AutoWeek articles from April 2002

AutoWeek archives from April 2002

Truck, truck, goose; Loads of sport/ute debuts (and a few cars) at the New York show.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Once you make your way past the bevy of trusty sport/utility vehicles debuting at the New York auto show, there are some ``autos'' worth seeing when the show is open to the public March 29 through April 7 at the Jacob Javits Convention Center....

Apple of our I.(Infiniti's G35 coupe)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Lookers from New York: Infiniti shows a higher-powered coupe version of its G35 and an M45 (right) with many of the features of the Q, for less money. If you already like Infiniti's G35 sport sedan (AW, Feb. 4), chances are you'll love the...

It's Italian! ; Maranello Red, adjustable suspension, 1733 lb-ft of torque, automatic shifting: No, it's not an F1 Ferrari.(Brief Article)(Evaluation)
April 1, 2002... Voting for the AutoWeek 2002 World Heavy Truck of the Year is over, so stop sending in your ballots. Most North Americans can be forgiven for not knowing Industrial Vehicles Corp. (IVECO, pronounced ``ee-VEH-ko'' in EE-tah-lee) is Fiat...

Car Board.(evaluations for Ford, Nissan, Honda)(Brief Article)(Evaluation)
April 1, 2002... We'd like to think that the pleadings in these pages made thses cars into reality. Self-aggrandizement? No doubt. * Honda CIVIC SI Price: $19,690 Engine: 2.0-liter I4, 160 hp, 132 lb-ft Curb weight: 2744 lbs Drivetrain:...

Lincoln Gets a Hot Rod ; McLaren picks LSE for its first niche performance player.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... McLaren Performance Technologies' future starts with a hot rod Lincoln. ``With all due respect to Commander Cody and his Lost Planet Airmen, when you think `Hot Rod Lincoln,' we want you to think `McLaren Engines,''' says McLaren president and...

Sporty is as sporty does; But the new SL500's high-tech luxury is nice, too.(Mercedes SL500)(Evaluation)
April 1, 2002... Should you believe the hype? Mercedes vp of marketing Dave Schembri said the new SL500 ``handles better than most high-performance sports cars.'' Mercedes product planning chief for coupes and convertibles Doug Worrell said the SL ``has...

20 for '02; Attention shoppers: For your buying and driving pleasure, 20 cars we like in 2002.(product reviews)
April 8, 2002... From bargain-basement buys to top-shelf toys, there's no shortage of choices for the driving enthusiast to shop from this year. And that can be good or bad, depending on the balance in your checkbook and the amount of free real estate in your...

2003 CHRYSLER PT TURBO; Back in the boost business.(product review)(Brief Article)
April 8, 2002... In our heyday,'' says Doug Livermore, director of DaimlerChrysler's I-4 engineering powertrain product team, ``we made a lot of turbos.'' Livermore is one of the guys at DCX who remembers that time from 1984 to 1993 when Chrysler Corp....

Best of the Best ; AutoWeek editors scour the world to choose international auto show winners. Here's the rest of the story.(Brief Article)
April 8, 2002... Miss World. Mr. Universe. The Westminster Dog Show. The Academy Awards. Now that we've completed a full lap on the international show circuit-Frankfurt, Tokyo, Detroit and Geneva-and we've identified celebrities at each, we're taking it to...

...But Wait, There's More.(Delphi Automotive Systems Corp.)(Brief Article)
April 8, 2002... ``Drivers are not brash daredevils but rather focused athletes who occasionally cry before the event because it's so exciting...'' -IRL spokeswoman and Victoria's Secret model Elaine Irwin-Mellencamp, quoted in the Los Angeles Times ...

Car Board.(Brief Article)
April 8, 2002... The grass is always greener? Bah! Keeping up with the Joneses? C'mon! You set trends; you don't care what they say you should wear or eat, let alone drive. * Cadillac ESCALADE EXT Price: $49,990 Engine: 6.0-liter V8, 345 hp, 380...

Wish List; A Few Modest Proposals: If wishes were horses, here's how we'd ride.(car journalists state what they would like in a car)(Brief Article)
April 8, 2002... Wanna waste hours? Ask car journalists what they'd like in a new car that you can't get now. It's the roadside equivalent of bench racing. Here's what we got when we posed the question recently at One AutoWeek Tower. BMW M3 GTR, Lotus...

SE-Rious Fun ; Nissan's Sentra SE-R makes a torquey return.(Brief Article)
April 8, 2002... Consider: AutoWeek readers who bought the Sentra SE-R looked at several other cars before going with the Nissan, including the Ford SVT Focus, Mazda MP3, Honda Civic Si, Subaru WRX, Acura RSX Type-S and Toyota Matrix. That owners place the SE-R...

ThunderOde ; The Holden Monaro could become one of the best GTOs ever.(product review)
April 8, 2002... Editor's note: Bob Hall was once west coast editor for AutoWeek and Automotive News. That was before he invented the Miata, got quasi-famous, and moved to Oz to take up journalism again. Whaddya say to a sexy-looking coupe with 5.7 liters...

Offside Undo.(Waste Management Inc. )(Brief Article)
April 8, 2002... H. Wayne Huizinga made a dumpster load of money the old-fashioned way-he carried out other people's trash. But he did it with style. Overnight, garbage wasn't garbage; it became ``waste.'' Picking it up was ``managing'' it, and thus was born...

FACTS.(Nissan Motor Co.)(Brief Article)
April 8, 2002... MANUFACTURER'S DATA Nissan Motor Co. 18501 S. Figueroa St. P.O. Box 191 Gardena CA 90248 Customer assistance: (800) 647-7266 Internet address: www.nissandriven.com Country of origin: Japan Number of dealers: 1073 ...

VIEWS AND REVIEWS.(Nissan Motor Company Ltd.)(Brief Article)
April 8, 2002... OWNERS THE FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH! THE EXPERIence should remind any driver of the first time driving a fast automobile. This is my go-kart with four doors and a back seat. The smooth, torquey engine loves to rev and it sounds great. I find the...

LIKES/DISLIKES.(very brief review of Nissan Motor Company Ltd.'s Sentra SE-R SPEC V)(Brief Article)
April 8, 2002... NISSAN SENTRA SE-R SPEC V LIKES * Gobs of power * Limited-slip differential * Great value DISLIKES * No dead pedal * Red gauges difficult to read * Plasticky interior

The Car: 1931 Packard Model 845 Seven-Passenger Convertible Sedan ; Classic Era charisma.(Fort Lauderdale Antique Automobile Museum )(Brief Article)
April 8, 2002... In 1931 Packard was by far the best-selling luxury automobile in the United States and in great demand throughout the world. The Depression was just beginning and luxury-car makers were still offering a great variety of body styles, including...

Where the Packards are; Inside the Fort Lauderdale Antique Car Museum.(Brief Article)
April 8, 2002... Arthur Stone, a florist, began collecting Packards in the 1940s. This interest in the marque culminated in opening the Fort Lauderdale Antique Car Museum in May 2000. His objective is to display one example from each of Packard's 59 years in an...

For just a bit more...(Holden Special Vehicles)(Brief Article)
April 8, 2002... Holden has a local tuner, HSV (Holden Special Vehicles), a company owned by Tom Walkinshaw's TWR that does for Holden Commodores and Monaros what Reeves Callaway does for Corvettes-using many of Callaway's engine mods, in fact. Though it...

Five Hundred; Ford's `next big thing' is an SUV-like car.(Brief Article)
April 8, 2002... The Five Hundred is bigger than a Taurus, looks like a Passat and will join the Ford lineup in 2004-but maybe not with the same name. Five Hundred wasn't exactly revealed at the New York auto show, but Ford executives disclosed it and a...

Out of tune; Viper specialist John Hennessey up to his cylinder heads in problems.(Brief Article)
April 8, 2002... Ninety-eight percent of his customers love him, John Hennessey says. But a few hate him and some have sued. Hennessey Motorsports in Houston specializes in tuning Vipers, adding more power to what is already one of the most powerful cars in...

Dueling lawsuits.(Championship Auto Racing Teams fired CEO sues, and is being sued)
April 8, 2002... For CART, the month of March ended with a curious exchange of lawsuits between the sanctioning body and former CEO Joseph Heitzler- a legal skirmish that's bound to get ugly before it is settled. Nearly four months after an angry board of...

Most Fun, redux.(review of Audi's RS6)(Brief Article)
April 8, 2002... When we named Audi's ultra-high-performance RS6 Most Fun car at the Geneva motor show (AW, March 18) and then bestowed upon it one of our annual Best of the Best (page 28) trophies, we hinted it might head stateside. At the New York show, Audi...

I Shall Call Him `Mini Me'; Superchargers? We don't need no stinking superchargers.(BMW Mini Cooper)(Brief Article)
April 15, 2002... While McGuire was off in Europe thrashing the supercharged Cooper S, the duty of thrashing the naturally aspirated no-suffix Cooper fell to us here in America. Tough duty, we thought, soldiering on minus 48 of the 163 horsepower in the...

Lotus Blossom for America? ; Malaysian-British roadster brings basics back to the States.(Lotus Elise)(Brief Article)
April 15, 2002... Today's ``sports cars'' are so loaded with an alphabet soup of ABS, ESP and DSC that it is nearly impossible to make the car go FUBAR. Not so the Lotus Elise, which is raw and feral underfoot, in its element as a track car. It's a purist's...

Jaguar X-Type: Great expectations.(Brief Article)
April 15, 2002... That best describes our state of mind when we put in the order for a long-term X-Type Jaguar. Why not? In an ever-growing world of trucks and sport/utility vehicles, this newest baby Jag offered a four-wheel-drive sedan for a fleet besieged by...

Corvette gold.(50th Anniversay Special Edition)(Brief Article)
April 15, 2002... Chevrolet's tribute to 50 years of Corvette history- the 50th Anniversary Special Edition-arrives this summer as a 2003 model featuring a red exterior, shale interior, commemorative badging (front, back and fenders) and champagne-colored...

The News.(Toyota, Ford)(Brief Article)
April 15, 2002... Toyota addresses oily mess Toyota is taking steps to address an oil-sludge buildup problem that has damaged engines in some Toyota and Lexus models. Owners of 1997 through 2002 Toyota and Lexus vehicles equipped with 3.0-liter V6 or...

Oh, For Fun; And what you'll give up for it.(BMW Mini Cooper)(Brief Article)
April 15, 2002... Before us, a deceptively simple proposition: Mini Cooper S, the hotter version of the reborn, reconstituted Mini Cooper, from BMW's Mini Group. And a tantalizing, seductive proposition it is, seductive enough to make one downright suspicious....

Viva Las Vegas; John Force's 100th will have to wait, other drivers were kings in Vegas.
April 15, 2002... No, John Force did not win his 100th race last weekend in Las Vegas. But is that all there is to drag racing in America lately? Hey, Ron Krisher won Pro Stock at Vegas over Darrell Alderman. But it seems all anyone cared about was that Force,...

R Is the Star ; Baddest cat in the neighborhood is now the 400-hp supercharged S-Type R.
April 15, 2002... Make the statement: ``...the most powerful series production car ever to be produced by...'' and as a company, you have set yourself up as a target for critics. Producing a car with horsepower numbers greater than what has graced models before...

Results: Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
April 15, 2002... Las Vegas Motor Speedway 0.25-mile drag strip April 7 Round 4 of 23 TOP FUEL Larry Dixon, ET 4.639, 319.29 mph, over Cory McClenathan, ET 4.728, 313.88 mph FUNNY CAR Gary Densham, Ford, ET 5.409, 205.13 mph,...

Life with Cars.
April 15, 2002... New York City. Vital. Vivacious. Brave. Artistic. Diverse. Brooding, bustling, bursting with life. And stopped. Dead. I was born in New York, got my first car-mag job there, lived there, navigated the teeming streets-on foot, in cabs and...

The Future.
April 15, 2002... June 16 The Original British Car Day Gaithersburg, Md. Held by the Chesapeake Chapter of the New England MGT Register at Smokey Glen Farm. Call John at (301) 831-5300 for more info. June 17-21 National Z Car Convention...

Car Board.
April 15, 2002... Some vehicles roll along in a class all their own, despite enormously derivative DNA. * Volkswagen NEW BEETLE GLX Price: $21,725 Engine: 1.8-liter turbo I4, 150 hp, 162 lb-ft Curb weight: 2948 lbs Drivetrain: fwd,...

...But Wait, There's More.
April 15, 2002... ``Richard, hear this... while you're trying to dethrone the Lightning, the GT40 will reduce your Viper to a status somewhere between a garter snake and an earthworm.'' -John Coletti, head of Ford's high-performance SVT group, addressing...

MITSUBISHI LANCER OZ RALLY.
April 22, 2002... LIKES * Tight chassis * Good fit-and-finish * Quiet interior DISLIKES * More power wanted * Doesn't challenge rivals * Unsexy exterior styling

FACTS.
April 22, 2002... MANUFACTURER'S DATA Mitsubishi Motors Corp. 6400 Katella Ave. Cypress CA 90630 Customer assistance: (888) 648-7820 Internet address: www.mitsucars.com Country of origin: Japan Number of dealers: 592 ...

Saving some serious stone.
April 22, 2002... Jaguar's 2004 XJ, due to debut at the Paris motor show this fall, is a leap forward to make the top cat lighter on its feet. Jag's redesigned flagship is set to arrive in showrooms next spring. Sources say the '04 model may look...

Rally Wannabe ; Capable commuter, but no Evo.
April 22, 2002... While most Mitsubishi Lancer OZ Rally Edition owners who contacted us gave the car a thumbs up, we expected more from it. Most of those owners didn't expect many thrills from it, but we say it doesn't live up to its sporty-sounding name. ...

News.(Jaguar will report SAE horsepower ratings)(International Pages)(Brief Article)
April 22, 2002... C6 course correction They're not calling it a ``delay,'' but more a ``correction'' of earlier information as to when the next-generation Chevrolet Corvette will make its official debut. Originally targeted for a late fall 2003 introduction...

Competition This Week; April 22, 2002.(Formula One race lacks single American driver)(Brief Article)
April 22, 2002... Lack of an American driver in Formula One is the reason pundits say the world's most popular form of motor racing has never caught on in this country. Former F1 and CART pilot Danny Sullivan aims to change that (below). No one needs to teach...

VIEWS AND REVIEWS.(Lancer OZ car rated)(Brief Article)
April 22, 2002... OWNERS The Lancer OZ represents quite a change for me after 25 years of trucks. The car is quick, very precise in handling and acceleration and with brakes that make you drool. The shifter is user-friendly with a short throw between gears....

Car Board.(New cars: Pontiac VIBE, Hyundai TIBURON GT)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
April 22, 2002... Cars, like people, come in all shapes and sizes-just like the fun they deliver. * Pontiac VIBE Price: $20,000 Engine: 1.8-liter I4, 130 hp, 125 lb-ft Curb weight: 2701 lbs Drivetrain: fwd, five-speed manual Ignore...

Green light for gray Ferraris.(2001 Ferrari 360s and 550 Maranellos)(Government Activity)(Brief Article)
April 22, 2002... A nearly yearlong squabble between gray-market importers and Ferrari of North America on its supercars is over-at least as it relates to 2001 model Ferrari 360s and 550 Maranellos. ``I'm looking forward to my first paycheck in 11 months,''...

Late Racing News.(Toby Scheckter, NASCAR driver)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
April 22, 2002... Another Scheckter * While his elder brother, Tomas, races on the Indy Racing League ovals in the States, Toby Scheckter will spend his summer on ovals in Europe, competing in the ASCAR series, which alternates between Rockingham Speedway...

Competition.(Formula One race lacks American drivers)
April 22, 2002... Seeking Americans for F1 * Disappointed that no Americans compete in Formula One? Energy drink maker Red Bull and former F1 pilot and Indy 500 winner Danny Sullivan want to change that. The Red Bull Formula One Academy, a ladder system for...

...But Wait, There's More.(Jaguar's Union Jacked XK8 roadster)(Brief Article)
April 22, 2002... Speed Racer has returned from travel to exotic lands-Wisconsin. He brought with him a new Top 10, obviously inspired by his journeys. Without ado: 10 signs that you should give the vehicle in front of you a wide berth... 10. Has bumper...

SixSense; In the new 6, we get ever closer to knowing Mazda.(Mazda seeks to increase 2% auto market share)(Statistical Data Included)
April 22, 2002... Mazda is one of those niche-like manufacturers that at times has set us to scratching our heads. We've always at the very least liked what it does. More frequently we've wished it had a legitimate rival to the Toyota Camry and Honda Accord. Or...

Fast Poll.(New cars rated)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
April 22, 2002... When you wish upon a car... My 1996 Caprice wagon is getting long in the tooth with no suitable replacements. I could drop 40 large on a Mercedes, BMW or Volvo, but my wife and children would reduce the interior appointments to rodent...

Can CART Be Saved?; Chris Pook says it can, and it will.(Chris Pook, CART's new CEO)
April 22, 2002... ``Those were just words. The interesting thing about words is that when you speak them publicly, you had damn well better fulfill them. Otherwise, you end up in trouble.'' The speaker is Chris Pook, CART's latest CEO and quite possibly its...

Escape Roads.(Auto museums)(Brief Article)
April 22, 2002... Escape Roads gets new(s) look If you're reading this, you probably noticed that these pages do not look like they did last week. You may have wondered, ``Why?'' In the spirit of continuous improvement, we've decided to revamp this section...

everyday; Is the Maserati Coupe the Toyota of Italian exotics?(Ferrari's new Maserati coupe has a 4.2-liter V8 engine)(International Pages)(Product Announcement)
April 22, 2002... ``Usable everyday'' is one of the ways Antonio Ghini, communications director of Ferrari in Italy, describes the Maserati Coupe. Huh? Yes, there are people who treat Porsches like Toyotas, but you'd have to be nuts to use an Italian car as a...

2003 Suzuki Aerio; SX Appeal.(evaluation)(Brief Article)
April 29, 2002... Small cars are cool again. From Foci to Matrices to Vibes to Protege5s, there's a growing crop of fun, compact five-door mini-wagons on the market. This is a class of cars to embrace for a variety of reasons: roomy interiors, versatile cargo...

Italian art.(Ferrari unveils FX model at Tokyo Museum of Contemporary Art)(Brief Article)
April 29, 2002... Ferrari chose the Tokyo Museum of Contemporary Art to unveil its FX model (above) and the quattro porte Maserati (right). Ferrari is showing a full-size styling model of its ``project FX,'' the successor to the F40 and F50, through July 14...

Chevrolet TrailBlazer LTZ.(evaluation)(Brief Article)
April 29, 2002... ``What's wrong with the TrailBlazer, now?'' With that all-too-familiar refrain emanating from the cube farm at One AutoWeek Tower, you can probably guess all is not rosy with our long-term Chevrolet TrailBlazer LTZ. The silvery sport/ute's...

Snake-Bit; Will the world warm to a new Viper?(DaimlerChrysler's to debut new Viper in 2003)
April 29, 2002... It's the most iconic American car of its era, arguably the only car made in Detroit since the dark days of the 1970s that's worth veneration. But it's been more than 10 years since the first production model was hatched, and the Viper is now...

Car Board.(Lincoln LS, Volkswagen PASSAT GLX, Volvo S80 EXECUTIVE)(Brief Article)(Evaluation)
April 29, 2002... Sometimes the most obvious solution to your luxury car needs sits right below your nose. Or maybe you knew that and chose not to sniff. * Lincoln LS Price: $38,540 Engine: 3.0-liter V6, 220 hp, 215 lb-ft Curb weight: 3603 lbs...

Lowering the Liberty; Jeep says ride quality, more than rollover concern, led to suspension changes.(Brief Article)
April 29, 2002... Jeep Liberty-the DaimlerChrysler sport/utility vehicle that rolled during performance testing last fall by AutoWeek (AW, Nov. 26, 2001)-now rides on a suspension that has been lowered by nearly an inch. While DaimlerChrysler maintains the...

The Race Report.(2002 Talladega 500 stock car race)(Brief Article)
April 29, 2002... Once again at Talladega, 43 drivers and 185,000 fans waited nervously for ``the Big One'': the violent multi-car pileup that's inevitable when the Winston Cup cars, tightly bunched by their NASCAR-enforced restrictor plates and aero...

not for the Hardcore ; The new Audi A4 Cabriolet will be very, very nice.(Evaluation)
April 29, 2002... There are labels that succinctly, unequivocally, convey the nature of the 2003 Audi A4 Cabriolet. Yet those that come readily to mind might violate standards of decorum or political correctness, so we struggle. Can we say ``high-end secretary's...