Ford Motor Co. may be transitioning to an SUV and pickup brand, but the iconic Mustang muscle car is set to be the performance face of the company from its new electric crossover in 2020 to a Mustang-dominated, global racing lineup starting this year.
The Mustang will debut this weekend at Daytona 500 qualifying as Ford’s NASCAR model, replacing the Ford Fusion sedan. With a Mustang Funny Car dragster also bowing this weekend at the Lucas Oil NHRA Winternationals outside Los Angeles, the pony car will carry the Blue Oval’s flag into battle from the Australian Super Cup Series to GT racing in Europe.
“The Mustang started to go global for its vehicle sales in 2016. We wanted to mirror that with our race team,” says global chief of Ford Performance Motorsport Mark Rushbrook. “As Mustang street cars have true global reach and availability, then we are switching cars to a Mustang in all of our global race series where appropriate.”
The Dearborn automaker is going through wrenching global changes from abandoning its car lineup to investing in an autonomous-development-focused Detroit train station to introducing 40 electric vehicles by 2022.
But the Mustang’s signature, shark-like face and vertical-bar taillights will lend familiarity. The Mustang is now on sale in 146 countries and is the best-selling sports coupe in the world.
The Fusion sedan will no longer be pounding around the high bankings of Daytona International Speedway this weekend. Defending Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champ Joey Logano and his Bloomfield Hills-based Penske racing team will lead 14 Mustangs into qualifying. The 500-mile race will be held Sunday, Feb. 17, before a TV audience of over 9 million viewers.
Rushbrook’s Ford Performance team took advantage of NASCAR’s new, 2018 rules which allowed manufacturers to enter a coupe as well as the traditional sedan nameplate. Ford’s pony will join Chevrolet’s Camaro coupe — which debuted last year — and Toyota’s Camry sedan in this year’s Cup series.
“We believe we’ve designed the Mustang to be faster than the Fusion,” says Rushbrook, though he acknowledges you never know until race day. “Based on our computational fluid dynamics tools, scale wind-tunnel testing, and full-scale wind-tunnel testing — and the few on-track tests we’ve had — we’ve made a good move. But until the real race, we never know for sure, so there’s always some level of nervousness.”
Building Rushbrook’s confidence are new NASCAR aerodynamic rules, meaning every team had to start from scratch. Under the hood, the NASCARs still will be powered by familiar ol’, push-rod V-8s (though restricted to 550 horsepower for big ovals and 750 horses for small tracks and road courses).
NASCAR hopes the Mustang-Camaro rivalry will jump-start sagging ratings. And Ford hopes its pony car’s racing presence will help sell an all-electric crossover coming in 2020 — complete with fast-back Mustang design DNA.
The e-crossover’s sound will be decidedly un-V-8-like, but Ford is determined to translate the Mustang’s personality into a speedy, Tesla-like EV.
“We’re going to change a lot of people’s minds,” Ford global markets boss Jim Farley has told investors, promising a fast green ute that appeals to more than tree-huggers.
At the top of the go-fast pyramid will be Ford’s 2019 Mustang Funny Car.
NHRA Funny Cars are essentially Top Fuel slingshot dragsters with car bodies. Compared to the Mustang Cobra Jet dragster (also set to debut at the Winternationals) and its production-based engine, the Mustang Funny Car is a unique species. Over a mere 1,000 feet, the earth-shaking, V-8-powered rocket will reach 330 mph in less than the four seconds. It generates over 10,000-plus horsepower — more than the first five rows of the Daytona 500 field combined — from eye-watering nitro methane fuel.
“NHRA is is so far removed from anything that it’s difficult to use our analytical engine tools,” laughs Rushbrook, who says Ford Racing contributes its drive-train technology to every other race series it competes in. “They do their own engine works. We help them with aero only.”
The first Mustang redesign for Funny Car in almost a decade, the Mustang will line up against entries from Dodge (the Charger Hellcat introduced last year) and Chevy (Camaro run by NHRA legend John Force).
“It’s great,” smiles Rushbrook at the prospect of Detroit’s Big Three going to war on the drag strip. “Competing against other OEMs is part of the reason we want to be in motor sports.”
In addition to NASCAR, Mustang and Penske also will pair up on the other side of the globe for the Virgin Australia Supercars Championship.
Kiwi hot foot Scott McLaughlin will be defending his championship for Penske in the newly-badged Mustang Supercar. The ‘Stang replaces the outgoing Falcon nameplate though the underlying chassis and 650-horse, V-8 power-plant remain the same.
For the most direct transfer of race-to-street engineering, Ford is sending its production-based GT4 Mustang overseas this year. Similar to the car that has dominated IMSA’s Sportscar Challenge series, the pony will thrill fans in Europe as well as Down Under.
“The GT4 has a lot of direct relevance to our street program — it uses the same car body and minor modifications to suspension,” says Rushbrook. “Like global street-car sales, it gets global homologation so we can do one car, one design and it can be sold to race around the world.”
Behind the Mustang juggernaut will be other Ford models, of course. The gorgeous Ford GT in IMSA GTLM racing and the the Ford Fiesta in off-road rallying.
But a new era of Mustang performance is leading a new era for Ford.
“It’s my passion and I absolutely love what we’re doing,” says Rushbrook. Which is a good thing — because he’ll be wiping the tears from his nitro-stung eyes in California Friday night to take the red eye to Daytona for Saturday qualifying.
Mercedes and BMW are stiffing the Chicago Auto Show this year, just as they did with the Detroit show. Beginning Thursday, the Windy City will open to single-digit temperatures and 20 mph gusts off frigid Lake Michigan. There will be few show-stopping reveals from any of the major automakers.
And show organizers are just fine with that.
While the Detroit auto show is undergoing a major overhaul from January to June 2020 to re-energize automakers and rebrand itself as a summer show, Chicago is content with its lot in life as a winter showcase.
“February just works for us because it’s a long winter and we have 1 million square feet in McCormick Place to stretch our legs,” says show general manager Dave Sloan. “We had a sunny weekend a couple of years ago and it hurt our attendance. It was too nice outside.”
McCormick Place, of course, is the Second City’s massive 2.7-million-square foot downtown convention center. Even utilizing less than half McCormick’s sprawling footprint, the Chicago event is the largest auto show in North America.
Despite the absence of major premieres and the two luxury-makers, the sheer size of Chicago’s showcase still commands the presence of every other major automaker. And with Detroit vacating its winter show spot next year, Sloan thinks Chicago might become even more of a media attraction if automakers choose to debut their 2021 models in McCormick.
“We’re happy to have a little more space in front of us,” says Sloan, adding that he hopes being the first 2020 show will bring more big reveals. “We know how important the media preview is. We know it’s a small pie but hope to get a bigger piece of it.”
In the meantime Chicago will welcome some 20 new media reveals over the next two days that will largely feature trim upgrades and anniversary editions of existing models.
The exception will be the new Range Rover Evoque SUV and Subaru Legacy sedan, both important high-volume vehicles for their brands.
The Evoque will debut at the Chicago Economic Club, then make its way to the show floor where the English automaker has constructed a 16-foot hill so show-goers can sample its off-road chops — and ogle the brand’s first 48-volt mild-hybrid drivetrain.
A sexier Legacy tries to hang on to mid-size sedan customers with Subaru’s signature all-wheel drive and a Tesla-like tablet screen.
Reveals will also include a sport-trim of the Cadillac XT5, a first public look at the Chevy Silverado Heavy Duty pickup, and a new V-8 powered Ford F-series heavy duty. More Detroit-based automaker reveals include a special “Cranberry Wine-stitched” edition of the Chrysler Pacifica minivan — celebrating 35 years of Chrysler vans — and an eyeball-burning “Sublime” green upgrade to Dodge’s muscle-car lineup.
Rumors have it that a special-trim Alfa Romeo and Ram truck might sneak into the show as well.
From foreign automakers will come a powerful version of the Volkswagen Jetta called the GLI (think of the iconic Golf GTI hatchback but in sedan form). The snazzy Kia Sportage compact SUV gets a facelift for 2020. Filling out the menu are tasty snacks like a 30th-anniversary Mazda Miata sports car and a special-edition Nissan Pathfinder.
That’s it. Cars, cars, cars. No nods to the self-driving future. No tech talks. No futuristic conferences like LA’s Automobility or Detroit’s Automobili-D to noodle about sustainable self-driving.
“We’re going to celebrate America’s love affair with the car. There are a lot of cars to be sold between now and autonomy,” says Sloan.
After the last of the estimated 3,400 members of the automotive press snap their pictures Friday, the party really gets started.
Chicago society comes out for a big charity bash Friday night — shades of Detroit’s Charity Preview — to raise over $2 million for good causes. Then the fans start to line up for the public show Saturday morning.
“The magic happens in Chicago at 9 a.m. on Saturday and we don’t even open until 10. People line up outside because they want to run back to the Jeep test track – it’s like a riding a roller-coaster and they never get tired of it,” says Sloan.
The Jeep track is one of four indoor tracks that help pack in the customers. “Managers call it dwell time,” says Sloan of the opportunity for customers to experience cars as well as be approached by floor staff.
There are six more ride experiences outside McCormick, a tradition that has inspired shows like Detroit to do their own.
The show doesn’t give official attendance figures, but it is widely considered to be the best-attended in the country.
Sloan, who runs the show on behalf of the Chicago Automobile Trade Association, is aware of the winds of change buffeting the industry and its marketing shows.
“We have to figure out where auto shows are going,” he muses. “Times are changing and we need to know how to keep bringing consumers to the show.”
Being the country’s biggest, best-attended stage has its advantages. Especially now that it will be the first calendar-year 2020 show in the U.S.
“This is still a very effective way of allowing automakers to market their products,” smiles Sloan.
Chicago Auto Show
Media days: Thursday and Friday
Public days: Saturday through Feb. 18
Michigan winters concentrate the mind on transportation fundamentals.
Mother Nature cursed the first public day of the Detroit auto show this year with six inches of snow, and I waded through it in my 2019 Toyota RAV4 Hybrid tester — along with thousands of other job-bound Detroiters — to get downtown from Oakland County.
Snow has a way of de-romanticizing everything on the road.
I passed a muck-covered white Jaguar F-Pace that looked like a Victoria’s Secret angel splashed by a mud puddle. I churned past a Jeep Cherokee Trailhawk crawling along the Lodge’s left-hand lane at 20 mph, its white-knuckled driver oblivious to the steed’s enormous four-wheel drive capabilities. I rolled by a black Mercedes C-class, its sculpted body lines obliterated by salt wash.
My snow-covered RAV4 didn’t look much different than these design icons. But the Toyota is hardly a wallflower.
Spurred by its colorful CEO, Akio Toyoda, the brand has gone on a creative design binge that is sometimes wonderful, sometimes wacky. File the new Supra sports car (just unveiled at the Detroit auto show) as wonderful with is racy, LeMans prototype styling. For wacky, shield your eyes from the new Camry which looks like it was dressed by Marvel Comics with its racy lines and Ant-Man mask.
The RAV4 is changed dramatically since the last-generation car, which I liked very much. The new RAV4 is much more masculine, trading the previous generation’s round fenders and sleek roofline for a more muscular look. Fenders are squared off, the stance more upright, the rear lights chunky — finished off by a grille that comes straight from the best-selling Tacoma pickup.
In a female-friendly family segment, I’m not sure the pickup look is the way to go, but the RAV4’s truck-like capabilities were certainly appropriate for my snowy Saturday commute.
Sitting high off the ground, I toggled Trail mode in my Hybrid Limited model and plunged into the elements.
The 2019 RAV4 offers three different all-wheel drive systems — two for gas-engine models and one that is unique to the Hybrid. The Hybrid’s system uses the gas engine to drive the front wheels, and an electric motor to drive the rear. A Trail mode features brake-torque vectoring that can throw more power to the wheel that has the most traction (think limited slip-differential on a sports car). I can’t quibble with the engineering, but I couldn’t tell the difference in Trail or Normal mode.
I effortlessly drove the 3,800-pound beast around snowy corners. The Toyota’s nanny systems intervened. But unlike the last generation which would nearly stall the car by cutting fuel, the systems of the new truck ultimately gave up as I applied more throttle for more fun fish-tailing.
Once on the Lodge, however, I was all business, and the Toyota negotiated the clotted byway with cheery confidence. It showed off good traction, predictable handling … and, um, none of its ballyhooed standard features.
The RAV4 may be a bargain with standard radar- and camera-based adaptive cruise-control and lane-keep assist — but the car was as blind as a bat in the snowy conditions.
I toggled adaptive cruise-control. Nothing.
I applied the lane-keep assist. Nothing.
The only safety-assist system that worked on the Toyota was blind-spot assist, which was useful for checking for wayward cars (on snowy roads, folks just make up lanes).
Autonomous cars may be testing in sunny San Francisco and La La Land, but the real test is here in the Midwest where inclement weather plays havoc with the car’s eyeballs. My car’s RAV4’s assist system were AWOL, reducing the Toyota to basic transport.
Which is what Toyotas do very well.
Folks who have to get to work on time — or get the kids to school on time, or get to the airport on time — need reliable transportation no matter the weather. And they have for years now consistently turned to good ol’ Toyota appliances.
For the sixth straight year, the RAV4 scored a 5 (out of 5) reliability rating in Consumer Reports testing.
Which means when Detroit’s a 15-degree snow globe, the RAV4 will start, drive, fit the family and get you to your destination on time without breaking the budget.
About that last thought. “Hybrid” and “budget” don’t usually share the same sentence, yet Toyota’s hybrid is a better vehicle than the standard, 2.5-liter model in every way. For just $800 more, the hybrid is quicker zero-60 and returns a whopping 11 mpg better fuel economy (39 mpg vs. 28). Which means the fuel-savings will earn back back the difference in three years. On paper, anyway.
In 400 miles of wintry travel under my lead foot, my RAV4 returned just 30.1 mpg. Michigan winters have a thing or two to teach La La Land on real-world hybrid mpg, too.
But while monitoring roads, blind-spots and left-lane lollygaggers loping along at 20 mph, it’s comforting to have a car with intuitive ergonomics. It is here that RAV4 has made its biggest step over the previous gen.
The interior is not only more handsome with a digital instrument cluster and raised tablet touchscreen, but the console is much improved.
The annoying, notchy shifter has been replaced by a smoother model. Under the raised touchscreen is a big cubby for throwing French fries and wallets. And phones, which remain essential for navigation in the RAV4 since its own navi system is subpar and Android Auto for my phone isn’t offered (happily, for you iPhoners, Apple CarPlay is available).
The terrain modes are efficiently packaged next to the shifter. Only Toyota’s habit for stuffing too many buttons on the left-of-steering-wheel dash panel is distracting. Searching for the heated steering wheel button somewhere around my left knee is not where I want my eyes to be when I have a snoot-full of snow coming at me.
Add it all up and the $37,000 RAV4 is a worthy vehicle — if still shy of the Mazda CX-5 for best all-around all-star in class. The 2019 RAV4 will likely retain its top-dog sales status — and the hybrid model should replace the iconic-but-fading Prius as the brand’s best-selling green vehicle.
As I churned past an awesome, $70,000 Ford Raptor on the Lodge, I smiled. For half the price, the RAV4 would deliver me to my destination just as safely but more efficiently.
That, in a nutshell, is what Toyota delivers. Fundamentals.
2019 Toyota RAV4 Hybrid
Vehicle type: Front-engine, all-wheel drive, five-passenger sedan
Price: $28,795 base, including $1,095destination fee ($36,795 Limited model as tested)
Powerplant: 2.5-liter inline 4-cylinder mated to electric motor and nickel-metal hydride battery
Power: 219 horsepower (total hybrid system output)
Tesla is a study in contrasts. Its Model 3 is the best-selling luxury vehicle in the U.S. – eclipsing models from formidable foreign brands like Lexus, BMW and Audi – yet the Silicon Valley-based company still must convince the financial community that it is a sustainable business.
Key to that goal is making a high-tech product with consistent quality. One of the riddles of Tesla is that it has designed one of the industry’s most advanced automobiles, yet struggles to manufacture it.
Two examples illustrate the opposite faces of Tesla.
After disassembling a Model 3 last year, veteran manufacturing consultant Sandy Munro of Munro & Associates said the car’s electronics and battery systems are “not a generation – but generations beyond what any other manufacturer is doing.”
Yet, the same time Munro was assessing the Model 3 in his Auburn Hills shop, Tesla was hiring an automotive supplier in California to patch up paint problems as cars emerged from its Fremont, California, manufacturing facility. With customer vehicles piling up in lots with unacceptable paint finishes, experts were called in to touch them up before delivery.
In Auburn Hills — the Model 3 spread out in pieces before them — Munro and his associate Mark Ellis marveled at the technology that underlies the rear-wheel drive, 310-mile range sedan.
State-of-the-art control systems are laid out in microscopic detail across green circuit boards. Wiring is minimal. There is no fuse box. High-voltage cables are many feet shorter than competitors. All is neatly packaged and sealed away below the car floor.
“This car is a paradigm shift in automotive technology. This is an electronic car assembled by Silicon Valley engineers using smartphone and laptop-quality engineering,” said Munro.
He added that Tesla’s regular over-the-air electronic updates are “several leaps ahead of the industry.”
The sci-fi tour continued on tables housing battery and electric-motor systems that Munro says have leap-frogged competitive systems from the BMW i3 and Chevrolet Bolt EVs laid out nearby. The Tesla batteries are more efficient, more powerful, more flexible.
The two engineers still marvel over the electric motor 10 months after they first extracted it from the car. At $754 per unit, its advanced magnetic design is not only considerably cheaper than the $841 BMW and $836 Chevy units, but is smaller, lighter, more capable.
“It has a much, much different level of performance. It blows the other automakers out of the water,” Munro said. “The Detroit boys better wake up and smell the roses. It’s not just autos. Tesla is more advanced than the aviation and defense industries we also assess. We benchmark other systems to what Tesla is doing.”
But when it comes to manufacturing, Tesla trails the pack.
An employee with an industry paint supplier spoke to The Detroit News, disclosing that the contract they entered into with Tesla to fix paint flaws was unprecedented.
As Tesla struggled to meet fourth-quarter production targets last year, its paint shop ran into serious difficulties. Model 3s emerged from the line with drip flaws, dirt in the paint and inconsistent clear-coat.
As customers revolted, Tesla CEO Elon Musk took to Twitter in August to acknowledge the problem. “Sorry, we’ve put pretty extreme rules in place for paint & quality in genera,” he wrote. “If need be, we’re repainting/replacing entire sections of car or building whole new cars. Got to be done.”
But it wasn’t just a few dozen cars as sometimes happens in factory paints shops, but thousands of them. An estimated 20,000 blemished cars piled up in lots in San Francisco’s South Bay area, too flawed to deliver to customers who were paying north of $50,000 for their new vehicles, according to the industry source, who declined to be named because of not being authorized to speak.
According to that person, the outside company in late August was brought in to buff sand out of the clear-coat for about four months before Tesla fixed its paint shop in mid-December.
When reached by The Detroit News about its paint-shop issues, Tesla said Friday those issues have been addressed: “We went through significant challenges… with our general assembly line in Fremont. We successfully overcame these challenges and stabilized Model 3 production at high volumes.”
On Monday, the company amended its statement and said it couldn’t confirm the work was done by the vendor.
Back in Auburn Hills, Munro said Tesla’s shoddy manufacturing issues were readily apparent when his shop tore down the Model 3’s body. While the electric systems were wonders of efficiency, the body was a mess of over-engineering.
Door frames are secured using multiple techniques like laser welds, rivets and spot welds. The trunk and wheel wells use so many different panels that Munro’s engineering team scrawled “too many parts” across the trunk frame.
“It’s like a kid designed it. It’s not right,” said Munro, who has spent decades as a product manufacturing expert. “Nobody I know in the industry who knows how to organize a body shop has been called by Tesla.”
After Munro published the results of his Model 3 study, Tesla CEO Elon Musk called to discuss.
Tesla’s Jekyll and Hyde nature is on display in customer satisfaction as well.
Buyers flocked to the Model 3 in 2018 despite a market hostile to sedans. With sales of 138,000 units, the Model 3 ran away from the No. 2 Lexus RX sport utility (111,641), BMW’s iconic 3-series sedan (75,957) and the Audi Q5 SUV (69,978).
The Tesla topped Kelley Blue Book’s 2019 Best Resale Value award in the electric vehicle category with a whopping 69 percent retained resale value after 36 months. That topped other established segment champs like the Porsche Macan (best compact SUV, 65 percent retained value), Audi A7 (best luxury car, 47 percent) and Subaru Legacy (best midsize sedan, 52 percent).
“People don’t like Tesla Model 3s — they crave them — and that’s how you hold on to your resale value over time,” KBB concluded
Yet, Tesla online forums are filled with cautionary tales from buyers who have suffered through quality defects like bumpers falling off, door handles failing in cold weather, chassis rattles and screen glitches.
“Their poor build-quality is what is holding them up,” Munro said. “The car has too many parts, and too many parts cause the problems you see.”
Assessing Tesla’s forward-looking technology, the BMW’s cutting-edge chassis design, and the Chevy’s reliability, Munro mused on what could be: “If you could get all three of their best traits together, that would really be something. You’d have a helluva a car that nobody could compete with.”
Honda’s Insight and Toyota’s Prius led the hybrid motorcade into the U.S. two decades ago, proudly parading their unparalleled fuel economy and geeky wardrobes.
Nerds were cool!
The egg-shaped Toyota became the rage of the Hollywood jet set, an essential accessory for those claiming the Age of Oil was over. Harrison Ford and Cameron Diaz arrived at the Oscars in the “Pious” (as it was nicknamed), and the hybrid became the first battery-powered car to soar past 100,000 in sales.
But while the Toyota rubbed its thick-rimmed-glasses-wearing nose with the rich and famous, the rest of the nerd frat house got stood up. Including the Insight.
The Camry hybrid, Ford Fusion hybrid, Ford C-Max, Chevy Tahoe hybrid all sat idly by the dance floor. But the Insight was so … out there! Like the sci-pod Prius, the 70-mpg fuel-sipper dared to be a geek fashion plate.
Its spat-covered rear wheels, aero bod, Jetsons dash and split-window rear deck all screamed 21st-century green-mobile. Except like pocket protectors and plaid pants, it didn’t catch on. A second stab at geek-chic failed to turn heads in 2008. By 2014 Insight 2.0 was put out to pasture.
For 2019, Insight 3.0 has been totally remade. Nerd is out, tech is in, and I’m not sure even fuel economy matters that much anymore judging by the subpar (for hybrids) 37 mpg I got around wintry Metro Detroit.
In a remarkable transformation that would impress Professor Henry Higgins, the Insight has evolved from class geek to prom queen. That’s not to say green fashion has gone away — global warming has replaced oil scarcity as the bogeyman of the elites — but in a United States where gas looks to be affordable for some time (against all predictions to the contrary), the Insight has to sell itself with more than moral appeal.
This geek is downright attractive. It wouldn’t be out of place rolling up to Capital Grille for a night out. Gone are the rear wheel covers, Mork dash and goofy tuckus. Taking a cue from the Honda brand’s handsome Accord midsize sedan, the Insight is nicely understated with flowing lines, a coupe-like roof and conventional, tablet infotainment display.
The Insight feels more Acura than Honda with its flying buttress lower-front air intake, rectangular tail lights and electronic “trigger” gear-selector. Though based on the same platform as the quick, roomy Civic, the Insight shares none of the compact’s boy-toy accents like boomerang rear taillights and garish, faux, rear air-intakes (which the 20-year-old in me still find irresistible).
But the Indiana-made Insight makes its fashion statement without an Acura premium. The sedan is loaded with standard technology including a lovely, configurable digital-dash (was it really just five years ago that this technology wowed me on a $50,000 Cadillac CTS?), the aforementioned trigger gear-selector, adaptive cruise-control, rear traffic-alert camera (Honda’s version of blind-spot assist), auto-emergency braking and Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.
Jumping into the car this winter after a week in Volvos and Teslas, my Insight in Touring trim felt decidedly premium. The handling is sharp, the chassis rock-solid. The elegant cockpit display is full of info, the heated leather seats as comfortable as a lounge chair. The console space is typically, brilliantly configured by Honda with room for my big phone, bottle of ice tea and more.
All this for just $28,000 — or about the same price as a Civic Touring sedan with 25 more horsepower from a 1.5-liter turbo engine.
What we have is an attractive, sippy four-door hybrid with no apparent sacrifice over the gas-powered equivalent. That’s a long way from 1999. And a seemingly short way toward Honda’s goal to make 80 percent of vehicles electrified in just over a decade.
But then I stabbed the accelerator pedal. Oh …
I’ve driven the Civic in multiple forms — sedan, Si coupe, manual Sport hatchback, track-shredding Type R — and I don’t call it King Civic for nothing. It dominates the compact class because it offers its class-leading room and fuel economy in a variety of fun-to-drive flavors.
The Insight, on the other hand, is pure vanilla. Blame a driveline obsessed with a goal of 55 miles per gallon that mates a 1.5-liter normally aspirated engine and electric motor directly to the wheels. Honda calls it an e-CVT (electronic continuously variable transmission).
The result is a sluggish driveline with all the urgency of an old-fashioned gas-engine driven CVT. HNUUUUUUUUUUUGGGHHH went the Insight as I tried to whip it through the twisty lake roads of Oakland County.
The sensation was particularly off-putting because Honda has been on the cutting edge of engineering the dreaded CVT to be more palatable. The standard gas-powered Civic, for example, comes with a CVT with stepped shifts that give it the feel of a multi-ratio box.
I like how single-speed trannies work in quiet electric cars, but in the Insight I felt like I was stuck on a trip with Eeyore. The droning got under my skin and got louder when under the cane. Clearly, this is a driveline optimized for fuel-conscious right-lane drivers, not lead-foots like yours truly.
Accept that premise and the Insight is the gold-star student in Green 101.
Compared to its old nemesis Prius, it is more attractive, more affordable, more fun. The Toyota is still instantly recognizable. But since green is a more upscale demographic (see the flood of luxury EVs hitting the market), buyers may find its premium looks a better fit. Interior amenities are no contest, with the Insight packing a luxurious vibe — and roomy back seats with 4 more inches of legroom than the Prius.
While Eeyore may get on my nerves, the Insight will easily out-drag the Prius out of a stoplight: It hits 60 mph in 8.8 seconds compared with the Toyota’s glacial 10.5.
Two decades after its debut, the Insight finally seems to have the hybrid formula right. But the times have changed. The Age of Oil is ascendant, hybrid sales are slow (Prius purchases are half what they were in 2014), and SUVs have replaced sedans.
But if you’re looking for a sippy — as opposed to zippy — sedan, the Insight is competitively priced with its sibling 1.5-liter turbo Civic while gaining 40 percent better fuel economy and giving up just 20 percent of acceleration.
That’s a chic geek.
Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or Twitter @HenryEPayne. Catch “Car Radio with Henry Payne” from noon-2 p.m. Saturdays on 910 AM Superstation.
2019 Honda Insight
Vehicle type: Front-engine, front-wheel drive, five-passenger sedan
Price: $23,725 base including $895destination fee ($28,985 Touring as tested)
Powerplant: 1.5-liter inline 4-cylinder mated to electric motor and 1.1 kWh lithium-ion battery
Power: 151 horsepower (total hybrid system output)
For the Cadillac brand, 2019 promises a year of transition as the luxury automaker returns its headquarters from New York City to Metro Detroit and plays catch-up to competitors in the race to satisfy demand for SUVs and electric cars.
But when it comes to sports car racing, everyone is chasing Caddy.
Cadillac’s IMSA prototype program began 2019 where it left off in 2018 — in dominating fashion. Cadillac swept the top two positions at the grueling Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona endurance race last weekend, eclipsing a who’s-who field of manufacturer-led teams including Acura, Nissan, Mazda, BMW, Porsche and Ferrari.
GM’s luxury brand also shared international headlines with one of its first-place team drivers, Fernando Alfonso of Spain, who became only the third Formula One driver in history to win both the F1 championship and the Rolex 24.
The win established the Cadillac DPi-V.R as the car to beat again in 2019 after it swept the 2018 driver’s and manufacturer’s crowns in an IMSA Weathertech Series that spans a dozen races from Daytona to Long Beach, including a June stop at the Belle Grand Prix. IMSA is currently the world’s premier stage for manufacturer-sponsored racing, featuring head-to-head duels between the most storied names in motorsport.
“This is the third year in a row that Cadillac has been one-two at Daytona,” said Mark Kent, the director of General Motors Racing. “The attraction to drivers like Alonso is they want to be in a product know they can win in. If you’re on the outside looking in, the Cadillac prototype is the natural choice as the car that can win.”
Alonso’s feat generated headlines across the globe for Cadillac which is growing in markets like China and posted a global sales record last year with over 380,000 cars sold.
Cadillac’s wins parallel GM’s success in GT racing, where Chevy’s Corvette racing program also took home the 2018 drivers crown (the Corvette team struggled at Daytona). Caddy’s fortunes are the culmination of two decades of investment in motor racing beginning with its production-based, V-series racers in 2004.
Cadillac has built its racing cred even as its production lineup has struggled to compete in U.S. showrooms. Sales in 2018 were down by 1 percent to 154,702 units.
The brand shuffled its captain chairs last year, replacing ex-Audi North America chief Johan de Nysschen with Steve Carlisle and closing down the brand’s headquarters overlooking the Hudson River in the Big Apple.
Carlisle opened the Detroit Auto Show this January with a promise that Cadillac is back in Detroit — and back in the luxury game.
“Let me say with no offense whatsoever to the good people of the city of New York,” said Carlisle as he unveiled the all-new, three-row Cadillac XT6 SUV. “Cadillac is back in Detroit, and more determined than ever to reclaim the mantle as catalyst.”
With the XT6 and the smaller XT4 released in 2018, Cadillac hope to make up lost ground in SUV sales where Cadillac has lagged German manufacturers like BMW that have flooded the U.S. market with multiple models.
Cadillac even finds itself behind in battery-powered cars, a segment it helped pioneer in 2013 with the handsome plug-in ELR coupe. Cadillac ditched the ELR — and its cousin Chevy Volt — and has re-trenched with a new “BEV-3” electric vehicle platform designed to compete with BMW’s i-series and Jaguar I-PACE EV models.
“We are working to elevate Cadillac to a position at the pinnacle of mobility,” said Carlisle.
The racing team is already at the pinnacle. So admired is Cadillac’s racing program that it attracted four teams racing six cars at Daytona this year. That’s double the number when Cadillac debuted its 600-horsepower bat-mobile in 2017.
The program’s success in prototype racing came after a decade of five Pirelli World Challenge championships with the CTS-V coupe.
“Racing gives us the opportunity to show people through motorsport what Cadillac stands for,” says racing boss Kent. “It gives us an opportunity to demonstrate technology, reliability, and also… bring our production vehicles to the race track for people to look at some of our amazing products.”
Troll country-club parking lots these days (assuming they have parking spaces big enough) and you’ll see $70,000 Chevy Silverado High Countrys and Ford F-150 Raptors rubbing shoulders with chromed Mercedes and BMW chariots. These pickups are either insanely luxurious or bonkers powerful, depending on the owner’s preference.
The latest steaks on the menu are the posh Ram 1500 Longhorn and rugged GMC Sierra AT4.
Speaking of rich tastes, I recently drove the exotic Audi A6 and A7 Sportback sedans. They are the first midsize luxury cars to feature 48-volt lithium-battery technology to help with high-powered electric infotainment screens and smooth the drivetrain experience. You know, like a truck.
The Ram 1500 pickup beat Germany’s chariots to market this year (Mercedes also has a 48-volt system coming) with the latest in vehicle electrification. I should mention that the Jeep Wrangler also beat the luxury crowd. Boy, this is getting embarrassing.
But just as widely adopted electronics like adaptive cruise-control and blind-spot assist are blurring the difference between mainstream cars and luxury, so too is electrification. With its huge touchscreen, stitched leather and acres of chrome, my $66,755 Ram 1500 Longhorn is as luxurious as the Audis I drove.
And the 48-volt system attached to the big truck’s V-8 is a premium choice meant to provide premium amenities just like its German counterparts. Chief among them: papering over the latest federal annoyance from hell: stop-start.
Not a day goes by when I don’t hear from a new-car customer complaining about the engine shutting down at stoplights. The complaint echoes ’70s government-driven automatic seat belt rules that had passengers cursing belts wrapping around their necks on car entry.
Ram’s 48-volt system is here to help.
Brake to a stoplight and the belt-driven electric motor smoothly shuts down the 5.7-liter V-8 with nary a shudder. Release the brake pedal and eTorque rolls the rig forward with 410-pound feet of torque, nearly neutralizing the roughness all too familiar in stop-start engines. The nannies dictate, eTorque mitigates.
It also pays dividends in fuel economy, using the motor’s regenerative capabilities on upshifts to save about 2 miles per gallon over the standard V-8. Naturally, luxury amenities come with luxury price tags, and eToque will set customers back $1,450.
With EPA-estimated fuel savings at $300 a year, that means it’ll take nearly five years to make back your premium. Your mileage may vary. Truck customers might need more convincing, so eTorque tops the Ram tow charts with 12,750 pounds of towing (rear-wheel-drive configuration). Now we’re talkin’ truck-speak.
The GMC Sierra AT4 doesn’t have a 48-volt battery. Heck, it doesn’t even have adaptive cruise-control, a staple increasingly found on common $25,000 sedans.
What the AT4 does have is the earth-pawing aggression of a rodeo bull.
Equipped with 33-inch tires, locking differentials and steel skid-plates that could stop Captain America, the AT4 goes off-road as eagerly as 10-year-old boys attack wooded streams. Full speed, both feet first. My GMC inhaled the Eaton Proving Ground’s off-road course outside Marshall this winter.
It reminded me of my first adventure to Flint’s Mounds off-road park in a Jeep Wrangler a few Novembers ago. Right down to getting stuck after an overzealous dash through sandy Mounds mud. When I buried the Wrangler up to its axles I learned the off-road auto hierarchy. Always make sure there’s a full-size truck around to pull you out of trouble.
So what happens if your full-size truck gets stuck in the mud? I was pulled out by a Caterpillar backhoe.
Inside these two pickups is a new level of truck luxury. They are rolling New York condos.
The Ram is all cake and icing inside. Forget notchy transmission shifters (Ford) and steering-wheel stalks (Chevy/GMC). The Ram offers a rotary dial, like you’re tuning the radio. And like the old-fashioned Chevy stalks, it saves console space.
Or I should say console acreage. The Ram’s center console is ginormous with multiple vats to hold large objects — laptops, purses, books, microwave ovens (kidding about that last one). The storage continues in back with bins under the floor and space below the seats. If you’re wondering, the 48-volt battery is tucked behind the rear seats.
This living room is wrapped in exquisite leather and detail. Longhorn is hand-stamped on the wood dash. Leather-textured graphics are the background for both the instrument panel and the Tesla-like, 12-inch infotainment screen. Forget Trump Tower, the Donald could move into this cab.
Ram long ago pioneered coil-over rear springs making it the nicest daily driver in class. Ford and Chevy will scoff at the Ram’s bed sag under heavy loads, but every technology has trade-offs. Smooth ride? Give me that smooth 48-volt tech while you’re at it.
Lest you think Ram has gone soft with all this luxury, however, I took the Ram to a nearby construction site to play.
I don’t take construction sites lightly. Their mix of mud, gravel and odd terrain can quickly trap all-wheel drive SUVs. But the body-on-frame four-wheel drive Ram was in its element. It grunted around narrow, rocky mounds in 4WD Low. It navigated muddy roads in 4WD Auto and shrugged off the odd rock thrown at its belly.
And when I wanted to open the door to survey the landscape without plunging my loafers into mud and snow? The Longhorn’s luxurious running board swung out under my feet.
The GMC sneezes at the Ram’s barge boards. This truck is equipped with the construction manager’s dream — the MultiPro tailgate. Gather round, boys, and geek out at the six-way tailgate including walk-up steps and stand-up desk.
I should note that the MultiPro is exclusive to the high-end Sierra’s V-8 powered AT4, SLT and Denali trims. The Ram’s eTorque option is standard on the 3.6-liter V-6, so 48-volt doesn’t always come with a premium.
But pickups and V-8s go together like linebackers and muscle. Unleash the V-8’s 420 ponies — its roar audible even over the soundproofed cabin — then roll into a stoplight quiet as a mouse. Power and grace. That’s luxury.
The Germans have Mercedes and Bimmers that you can park in front of the Townsend Hotel’s Rugby Grille on a Saturday night. Detroit offers Longhorns and AT4s right beside them.
Ahem, just be sure and clean the mud off your boots before you enter the Townsend’s red-carpet lobby.
Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or Twitter @HenryEPayne. Catch “Car Radio with Henry Payne” from noon-2 p.m. Saturdays on 910 AM Superstation.
2019 Ram 1500 Longhorn
Vehicle type: Rear- or four-wheel drive, five-passenger pickup
Price: $53,085 base including $1,695 destination fee ($66,755 as tested)
Powerplant: 5.7-liter hemi V-8 with 48-volt lithium-ion battery (0.43 kWh)
A new generation of Dodge muscle cars is coming, and it will get a boost with an electric motor.
Fiat Chrysler’s performance brand has ridden the ground-shaking, supercharged V-8 Challenger Hellcat to become the No. 2-selling sports coupe in the U.S. behind the Ford Mustang. But Fiat Chrysler CEO Mike Manley says the clock is ticking on the car’s aging 2-ton chassis and thirsty engines, and they will be replaced in the next decade.
“The reality is those platforms and that technology we used does need to move on. They can’t exist as you get into the middle-2020s,” the new Fiat Chrysler boss said at the Detroit auto show. “New technology is going to drive a load of weight out, so we can think of the powertrains in a different way. And we can use electrification to really supplement those vehicles.”
Despite sitting on Chrysler’s 13-year-old LX architecture, the Ontario-assembled Challenger has soared in sales. The top-of-the-line $60,000, 717-horsepower Hellcat version broke the internet when it debuted in 2015.
But with government emissions standards tightening, automakers have been looking to alternative powertrains with fewer cylinders to satisfy customer performance demands. Supercar-makers like Acura, McLaren and Porsche have mated electric motors and downsized gasoline engines, with the primary purpose of the batteries being performance, not fuel efficiency. So don’t expect the next Hellcat to be an all-electric car.
“I think that electrification will certainly be part of the formula that says what is American muscle in the future,” said Manley. “What it isn’t going to be is a V-8, supercharged, 700-horsepower engine.”
Manley did not go into specifics on what the gas-engine components would be, and a Dodge spokesperson said the company had no further comment.
Ford is rumored to be working on a hybrid, turbo-4 with V-8-like power for its next-decade Mustang. And the coming mid-engine Corvette will reportedly offer a gas-electric model putting out 1,000 horsepower.
Challenger 2019 models (and their sister Charger sedans) are powered by four engines: 3.6-liter V-6, 5.7-liter hemi V-8, 6.4-liter hemi V-8, and supercharged 6.2-liter V-8. Industry analysts have expected Dodge to put a twin-turbo V-6 into performance models with as heavily updated, lighter chassis.
Ward’s Auto predicts that use of the company’s workhorse Pentastar V-6 — found in numerous Fiat Chrysler vehicles and produced at Detroit’s Mack Avenue Engine plant — will continue to grow in volume over the next decade, including the addition of the twin-turbo variant to replace the $35,000 Challenger R/T’s 5.7-liter Hemi V-8.
Bob Gritzinger, propulsion analyst for Ward’s Intelligence, suspects Dodge may mate the twin-turbo V-6 with an electric motor for peak power.
“I could see something along the lines of the Porsche model which puts a turbo V-6 together with an electric motor to create the (all-wheel drive) Panamera 4 e-Hybrid,” says Gritzinger.
With a combined gas-electric jolt of 462 horsepower and 516 pound-feet of torque, Car and Driver hit 60 mph in just 3.6 seconds in the Panamera.
Fiat Chrysler chief Manley says electrification “can’t be the dominant part (of a muscle car). Electrification deployed to increase the performance of the vehicle as its primary goal – with the added benefits of fuel economy – is very different, instead of the other way around.”
Kelley Blue Book analyst and veteran muscle car fan Karl Brauer is skeptical that electrification and muscle can co-exist.
“There’s a long-standing rule about what constitutes American muscle, but electrification is not part of it,” he said. “I need something that gets my blood pumping.”
He acknowledges the hybridization of $100,00-plus European supercars like Porsche and McLaren, but says it has come “with a lot of added weight and cost.”
He says the last Chrysler CEO to alter the American muscle recipe was Lee Iacocca in the late 1970s. Under similar regulatory pressures, Iacocca moved away from thirsty V-8s and toward front-wheel drive V-6 platforms. Forty years later, Dodge roared back to prominence with the trusty V-8 hammer.
“The Challenger is now challenging the Mustang for sales primacy with a V-8,” says Brauer. “Who would have thought that? In terms of sales, the supercharged V-8s have worked well.”
Analysts also speculate that the entry-level $28,000 Challenger may use a version of the company’s 2-liter turbo-4 with a 48-volt eTorque mild-hybrid assist.
Manley praised the Challenger team’s leadership for elbowing into the sales battle between traditional segment leaders Mustang and Chevy Camaro.
Since 2014, Challenger sales have increased 30 percent to 66,716 in 2018 — within 10,000 units of the Ford — while Camaro fell 25 percent last year to 50,963. Only the Challenger gained sales in 2018 (by 3 percent), with 42 percent of cars equipped with V-8s.
“(The team) is incredibly creative,” said Manley. “They came up with this idea which originally was part of a mini skunk-works until it was too late to stop it. I think everyone very quickly envisioned what Hellcat would do for Dodge.”
Dodge appears poised to re-imagine American muscle again in the decade ahead.
Cobo’s main show floor is a different place this year. I’m tempted to tout the delicious, scissor-door McLaren 570 as my favorite car in show.
But it’s part of Envy Auto Group’s display of exotic, pre-owned cars — an exhibit from a car dealer that helps fill space left by the mass exodus of European luxury brands. Thanks to Envy, you still get to ogle Porsches and Ferraris — but they aren’t the newest stuff on the market.
For that, there are still plenty of U.S. and foreign automakers who have brought their A-games. There are the usual mighty muscle cars and trucks we expect at a Motown show. But there is also an extraordinary breadth of vehicles from electric to autonomous to V-8s appealing to the richest auto consumer market on the planet.
Here are the most important vehicles in show.
Toyota Supra
I have never seen a Toyota news conference packed with so many people. Motorheads have thirsted for the next Supra since Toyota teased the stunning FT-1 Concept in 2014. The production car holds nicely to the concept’s design with its low, racer-like hood and roller-coaster hips. A lightweight, 50-50 balanced two-seater, the Supra got an assist from BMW, which makes the 335-horse turbo in-line six-cylinder. It’s the same mill that motivates the BMW Z4. Look for this $50,000 hottie come summer.
Ford Mustang GT500
Lightweight straight-six Supra, meet fire-breathing, supercharged V-8 pony. With more than twice the horsepower of the Toyota, the legendary GT500 track monster is aimed squarely at the Chevy Camaro ZL1 across the Cobo aisle. Where past GT500s were straight-line dragsters, this athlete takes the agile GT350 platform and adds steroids. The huge carbon-fiber rear wing will help keep this 700-plus horse Snake on the ground while it inhales supercars costing twice as much.
Ram Heavy Duty 2500/3500
For a different kind of muscle, check out the Heavy Duty version of the Ram 1500, voted North American Truck of the Year. The 2500/3500 ups the light-duty’s capabilities by stuffing a 6.7-liter Cummins turbo-diesel under the hood that makes 1,000-pound feet of stump-pulling torque. Make that house-pulling. The 3500 can tow over 35,000 pounds while nurturing passengers with leather thrones and a 12-inch Tesla-like screen.
Ford Explorer
Ford also makes SUVs. The best-selling ute of all time, the Explorer is totally remade. It sits on a rear-wheel drive based chassis for better towing and design dynamics. But the high-tech interior is where it really shines: one-button access to the third-row, one-button operated self-park feature. This being Ford, the Explorer gets multiple engine options, including a hybrid and 400-horse ST performance variant.
Kia Telluride
Kia went after the Audi A7 with its sexy Stinger sedan coupe last year. This year Kia beats the three-row Jeep Wagoneer to market with a more rugged version of the Sorento SUV. The exterior is bold and upright like a Range Rover. The interior is luxurious. Take it on a test spin on Kia’s indoor Cobo track.
Nissan IMs Concept
With the explosion in electric and self-driving technology, show-stopping concepts are back. There are a few of these envelope-pushing concepts on the floor, but my favorite is the Nissan with its spare, Caddy-like styling and suicide doors. What’s the autonomous world look like? Nissan imagines a single, rear-seat armchair where the boss sits, while the front seats swivel for assistants to take notes.
Lincoln Continental
Suicide doors aren’t just for concepts. A special edition of 80 Lincoln Continentals — celebrating Conti’s 80th birthday — is being made with stunning, rear-hinged rear doors. The palatial rear seats can comfortably fit Andre Drummond, while front-row passengers luxuriate in 30-way seats.
Cadillac XT6
The bling-tastic, three-row Escalade has long been the choice of rappers and Wall Street limo services. “XT6 takes the Escalade down to an everyday package,” says Caddy designer Andrew Smith. The handsome ute sits on the same wheelbase as the two-row XT5 for better handling, yet carves out 30 inches of third-row legroom. The CUE infotainment system can be operated by touch or remote rotary dial.
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