Motorweek; 1723

Oh. This time on Motor Week gets back to basics with the Durango. A new breed of hot runner and two wheeling on a budget. So come drive with us. TV's original automotive magazine your host for Motor Week. John Davis. Walking again to motor week. We're glad to have you with us. With the new car market now thoroughly saturated with sport utility vehicles even their most ardent fans are getting a bit jaded. Why not sport utes were once considered the machine of the rough and ready individualists. But today with sport utes packing every suburban driveway and mall parking lot they have become a little more than

posh substitutes for the family station wagon oval. Now that presented Dodge truck designers with a serious dilemma for their late market entry the Durango SUV. Do they follow the well-worn garden path or their instincts. Thankfully the boys decided to do what comes naturally build an SUV machine clever and aggressive enough to get noticed but not so different that they won't sell the off road traditionalists to that in they cloak their new Durango in the same little Peterbilt styling that has been such a huge hit on their full size RAM and midsize Dakota pickup an easy job since the chassis is basically out of the Dakota and it shares all body panels from the windshield forward panels which make the Durango stand out among its many less visually distinctive competitors. Most of the generous front cabin is also pure Dakota including the instrument panel. Modern but not too car like preserving the sense of security that modern sport buyers

want. Security that's my standard dual airbags front bucket seats were quite plush with lots of padding and support and the analog gauges that they face are large and clear. While the oversized ventilation and stereo controls exhibit the kind of simple efficiency that we've come to expect on a recent Chrysler product. Second row seating offers the same sort of adult sized space as the front but hard thin seat backs Robert of long distance comfort. But that was the trade off the designers made to add an optional third seat. It's easily reached by flipping the second seat forward and pulling yourself up by the handy grab handles a raised route provides good headroom and while leg room is tight for adults. Kids will fit just fine. The third seat also very intelligently folds flat for cargo duties and we love being able to haul up to 88 cubic feet of stuff without having to rustle of third seat out of the Durango. That's true versatility of course. All this would mean little without the all terrain power that traditional sport you buyers demand.

Again the RAM and the code provide the inspiration engines range from a base 3.9 leader B6 to a top line five point nine leader be eight grade four by four took the middle road packing a tried and true five point two liter pushrod V8 it delivers 230 horsepower at a hefty 300 pound feet of torque power then travels through a four speed automatic transmission. Sorry no manual and into either a standard part time four wheel drive transfer case or the Jeep Grand Cherokees optional full time system with the full time during our return to 0 to 6 time. Eight point seven seconds the quarter mile ended in sixteen point five seconds at a speed of 79 mph as expected our drivers found the five points to be lively and responsive with plenty of low down power. The transmission didn't write as highly However due to its rather abrupt shift. But there were no complaints about handling the Durango Dakota torsion bar front suspension and solid axle rear leaf springs delivered surprising nimbleness and grip

while the TUC were circulating ball power steering had properly adequate Durango braking performance was also satisfactory. We average the longest 135 feet from 60 with front disc and rear drums they were easily kept under control by the optional Corporal anti-lock control was also the name of the game off road with standard Goodyear wranglers on 15 inch rims. The Durango offers a more aggressive footprint than many competitors combined with the forty five point two liter drive train and modest seven point nine inches of ground clearance. They romped over off road obstacles as well as anything in the Durango's plans on road ride was also very good better than that of ours. Long term drive to kowtow. But we were disappointed with excessive amounts of mechanical and interior noise in our preproduction test vehicle. We hope that regular production vehicles exhibit a more solid build but you'll certainly have to have solid finances to buy a border. Base prices twenty five thousand eight hundred ten dollars add on tram a healthy

list of options and the price rises to thirty one thousand one hundred dollars. While much less expensive than any other 7 8 passenger SUV a less dear two will drive Durango arrives next year. Right now however we love the Durango's aggressive styling punchy V8 engine nimble handling smooth ride and clever interior design. We're less happy with our test vehicles harsh automatic transmission shifts uncomfortable middle seat and high levels of interior noise. Nevertheless we applaud how dogs designers have managed to take the Dakota pickup and turn it into what is a sure bet family sport you oughta we called it a marvelous conversion of pick up and ass u v Automobile magazine was even more enthusiastic stating that the Durango drive wonderfully well and offers incredible value. This all points to a solid future for the newest member of dodges 4 wheel drive family and shows that even as crowded as the market segment has become a sport utility makers like dogs can still come up with some very brash bold

ideas. Coming up on Friday in the. Now when you're a popular automotive technician like motor weeks Pat you quickly learn not to waste valuable time. So here's pat with some quick cures for your car's little head aches. John this time we have letters about things that have quick simple fixes. First is from Debbie Pinto of Burlington New Jersey. She bought a used 1990 Jeep Cherokee and found out after she bought it it doesn't have intermittent wipers. She'd like to know if they can be retrofitted to the vehicle. Yes they can. We went to J.C. Whitney in Chicago and we purchased this aftermarket interval wiper assembly that can be added to just about any car. It was under 20 bucks. It's very easy to install. Second one this is from Robin Ruby of Baltimore has a 1989

Ford Mustang put in an aftermarket radio and CD player and has a noise in it after an amplifier was installed it whines while whining noises can be the result of bad diodes in the alternator. So the first thing you do is run an electrical system test on the car paying close attention to the condition of the diodes. If that is not found to be at fault the next thing that you do is you look for a noise suppressor. These noise suppressors are designed to go into the power cable that supplies power to the radio. The ground cable that grounds the radio and the end Tena by using one of these inexpensive filters. Typically you can get rid of the noise without spending a lot of money. Good advice there. And over here we have some more good information. Rear Window to foggers on cars are frequently damaged. One reason is because on many cars the grids are actually painted onto the glass. So putting things into the

rear window on the package shelf can easily damage these. Well they're also easily repaired. You go to your local auto parts store and you buy one of the window repair kits. It comes with a decal little stencil like this. Some conductive paint and a brush. You find the spot that's damaged. You put the stencil around it. You paint it and you have a repaired rear window to fogger. Here's an example of what we did up here. Shows you how you can paint that line up. Now that's only one problem with Rear Window to foggers Here is another. The electrical connections where the wires connect to the window itself. These frequently come loose. Again they are easily repaired. You buy in a poxy repair kit that uses an electrically conductive epoxy and you attach the connector. We did this one right here in a spot where there isn't even supposed to be one and it holds very well.

Now our last one Michael to the lino of Staten Island New York he says I own two thousand nine hundred twenty three Model T Fords which have wooden spoke wheels. Can you recommend a wood conditioner or give me any tips which might help me restore or refinish the wood spokes. Well first thing is to get them clean one of the best ways to do that Murphy's oil soap works very very well. Once the spokes in the wood portion of the wheel have been cleaned then you need to protect it against moisture. Any of the high quality wood finishing waxes will do a good job of that so that Momo oyster anything gets in and one thing that you don't want to forget. You don't want to forget I good sprayed to prevent termite infestation in your wooden wheels. And if you have a question or a comment write to me. If I use your letter I'm going to send you a motor week T-shirt The address is Motor Week always Mills Maryland 2 1 1 1 7. Our car of the week is a 1963 Willys Jeep station wagon that's been

fully restored by its owner Bernard Iowa Cee-Lo of Staten Island New York. Now if you have a vintage four wheel drive vehicle that you rescued from the grave. We'd love to see you submit at least two good color photos and a description of the machine to Motor Week Owings Mills Maryland 2 1 1 1 7. When it comes to automobiles Craig saying hos is pretty open minded. Anyone who's driven the Oscar Meyer Wienermobile in public would have to be when it comes to performance cars Craigs pretty much a rear drive v a traditionalist at least he was until he met a new generation of hot rodders who are redefining just what a homegrown performance car can be and in the mean time teaching our old dog some new tricks out on the high road. Has it that they go really fast you gotta have a cubic inch V8 engine and rear wheel

drive. Well to that today's generation of enthusiast says. This bracing attitude. Their young fast technologically smart and not. Now. Warming. Up yesterday. Starting in California. Import drag racing has made inroads all across the country. This is hot rodding for the next millennium. Nothing's changed at all just the engine type. The V.A. It's. Pretty much a dinosaur around here. Now these are four cylinders popped up four cylinders with niter some turbos cars are pretty much base vehicle entry level vehicle. The Honda Bajaj is by far the largest percentage of vehicles you'll find at these events or on the street for this market. Honda Acura. Tempts him to six is the time we have bragging rights I know you know me to challenge imagine getting a

front wheel drive and it says it's a challenge. Yeah like the leader VTEC motor turbo charge. Oh no no everything all custom. That's why we do it. Well secondary could be here no one thought that the 11 second barrier could be hit and that a 10 second barrier could be hit and I think you know what happened at that well down there not well yeah we'll see what happens next year. One young racer who already runs his input into the knot if Adam sorrow would harm. His highly modified hostile art 7 Turbo. Has one of the official donning 68 quarter mile at over 130 miles per hour. Basically it's a little bit different because we are taking cubic inches and just expanding expanding the force to work with low horsepower torque engines and using technology electronics which basically specialized turbo charging to each specific application and watch the different electronics seem to all engine management and

parameters. Which is it would only take into account in the past but which were forced to do due to the smaller displacement engines that were forced to work with. Now this is opening up a lot of marketing opportunities and create explosive growth innovative aftermarket parts suppliers about five or five years ago because they grew at this growing trend and they've what they've been doing is specifically making tires for these imports. And it's a lot of what will drive cars untraditional type of vehicles. They guys are using the race and the cars are actually very reliable and the market is really growing. To give you an idea of the dynamics of what we have here and across the country our magazines for compact car. Just two years ago it's 96 pages. It's now well over 200 for my. Hard work brand my first. So does that definition. The words that. Other important things used to come and ask you the shortest distance between. Two. High Line. Now for an easier like me. All this may go with our front wheel

drive stuff is. Really weird. But no matter what your age or generation the spirit of hot rodding. Moon. Phases that is. There in doing anything like. Anything better gives you away from all the bad stuff it with other drugs is a good thing. I'll. Stick to. The riders that were in. The Chevrolet venture minivan is the current winner in the minivan door wars with not only four of them but the right rear is power assisted a feature that others are racing to adopt. We understand power for the left slider is on the way. No new electrical glitches to report. Actually our logbooks are filled with compliments about the venture ride and how it handles rings around aluminum ATV minivan it replaced. We understand why GM is putting a three point four leader B6 in so many vehicles. It's reasonably quiet and very torquey pulling power even when loaded is very good.

It also has pretty fuel efficient with our average on for eleven months and twenty three thousand miles at twenty point one miles per gallon. Harbinger also. Is that a good front wheel drive system provides more than enough winter traction for most situations. A lot of car enthusiasts have questioned us about our exuberance over the Audi A8 Quatro. When we named it one of our drivers choice winners we noted its muscular performance was worlds apart from other high line European sedan. We specifically like the much rope for its effortless traction in almost every weather. Now if we pass 900 thousand miles with our long term AA we can add unquestioned quality to his list of attributes. Except for some brake pads replaced due to uneven where the aid has been bulletproof. Mileage of nineteen point two is not bad or be a luxury sports sedan either be a heat scoring all A's with us next week. In sport you time again with a Honda CRV and Chevrolet Suburban on motor weeks long term road test update.

Building modern hot rods can be an awful lot of fun. Of course it can also be expensive just like buying a new car and they help keep your car cost under control. Lisa Barrow likes to report on how the new cars we test hold up as use cars. So let's see what's on our lot this week. In recent years luxury coops have fallen on hard times with the rise in popularity of sport utility vehicles. So it's not surprising that 1998 will be the last year for the Lincoln Margate and that means used Margate should be available at somewhat bargain prices. Based on the new. Chassis from Lincoln Mark game debuted in 93 and had the most tyrannical styling that conservative Lincoln had ever seen. In 97. The Merc received its only major freshening to refine its distinctive look and driving behavior. A 4.6 leader 280 horsepower V-8 powers the standard Margate or go for the Ls and get an extra 10 horses in our test of the 97

LSC. We ran 0 to 60 in a brisk seven seconds. On the handling course. Rear end grip was less than solid but the merc never completely lost its composure. Inside his posh driver's car with its cockpit leg seating and elaborate center console are all the bells and whistles you want. Driver and passenger side airbags are standard. When shopping for a used Margate Magaw suggests a careful inspection of the transmission fluid. If it's black have a transmission specialist take a closer look. Other than that Pat says the market is rock solid. Asking prices for a used Lincoln Margate range from twenty thousand seven hundred fifty dollars for a 95 model to thirty thousand eight hundred fifty dollars for a 97 LSC. Not bad for a personal luxury statement on a budget and discounts should grow as words circulate for the market. Aid is going out of production. As popularity continues to cool we expect to see a resurgence in luxury goods. And while the Margate will be history it will remain one of our favorites of

the breed. The American brand. We rate. Him on one focus. An often overlooked chapters in American Motors. Are. That of the 146 drivers who participated in the ultimate international driving competition now known as the Formula One championship from the first contests both here and abroad. It emergence of names like Gil Guillen and American Bram pre-race and it held this unique and exciting story. Ten years ago entry level cars were a dime a dozen. The market was awash with and expensive models from almost every car company just waiting for budget conscious buyers to walk in and snatch them up. But the market has changed. The low price entry level car is becoming a rare commodity and in this age of megabuck Harley Davidsons one might think that motorcycles are headed in the same

direction. Are bikers on a budget out of luck. Not really. In fact today's motorcycle market probably offers as many reasonably priced models as any other time in the sport's history. We recently sampled two such machines. The Yamaha say good to have the Hyundai CB 750 Nighthawk clearly the sportier of the pair the 5000 $299 say could two could be considered a rational performance by a practical alternative for those who don't want or for reasons of budget or insurance. Can't have a full on hyper cycle with its minimal plastic and body colored steel to pray for the sake of two actually looks more Italian than Japanese which draws power from a familiar Asian afterburner a 599 CC air cooled dual overhead cam four cylinder. The dates back to the F J n f z 600 of the early eighties hours passed through a sharp shifting six speed gearbox and a slightly grubby clutch there requires a careful adjustment for smooth

operation like Yamaha's more expensive support machines the second to utilize is a single shock rear suspension though it's adjustable for preloading only while the front suspension is a set of non-adjustable 38 millimeter Bourne's brakes or single disc at both ends with the front 320 millimeter blade gripped by a 2 piston caliber. Hardly cutting edge components but a package that will surprise many riders with its very real performance. Look into a corner and it responds like a mama's boy. The steering is quick and light which when combined with a £119 dry weight and a stable body 6.9 it will be a. Buyer's confidence in riders a whole skill level. Has dug into the design may have quite a few miles under its belt but it's still healthy and while powering its longest above 6000 RPM it offers plenty of usable bottom end for cutting through city traffic. We like or lever feel from the brakes but found them to be quite strong for a single dish design.

Unlike most sporting two wheelers comfort is also a sacred to attribute. Thanks to the not too sporty riding position and compact fairing surprisingly high level of wind protection while the seat with its moderate thirty point three inch height offers good comfort over triple digit distances on all the Yamaha segue into an awful lot for its price. Especially in an age when many well use hard to insure sport machines cost the same money. It's a bargain the 5 and a blast to ride what more would you want. Well if you're one of a growing number of riders who are finding their way back to motorcycling after many years away you might want a machine like the Honda CB 750 Nighthawk a modern incarnation of the fondly remembered CV 750 of 1969 the five thousand seven hundred ninety nine dollars Nighthawk offers free and free riders on host of YOUR use of both technology and styling. Looking like a smoother version of its famous ancestor the Night Hawk recalls a time of

simpler motorcycling with its fairing pretty nose grown cased cages with a nifty sidespin indicator and megaphone style exhaust. Kids can some uncluttered looks all the right in the stall just rings without looking dated. The engine also reflects an earlier time being a 747 CC air cooled or cylinder just like its illustrious predecessor though the modern zero maintenance valve train and cam chain mean that today's re-entry riders can spend less time in the garage and more time on the road. Other components offer similar updates the front forks are not adjustable but most have the board one millimeter to like the Yamaha and other bargain bikes. The dual rear shocks only adjust for pre load but they deliver ride and damping characteristics that put the old days to shame. Likewise the brakes a larger more effective 360 millimeter front desk and a rear drum. Fire the engine and the refinement of all modern Honda products is immediately evident. The slow revving. Anyway thanks to a super slick walk and climb

through the gears of a five speed box that shifts like low and mid range power are its strong points making it and I feel down by. Though it retains enough punch for easy highway passing the riders Goldwing smooth and the handling for size and forgiving even with. Your own. So adding both passenger and luggage for long haul touring. Or a boat engine handbrake as a solo tour or two up. Sunday rides however. It's close to ideal as is the easy on the back upright riding position and super wide super comfortable seat which allows you to easily drained a large 4.8 gallon gas tank at a single sitting behind a CB 750 Nighthawk is the style Joe without the rocks it's a friendly welcome home to the two wheeled world one that won't force you to bring the kids college fund to pay for it. And like the Yamaha Sigma two offers of her value your carefully worded motorcycle dollar those bits a bargain bikes are a thing of the past who clearly haven't been to a

motorcycle dealer in a long while because as the Yamaha Sega too and Honda CB 750 Nighthawk show the wheels and the deals have rarely been better. I hope you will join us next week for a very special edition of motorways. We'll be announcing our 1998 drivers Choice Awards the best the automotive world has to offer. Plus we'll have an exclusive video road test of the all new Porsche 911 but also bring you all the flash from the 1998 Chicago Auto Show. And Pat Doss explains the importance of well-aimed headlights finally will have a long term update on our largest and smallest sport utility vehicles. I'm John Davis. Well see you then. To order a video cassette of this program call 1 800 4 2 2 0 0 6 4. Or send 195 495 shipping and handling to this address. This. Yes.