Motorweek; 1923

This time on motorways a new Bibber for the boonies. A couple of cool Cadillac insurance and reincarnated writers to come drive with us. Now. It would. Come with the use of visual automotive magazine brought to you by boys no matter what you drive. Voices over 27000 items in stock virtually any part for any car with the name brand you know what service be staffed with certified technicians boys sports tires accessories service. Your host for Motor Week. John Davis. Well and welcome again to motor week. We're glad to have you with us. We have sport utility sails burning up the charts. It's easy to see why every automaker wants to build one. They're popular and more important they're profitable. One result of this booming trend is a handful of capable sports Utes springing forth from some fairly unusual sources and

one of those sources is BMW and its entry into the fray is called the X-Fi. But can a car company whose primary focus has been a line of cars designed to help you skillfully ovoid potholes successfully change that focus and produce a vehicle designed to take you through them. They can if they take the same approach they made their road hugging pothole dodging sedans and coupes such a great success. And as the folks at BMW are quick to point out the all new 2000 BMW X5 4.4 II sports activity vehicle will also dodge that pothole. If you choose to just about as well as any car. That's because unlike many of its competitors BMW pursued a more car based approach when creating the new X-Box and that meant forsaking the body on frame blueprints. Usually followed by SUV builders in favor of you know body construction.

A design philosophy also shared by the popular Jeep Grand Cherokee and the Lexus are x 300. So this should in no way be considered a weakness. The X5 strong you know body and chassis structure maintains the same torsional rigidity as the five in seven series passenger cars due to the extensive use of high strength steel and the front and rear components of the robust will independent suspension are sorted out and held together by heavy duty sub frames. These components supporting a 111 it will give the X5 an unusually fine blend of ride and handling among the very best of any SUV on the road. On to the front one finds coil springs and struts double pivot lower control arms twin two gas shocks and a stabilizer under the rear as a formerly iterable suspension with 22 gas shocks and self leveling air springs. A more stiffly calibrated sports suspension is also available. We had a chance to flog the X5 at not only our normal Test Track but also at speed around the

Road Atlanta road. Course. During our handling test the X5 displayed a touch of understeer on turnin and in low speed maneuvers the speed sensitive rack and pinion steering feels overly heavy but the side to side transitions are very controlled and more car like than SUV veterans would ever dream possible. Of course this BMW style handling is assisted by a variety of technical details like traction control and electronic stability program. The X5 also features a full time four wheel drive transfer case that normally splits torque in a 38 percent front 62 percent rear ratio like the Mercedes Benz M-L and uses selective breakout location to move power to the wheels with the most traction. But unlike the M-L there is no low range for super serious off roading. There is however a nifty little feature borrowed from BMW Land Rover division. It's called Hill Descent control. Activated with the touch of a button HTC help stabilize vehicle speed during

steep descent. Also using the ABS system all told the X5 has more awkward abilities than most buyers will need the ABS system does a commendable job keeping the X5 4.4 stable under full braking to wee man is stopped from 60 in an excellent 117 feet. That's what. Point 1 it's vented disc upfront. Twelve point eight inch solids at the rear electronic brake proportioning and dynamic brake control are always on standby also on constant alert as the 4.4 leader double overhead cam 30 V8 under the hood with the aid of BMW variable intake valve timing all aluminum power plant produces two hundred eighty two horsepower at fifty four hundred RPM and three hundred twenty four pound feet of torque at just thirty six hundred RPM. And that's good for the runs to 60 in six point six seconds. For. One mile trips past a fifteen point two seconds at 92 miles per hour. Not bad for a forty eight hundred twenty eight pound truck that thinks it's a car. Our

drivers love the broad power band and the smooth five speed step tranny transmission that allows for manual gear changes. Six cylinder three point is due by summer. The current x 5 exterior styling also gets high marks as it successfully treads the line between rough and ready and refinement. The front treatment with its signature twin kidney grille is unmistakably BMW and it's bulging lower body panels along with the standard 18 inch wheels 19 inch are optional. Give the X5 a squat muscular stance but some think the X-Fi looks more like a muscular minivan than a sports 4 by 4. However the twin exhaust. Through the. Run to the bumper let everyone know the X5 is fully capable of backing up its aggressive swagger a cumbersome two piece tailgate Another Land Rover trade allows access to the X5 seats up sixteen point one cubic feet of cargo space. A 60 40 split rear seats can be folded to expand that capacity

to fifty four point four cubic feet. Now that's small by four door four by four standards. A retractable load floor is optional up front in the cockpit all the luxury and comfort usually associated with a BMW Merc awaits you. Leather upholstery is standard as are the eight and six way power seats for the driver and passenger riding shotgun. The driver faces a power tilting telescoping leather wrap steering wheel mounted with Cruise audio and phone controls. It fronts a compact and rather tall Benegal that shades the very basic gauge cluster the center Stackhouse as the AM FM because that stereo controls for the optional and somewhat confusing GP s navigation system. Pertinent information for both systems as displayed on a sizable LCD screen. Too bad its angle allows the sun to make it almost unreadable while underneath the capable automatic dual zone climate control system with its activated charcoal microfilter keeps the atmosphere comfortable and clean. Behind the front seats where occupants will find commendable

accommodations for two with thirty five point four inches of leg room and thirty eight point five inches of headroom. Like most midsize SUV the X5 s avi tout seating for a fine but three in the back seat tends to push the comfort zone a little more than we'd like. The same could be said for the price. MSR p.m. including destination charges us forty nine thousand nine hundred seventy dollars. That's about $5000 more than the Mercedes M.L. 430 without adding any options. Add a few of the X5 4.4 eyes desirable and pricey additions and the top side of the $50000 range approaches rapidly. But the BMW name has never been synonymous with inexpensive and there's no reason to think that their entry into the very hot luxury SUV segment the command anything but a premium and should you choose to plunk down that premium price you'll get not an SUV but an s avi instead of one that's just as capable of dodging those potholes as it is.

Need. To get the most out of ABS brakes. Remember three little words stomp and steer stomp the brake pedal in a panic stop stay on the brake pedal even if it vibrates or makes noise and steer where you want to go. Brakes work best when you stop stay and steer. Coming up reborn. Time now to stop by the shop to soak up some automotive wisdom dispensed by motor week's garage guru Pat Goss. John like so many things around automobiles and dead batteries. Well they happen. What should you do if you do wind up with a dead battery. Well there are some things that you should do and some things that you shouldn't. The old tried and true booster cables that we've used for years and years. There's something that you really shouldn't be using with late model cars so you can do everything absolutely

properly and you can still damage the electrical system in one or both of the vehicles because of voltage spikes that you cannot avoid. But if you insist. Be certain that your booster cables are high quality. That means that they're made out of fine strand copper wire and the bigger the wire the better. Number four gauges the minimum size and also remember that as the numbers go up the wire gets smaller. Now here's something to help prevent dead batteries. This is called a priority start. It connects in series with the battery in your car and if you leave the lights on and there's something else that's draining the battery when the battery is discharged a certain amount. This will actually disconnect the battery from the car. That way when you come back to the vehicle there is still enough electrical energy to start it. Now one thing to be careful of there are different brands on the market and some of them could shut the

car off when the engine is running. That could be very dangerous. Now. Over here we have some items that work through the cigarette lighters on cars. This is a start me ups an emergency kit. It's a one time only and it's kind of limited as to what you can do with it and it's also sort of expensive so read the directions before you buy it. It may not be for you. Auto charger This is a neat unit. This one also works through the cigarette lighter and it can be used time and time again because it's infinitely rechargeable. That's a better choice. Here's something that I'm a big fan of. This is cigarette lighter to cigarette lighter. It's a charging system. It's very very safe. It's very inexpensive and it also can be used over and over again. That's my favorite. Over here we have some battery booster packs. These are the sorts of things that we use in repair shops. Now they come in a variety of sizes

and with different features. For whatever you might need but there is one key to them and that is to buy as many cranking amps as you can afford. That's the big difference in them is how many cranking amps there are. It's just like when you buy a replacement battery when you buy a replacement battery always buy the highest cold cranking amps battery that will physically fit in your car. If you have a question or a comment write to me. If I select 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. With. Our car of the week is in 1967 Pontiac tipis Lamont's. It belongs to James L. Black of Pappy on Nebraska. This screaming red cherry bomb is equipped with a rare OHC 6 spread option a four barrel carburetor an overhead cam six cylinder.

They cranks out 270 horsepower and in 1067 cost an extra fifty eight bucks. Now if you have a rarity in red or any other color We'd love to see it descend to good color photos to Motor Week Owings Mills Maryland 2 1 1 1 7. In the past decade people have become more environmentally conscious and today recycle everything from cans to newspapers. Even the auto industry is getting into the act in a big way. So much so that new cars and trucks are now designed with near total recycling in mind. But how successful is the effort. Well our FII reporter Jennifer because novice has found a Maryland company that's refining junk yard garbage into gold. That's believe it or not these total cars will be back on the road in no time literally piece by piece. With. Local Maryland one of the only reclamation services in the country which can

recycle over 95 percent of an automobile. Parts of Maryland is the first of its kind vehicle disassembly plant in the United States. One of the things that makes us stand apart from the crowd is the fact that we're very environmentally responsible. We stand less than 5 percent of a car to a landfill and that is the company's goal to utilize as much of a car as possible. The cars are taken apart on this disassembly line and then the parts are resold. The fluids are used as well. As the environmental aspect is key. But the business of selling used parts helps the consumer save money. When a car is in an accident. And the car is repaired with what are called quality parts. Of the repaired and also that should help to enable the insurance companies to keep lower rates by increasing the amount of used parts that are used to repair vehicles as opposed to going out and buying brand new parts of its parts.

You need the 200 20000 square foot warehouse stores about 4000 of them no older than 10 years on both foreign and domestic cars and took us on a tour of the facility. And just to give. An indication of how large it is. It took us quite a few hours to cover the entire building. There are very few parts you won't find here. They even recycle batteries batteries die when their thoughts are build up. But with a device called. The software is removed the batteries are recharged and then they're sold to the customer for about 15 to 20 dollars with a one year warranty. The only catch cars of Maryland is wholesale owner selling to auto shops and businesses. The only way to eliminate the middleman is to head for the information superhighway. We are the first salvage art in the industry we believe to have a real time in the toy available for sale through the Internet. And what that means is that a customer can actually give us specific data about a part that they need and it will search through our inventory and if we have it they can actually remove it from the shelf and it will be shipped out that day.

And all you need to do is log on to w w w dot cards of M D dot com. It's been very well received. The sale of used parts through the Internet is on the rise but aside from making a profit. Nancy still says she believes in this operation especially since it helps preserve the environment. Right now we're actually using the gasoline to generate electricity for this building. We'll be using the oil to generate heat. And basically if we don't use the fluids here for recycling purposes then we sell them out of companies who will recycle them. I believe I have a tremendous impact on the environmental aspect of this operation. The 21st century and we can all win. The 2000 Toyota Tundra is shaking up the world. Accolades from both the public and press. Great ride and power train personal use truck and one designed to get its carpets dirty. It gets suburban pick up needs to attain after nearly 10000 miles in only

four months. Our staff also sings the tundra access caps praises as a well rounded family vehicle. It's never awkward in city traffic for three short haul backseat riders and you'll probably max out your Home Depot credit card before you fill up the cargo. Did we mention trouble free. Not unexpected for a Toyota product. Mileage however is nothing to rave about fourteen point nine mpg car trucks 4.7 liter V8. Well we never said it was perfect just a perfectly good big truck while the tundra is a big truck. Even it pales next to this very big truck. 2040 excursion limited the latest addition to our long term. Testily this heavy duty 7.3 leader V8 turbo diesel powered 2 will drive SUV put some up with its girth yet we were amazed during our initial testing at its agility the near car why candling field was from our camera crews to staff members with growing families.

It's perceived as the ideal one vehicle solution for a diverse payload needs. We'll see if that perception becomes reality over the next 12 months. Two very diverse Nissan products. The Nissan Xterra and infinity I-30 are subjects on the next model with long term or just update now and again with Jennifer brings us up to date with all the latest Motor News. As far as many vans go performance has never been a major concern for automakers. Utility ease of use and safety have always been the major selling points. But that all could be changing. Higher levels of styling comfort and power for many bands was the goal with the introduction of three new concept bands by Chrysler. The Chrysler Pacifica Dodge Caravan RTT and the Plymouth Voyager ex-GI have combined the versatility of a minivan and a long list of upscale options to bring the everyday family hauler to new heights. Mercer has upgraded its current luxury minivan. The Town and Country by giving it interior

make over resembling that of a first class section of a 747 equipped with fully recline of all rear seats and full length skylights. The Pacifica is ready to provide top floor comfort for any style minded family Dodge's bestselling family hauler has never seen a look like this before showcasing a bright orange paint scheme 18 inch wheels black leather seats and a brushed aluminum dash. Power is fed from a three point three leader engine producing two hundred twenty five horsepower fed through a four speed transmission that uses Chrysler's auto stick. The caravan has always been a symbol of the American family van. But this caravan is more for the grown ups. Plymouth has one upped its current Voyager by equipping it with a handful of features designed with the most adventurous in mind and interior bike rack retractable claws roof and prowler wheels are only a few of the many options found on the ex-GI power comes from a 2.5 lieder turbo diesel fed through a five speed transmission. This band is definitely ready for any thrill seeker to drive.

Although these mini vans are still in concept form some of these trick features are already showing up on Chrysler's minivan lineup and that might be the new trend one where it's actually hip to own and drive a minivan. Imagine that. And that's it for this week's Motor News. Looking to capitalize on the smashing success of the Lexus our x 300 SUV Toyota is now developing a lower priced SR vehicle that will be sold under the Toyota badge. This Camry based sport youth will also be powered by the Camry's twin cam 3 liter V-6 with a four speed automatic transmission front wheel drive will be standard and all wheel drive optional although similar in size to the R x 300. The new Toyota SUV will not share any body panels with the Lexus hopes to bring this new SUV to market for the 2002 model year. When Cadillac introduced the German built caetera in 1996 it was touted as a mere luxury car bred with fine European ride and handling

and a healthy dash of American comfort. Unfortunately the corky ad campaign with its animated duck caused buyers to zigzag around the caetera. Well we're happy to report the duck is dead but we recently tested to get Terra's that definitely have shall we say a bit of a foul attitude. Because these terrorism killed more serious drivers than those just in pursuit of one tree and comfort. They are the 2000 Cadillac of taro sport. And it's a one off auto show. Doesn't that get Tara Steinmetz concept painted by or seeking its route to tonic field the Omega. Base. Tourist Board also benefits from the changes shared by all 2000 could tear such as a heavily revamped exterior that includes a new more distinctive front facia and hood and on the sport high intensity xenon headlights and a smaller mat foam grill while around back the body dons a new rear face and no longer with tail lines as

well as the sport's aggressive necklet spoiler. All riding on 17 inch aluminum alloys shop with age rated Goodyear Eagles that could tell us Ford continues to draw power from local 3 leader Twin Cam V-6 that delivers the same 200 North Tower and 192 pound feet of torque which is routed to the rear wheels through a four speed automatic with sport and winter driving mode and a new standalone oil cooler. Reaches the pay. Fast enough to push the score to 60 in eight seconds flat. The quarter mile takes sixteen point one seconds at 86 mph Both times a hair faster than the caetera we tested and 96. Though most of the 2000 sport comes from those big wheels and tires firmer shocks springs and struts and recalibrated speed sensitive steering and George's challenging Roebling road Raceway did show itself to be much more fun than the standard. Granted it won't beat a BMW M5 through the twisties but this now feels tighter turns faster and pushes and rolls

less. It's a more involving drive and would make the daily commute a lot more fun for most of us. That's in addition to the still high level of luxury features in the sports aluminum accented interior including leather clad sport seats with a side impact airbags and 10 way power adjusts. A more efficient dash with dual zone climate controls in our cars clothes CD cassette stereo as well as a simplified OnStar GP s emergency communication system. All for lower 2000 model year based pricing. Thirty three thousand five hundred dollars. That's quite a deal for a decade. German made sports today and by anyone's measure. But while we like the sport the good terror that we want to buy is the caetera Steinmetz a one off show car concept that debuted at last year's Chicago Auto Show the Steinmetz is the product of opals favorite tuning house of the same name. Clad in a full set of aerodynamic add on to now just pro orange paint. Here is a real stunner. Cosmetic details include an aircraft style fuel filler

cap and twin rectangular exhaust tips plus a massive 18 wheel. But the real Steinmetz magic is under the skin. The breeder. The six engine is made into a super charger and it is working to produce a significantly boosted 280 horsepower and 273 pound feet of torque while the suspension is being completely rebuilt from dampers and bushings to spring. Brakes are also I'm greeted with huge 334 millimeter desk and twin piston calipers and as a result this really flies unfortunately as one off status meant that we couldn't drive it as hard as we would like but when gently pushed took the Roebling road curves like well a duck to water. It's the quickest most nimble Cadillac that we've ever driven a Cadillac that can really challenge up BMW In addition or AMG Mercedes. The Steinmetz also takes the sport's interior to a higher level with trick seats a thicker rim steering wheel tendrils aluminum paddle Brazier

equipment for the raciest Cadillac. Yeah. But if we can't have the Steinmetz will be pleased to drive they could tear our sport any day. But. May be dead. But from sampling both the sport and Steinmetz it's clear to us that Cadillac intends for the Terra to have a long and popular life. I hope you'll join us next week for more motorway well-tested Acura as new 3.2 C.L. coupe and Ford's new pickup SUV hybrids the Explorer Sport Trac and the F-150 Super Crew. I'm John Davis. Well see you then to learn more about motor week. TV's original automotive magazine visit us at PBS online at the Internet address on your screen motor week has been brought to you by Pep Boys. No matter what you drive Pep Boys has over 27000 items in stock. Virtually any part for any car with all the name brands you know plus service space staffed with NC certified technicians Pep Boys parts tires accessories service to order a video cassette of this program call 1

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