AutoWeek articles from April 2001

AutoWeek archives from April 2001

Shifting Perception ; This Dodge comes with a driver's manual.
April 2, 2001... There should be more cars like the Dodge Stratus R/T. No, it's not the quickest car, nor the best handler, though it holds its own on both counts. It has a five-speed manual transmission, and these days it's hard to find a manual in anything...

Fast Poll.
April 2, 2001... Choosing the greatest Porsche ever built is no easy task. But the fabled Porsche 959 received more votes than any other. The 959. Due to its exclusivity, it will forever be the ultimate Porsche. Kevin Crawley, Costa Mesa, Calif. The...

Hummmmmm. . .
April 2, 2001... General Motors will roll out its concept Hummer H2 sport/utility truck at this month's New York auto show, but rolling prototypes of its sibling H2 sport/utility vehicle are already undergoing testing at GM's southeastern Michigan proving...

Flipping Ferraris ; Contract with buyers will thwart resale of prized 550 Barchetta.
April 2, 2001... Ferrari of North America doesn't like to see customers ``flip'' their cars. It's not a fiery end-over-end crash that has the company concerned. Rather, officials worry that someone will buy a new fire-red 550 Barchetta Pininfarina this...

Audi TT Roadster: Four seasons of fun.
April 2, 2001... We're spoiled. We know it. You know it. But damn is it good. Not only do we have a long-term Porsche Boxster S, but now a 225-hp Audi TT Roadster as well. Summer can't come soon enough. But it ain't summer yet. No, it was January-blizzard...

Facts.
April 2, 2001... MANUFACTURER'S DATA Dodge Division DaimlerChrysler Corp. 1000 Chrysler Drive Auburn Hills MI 48326 Customer assistance: (800) 423-6343 Internet address: www.4adodge.com Country of origin: United States...

Our Man in Havana; Who investigates whether Cuba really is packed with '59 Cadillac convertibles.
April 2, 2001... Coming out of the tiny aeropuerto varadero one hour east of havana, the first cars we see are thoroughly unremarkable: battered Soviet-era Ladas and Moskovitches; brand-new Fiat Punto and Citroen Xsara rental cars from the countries that don't...

Your Lucky Number is 500; New Viper promises 500 of just about everything.
April 9, 2001... 500/500/500-you remember those figures from the new Viper's introduction at the Detroit show. More specifically, that's 500 horsepower and 500 lb-ft of torque coming from a 500-cubic-inch V10. Those are the numbers the world is waiting to...

High-Tech Old-School Luxury ; Lexus flagship comforts its occupants without wallowing on the road.
April 9, 2001... It doesn't take long behind the wheel of a Lexus LS 430 to recognize it as a traditional luxury car. The key attribute is isola-tion from the outside world; it's a stress-reduction therapy chamber on wheels. Think ``serenity.'' Nor does it...

Young Gun ; So far, rookie Kevin Harvick has been more than impressive.
April 9, 2001... The deer-in-the-headlights look spoke volumes about Kevin Harvick. It said he'd rather be anywhere except where he was, which was at North Carolina Speedway on Feb. 23, being introduced as the man who would replace a legend. ``Nobody ever...

Peeking at Porsche's Boxster Coupe.
April 9, 2001... Reports from those who have seen Porsche's proposed Boxster Coupe (AW, Feb. 19) indicate the German sports car maker is planning a GT version (shown here in an artist's rendering) that would also offer Audi TT-fighting all-wheel drive. ...

Looking for Lancer (Evo VII).(Brief Article)
April 9, 2001... Mitsubishi officials say the Japanese automaker has no plans to import the high-performance Evolution VII version of the Lancer sedan to the United States, but that may not be the final word. U.S. plans for the four-wheel-drive, 280-hp,...

Weep, you sinners ; Brand-new 1932 Ford roadster bodies.(Brief Article)
April 9, 2001... If you're into hot rods-especially everyone's favorite, the '32 Ford roadster-here's a statistic. Of the 258,927 vehicles built by the Ford Motor Co. for 1932, apparently only 12,080 were roadsters. That's all. Then consider how few could have...

Road Test Data.(Brief Article)
April 9, 2001... STANDING-START ACCELERATION 0-30 mph: 2.38 sec 0-40 mph: 3.46 sec 0-50 mph: 4.89 sec 0-60 mph: 6.45 sec 0-100 km/h (62.1 mph): 6.83 sec 0-80 mph: 10.64 sec 0-quarter-mile: 96.3 mph, 14.85 sec ROLLING ACCELERATION 20-40 mph (first...

Pricing.(Brief Article)
April 9, 2001... Base: $54,005 As tested: $61,171 IntelliChoice target price: $57,103 Rebates: None Destination charge: $545 What owners paid; average: $54,708 to $80,000; $69,927 Options as tested: Navigation/Mark Levinson package, which includes...

Facts.(Brief Article)
April 9, 2001... MANUFACTURER'S DATA Toyota Motor Sales USA Lexus Division 19001 S. Western Ave. Torrance CA 90509 Customer assistance: (800) 255-3987 Internet address: www.lexus.com Country of origin: Japan Number...

Views and Review.
April 9, 2001... OWNERS THE LS 430 IS MORE LIKE a traditional Mercedes than even the current S-Class, except seriously better. It drives with more of the attitude of an earlier-generation S-Class. The LS 430's styling is more like a previous S-Class, with...

Others Considered.(Brief Article)
April 9, 2001... Mercedes-Benz S430 $70,800 0-60 mph: 6.9 seconds (est.) More expensive, yet did not have the gadgets the Lexus does. JAMES W. RUSSOCKI Ocala, Fla. BMW 750iL $92,100 0-60 mph: 6.6 seconds (est.) Too firm...

Z06: Better than expected.
April 16, 2001... Waiting for the 2002 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 will pay off for patient customers. They will be rewarded with more horsepower-405 hp vs. 385 hp for the 2001 model. The 20-hp bump also is 5 horsepower more than Chevy had originally expected from...

Honda Insight.
April 16, 2001... A Midwestern winter can devour even the sturdiest of cars. How would our tiny Insight, with its aluminum chassis and 14-inch wheels, hold up? Better than some of us expected, but it hasn't been trouble-free, either. After the biggest...

Mazda MPV: A routine visit.
April 16, 2001... We could have called our year with the Mazda MPV boring-but we haven't. More than once though, including on its arrival in our fleet of test vehicles, we used the word ``mundane'' to describe our red, sporty (yes, by way of its body aero kit)...

Chrysler Chops a Cruiser; PT Cruiser Convertible concept is ready for production.
April 16, 2001... Isn't it about time somebody popped the PT's top? After all, it's been four years since Chrysler revealed its segment-busting PT Cruiser concept to an adoring public, two years since the production five-door bowed and more than a year since...

Turbo on tap.
April 16, 2001... With its retro good looks, minivan-sized cargo space and car-like handling, what's not to love about Chrysler's PT Cruiser? Well, there is that shortage of horsepower. The Cruiser's 150-hp 2.4-liter inline four has its hands full pulling...

Lexus IS 300.
April 16, 2001... We keep comparing our long-term Lexus IS 300 to the BMW 3 Series, the star of the sports-sedan market. We need reminding sometimes that the IS 300 is not a Japanese 3 Series, but a 3 Series competitor, not a clone, but an alternative. So...

Porsche Boxster S.
April 16, 2001... Cupholders: No matter how often we use them, something rubs us the wrong way about seeing those two pop-out contraptions in the dash of our long-term Porsche Boxster S. There should be a dictum written somewhere prohibiting cupholders in sports...

Facts.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
April 23, 2001... MANUFACTURER'S DATA Mercedes-Benz USA One Mercedes Drive Montvale NJ 07645 Customer assistance: (800) 367-6372 Internet address: www.mbusa.com Country of origin: Germany Number of dealers: 315 ...

Views and Reviews.(Statistical Data Included)
April 23, 2001... OWNERS THE C320 IS PROBABLY THE CLOSEST TO A perfect car I have ever owned and/or raced. The C320 is/has: superb handling; very fast; extremely quiet; very comfortable over long periods of travel; very fuel efficient (27.6 mpg at...

Stallone: Driven is not Rocky on Wheels.
April 23, 2001... Sylvester Stallone, 54, is one of Hollywood's highest-paid actors (he reportedly received $20 million for Driven) and has appeared in more than 50 movies. He's best known for playing monosyllabic underdo hereos, like Rocky Babboa in the...

Baby is All Grown Up; Mercedes-Benz C-Class delivers big-car qualities in a smaller package.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
April 23, 2001... When unveiling the new C-Class last spring, Mercedes-Benz officials made a point of asserting that the car was not a reduced-in-size S-Class, the company's flagship. But management had a hard sell: The C's styling, with its sleek nose, slanted...

Fantasy Island ; Florida's First Coast is the perfect first concours.(Brief Article)
April 23, 2001... Now that the Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance weekend is over, I can admit it: I had never attended a concours before. Perhaps it was the four tortuous semesters of French in college, but the Gallic words had always scared me off. Little did I...

Car Board.(Brief Article)
April 23, 2001... In his new movie, Sly zips in and out of street traffic in a CART car-sans helmet. If you're going to do stupid things, these would be safer vehicles to drive. Honda ACCORD LX Price: $22,840 Engine: 3.0-liter V6, 200 hp, 195...

Offside Undo.(Brief Article)
April 23, 2001... Tom Mandel would have enjoyed AutoWeek's live web-cast. He would have enjoyed it and understood it-long before anyone knew what a webcast was. Tom, a brilliant man who crafted his own degree from the University of Hawaii in ``futurism,''...

Dirt-bike 'tude ; Suzuki shows sport wagon entry for 2002.(Brief Article)
April 23, 2001... Add Suzuki to the growing list of carmakers gearing up an entry into the burgeoning sport wagon segment. The Japanese manufacturer of everything from dirt bikes to boat engines, as well as small cars and cute sport/utes, unveiled its SX...

Oxymoronic Optima; Kia's midsize entry borrows from the best.(Brief Article)
April 30, 2001... Call it an oxymoron on wheels, the top-of-the-line luxury Optima from the bare-bones Korean-carmaker-that-could, Kia. Say what? Top end? From lowly Kia? Once staffers finished shuddering at the thought of spending more than an...

Not for U.S. Sale.(Brief Article)
April 30, 2001... Frustration wells up much more quickly in a fast car than a slow one. The creased old men, bent like commas in matching tweed caps, shuffle across the road, a row of four spaced like an octogenarian Abbey Road. If anything frustrates worse...

Jaundiced Eye.(Brief Article)
April 30, 2001... When Rommel retreated from North Africa, World War II in Europe was, to all intents and purposes, lost to the Germans though they didn't know it at the time. You have to be able to read the signs and be able to take a lesson from history....

Car Board.(Brief Article)
April 30, 2001... Move over John Force. There's more to drags than funny cars. Volkswagen CABRIO GLX Price: $23,725 Engine: 2.0-liter I4, 115 hp, 122 lb-ft Curb weight: 2914 lbs Drivetrain: fwd, four-speed automatic Drag to...

The Race Report.(Brief Article)
April 30, 2001... Using a classic Dale Earnhardt drafting maneuver, Bobby Hamilton won a caution-free Talladega 500 and gave Andy Petree his first win as a car owner. Hamilton got drafting help from Andy Petree Racing teammate Joe Nemechek behind him....

Late Racing News.(Brief Article)
April 30, 2001... IRL is fast at Richmond The action at Richmond International Raceway is some of the fastest in motorsports, particularly when you consider the shortness of the racing line (.750 mile). Jeff Gordon set the Winston Cup record in 1999 at...

Results.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
April 30, 2001... Talladega Superspeedway 2.66-mile oval April 22 1. Bobby Hamilton, Chevrolet, 188 laps at 184.003 mph avg. speed; 2. Tony Stewart, Pontiac, 188; 3. Kurt Busch, Ford, 188; 4. Mark Martin, Ford, 188; 5. Bobby Labonte, Pontiac, 188; 6. Joe...

Competition This Week.(Brief Article)
April 30, 2001... More casualties of the new regime When CART was searching for a new CEO last fall, many insiders hoped the successful candidate would be someone willing to swing the ax. Well, despite his fondness for buzzwords such as ``team building''...

Wagon in the wings.(Brief Article)
April 30, 2001... An Audi A4 Avant (wagon) variant is expected to debut in October after the Frankfurt Motor Show. It will have a longer wheelbase than the sedan and a large loading platform. Audi didn't talk about the wagon when it unveiled the new A4...