive. The CX 7 is government fuel economy ratings are on the low side and 1000 City 24 highway with front drive are all wheel drive tester mannish 20 mpg. Pricey for the slick CX 7 starts at 24000 $310. Mitsubishi is overhauling its entire lineup and this all new second generation 2007 Outlander is a key player. This compact crossover offers a child only third row making it an occasional seven seater maximum cargo capacity nearly matches the CRV at seventy two point six cubic feet. A low cargo floor and split rear hatch makes for very easy loading. How Lander finds power from a 3 liter V-6 churning out a modest 220

horsepower into an all wheel drive it feeds a six speed automatic transmission with a paddle shifters. Government fuel economy ratings are twenty city twenty seven highway with front drive our all wheel drive tester return 23 mpg and normal use well-equipped Outlander pricing begins at twenty one thousand nine hundred ninety five dollars. Yet another hybrid in our midst is the 2007 Saturn Vue Greenline with a squarish rear hatch. The green line can swallow sixty three point eight cubic feet of bulky cargo. It trades a spare tire for an unplayed or to make up for room lost to the hybrid battery pack. The green line is a mild hybrid with a primary drive from a two point four leader four cylinder rated 170 horsepower. It's assisted by a 10 kilowatt built drive electric motor. The transmission is a four speed automatic in front wheel drive only. Government fuel economy ratings are 27 City 32 highway Chester measure to find 28

mpg in mixed use you green line prices started twenty three thousand four hundred ninety five dollars low for a hybrid. Rounding out our lineup is the well regarded 2007 Toyota Rav 4 like the Outlander. It has available seven passenger seating. The third row however is only suitable for children. Cargo room is big coming in at 73 cubic feet the largest of our group easily reachable by a rear door. Power train Joyces or 2.4 leader. Sure it was one hundred sixty six horsepower attached to a four speed automatic. Or a very willing 3.5 liter be six foot 269 horsepower and a fire speed auto. Both come in front door all wheel drive on. The ramp force that's government fuel economy ratings are 20 for city 30 highway. I who will drive four cylinder test vehicle return 23 mpg pricing for the Rav 4 starts at twenty one thousand five hundred ninety five dollars. Now each one of our eight offers their own take a 1 a compact utility should be.

If cargo is your priority it's almost a dead heat among the Toyota Rav 4 Honda CRV and Mitsubishi Outlander. When it comes to fuel economy the Ford Escape Hybrid Saturn Green Line hybrid and Honda CRV are all worthy of a sporty look strikes a chord. The Mazda CX 7 is a fine pick but for the best overall package in a small utility are not goes to the Honda CRV. It has loads of cargo room willing power and better economy than all but the hybrids. A well rounded favorite indeed but every member of our compact group confirms that small units can deliver big. Coming down a truly historic. Rally. Time now for our weekly stop at Goss's garage where Pat's focus this week is as clear as cut glass.

John here's a problem that has become literally epidemic cloudy discolored headlamp lenses. Now this is caused by the ultraviolet light from the sun. It attacks the surface of the plastic and causes that get a little pockmarks and checks in it and so on. And you see it has this cloudy appearance. Well that diffuses the light into the air around the car and in general you can see when it happens you know unfortunate thing is it happens when the car isn't all that old too. But the fortunate thing will be that most of these can be restored. Now what determines whether they can be restored or not re stored as if the damage is on the outside of the lens or on the inside. If it's on the inside it's caused by moisture intrusion and you'll probably have to replace the entire assembly. Expensive. But fortunately the majority of Moby on the outside and you can restore them

as we have done here. If you look at this lens this side is very discolored. Over here we've polished it using a special kit for polishing head lamps and as you can see it looks virtually like new. Now you have two options. You can take it to the shop the shop is going to use a power tool like this. It's a special buffer usually operated by Air but these pads and the speed of the buffer and everything are designed so that they won't burn the plastic in the lens of the headlight. Now this will also involve the use of three different chemicals. There will be a cleaner That's step number one. Then a re Storer that's going to polish the plastic. That's step number two and Step number three is a sealer that seals it against the elements and helps reflect UVA light so expect to pay something on the order of an hour's worth of labor

plus 15 or 20 dollars for the materials. If you're going to do it yourself Well there are a lot of kits on the market. One of the better ones is this one made by permit techs. It has all that you need to do a very good job. Follow the directions to the letter and you should be pleased with the results. But here's something else. Masking tape use masking tape and old newspaper to mask off the paint around the headlight so that you don't get any of these chemicals onto the paint. You don't want to spot the paint. Now whenever you're dealing with masking tape get it under the car get it off of the car as quickly as possible. Never use it in sunlight because it will absolutely weld itself to the paint. You'll have a real mess on your hands. So on and off as soon as you're done. And if you have a question or comment write to me. The address is Motor Week always Mills Maryland 2 1 1 1 7.

Every week we routinely cover the latest cars bikes car care and industry news. But we were a lie on over the edge reporter Henrico pass for the big automotive world beyond the window stickers. There's a lot of ground and history to cover and much of it requires really going the distance. Mercedes-Benz has a long association with racing everything from Formula 1 to touring car. So they thought they put a rally together and they used another historic rally as their road map. That historic rally was the 19 0 7 transcontinental Peking to Paris rally a thirteen thousand six hundred kilometer that's eight thousand four hundred fifty miles slog through uncharted and undeveloped terrain. For 2006 though Mercedes decided to run the rally in reverse from Paris to Beijing and make not only vehicle reliability a key point but

diesel technology and fuel efficiency as well. And just 26 days. A total of thirty six diesel powered E-3 20s were used for the rally. Two of which were equipped with Mercedes new clean diesel technology. I was lucky enough to be chosen to drive one of the blue tech diesels away from the rally's para starting point to St. Petersburg Russia where another team of drivers would continue on to Beijing. After an early start from the base of the Eiffel Tower with Dime a Chrysler chairman and CEO Dieter Zetsche of doing the honors our caravan of diesel IIS and twenty four support vehicles trekked its way from Paris and into Germany. From there we hung a hard right across the former Iron Curtain and into Poland then made our way north through the Baltic states of Lithuania Latvia and Estonia. And for the most part said goodbye to what the United States in Western Europe would be known as a highway. This is where what I like to call driving fatigue really started to set in.

Being behind the wheel from morning till night every day on unusual roads with unusual signs and jockeying with locals that exercise more than unusual driving habits takes its toll. I'm sure my other driving colleagues would agree. Arriving at the Russian border after a week in the saddle was a welcome sight. And even though my journey was over when we made it to St. Petersburg the rally was the entire time. A running log was kept of each vehicles. Overall fuel consumption a key factor to the rally. Our intention was to prove the No. If you know the high fuel efficiency for sadists cars and diesel engines in particular the result was striking the winners actually made the whole forty thousand kilometers in around seven livres particular to put that into our terms. That's just under 34 MPG and that average came from driving conditions that at times were way less than desirable.

Not only did the diesels provide fantastic fuel mileage the blue tech cars did it while producing incredibly low exhaust emissions. This the first system of its type to be sold in United States. Isn't the only. Reason trickery Mercedes has up its sleeve a second blue check system planned for Mercedes sport utes uses a liquid called add blue injected directly into the exhaust. Add blue will allow bands used to meet the most stringent exhaust emission standards including those in California and the northeast US yet maintain the great economy of a diesel. Pretty hot stuff. What wasn't hot though was the slog through Kazakhstan and China frigid temperatures and snow were encountered by participants. But all would proceed exactly as planned to the rallies finishing point Beijing in the auto China 2006 Motor Show. Over the 80 400 mile route the rally made its way through a total of eight countries across 10 time zones in two continents all involved would definitely agree. It was a once in a lifetime experience.

The 2006 Mercedes Benz Paris to Beijing rally was a stunning success and one that we're seeing these bands may just have to try again in another 99 years. It's been a fast year with our BMW 330 X stock. After some 60000 miles we're more enamored than ever with this all wheel drive all weather sports sedan. We've heard from a lot of owners of the latest three series about excessive tire noise and we've experienced it too. We've rotated the run flat tires and kept a close check on tire pressure. The noise has not gone away but it has been reduced otherwise the performance provided by the balanced chassis and willing 255 horsepower three leader in line 6 have met and exceeded our expectations. Plus we've seen fuel economy continue to rise now standing at twenty two point six miles per gallon of premium. The BMW 330 X High is fast sure footed and always entertaining and even with tire noise

and the much maligned I drive control system. It's a superb machine. We've also ended our year with this Hyundai Sonata elex. Our motor week drivers choice best family sedan winner for 2006 and after twenty thousand hard Miles we continue to sing its praises. Granted the Sonata styling is pretty generic but then an inoffensive design appeals to a lot of buyers inside a little more styling could also be applied to the instrument panel and its computer tower like Cinder stack but the interior is very comfortable with only a tinny sounding stereo as a distraction. Reliability has been total while the available 235 horsepower V-6 deliver strong power and good twenty three point one mile per gallon fuel economy on regular gas. But what really makes the Sonata stand out is its commitment to occupant safety. We stay there. Side impact and curtain airbags ABS and stability control. And in a 100000 mile power train warranty and the American made Hyundai

Sonata is an easy choice. Hyundai sister brand Kiya has a new minivan the second generation Sedona it too looks like a near perfect solution to family needs. And we'll see if we're right over the next year. We'll check up on our Mitsubishi Eclipse spider. And this Nissan Versa. Our next motor week long term road test update. GM Saturn brand is best known for its small cars and utilities. But that doesn't mean they're afraid to take on their biggest challengers. Armed with three row seating and fuel friendly armor the Saturn Outlook is their first large crossover utility. It's also GM is most sporting contender in a segment that's rapidly growing as families ditch their thirstier traditional SUV. So just what is our outlook. On the outlook. The 2007 Saturn Outlook enters a large crossover vehicle segment that's

currently benchmark by the Honda Pilot in Toyota Highlander. So making inroads will not be easy. Built on GM is new lambda platform. The outlook shares mechanicals with a GMC Acadia and upcoming 2008 Buick Enclave. This new architecture allows room for seven or eight passengers with standard third row seating power for the outlook comes from DM's most advanced piece six three point six liter twin can unit with variable valve timing out muscling both the pilot and the Highlander output for our single exhaust x c Tester has 270 horsepower and 240 a counted of torque twin exhaust upgrade delivers 5 horsepower more available and front end all wheel drive. The outlook utilizes a new six speed automatic transmission with manual shift mode. Government fuel economy ratings for a front will drive outlook our 18 City 26 highway. That's the highest highway rating of any eight seat utility. They expect

22 mpg and everyday use on regular gas. On the track. The outlook move from zero to 60 in a minute with four seconds. With a quarter mile run at sixteen point eight seconds at 85 mph. You can chirp the tires off the line with a steady build of power from there. Chip. All of that. Is excellent. The wide track outlook is well supported by front MacPherson struts and an independent rear link a charm design electronic stability and traction control are standard. The result was a driving experience comparable to that of a tight medium sized sedan. On the outside the outlook is clad in sleek broad shouldered styling Saturns fresh design language comes alive with jewelled headlamps flanking the new brand Grille the tapered roof line leads back to a spoiler wrap around rear glass and chrome trim tail lights inside find a refined very roomy and comfortable cabin. The low and away instrument panel is handsomely

accented with wood grain trim. Notable standards include tilt telescoping wheel a CD in P3 stereo and rear air conditioning. The list of available amenities is luxury calibur including leather remote start voice activated navigation rear DVD entertainment and a huge double pane moonroof. The second row comes as either a reclining split bench for three or captains chairs for two. A clever smart slide feature allows quick access to the third row on our pre-production example and work but not as smoothly as it should. The third row is suitable for adults with three inches more leg room than a pilot and Hylander. The outlook can manage plenty of cargo to a generous nineteen point seven cubic feet behind the third seat with a maximum of one hundred sixteen point nine cubic feet far surpassing its two main rival safety comes by way of six airbags including three rows side curtains with rollover sensing base pricing for the outlook is in the same ballpark as the pilot and Hylander a front drive X E model starts at

twenty seven thousand nine hundred ninety dollars and up level all will drive X are starts at thirty two thousand two hundred ninety dollars. Saturn is hit the bullseye with their all new 2007 outlook. This family centric well-rounded effort is the new definition of a large crossover utility. Armed with sporting looks a flexible high quality interior and confident performance our outlook for the outlook is nothing but positive. Oh I hope you'll join us next week for more a motorway when we'll have our best of the year as we hand out over weeks 2007 drivers choice award. And as usual turn a few more new sets of car keys. I'm John Davis. We'll see you then. To learn more about Motor Week TV's original automotive magazine visit PBS dot org. To order a DVD or VHS copy of this program call 1 800 873 6 1 5

4. Motorway has been brought to you by cars dot com. Let's say your looking for a car. Cars dot com can help research locate even contact a dealer. Cars dot com find the right car for you and buy the tire rack offering a wide selection of tires wheels and more with professional advice and online shopping tools plus a national network of tile rack recommended installers. And by Valvoline the motor oil for guys who love working on their cars for more than a century Valvoline has shared this passion and he proved it by testing our product on the track in pursuit of the best possible engine protection Valvoline 100 years under the hood it had by Dunlop tires. The search for a true performance is part of our heritage. Dunlop is proud to present the Dunlop drivers Cup where amateurs from around the world compete head to head in the on and off road competitions.

Information at Dunlop tires dot com. This program was produced by American Public Television which is soley responsible for its content. What. I believe yes.