Motorweek; 2004

This time on motor when Chrysler upgrades the king of minivans BMW locks its ultimate red top and trucks for an Earth Watch tomorrow. So come join with us now. Look at. TV's original automotive magazine brought to you by Priceline dot com with Priceline dot com you name your own price for new cars. All makes and models of cars trucks sport utility vehicles minivans and more. When you log on to Priceline dot com you name your own price. And buy equal tire performance in cars light trucks and SUV as equal reduces tire vibrations so your tires can meet the road more evenly equalled for added safety stability and handling for the life of your tires and by pep boys no matter what you drive. Pep Boys has over twenty seven thousand items in stock virtually any part for any car with all the name brands you know plus service based staff with

certified technicians Pep Boys parts tires accessories service. Your host for Motor Week. JOHN DAVIS Well oh and welcome again to motorway. We're glad to have you with us. In 1983 Chrysler turned the auto industry on its ear when they introduced the first front wheel drive minivan. Now in the 17 years since many vans have become a staple of the neighborhood driveway everywhere even the incredible rise in ASH UVA's has failed to dampen family drivers enthusiasm for this most practical of people movers. And despite the arrival of many clever competitors Ryan Miller Chrysler continues to command the lion's share of the minivan market. So what do the all new 2001 Chrysler minivans offer that will keep those families coming back for more. How about the industry's first power operated rear hatch a feature that few parents balancing both kids and grocery bags will be able to resist.

It's available on all 2001 Dodge Caravan doing Chrysler Town and Country models but not so on the now Chrysler Voyager. It includes an obstacle the Texas system that stops the hatch from closing on straight limbs or your head. This is in addition to the first time available dual power sliding rear doors. But that's just part of an already successful package that's been extensively revised both inside and out of fact obvious this season the minivan fans. This is the latest Chrysler and Dodge minivans all features sleeker more muscular styling. 2001 the front ends feature larger headlamps and gaping grills while a more wedge shaped profile with sharp character lines tightens up the normally soft minivan fore and well-defined liftgate tail lights and lower facia firm up a once flabby rear. The interior is also completely rethought on both short and long wheelbase models always spacious it's now augmented with a more upmarket style and available side impact airbag. Gauges scored off white faces on all

models except the Town and Country lxi unlimited with their gold and black graphics and some center stack is controlling cubbyhole laid down the switchgear for the standard cassette stereo an optional in-dash CD changer easy to comprehend or order the rear seat video system to entertain today's media dependent youth interior comfort is governed by the new three zone automatic climate control. Another minivan first. As is this clever removable center console with power outlets and a cell phone holder it fits between either the front door second row seats while further back the removable third row Bay seat is now split 50/50 for more flexibility and rolls in and out on compact wheels and on top of that there's no bailable pop up. Cargo organizer that makes it finally possible to get your grocery bags home intact. Very clever. And to haul it all around the beefed up engine selection that starts with a two point four leader 150 horsepower four cylinder and currently tops out with three point eight leader V-6 that delivers

250 horsepower and 245 pound feet of torque. A more powerful 3.5 liter 240 horse B6 will be added. Early in 2001 Chrysler made minivans both front and all wheel drive for speed automatic transmission. The Dodge Grand Caravan also offers Chrysler's auto stick transaxle for those who desire a manual shift. With three point leader engine and autistic transmission are all wheel drive Grand Caravan he has hit 60 in a respectable ten point three seconds and ran the full quarter mile and seventeen point six seconds at 80 mph. Power is concentrated down low for maximum family hauling ability. The drive train feels smooth and solid but the auto sticks habit of automatically up shifting well before redline makes us question it. Now you're handling raises other questions. Revisions to the front coil and strong and the rear leaf spring into shock suspensions geometry seems to improve grip. But soft springs which produce lots of body

roll and a lack of steering feel upset the van's balance in repetitive tight turds. Fortunately few drivers will push their minivans this hard but in our high speed emergency test the Grand Caravan felt more confident. Snap steer it in at 60 and it responds with a solid predictable front end push and good rear end grip. And as for braking larger disc a new calipers are yes produced every stop from 60 of an acceptable 137 feet. Nose dive is prominent but the brake pedal though a bit soft delivers good feedback. While out on the road the Grand Caravan is a very elegant ride yet with a solid feel and easy vehicle across America providing of course that you can afford the fuel. EPA estimates for our Grand Caravan E-S are 16 city and 22 highway. We average 17 mpg in mixed driving. Now that's lower than our previous Chrysler minivan test so we think it would improve with it. As for

affording the vehicle itself the Dodge Grand Caravan lineup starts with a twenty four thousand nine hundred fifteen dollar front drive sport vs grade band starts at twenty nine thousand seven hundred fifty dollars with front drive and costs thirty two thousand eight hundred seventy five dollars for an all wheel drive model like our test machine. Yes the 2001 Chrysler and Dodge minivans offer plenty of new features to attract buyers to their slice of the crowded minivan market. They may have reached the limits of minivan performance but with the caravan Town and Country and Voyager dialer Mysore continues to expand buyer's expectations for comfort and convenience. As it should be. Because who knows more about minivans and what minivan buyers want than the company that created the class itself. Do antilock brakes always reduce your stopping distance in emergency situations.

A new government study concludes that except on loose surfaces like sand and snow all panic stops can be shorter which will anti-lock brakes than without shorter on wet pavement. And shorter on dry pavement. Remember ABS works best when you stop the brake pedal stay on the brake pedal and steer where you want to go. Coming up tomorrow's trumps today. It's now time for our weekly dose of car care advice with motor week's number one ranch pack costs. John I've been reviewing some of the more interesting products that we've seen here at Motor Week and I thought I would share some of them. You know the virtually all cars these days have some sort of gas charged strut. You find them on hoods on trunks on hatches like this. They're what make the hatch or whatever item it is move up and down smoothly in keeps it up in the air. You know you don't want to come thumping down on you when that does happen because these

struts wear out. So there's something new out there. This is by Sax. It's called Lift mat. And they are not temperature sensitive. They're compensated for temperature so that they always work smoothly and they don't drop when the temperature changes. So they're pretty slick and they solve some of the common problems that you find with gas charge struts. Now in the area of safety here we have an auto dimming inside mirror. Now this is available with or without compass and temperature. And it works very simply when the car comes up behind you at night with the headlights on it dims automatically. Then when the headlights are gone it comes back to normal. It's a great safety feature. It's a do it yourself installation. Down here smart. Park 2000. Now this you'll find on a lot of late model cars is an option. This one is a retrofit.

Again you can do yourself when you put the car in reverse and start to back up. If there's something that is close beat loud and fast. The closer the item gets the faster it beeps. Again do it yourself both of these are from my toe Corp and they add a lot of safety to the vehicle. Here we have a bosal exhaust system in US A can't back system. You say well there's all kinds of cat back systems out there but this one is unique in as much as it is called a chameleon. And the reason it's called a chameleon is that there's a wide variety of tips that can be bolted on to the end of the system. This gives you a look that you want regardless of what that is. Now these systems are becoming very very popular especially on small imported cars. They're all the rage 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. Thank you. This week our car of the week is something a little different. It's in the cycle and it's own it was designed and built by Jamieson of Reiser's town Maryland. Now this little road rocket is powered by a stock one thousand eighty six Suzuki GSX 750 motorcycle engine. But the rest of the Indy cycle including the sleek hand formed fiberglass body and suspension components was built from scratch by Jamison and a host of friends including students from the special education class that he teaches. Now if you have a little homebuilt project in your garage We'd love to see it. Send us two good color photos to motorway Owings Mills Maryland 2 1 1 1 7.

Heaping ahead of the competition in today's fast moving auto industry is no easy task and requires a constant influx of new ideas. But the fight for those new ideas can be just as fierce a battle as for new buyers. So what's an automaker to do. Well this week reporter Jennifer shows us one company's approach to staying ahead of the competition with a little competition of its own. Every car company is always in search of the ultimate environmentally friendly automobile. General Motors is so much though that they've created future truck 2000 a competition between the top 15 engineering schools in the country more than 250 students will have the opportunity to develop the most efficient Suburbans are what you might call the super trucks of the future. The truck is an advanced technology vehicle competition sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy. General Motors and other industrial and government sponsors

all the time involves 15 different universities across North America in an effort to improve fuel efficiency and reduce environmental impact. So about light trucks and sport utility vehicle. It's a science project and then each school gets a $10000 grant a 2000 suburban and a mentor all the tools sponsors think the students need to get the competition underway. On. And what you're seeing here today are the finals at the G.M. Proving Grounds in Mesa Arizona. Each school will be judged on all the hard work and effort that they have done for the past year. Oh my goodness. A lot of preparation. I think when it when it actually comes off it looks like it's. A pretty spontaneous event but it takes a lot of people working full time all year long. And with gas prices going up and down like a roller coaster the results of this competition are especially relevant event isn't completely new though future truck is a spinoff of what they once called a

future car. The goals are still improving fuel economy and emissions. Now for future truck there are more specific. And slightly different goals. In future trucks we are reducing the greenhouse gas emissions by two thirds. That's the goal and future car the goal was to improve fuel economy by three times. The conventional Bierko or. 80. For Gallup. And every school does something a little different. The University of Tennessee tried to pretend mission parallel hybrid the University of Maryland who tied for first place with an ethanol fuel transmission electric vehicle. And my alma mater West Virginia University was the other first place winner. They went with a parallel hybrid diesel engine design is a fundamental and it's based on our experience in the competition which is. You know keep it simple make it complex and it between the two is a happy ground and that's I think what we've achieved what we've produced is a proof of concept vehicle showing how future full SaaS

Saluti vehicles could be converted into high efficiency vehicles while retaining the full functionality that's expected of a full size portraits in the two vehicles and to make this the ultimate science project. You have to have Bill Nye the Science Guy participating. Well I'm an honorary judge, and there's a couple things I look for I were going for. What I would call clean design one that looks like it will fit in a real truck and the consumers will accept it but the big thing for me is using innovative technology. So some. Science. Future stuff. This competition is especially important since more than half of new vehicle purchases made by consumers are pickups vans and SUV. So these kids can get these light duty trucks up and running. Then there is hope for the environment especially since you are looking at many of tomorrow's top automotive engineers. We find that the people who come through these kind of competitions or have been very heavily involved in cooperate experiences during their engineering education are a lot more

capable and ready to go when they come to us. And they will most likely end up the GM. We found quite a few students who had already been hired. So it may be unconventional but it looks like this recruiting office is definitely getting the cream of the crop. Now let's check back in with Jennifer to see what's new right now and all the latest Motor News. Well Lexus introduced the LS 400 in 1909 and boldly proclaimed its intention of wrestling the luxury car crowd from the Germans. The general response was a skeptical. Yeah right. Well that was 11 years ago and time and experience have a way of altering one's perspective. So when Lexus recently introduced its third generation LS The LS 430 response was a more enthusiastic. Yeah right. And that's because Lexus has proven itself not only capable of playing the kind of cutthroat one upmanship often associated with the luxury segment but of producing a darn fine car to boot. And the LS 430 is the latest example. It's new bolder design gives it a class leading

coefficient of drag of zero point to six equip your ls with the optional air suspension and that figure drops to zero point to 5. The new LS has a three inch longer wheelbase than the previous model. Now one hundred fifteen point two inches but maintains the same overall length. It now offers more head leg and cargo room than the Mercedes S class. The new 4.3 leader for 32 valve turns a two hundred ninety horsepower and three hundred twenty pound feet of torque. In addition to the proven VB variable valve timing with intelligence the LS 430 also comes with intuitive power train control which analyzes accelerator pedal pressure along with engine operating conditions and vehicle speeds for a smoother application of torque. Load your ls 430 with the ultra luxury option package and you'll get features like dynamic laser cruise control which maintains a set distance from the vehicle traveling in front of you. And intuitive parking assist which helps detect if something is behind you when parking.

As you might expect the new LS 430 boasts a complement of interior amenities too numerous to mention here but will try to squeeze them all in when we fully test the LS 430 in the near future. The 2001 Lexus LS 430 goes on sale October 15th and although pricing has not yet been finalized. Lexus estimates it will be close to the current models $54000 base price and that's it for this week's Motor News. No matter how you wrap it it's hard to hide the hulking form of this heavy duty Dodge Ram quad cab dually with smaller ram set to debut a new look in late 2002 as 2003 models this big boy will follow close behind. You can expect the new Rams to sports a moderated styling cues taken from the Mac's cab concept truck. That's during the auto show circuit this year. Power train options are rumored to include a new 5.7 leader V8 and possibly diesels from both Cummins and Mercedes Freightliner unit. Future plans also include a new RAM based full sized SUV.

One ops one chip is the auto industry's favorite game. No sooner has one manufacturer released a heart stopping high end flagship than its competitors are unleashing their own over-the-top super cars to counter it. And the latest example of automotive Can you top this is this 2001 BMW 0 8. It's got all the go fast goodies of our favorite sports sedan the BMW M5 and a classy compact roadster platform. So can that competition top this. Year. Well we'll have to let the competition answer that question if they can. But we will say as dyed in the wool car buffs We'd love to see them try. But until then there's plenty of panache and performance of the new 2001 BMW 0 8 to keep one amused for quite some time. And it's all rafting classically designed aluminum body panels that evoke memories of the

1950s 5 0 7. And that's no mistake as BMW designers were in fact challenge to render a modern interpretation of what they thought the 5 0 7 would look like today. And believe us pictures do not do the results justice. Now that classic challenge was met with early high tech means as the alloy bodywork also it covers an aluminum space frame and suspension components. That hugs the road with 18 inch cast aluminum wheels fording Z rated run flat rubber The 5 0 7 heritage is evident under the hood of the 0 8 as well because like the 5 0 7 in its time this showcases BMW is most powerful production engine. The 5 leader for Cam 32 valve that also finds a home under the hood of the highly coveted M5 sedan. In addition to double vandals variable valve timing this high strong power plant also employs eight individual throttles controlled by electronic drive by wire technology to produce three hundred ninety four horsepower and three hundred sixty eight pound feet of torque at just thirty eight hundred RPM.

Run through a tight and slightly 96 speed get drag transmission the Z a kind of coax us to 16 or bring 4.3 seconds and thundered on past the quarter mile stripe in twelve point nine seconds at 110 mph. Power is smooth and seemingly endless. And during a few shakedown laps around Summit Point raceways Jefferson circuit our drivers noticed how easily the car can be steered with a response if you want to. In fact the C-8 offers a choice of either sport or normal throttle sensitivity settings thanks to dynamic throttle control. Of course it doesn't hurt that the C-8 has an ideal 50/50 front to rear weight ratio an addition to the High Street the aluminum components and the double pivot strut type run and cooling enterable rear suspension busy aid also uses stout any roll bars and twin tube gas shocks to keep the car planted and under control. But should your exuberance surprise asked the redline. There's a host of technology safety

nets like dynamic stability control and corner brake control to keep you from hurting yourself. Not to mention the MV thirteen point one inch front twelve point nine inch rear ventilated desk that governed by abs brought us to a stable and controlled stop and 114 feet. If there's a chink in the Z it's performance armor it's in the vague feel an uneven feedback of the steering when it comes to ride quality staff reaction was mixed with some feeling the ride too harsh for a luxury oriented roadster all others found it well suited to the car and their working. We all agree however the car is tight and rock solid. Dizzy eights interior also provoke mixed reactions. And while everyone concur that materials in construction are of unmatched quality some found the seat bottoms of the well postered six way power seems rather thin for long distance travel gauge placement in the center of the dash. I also took some getting used to have a fine watch appearance with a splash of period Amber lighting

but retro style or not if this is a performance car we think the tack should be next to the driver and not on the other side of the car. Other awkward dash items include both the ignition switch and engine start button somewhat hidden behind the steering wheel but the climate controls not only look tricky there are snap to use. So to the multi information radio unit that includes an ABS system and 250 watt Harman Kardon CD audio system the top is a no brainer to requiring nothing more than a push of a button to lower to raise you do have to grab the heter handle and pull the top down several inches to meet the windshield at the end of the cycle. Once aligned it automatically locks into place leaving you with 5 cubic feet of cargo space in the truck just enough room for a weekend getaway for two. As some of you may recall the CAA was James Bond's four wheel mode of transportation and Double-O Seven's latest flick. I want all the money in the world probably won't get you a vehicle equipped with the special amenities that came on his car. It will get you up pretty well equipped to see a.

List price of a new 2001 a BMW 0 8 is one hundred twenty eight thousand five hundred seventy dollars. Factor in gas guzzler taxes and you're out the door for one hundred thirty thousand six hundred seventy dollars. Or you can bid up to twice the price on e-bay. Either way the C-8 is certainly not cheap but if like James you can get the Defense Department to foot the bill by two. With its classic styling and ultra modern power train and suspension. The BMW 0 8 offers the well-heeled roadster enthusiasts the best of both worlds. And while we can't wait for the competition to try and top a Z 8 with plenty of top down weather still on tap will be quite content and tough this rare roadster every chance we get. I hope you'll join us next week for more motorways. Well we'll test a very at talian pony car the cove Ali Man good stuff and compare five of today's best compact sedan. I'm John Davis.

We'll see you then to learn more about Motor Week TV's original automotive magazine. Visit us online at PBS dot org or America Online keyword PBS motor week has been brought to you by Priceline dot com with Priceline dot com you name your own price for new cars. All makes and models of cars trucks sport utility vehicles minivans and more. When you log on to Priceline dot com you name your own price and buy equal tire performance in cars light trucks and SUV use equal reduces tire vibrations so your tires can meet the road more evenly. Equal for added safety stability and handling for the life of your tires. And by pep boys no matter what you drive Pep Boys has over twenty seven thousand items in stock. Virtually any part for any car with all the name brands you know plus service pay staff with a a c certified technicians Pep Boys parts tires accessories and service to order a video cassette of this program call 1 800 4 2 2 0 0 6 4.

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