Motorweek; 506

A. High flying suite that seems to be going legit. And a straight shooting American with a new sense of power soon to be seen next on the motorway. Motor Week TV's automotive magazine has brought to you by the Robert Bosh corporation makers of barge platinum the ultimate spark plug for American and imported cars and by presto an antifreeze and cooling America goes with Presto. Your host for Motor Week. John Davis.

Hello and welcome again to motor week. Oh are off and running with the all new Saab nine thousand from Sweden and the Chrysler LeBaron four door sedan. Pat Goss has some answers for a couple of viewers who wrote him for advice. And Joyce Braga has the latest speculation on the future of Ford Thunderbird and Mercury Cougar. But first let's turn to an old friend here. It's the Saab 900. This basic shape has been around since 1967. And over the years it's been honed and polished. The nice thing about the 900 is that it's never lost its distinctive character. Of course some of you might just say it looks weird. The Saab is a car that dares to be different and succeeds. Well the 900 should be with us for a while to come. But we know that nothing lasts forever. Because here rides the Saab 9000 the Highline stablemate of the 900 series and sobs are all new platform for the future. This time all new isn't a cliche. If the nine hundred and all the early

sobs were like sixties rebels in the automotive world then the nine thousand is the rebel turned 80s bank president. This is no conscientious compact in most ways it's the biggest car SOB's ever built. The nine thousand one hundred five point two inch wheel base is six inches longer than the nine hundreds and three inches wider. Overall though it's five inches shorter thanks to a wider and inefficient body design the 9000 has interior room that puts it with the likes of full size Electra's and 98 below or covering a standard. And leather is an option. There's lots of leg room and plenty of seat support for passengers front and rear entrances. Thanks to very wide and tall doors it's obvious this is a car meant to please buyers who are looking for a careful car design so you get other smart features too. Deep storage wells and all doors adjustable height for front shoulder belts. The key to being

safe from being a pain in the neck. And you don't have to search under the dash for a fuse panel. It's neatly placed just inside the glove box. And how about this blackout space on the windshield. It blocks any glare that tries to sneak between the sun visors. The dash is one of the best in recent memory. All the controls fall as they say readily to hand and that includes the standard 5 speed shifter. The lower on the subject it's smooth and fairly precise SOB's best yet a four speed automatic is an option. The analog gauges are backlit with data for water temperature. Turbo Boost and fuel a digital readout covers voltage and fuel used as part of its trip computer functions and the obligatory 80 sedan panic panel to show you which door is really a jar. They've even put in some very on Creature conveniences such as this rear seat cup holder the steering wheel is telescopic but it's full forward position might block some people's view of the

fuel and gauges a tilt adjustment would do the trick. But there isn't any. In some ways the 9000 got a little too trendy. Just as the folks in Detroit were discovering SOB's excellent rotary ventilation controls Saab stopped using them. They now favor the standard fancy electronic climate control system. When you start the car the system sets itself based on outside conditions. That's nice but our personal preference is meant constant resetting and there's no way to turn the system off completely and to top off their entry into upwardly mobile sedan. The folks at Saab finally located the ignition switch where everyone else does on the steering column not down by the shifter as in earlier sobs. But the nine thousand isn't a complete conformist SOB made it a five door hatchback even though some Detroit marketing types say Americans won't buy upmarket sedans that half patches are too much like a common economy car you

know. But we're not snobs. We like the hatchback slow Syl and utility and the folding split rear seat and all of the 9000 cargo room around front the hood opens like most cars. Again unlike past sobs that open clamshell fashion but there is a familiar Saab design under the hood even though it's now been turned sideways. The 16 valve 4 cylinder with turbo charger and enter cooler. The two liter engine makes 160. Horsepower and 100 pound feet of torque. With 5 doors luxury and all the numbers we got last year with nine hundred sixteen. A quarter mile to sixteen point two seconds with a final speed of eighty seven zero to sixty seven point six seconds forty to fifty five passing time was an amazingly short three point six seconds and third here. The nine thousand has MacPherson struts up front rather than the typical spring at the rear.

They're still a solid axle as on the 900. With all sorts of locating links and Playboy. The result is the usual body will is minimal and the steering is so precise that you forget its power. The 9000 is further proof that an independent suspension is not necessary to make an amazingly fine handling front drive or. Brakes were almost as impressive. The setup showed a bit of a rear lock with the paddle straight and in a very short average distance. A remarkable 100 feet from 55. When it's not stopping the 9000 has a fairly supple ride out on the highway. EPA rates the Saab 9000 turbo a 21 City 28 highway. We returned a figure of twenty six. Good for a car with its power and size. The 9000 born from a joint effort between Saab launch and Alfa Romeo has just right in a lot of ways it feels solid and

safe. Perhaps more than any other front drive sedan. It's carefully designed for all its missions with well above average performance luxury and utility. And the few items we cared less for. Well the Saab 9000 could do with a simpler to adjust automatic climate control. You know one you could turn off when you wanted to and the steering wheel should tilt as well as telescope so all the gauges are clearly visible for all drivers. We'll add one other disappointment. The Saab 9 thousands base price of twenty one thousand nine hundred forty five dollars. Certainly that is very competitive with similar featured Audi's and BMW. And the 9000 includes a super duper stereo and sunroof. But that price will put it out of sight for many a long time Saab loyalist. So we leave the nine thousand with a very positive but slightly unsettled feeling. Some of us like the econo plastic quirks of the older songs. We may find the nine thousands design too conventional. It

is superior in function to all sobs before. So by definition it is to almost every other car too. It will win over a lot of youthful professionals who thought about owning a Saab but were put off by its dare to be different appearance and that was a big motive for the 9000 and by all our measures this car should be a big winner. Now we've driven a lot of vehicles over the years but nothing quite like what's coming up next. It's a vehicle that the U.S. Army is bringing out to replace the venerable tactical Jeep. And we just couldn't pass up a chance to try it out. It's called the Hummer and we found it deserves promotion to all four star rank. Maybe something like Commander of the four wheeled vehicle division the mighty Hummer will charge the dryest. Birds. Climb the highest

hill was already the deepest mud and snow. And Ford the deepest streams. So it's not hard to see why the standard issue army jeep could end up pulling duty on the firing range as a target. But it's not really fair comparing a jeep to a Hummer. The Jeep is a quarter ton vehicle. The Hummer a one in a quarter ton. The Hummer also replaces several of the Army's trucks so it's designed to do a lot more than the Jeep in the first place. The finished product is the most sophisticated and versatile vehicle of its type ever commissioned by the army in some applications the Hummer can do the job of two jeeps. Long before the Hummer was built the Army had come up with some pretty tough requirements for their vehicle concept. They wanted a high mobility multipurpose vehicle Humvee or Hummer for short to meet the multi-purpose part of the Hummer as a platform for 15 different vehicles

everything from a troop carrier to a missile carrier to an intelligence and command vehicle. To a gun show. As for the mobility part no problem. The army needs to climb a curb or drive through 60 inches of water. It's easy with the Hummer. And if the army happens to feel like dropping you want out of the back of a C-130 that's easy too. There were some other things on the Army's wish list for their vehicle. They had to be cheap and easy to maintain. Designed by I am general. The Hummer is powered by a six point two liter GM Detroit Allison diesel V8. The engines are reliable and easy to replace and the army already uses them in other vehicles. Many of the hummers other components are also off the shelf parts. The steering unit and the transmission also come from General Motors vehicles and of course the Hummer has four wheel drive full time four wheel drive that is.

And it also uses a three speed automatic transmission. Since a lot of today's soldiers can't drive a stick shift. And like all military automatics this one has no parked position on the selector. And how's this for a very unusual ignition lock. We took a good long look at the Hummer at the Army's Aberdeen Proving Grounds and what we saw almost made us want to join up. Almost the suspension is fully independent and designed so these control arms are interchangeable from front to back. The Hummer also has four wheel display TCS mounted end board of the axle shaft where they stay cooler and cleaner. And then there are those who run flat tires. If a tire blows the hammer just keeps going for up to 30 miles at 30 mph to keep the Hummer light. The body is made of aluminum. The hood and somebody's panels are made of Kevlar and that means they're bullet resistant too. We were surprised by how well the Hummer moves out for a 50 100 pound diesel

powered vehicle. It will go from zero to 50 in 20 seconds and it will easily run at 60 mph speedometer and the Hummer is easy and fun to drive. The power steering is quick if a little short on feel and the Hummer corners Flatley. It also feels stable. Thanks with seventy one point six track and 130 inch wheelbase. All that combined with its four wheel drive and diesel torque makes the Hummer the ultimate four wheel drifter. Neat as it is the Hummer has come under fire first for some now corrected. Problem and because of the roughly twenty three thousand dollars per copy that's compared to 17000 for a GI but the military has ordered 55000 awful and the price tag for that lot is 1.2 billion. We'd love to have a Hummer. It just might help us get through the northeastern winter would be to record hauling car parts back from flea markets. There's only one way you can help the Hummer be all that can be.

Used to sign up for a long term test with Uncle Sam. I am. And what we have here is a couple of letters addressed to Pat Goss. Let's talk about air cleaners and carburetors. And here he is with advice about each Pat. Thanks John. This time I have a couple of letters and an interesting tip. First a letter. Now this letter is from Mr. Donald Pari of cedar Hurst New Jersey who asks a question about his 1984 Monte Carlo Supersport. He says that there is what appears to be a non-replaceable metal air cleaner element inside the normal paper element in the air cleaner housing. And he wants to know what it does doesn't restrict air. And should it be removed. Let's take a look at what he's talking about here. We'll take the top off of this air cleaner. And then we see the paper element that we're all familiar with.

And here's what he's talking about right here. This is a metal unit that's attached to the inside of the air cleaner and should it be re moved. No. Why. Well first of all it does act as a filter. But even more important than that it acts as a flame arrestor if the car should backfire. Got a lot of flame and fire inside the carburetor when this happens and this acts to protect any plastic parts and the paper element air filter in there from catching fire. So definitely leave it in place. Now this goes along with something else that's becoming an increasing problem with late model cars. It's very difficult to modify them in any way at all and still have the more properly because all of this is integrated into the computer and so on. It also indicates Well it gives us a problem when we take things apart especially these little devils right here. Vacuum lines you know modern cars have just all

the bundles of all over under the hood of the car. And many times to take the air cleaner off you have to disconnect five or six of them and they're all pretty much the same size and same color and how do you get them back properly. Because if you don't the car isn't going to run right. Well there's a little bit of a trick that you can use that will solve all of this right here. By an assortment of model paint you know it comes in different colors like this and before you ever remove a vacuum hose paint the end of the vacuum hose and the fitting that it connects to. Then once you get ready to put these back together of course you paint different ones different colors. When you get ready to put them back together put the blue hose onto the blue fitting the Red Hose under the red fitting and so on. That way you don't have a problem getting the vacuum hoses back on properly. If you don't get them on properly you could wind up with an expensive bill at a dealership. Getting it straightened out. OK.

Now our next letter is from Mr. Wu of Bank of Louisville Mississippi who writes that his three 18 dodge diplomat with automatic transmission says that it shifts from first gear almost directly to third. You know boom boom right into drive and he says the fluid level and the condition of the fluid is OK and the transmission doesn't slip or leak or anything like that. He also says that his service technician told him it doesn't hurt anything. So just drive it like that. Well he'd like to know what Motor Week thinks. Well what motorway thanks is very simple and that is that he needs a minor adjustment and that adjustment is on the transmission linkage more precisely the throttle linkage you know attaches to the carburetor and goes down to the transmission so that when the accelerator is depressed on the car like this the accelerator moves backward. All of this linkage moves backward as well all the way down to the transmission and it

controls a valve inside the transmission. The more pressure that's put on that valve the higher the shift points the less pressure the lower the shift points. Now this is adjustable and it's adjustable right here. You simply loosen this nut and there's a slotted part in this is Rod it goes down to the transmission and by moving the rod backward you increase the throttle pressure and increase the shift points by moving it forward. You decrease the throttle pressure and decrease the shift points. And this is an adjustment that in many cases on Chrysler Corporation guys has to be performed about once a year. Rather interesting problem. And if you happen to have an interesting problem about your automobile Well how about letting us know about it here at Motor Week. Always Mills Maryland 2 1 1 1 7. That's Motor Week. Always Mills Maryland 2 1 1 1 7. OK now Joyce one of your spies been telling you about these days.

There is a lot of talk in Detroit John about the upcoming cougar's and Thunderbirds. I bet everybody wants to know just how far out toward styling is going to get. Well Ford wants to maintain its reputation as a leader in aerodynamic design so you can expect the 89 Thunderbirds and cougars to be very slippery. But there are some interesting design changes for the 87 and 88. Now this is the 1987 Thunderbird. And you can see that the body shape hasn't changed but it has flushed headlights and some models will have see old grill work and they're going to be taking their cooling air from under the bumper. Now here's the cougar's more formal version. It's smoother but it still has that upright cougar grill. Now aside from giving car buyers something different to look at these new noses for 87 should make the cars cut through the wind a little better and that's even more true of this possible 88 T-Bird hatchback since hatchbacks have better aerodynamics this is just a shell. But you can see where the body's been changed. It looks to me like a

Camaro like glass Hatch would fit on very nicely. And then we get to 89. Now this is when the all new T-Birds and cougars will bow wow. But just because these cars will still be rear drive the T-Bird and cougar are going to be a lot more than just new bodies on old floor pans. The 80 nines are going to have a fully independent suspension with air springs struts and the whole works will be electronically controlled and driver adjustable. Now if some rumors say the T-Bird and cougar were going to be front drive but that's not likely judging by the proportion of these bodies they still have those familiar styling ques the more formal cougar and the T-Bird with the sloped nose and Fastback of course nothing is finalized for these cars yet but we're guessing at a drag coefficient of close to point 3 0. The current car is a point 3 5. Interesting what about power trains. Well one good bet John is a 16 valve version of Ford's 2.5 lead or 4

cylinder. That one that's in the works and that will go along with the 3 liter V-6 from the new Taurus in sable. Now if you're a VH fan you're going to have to put up with a super charged v 6. Now to go with them. There may be two new computer regulated overdrive transmissions and automatic and a manual. Certainly sounds like Ford is trying to keep its aerodynamic reputation intact. Thanks Joyce. And next is a cart with another kind of reputation for being one of the mainstays of the American highway. This Chrysler LeBaron four door. It's one of those cars that does most of the driving in this country. So this year for all of the low Barrons miles of dedicated service Chrysler is going to give it some rewards. First they've given it some restyling. It's still the same front drive based sedan that Chrysler introduced four years ago for buyers who wanted Plymouth Aires

economy with Chrysler open ash. But now there's this slope grille rounded fenders and new wraparound taillights with Edda grated bumpers front and back. There's enough bright metal to go around just as before so the LeBaron still knows its place. But the real cause for celebration here is the second train a new engine. This is Chrysler's 2.5 lieder four cylinder. It has a single port fuel injection and generates 100 horsepower and 136 pound feet of torque. That's 14 percent. More than the standard to point to later but just a bit less than the Mitsubishi made 2.6 later it replaces. So what's the big deal. Well the new motor is 9 percent more efficient than the 2.6 has better bottom end torque and quicker throttle response. Like all front drive Chryslers the engine is transverse and the maintenance excess ability is good even for the fan belts. But best of all it's the smoothest four cylinder yet from the Penta

star despite only being a stroke version of the two point to a pair of counter rotating ballon shafts have been added below the crankshaft. Chain driven. They rotate at twice the speed of the crank and successfully dampen most of the vibration and shake normally associated with larger four cylinders. The result. Well this is the first front drive Chrysler we've driven that didn't seem to have a nest of angry hornets living under the dash and that makes any acceleration more pleasant. But this still is no. Screamer the 2.5 is designed to make torque that's pulling power not speed. So zero to 60 took a sort of long fourteen point two seconds. That's still in the average range for family cars 40 to 55 passing time a reasonable five point five seconds. The LeBaron also gets where by steering this year with better road feel than any K car to date. But then the Baron's combo of 185 70 14 all season tires and soft springs are still overwhelmed in the handling

test. There is so much plow that we had to cut our lane change entry speed from 55 to 45 just to keep the tires from breaking away and losing control stopping was much more impressive. There was no premature lock or rear end slide though there was some faint distances from 55 at least a very good figure. One hundred twenty one feet as per creature features and side. There's room for five adults with a moderate level of luxury. The standard bench seats are little short on leg support in the front and the back you get in by squeezing through the short narrow doors. But once you do there's plenty of room especially for the LeBaron short one hundred point three inch wheelbase. If the standard rolled and pleated vinyl upholstery isn't your style There's also a Mark Cross letter option but we were more impressed by the Barents instruments and controls reworks last year for greater convenience and legibility and electronic packages available for added

glitter. This year there's another new interior touch European like tactile switches for the power window controls around back the trunk is deep and wide even though there's still a high sell out on the road the LeBaron is almost as comfortable as its luxo image suggest allowing for the occasional K Car clunk from the front suspension on pavement joints and rough road bumps at 55 interior sound was a quiet 67 decibels and fuel economy. Well the EPA writes the LeBaron 2.5 at 23 city 25 highway. We managed a respectable 25 on our 100 mile mix driving. There are more than a few head still left in the LeBaron. We really like the smooth quiet 2.5 liter engine. We also applaud the better feel power steering and brakes that stop with. OUTFRONT Dr. Swing. Fit and finish were also better than any other Chrysler product we've seen recently. And with a base price of ninety seven hundred dollars the LeBaron is the kind of moderately

luxury a family car most people can afford. The love Barron's misses have mostly to do with highway ride and emergency handling. Too much impact from rough pavement and tar strips reaches the passenger compartment and the flabby tires and soft springs have cornering power well below. Other Chrysler products that use similar components the basic design of the LeBaron is indeed getting a bit long in the tooth. But Chrysler is still working hard to keep it competitive. And with the solid additions for 1986 it should thrive as a Chrysler mainstay for a few years to come. And we'll see you next week on motorway motorway quiz brought to you by the Robert Bosh corporation makers of Bosh platinum the ultimate spark plug for American and imported cars and buy priced own antifreeze and cooling America go with Presto on studio vehicles courtesy of a nationwide

Saab and it Timonium Chrysler Plymouth. At all it may still be the only rotary powered sports machine around but the rest of it is all new. And here's a 38 year old designed rebuilt for a new lease on life. Hello I'm John Davis our next Motor Week has stops in Japan and France as we test the new

Mazda Arik 7 and the classics are trying to CV. Then there's our regular maintenance advice a new car preview. So join us next time on motorways. At.