Compact Sedans June 27 1994

7/28/2019 Compact Sedans June 27 1994

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NOT AIPASSINGNew era dawns a s a learz

Detroit commi t s to buildingvalue-packed, world-classcompact cars1 By Kevin A. Wilson

e target cuslomers. we d w ' l target competi-tors." So says Ford chairman Alex Trotman,explaining that compelition between automak-ers isn't war, a new model's mission isn't to"kil l" th e segment leader."It doesn't happen that way." Trotman says. "Product doesn'tk i l l ofher products. We've seen cars die. and we've seen companiesdie. but that's generally besause someone managed his businesspwr ly . 11s not nuclear war. Among strong competitors. i l 's more o fa boxing match that goes on and on. round after round."So. meel the new con(endeFs ir) Lhe light-middleweightarena. In hisI mer . th e Ford ContourMercury ~ y s d ~ u e .n the other, boastang abigger body and styling that hasa lonser reach. ChrvslerCIMS.01maybethey're ihe same cwier. The Ford and Chryrler plat-forms mark the return o f domestic makers to full competitiveness i na segment they'd all but conceded to imprters. Ln this segment.Ford has offered only the lowly T e m w o p a z . Chryrler made dowith the Spiril/Ac~laim.and G M condnues to peddle N-body GrandAms. Skylarks and Achievas. Meanwhile, 20-odd contenders fromAsia and Europe divvy up nearly 2 mill ion cuslomers. The tilrgetsare mid-20s to 40-year-old couples or those with young fmilies.Contour and Cirms rewesent a sienificanl chanee in the wav II -Detroit approaches thew customers.The Ford shares its underpinnings with the Mondw. '93 EuropeanCarof the Year. This i s simply a convenient Ehoncut for a global cornDanv that recocnizes similar customer demands in different markets.~~~ -~ ~I n imrr ica, impnters penetrated deeply i n the senment hecause they here thev are. Note. too. that both Contour and Mvstiuue have l l tul t~e w d n their home markets that cuslomer demand for quality desi&and engineeringare not tied to a car's external dimensions. The combi-nation of quality and features importersoffered at a bargain price madethem great values. More necenlly. th e shifl i n monetaryexchange rdteaand Deuoil's leaner business p r ~ t i c e spened th e way lo r the domes-tics to fight back on equal footing.These new plalforms have the kind of engine and suspensionsophistication that Detroit didn't even offer on big carwbrfore Tau-rus (1986). 11 would've been hard lo envision, then. that Detroitwould offer two domestically made 24-valve twin-cam Vbs. Bu t

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, ,link independent rear suspensiona, s feature Nissan surrendered IIIFavor of a beam axle for it s latest Maxima-a car that \l o l\ 11) c,nrclass higher than the new dom estiu -in order lo kcep ihc pricccompetitive.Thus Contour and Cirrus are more spaning panners that comhatasa,hoping lo deliver s message thal Detroit i s serioua this limc aroulld.&Ith c;usart what enthusi;trLs have heen asking for fro111kt r n i t : lhcyanswer that demand in cuncep and we hope in execution.I n that sense. s l least. Trotman i s righl. Ford and Chryalrr aren'teyeba lling one another: Ihey're aim ing directly a1 you.H


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1'-'"7 SKY - 8 1 6 8 , CURYSLERiA NEW CLOUDIt's Cirrus, a compact that offersmidsize room inside

his is it, the t d y New Chryskr is finally exceptionally momy cabin for its price, class. I fowhm. With the JA platform, beginning with n n n t drive i n a prototype is indicative. they'll f dCinus this Ocmba. hecompany's entire car i t to be a car woRh shopping against such industry

mre s new i n the m t tna v a n . As with the LH standnrds~s the Honda A d nd Mazda 626.&s and New. 'shoppers bill be lured to the C i ill be ollowed in eady 1995 by the Dodgeshowmom by styling that delights the eye and an Shatusand Iataby a still-unnamedPlymnnh d o n .

I PUTS Fe- near San Diego, and fd-I4 W t h a t w i t h h u n c k e d s o f m i kin theEumgean Fad Monden. WeR d h ' ~ " B ~ + A W , " 'u 1 w . uu 4)thatwesawgnatprwnisintheplatform Now mat we've duivenWorld engineering pays o f f n handling P-mucti"ars near BodegaBay, we can say this: Ford willP ord Contour and MercuryMystique don't even go onsale until fall. but thev'vealready changed the world. -Theworld o f Ford, that is.Even before the cars arrive on th eU.S. market. Ford has decided thatthis whole world-car concern i s sogood that the entire company shouldbe reorganized around the principle.Developmento f entire car platformswi l l be shared on a global basis. andthe company suuctured accordingly."With the speed o f light, some-times literally. geography grows less and less important." says Fordchairman Alex Trotman. While he hails from Scotland, Trotman'sbackground includesclose experience with the integration o f Ford o fEngland and Ford o f Germany into the more efficient Ford o fEurope. In a way, the globalizationprogram he announced in Apri l ismerely the next logical step.Bu t i f the CDW-27 project. which first generated Europe's Mon-

deo and then the Contour/Mystique, has forever altered Ford's visiono f itself, the cars may well forever alter the average American dri-ver's vision o f what he can expect o f an affordable domestic sedan.We drove pmtaypc Ford C o n t m and Mercury Mystiques in late

deliveron ahmkU the promise.The l i s t o f standard and optional equipment for the Contour andMystique reads less like that for an American-made compact than i tdoes like a recent vintage German luxury car. Few shoppers in the$13,000 to $18.000 segment wi l l expect to find charcoal-filteredcli-mate control, four-wheel disc brakes, dl-independent suspension.ABS and all-speed traction control, and an all-alloy 24-valve V6designed to last IM),000 miles on only regular fluid and filterchanges. Granted, some o f that is optional equipment (rear discbrakes come with the extra-cost V6, for instance), but there's noquestion that even the most basic o f Contours is a technologicallysophisticated machine.From a size standmint. Contour i s iust about smt-on with Honda'sbenchmark Accord. its 106.5-inch wheelbase, 183.9-inch overall lengthand 69.1-inch width is almost to the inch within the Honda's soecs.Dimensions aside. dynamics are Contwr's smng suit. with its rigidchassis, contmlled but compliant suspension. and its four drivetraincombinations all conhibuting to a sprightly, fun-todrive character.Ho w good i s t?Good enough that anyone benchmarkinga NissanAltima SE or VW Jena 111G LX as the standard-setter o f the front-drive compact sedan class could be wrong. The V6 Contour SE maywell be the new king o f his patticular hill-we'll only know for sureon longer experience o f the cars.Know this, though: Every time Ford debuts a new car, i t tmts outJackie Stewart, in name if not in person. Often as not this has amwntedto little more than a marketing-propelled nod toward his role as a corn

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Lik e L H and Neon, the JAs rus cksigrwnWedpeoplewere developed by a crossdisciplinary "plat- in a gmmy slue p a h n gform team." a concept that traces its domestic lut making note of featurninception lo Ford's Taums but has been that work- those lhalpushed to its extremes at Ch rysler. didn't. Cirms has a spoilerAlthough targeted at the $15.000$18,WOsegment (the bottom-end Stratus will becheaper) dominated by compact cars. C i m s stechnically not a compact but a midsize car. I tslips lhmugh the EPA's classification systemat I cubic feet o f interior volume: one cubicfoot above the cuto ff between compact w dmidsize. Ford's Co ntour is at 103.Pan of theJA's volume advantage is due lothe car's genemus width, and that's a conse-quence of designer M i c b l Santom's decisionto draw the cars wit h an exaggerated pregnant-g u ~ yurve l o the side of the car, an aspectseen best i n plan view. That's the view o f carsSantoro had most often while attending artschool in Manhattan-looking down ho rnhigh-rise stnrlures to the uaffic below. Theinterior is so wide at the B-p illar th a ~ ou couldslip a s lim briefcase alongside the lef t edge ofh e driver's seat and into the back. There'splenty of elbow mom, along with a built-insafety ma rgin in a side-impact collision.Santao is 28. and like the ahe r, d yyoungishmmbers o f the JA wom team wil lhapp ly tell you lhalM s esigned a car forpple in his own de mg iaph ~c mup.k esign-ers and engineers have paid attention to the wayin which people really usecars.For instance. Cir -,,..,,,..,............................................................. ........w m any consultant. Bu t CD W -27, according to its program dimtors in bothEurope and the Un ited Slates. is the project onwhich Stewart has had the most influence in allthese years. 7hwsands of test miles wereracked up on Scottish Highland back roads,mostly scouted out b y Stewan himself."I t is absolutely the k t estd rive route forcar development that I' ve ever encountered."Stewart proclaims, his Scouish accent turningroute into rrmoor. He didn't go racing overthose road%,either. "When I rive a car forevaluation. I end to go quite slowly. I f yo u gotoo fast you have to concenm te on your dri-ving and you don't have time to notice howthe steering feels or how well the shifterworks." An d when Stewa n was done evaluat-ing the can on those roads. when he spokeabwr what goa ihandling was all about. vinu -ally everyone at Ford listened.Themosl-cited exnmple comes from late i nthe car's develovment. w hen Stewart returnedfrom a tour in a prototype and remarked thathe'd had to make a minor steering correctionpan way thoug h the curves. Alerted. Ford'sow n test driven: noticed the same h n g .though i t was so subtle as to be easily over-looked. Subtlety notwithstanding, the "p ro blem" was fixed by revising the antimll barmount. Contour development chief Ray Nico-sia snys h e car uack ed steadily all the *me.

hut some toque feedback from the bar mount-ing sent a "false" signa l to the whee l that ui g-gered a natural response to correct the steering.

l ipon th e aft end ofthe deck-l id nputbgause t's visibleh he driver's seat adhe lp you lidth e right-rearmmer of the car when back-ing out o f a W n g p aWhat makes Cimssland wt in the segmentbeyond its interior volume ir 1Ls lace. I n ewaterfall grille is set in a pmlmding bumperthat looks like a s tu c k a t lower l ip. Santomhad drawn an even more-dramatically vadi-tional Chrysler grille that ertended fartherdown into iheair dam. but the engineen could-n't cool the engine properly with the configu-ration. The resu lting compromise look\ likeone. but the rest o f he car is exquisitely drawn.Inside. aside from some absurdly sculpturedpseudo-wood trim. Cirrus has a co n te m prary, useful design. The cabin also feels likea much more roomy and comfortable placeto spend some tim e than is the case fur manycompetitor$. This is especially true of thespace beh ind the rear doors, where Chrysle rhas a clear edge over Altima. Accord and.yes, Contour. Still, you pay ,the price forsw wp y styling wit h some worry over head-room, and in cab-fomard design, this

applies both front and rear. As with the L Hcars. the windshield header seems awfullyclose lo the brim of your huehal l cap.though it's largely an optical illusion.That static evaluation is tine, hut don'tthese thing, move'! Yes. they do. Buyers havea choice of a IJ Oh p 2.4-liter ti)ur (a balance-

And the car does uack steadily. Turn thewheel once into a turn and hold your setting-the Contour warps around the curve in asmooth motion. The quadra-link rear suspen-sion design incorporates some rear toe-in forpassive rear-steer assistance. Steering feel i sas g w d as you can expect from a front-drivecar, with the singular exceptiun of being tooisolated at the dead-ahead position .Ford offen a choice of four drivetrain c o rnbinations: a five-speed manual or a four-speedautomatic gearbox paired with the 125-hpZetec four, as used in Europe's Mondeo forthe past year. or the all-new. Clcveland-huilt2.5-liter 170-hp Duratm V6. The latter hasn'tquite the verve or spirit nf VW'h VR6, but ilcan't be faulted on refinement or designsophistication. It's smooth. producing ust theright throaty roar when put to work. The

American-made Duratec's alloy block ir castusing the rame ightweight Cosw onh processas Ford nc in g engines. This is a fin 1 forpductioniar use. and it pays off: The fullydressed V 6 weighs only 40 pounds more thanthe ca.st-imn Eumpean four.In charge of the program wu Bruce Coven-uy, who can h m l y conceal the pride that this.the CDW -27 's most sophisticated engine, wardesigned in he U nited States. "That wa.* a I ~ I $reach for us." he rays.The American inpu t may he mo\t cv~dc ntnthe fat-hottomed toque curve. "We didn'twant to build one of those rev-happy wre n men." Coventry explains. And indeed. i t hasn'tthat elecuic-motor hum l o high rpms thal'sfound in the like-sized M a d a V 6 ( in the 626.M X- h and Ford Prohrl. Bu t the Durdlec wanto its 6700 rpm redline nicely. Yet. below

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I PA aa mlciab.0ptimuZ..UdV6(br lor rM)un lmhrc lOn)rrrfm tw r - . p r d .utomrtlcabout it. It may also be th e case that1 C h ~ ~ k r h a s - U ~ h h o f t h e Iand s headingjust this sideofthe line.1 The early JA-vladam rmc- II hatwe ex i b t ed ex&llem-&-dine and min. b u with kss Eumaan- -rbdt toquu &om pannn Mitsubishi) a a 2.4 has the cque to pull sbwgly through the f lava, u&&md&l;:than has Fwd's similarl d ehp 25-liter iron blocwalloy head twin- automatic g e a h x , while Fwd's 2.0-liter (and ContowS E Thae's somebeefy antimll actioncam V6, bc4h coupkd to a four-speed au@ several cdur fours in this class) vlavs at the at work here.butW s ku olentv of annoli- Imatic.Only tbe&will be offerad in Oaobz. limits of acqmbility in this resp&. aoce &om th e h t nalual-~gt~control~The 2Aliter win show un when the Stratus Chwsler's six feels olentv m e t- and rrarmultilink amen&. 1, ~ - . ~ ~coma on slmm in ~cbuarj r so. The be& most of the impm cpposition, but Ow drive was confined to Chrysler'sDodgewill sku o&r a 2.Oliter (Neonmdor) the engine's characta is not what yw'd call Chelsea, Mich., Proving Gmunds, on both a IwithRn-npcalbut this somewhat noisy base spak l ig . Enginemare still fine-tuning hings short mad-racing type course and on a loopm&umh has been eliminated from th e like LhUtlc tipin nsponsc and th e elccbunic dcsinned to simulate various ~ub l i c vwsvs. Ic m U ; k ~ ~ a a e r i s t h e o ~ l ~ m a n ~ a l ~g O n t h e ~ a u t ~ ~ s o t h i ~ m i g h tboxotkcdm tbe A ratwe.Clwskrkks he c h n e b e f a t th e car eachesmodmion.

51*8bg~tojustiij~eiopn&tofamanuai & ~ l ; e s x i s r i w ~ h a ; i s t h a t ~ u y s ~ e rmmsnbfortbeV6.Fudamorti~esthefost againhnsonitshunckacarwithmonnoticbof ita f i v q d gainst Eurupean sales, so it abk d v i b m t i o r h & m s s (NVH) than theandl& tbe chdce of manual or automatic average for its rnmpctkm. Even makinghae even though t ex- to sell few manu- allow- f a he ough edge typical ofpmeals in tbc US. msrku Still, Ford has an edge types, t h c ! s a lot of mchanical and nxuionlypertisllyoffsabythefactthatchrysla's noisepembatingmCnrbin--andwelolowthatvinuaUy everyone wtw dmve the prototypestold Chtyskr as much. At the time, them wasmorethansevenmonthskftbefaefull-tiltp

&OD, so perhaps something will be done

Cmlour's dkk bnldlgM (tarM )~ S O n N ~ ~ .u . a a u i r vs( M )rsr-ovrswldonng.otrpnr.CWni.ywt(#low), Isfunalaul,~ . n d e dmmEurope's Yon- forAnwriun

3WO rpm it also delivers the lion's share ofpeak torque (165 lb ft st 4200 rpm). Dualintake pons give it a two-engine characur. thedocile pull from low down and thrillingsurge at high revs make it excitingwith a five-speed and a splendid mate f a he automatic.Ford claims a 0-60 mph time of 7.5 sec-onds for a Duratedfive-speed Contour, andjust over 9.0 seconds with the same enginemupled to the automatic.

The seat of our pantsand some side-by-sidedrives suggest thal a four-cylinder manual will tunwith the automatic V6combo. It's not takingany i h i i away fromCoventry to say that anenthusiast on a tight bud-get might be as happywith the base d r i v d nwith optional ABS andtractionmntrol. The Bel-gian-& 2.0-titer hasserved as the topof-the-tine engine in ~ p esince Monden's inmduc-tion more than a year ago: it's a swk t piece

that sings at speed. But it hasn't enough pullf~ mSt &lEIican~ whm cwpled to the auto.Chassis dynamics are pmty much identi-cal regardless of engine choice. and if youcan w i n your right foot to smash the gaspedalonto the lw r if th e car starts to plow ina tight turn. the traction control system (byAllied Signal, and availableon all powemaincombinations) will pull you thrwgh better

The& handled well on the fiatmad&&e,and absorbed most any imgular surfaceavailable at the proving grounds. O v e d ,the ca r felt much Wre a unaller LH ar. or atleast as good as an Accord.If styling sells c d t does--Chrysla's JAs are caning to marks with astrong edge. Couple that with the sizc advan-tage in its price class, aboveavenge over-the-rod pnformam, a gemally m n g marketand a widespnad belief that Chryslm is thehama carcompanyonM i it I& wrnahcrwrasstayintheofhg.. Ithanyou can manage on your ownwith anyamount of wrestling and toe-dancing. It usesthe brakes to adjust for slip at low speeds.and controls the hrottle at higher speeds. It'sthe next best thing to rear-drive.The full-on enthusiast version. theV6lfive-speed Contour SE. has mildlytweaked suspension (stiffer bushings. unlikethe topline Mystique LS), six-inch-wi&.15-inch alloy wheels rather than the standard5.5-inch 14s. plus splendidly supportives pn t bucket seats. It s h am the new MTX75manual transaxle with the base cars. TheMI-bearing mounted shifter wasn't as p-e-cise as we'd anticioated. the 1-2 shift nartic- I~~~~ r~~~ulady felt notch; on ' several examples.though noworse than average for this class.If y w complain about thedad on-centersteering feel. Ford pop l e nod knowingly:They're working on it. Ditto the lever tooperate the tilt steering column. We've seenthree differenthandles. none of which is sat-isfactory. Again. "we're working on it."Nicosia explaimd that the Europeanmechanism and handle, which works fine,allows the column to telescope. But the carscored poorly in U.S. federal crash tests withthe elescoping column soa tilt-only mecha-nism had to be developed.Not long ago, we'd have e x p t e d ananswer Like. "We'll get it next model year,we just ran w t of time."Nobody says stupid stuff like that at Fordanymore. It i s ndeed. a new em .

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Compact Sedans June 27 1994