Motorweek; 1603

This time on motor with a new family hollers from the general hoboes real world laboratory and a comparison test with a twist to come drive with us next. TV's original automotive magazine. Your host former John Davis. Well hello and welcome again to motor week we're glad to have you with us. These days front will drive minivans do big business but so many vans do more business than others and they those that wear the General Motors brand the Chevrolet Lumina Pontiac transport and this Oldsmobile silhouette have never captured much more than a passing glance from most minivan fanciers. But that's about to change. A new generation of GM minivans has arrived and this time they're

serious. So serious that rather than upgrade the existing design they started over from the ground and the results. The Pontiac transport the Oldsmobile silhouette and the renamed Chevy Venture should appeal much more to minivan buyers than their predecessors ever did. Gone is the funky edge. Love it or hate it dustbuster styling replaced by a rounder more European and altogether more pleasing look. Good thing since Opel and Vauxhall will sell versions over there gone to are plastic body panels. The new vans wear a galvanized steel skin. Each brand will wear specific trim he painted its divisions. Primary buyers. The Chevy Venture with its large egg crate grill offers the most conservative lines straightforward suburbia all the more luxury as host no bill silhouette will adopt the look of its midsize sedan siblings and aura. The most aggressive of the trio will naturally be the Pontiac transport especially the Montana

model. It's heavy body side planning giving it a more rough and ready multi-purpose look. All however will offer the option of a driver side sliding door or power operated rear passenger side door. One of only a few carry over features. They'll also share the same mechanical including a standard one hundred twelve inch wheel base platform and a much more substantial 120 inch extended model. Power will come from only one drive train DMD's in large 3.4 leader 30 400 series V-6 engine will pump out 180 horsepower and 205 pound feet of torque. The most standard power in its class is whole front drive transaxle is a four speed electronic automatic. The combo manages a healthy zero to 60 time of nine point six seconds. An estimated annual mileage rating includes city and 25 highway. The interior of all the general's latest minivans have been designed solely with families in mind.

No airbags are standard and the bench pass air through a pool and filter. For IATSE configurations are available from buckets to lightweight split folding benches all second and third row seats are removable. Update people for a variety of cargo loads can be accommodated including four by eight sheets of plywood in the extended model. And optional beach are sure to keep the peace on long trips. Is the separate climate and stereo controls where we are see passengers. A welcome standard feature is up to 17 cup holders in some models many of which fit children's juice boxes. And there's plenty of snow item storage. While the tall hatch opening in low floor allows for easy cargo loading by any sized member of the family. Our first drives in these new people movers included GM is Michigan proving ground the hills of New England and the wide open spaces of Mont. Handle. All the news we found that GM has made serious forward strides in the direction of ride chassis stiffness and noise reduction. The band's also proved to be quite nimble with Roland bump of sorts and that is decidedly important

even in long wheelbase configurations anti-lock brakes are standard and traction control is available. Prices have not yet been released as I test air. We expect the venture transport and silhouette to be very competitive with market leader fry seller expect stickers to start around $15000 for the baseband and around 18000 for extended models the launch of these latest GM minivan signals a new offensive an ongoing minivan war an offensive that may see the general cutting into Ford and even Chrysler's huge minivan share. Yes GM has finally gotten serious about front drive minivans while a Dustbuster no more. It may just be enough. Time once again to stop by the garage Goss's garage that is. They say what kind of handy car care advice Pat has for us this week. John here's a dilemma that faces thousands of drivers every day. You're driving

down the interstate and all of a sudden one or more of the red lights on the dash starts to glow. Now what in the world do you do. What you should do is stop the car right now just like you would at an intersection if the traffic signal turns red. Doesn't mean that you go another block or two and that's the same thing with the red light on the dash. Well many people call these idiot lights and the only thing that's idiot about them are the people who don't believe them. So if you don't follow what that says if you don't stop right now you could be looking at something like we have over here. You know this four thousand and sixty seven dollars is not the price of this new Ford Contour but it is the price of the engine that goes in it not the complete engine. But the basic engine without accessories without add ons without labor you certainly don't want to be faced with a bill like that. That could be $6000 time you get done with it. Well what can you do. Well number one pay attention to the red lights number two for added protection. You

could install gauges in your car. The gauges of course are going to give you long term indications of problems things where the oil pressure gradually goes lower than it has been or the temperature gradually increases. The red light on the other hand you're going to notice instantly when there is an immediate problem. So you have gauges and you have red lights. Now the gauges are available in all sorts of different configurations and combinations. You can get a complete set. You could get something like this one which is good for the retro look maybe you're building a street rod or something very attractive for that type of vehicle. A couple of other things you might want to consider. First is adding an audible alarm. A make loud noises when something goes wrong. So between the red light the gauge and the audible alarm you're not going to miss it. You're not going to be buying an engine. The other thing to consider is an hour meter our meters are very good for determining how much use the

engine has seen. It's much more effective than the number of miles covered by the wheels. A good set of gauges can give you a lot of information and save you a lot of money. If you have a question write to me. If I use your letter I'll send you a motorway teeshirt The address is Motor Week. Always Mills Maryland 2 1 1 1 7. Marker of the week is a 1964 Cadillac series 62. It's the pride and joy of Andrews in Valley Stream New York. If you have a classic coupe sedan or truck Samit good color photos to motorway Owings Mills Maryland 2 1 1 1 7. The most heavily researched aspect of automotive design is safety. Each year billions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of work hours go into making today's cars and trucks the safest in history. Now much of this research goes on in

high tech laboratories that simulate everything from fender benders to high speed pileups. But there's f y Our reporter Lisa Barrow recently discovered one carmaker believes that there's no substitute for the real thing. Sweden is famous for ice and snow. The second largest city in Sweden is also known as the headquarters of ball. In 1970 Volvo developed a traffic accident research program. Since that time they've investigated roughly 25000 accidents involving all of their models and the information they've gathered has help them design engineer some of the safest cars on the road today. Developing course it's very important to understand what happens to the patents in different types of situations. And the only way to get this information is. Look at the real accidents. Volvo studies worldwide crash data that involves their vehicles but locally within a

60 mile radius of Gothenburg crash investigators are actually called to the scene by police when there's a Valvo related accident with injuries. We start with an investigation. The photo documentation exterior interior. Now after that the follow up will now showing an inspection of the cars would sort things would you look for on the inside. Well it's very important to find out if the occupants a driver for instance of juice the seatbelts when it comes to the driver I would examine the steer and how the steering had behaved during the impact. After that we take the car out offshore to our trash laboratory and there pick it only in pieces so to say to look at the different systems what has happened. It's also the information from the polls about the race for the occupants my role in this team is to explain for the technicians

the type of injury and severity of the race. And together try to find the connection between cause and effect. Interviews with crash victims and laboratory recreations of accidents also prove valuable in piecing the puzzle together. If the accident research team begins to see a pattern of injury to occupants It may mean a change in design. One of the limitations we have to design around for example is the distance between the driver's foot as the steering wheel was the driver and the front of the car the front wheels my hear that's a critical distance that we like to maintain because in the in a crash situation that's where we take up the impact. So and some company's designs will have a lot less of a front overhang to design around and some some cars can look rather sporty with a short front overhang. But we have to design around something a little longer to say just because it's very much a challenge although it is a Swedish company like to be seen as providing Swedish products.

Sweden is a very caring society I think that care comes out of safety as particles. Safety is important and I can be a sobering subject. So now for something a little lighter. Here's more from Lisa and all of this week's Motor News. In the news this week is Lincoln's entry into the premium sport utility market with its version of Fords expedition known as the navigator. Tired of seeing unauthorized spy photos like this one of its 1998 navigator Lincoln released this sketch of its first ever sport. But didn't officially show anyone a real truck such as this one called testing in Arizona Navigators will share the expeditions 205 inch length and larger 5.4 later be 8. It gets a market style waterfall grill longer narrower reflector headlamps with clear lenses and will seat up to eight in the curious interior fabrics suitable to Lincolns upmarket image. In fact the navigators in-house nickname is town truck. Don't expect to see the

navigator in Lincoln showrooms until the summer of 97. Don't expect to buy one for less than $40000. In other news the General Motors Mobility Program for persons with disabilities has a new spokesperson Evan Evans whose motto has been never give up since he was paralyzed from the chest down seven years ago this year Evans built his own Chevy racetrack to compete in class 13 of the ESTO da off road series. That. They're. Going to. Pack their. Brains. On. An hour shifter. Is located on the steering wheel you pull back to have him. Push forward to down. I've worked seven years to try to get the attention to make myself a little easier to go racing and I bad to race all at a mile BOC it and that comes out of never give up and I've never given up and now the

chippies come along to help me out and show other people that if you work hard and you never give up that things will come to you and Jamie's backing me up and it should be that much nicer more me. Not only did Evans compete he was class 13 champion and broke the record for races one in a single season and that's it for this week's Motor News. Hi I'm Craig Singh hot on this week's Roadside America finds us in Orlando Florida at the race rock restaurant. If you're into motor sports and find food and the race Rocky is the place for you. A menu that runs the gamut from delicious sandwiches to prime rib is complemented by an incredible collection of motor sports memorabilia. Famous racers and their cars. You know we frequently use comparison test to evaluate several models in the same market segment this kind of direct head to head experience is the best way that we

know to differentiate features value and performance among similar vehicles. Now this motley crew around me may offer very little in the way of similarities but these manufacturers Mercedes BMW Jeep both wagon and Porsche are among the first makers to enter a vehicle segment that may be even hotter than sport utility vehicles. Oh. Now I wonder what that could be for. We soon discovered that this was a test of a different nature and that our normal track procedures would have to be abandoned. Clearly out of our element we enlisted the help of some local racers who were obviously better suited for this line of testing. Our test group features mountain bikes from five different car makers each powered by a variable displacement swift cool two piston engine. This

BMW Olympic Games special edition bike arrived in the truck up. What else. A 5 series sedan a unique pivoting seat to make set up a snap. Built for BMW by the US based Montagu corporation. The 21 speed steel bike tipped the scales at 29 pounds. Bolts wagons in three is the most conventional bike of the bunch but the Jetta track gives a whole new meaning to buy one get one free marketing its Chrome Molly to the brain is propelled by 21 speeds and weighs a moderate twenty six pounds. The Jeep Grand Cherokee bike uses a carbon fiber thermal plastic frame. It's made by last bicycle has 24 speeds and weighs just twenty three and a half pounds. The bright Indian ran on the Porsche oversized aluminum tubing would look at home on any 9 11 and despite a massive motorcycle style gun system. The 24 speed bike weighs a mere twenty three point one pounds the lightest of our group Vo-Tech a German company is the builder of the Mercedes bike from California

specialty builder and research back in its own travel case. Fortunately for us it also came with Illustrated assembly instructions. The frame is built of aluminum tubing while the front book legs are carbon fiber. Even with blood in rear suspension that 2014 Benz weighs only 24 pounds. In mountain biking Guthrum rain is more often anticipated been avoided but ride comfort can be compromised without a suspension to isolate the rider from the rough stuff. The Jetta is the only model in our group lacking a suspension. But Trek assures us that it is an easy upgrade. BMW and Jeep both use fairly conventional shock absorbing ports with adjustable pre load setting Porsches set up its security here but adjustments are not a do it yourself option. The Mercedes employs a unique parallel link its hydraulic front suspension designed to go with the flow. It works wonders especially when coupled with the rear suspension and adjustable coil over shocks set up with swing arm.

He changed gears four of our bikes use grip shifters. A simple twist of either wrist selects the desired speed. I lone exception the Mercedes uses a rapid fire shifter system not unlike a Formula One race car. The VW BMW and Jeep are equipped with familiar cantilever brakes of a Porsche is fitted with hydraulic rim brakes mounted on carbon fiber bridges. The Mercedes system is also hydraulic but teachers disc brakes front and rear for an equal stopping power and modulation. The BMW Olympic Games mountain bike is notable for its holding design and reasonable $795 price tag. But it's also that origami engineering that relegates this cruiser to around town duty. If you want to hit the trails though we found the Jetta track to be a good entry level bike. It's strong and sturdy but a bit rough without a suspension and you can't argue with the price. It's free provided of course you buy a Jetta to haul it around with. Jeep Grand Cherokee proved to be strong

and reliable to its upper level components in tricky frame made it a worthy consideration. The price is just under tipping hundred dollars. Horses place ready bike attracted a lot of attention for its balance brakes can lightweight and for a bike of this caliber. A $2000 price tag is not unreasonable. The Mercedes machine tops our list at thirty three hundred dollars but its innovative design smooth ride and incredible brakes place it on a par with top notch racing bikes. Now remember you need to shop for a bike the same way you would a car. The tough part is balancing your wants and needs and against what your wallet can bear. Don't forget the test drive. And always remember no matter how good the bike it's the engine that matters most. If ever there was a milestone vehicle the Ford F-series pickup truck is it. Not only has it outsold every other truck in the world for the past 19 years. It's the best selling vehicle period for 14 years. Yes the F-150 has

led America's love affair with trucks. So if you're the Ford Motor Company you think long and hard over a replacement. But Ford couldn't wait any longer. So now the big question is will this new 97 F-150 the subject of this week's road test by request continue that success and was it worth the wait. Answering both questions brings you face to face with Ford's dilemma over the 97 F-150 pick up any work and commercial truck buyers think the current model is perfect for them and as good as a truck can get. But to maintain its market dominance. Ford knows it must attract even more of the personal use for family buyers whose numbers have skyrocketed in recent years. They want more car like handling lots of safety and creature comfort. One look at the new F-150 shows that Ford took there which is the heart shape is smoother and more aerodynamic making it appear smaller less reducing wind noise and improving fuel economy by 10

percent replacing its trademark when I deem trans suspension with short and long arm arrangement allowed Ford to lower the head wind for better visibility while gaining a vastly improved ride to get more usable space behind the seat. Ford extended the cap structure bustle like over the bed allowing for what a whining seat and regular cab model under the faster hood F-150 buyers will find all new powerplant 205 horsepower four point two liter V-6 or this optional 4.6 leader V8 designed to reduce noise vibration and harshness. The single overhead cam unit delivers 210 horsepower and £290 speed of torque with 90 percent of it available at only 2000 rpm for improved acceleration and strong towing this fall a five point poorly to be 8 will be another option. It only takes a few moments in the F-150 to realize this is not the normal slow reacting full sized pickup.

One can actually see over the fender the steering response is nicely precise. The best ball type steering on any truck which makes the F-150 feel like a smaller truck like to the touch. And very maneuverable. That should make it more attractive to women that have avoided full sized trucks because of their birth. Despite looking less brutish board made sure of the F1 50s athletic toughness with a better body to forge steel upper control arm and up to eight through the floor mounting bolts with a pick up bad all F-150 that 15 inch tires and Beale standard 17 inch units are often a long haul but based models when it hit with the off road tackle a rear end you lock brake set up a student who will ABS is standard on Larry a great truck and a $500 option on all other board with equally committed to revolutionizing the F-150 is interior now or more ergonomic than before and featuring airbags for both driver and passenger first reports size pick up so as this

deactivation switch for the passenger airbag critically important when a rear facing child safety seat is in use. Once settled in our trucks three across split across a bench seat you'll notice the improved visibility thanks to a higher seating position and 28 percent more glass truck included a huge center arm rest with a cup holder. Simple points right and lots of storage. There's an extra power point next to the lighter and a full sized glove box to release handle move closer to the driver. As if new styling engines work enough super to have F-150 gain this right side 21 inch wide third door standard. It can be opened from the outside by the rear seat passengers inside as long as the front door is open the rear door opens a full 90 degrees. All doors include side impact beams with an additional vertical beam between the two latches and the third door for extra rollover protection along with greater safety and easier access. Rear seat passengers will find additional head and hip room plus a significant 3.4 inches more

leg room. Versatile 60 40 split bench is an option to seat bottoms and fall completely flat allowing heavy duty cargo on their stamped steel surface. Industry wide personal use buyers have doubled the sales of extended cab pickup since 1990 but lack of plant capacity has kept their numbers at 40 percent. But Ford will now build super cabs in all four of its truck plants. So there should be enough for everyone who wants one. If you can afford the one you want base prices range from a reasonable fifteen thousand forty five dollars for regular cab or buy two to twenty six thousand nine hundred forty five dollars for a lariat super cab 4 by 4 x LTE player side four by two starts at twenty thousand nine hundred ninety five dollars and goes to twenty three thousand one hundred three dollars would be a automatic and will abs. This is an all new state of the art truck that truly delivers the goods. In fact we do think buying a 1997 Ford F-150 will be money well

spent. That's why it's hard why VORs joystick as the best pickup truck of the year. And judging from the early sales stampede truck fans feel as we do that it was indeed worth the wait. We hope you'll join us next week for more motorway. We'll review what's new from Chrysler for 1997 and drive that be a Mercedes-Benz efore 20. I'm John Davis. We'll see you then. To order a video cassette of this program call 1 800 4 2 2 0 0 6 4. Or send twenty nine ninety five plus for ninety five shipping and handling to Motor Week Post Office Box 5 5 7 4 2 Indianapolis Indiana 4 6 2 0 5. To order from the Motor Week home video collection or courier that past episodes of the motor week

television series. Call 1 800 4 2 2 0 0 6 4 or to order catalog send a self-addressed stamped envelope to his address. Hello I'm John Davis on the next edition of motor week we'll preview all that's new from Chrysler for 1997 and drive the luxury is to be a Mercedes-Benz efore 20. Also take you along to one lap around America's longest race course and stop by Pat doss for the finer points of wheel alignment. Plus Lisa Barrow checks out with a

Nissan Maxima offers used car buyers. So don't you miss the next motorways.