We’ve long chided General Motors Corp. that its vehicle names lack spirit or spunk.
Dodge has Viper and Prowler. Ford has Mustang and Thunderbird. GM has Alero and Concours.
And it was GM that named its battery-powered electric car the Impact until consumers chortled and lawyers drooled.
This fall, GM’s Cadillac division, perhaps realizing the Concours name on its top-of-the-line DeVille was too difficult to pronounce and the d’Elegance name on the midlevel DeVille sounded too stuffy, will have new monikers.
They’ll be the 2000 model DHS (DeVille High Luxury Sedan) and DTS (DeVille Touring Sedan).
Say what?
A car called DTS–as in the DTs or delirium tremens?
And, yes, the DTS will come with cupholders.
– Cadillac says its 2000 DeVille will offer Ultrasonic Rear Parking Assist, which despite the ominous name means a series of lights will flash and chimes go off when ultrasonic waves from sensors in the rear bumper detect that the driver is backing up and an object– child, car or pole–is in the way.
Not to spoil Cadillac’s glee over a safety system it says “no other manufacturer can match,” but Ford offers Reverse Sensing System on its 1999 Ford Windstar mini-van and Ford Explorer/Mercury Mountaineer sport-utilities. Ultrasonic waves set off lights and sound alarms when backing toward an unseen object. It’s a $245 option.
Cadillac’s system will be optional, too. No pricing until fall.
A year late in offering a system Ford has now? Enough to make GM brass want to reach for a drink.
– But give Cadillac credit. The 2000 DeVille will offer Night Vision, an infrared thermal imaging system in which a heads-up display will show vehicles, people or animals in the road regardless of rain, fog, snow or any other weather condition that would render your headlights of little or no value and those objects invisible.
Ford has no similar system available.
Night Vision will be optional on the DeVille DHS and Delirium Tremens.
– In 1974, a young lad at GM named Bob Stempel (who would be named chairman years later) was entrusted to oversee development of a device called the catalytic converter to reduce auto emissions.
But the nation’s oil companies were told that for the converter to work, they had to develop fuel without lead because lead poisoned the converter.
Developing lead-free gas would cost the oil companies money, and developing catalytic converters that kept getting poisoned would cost automakers money. The two industries fought like kids over a toy as to the merits of converters and lead-free gas. Reluctantly, lead-free gas appeared.
Now comes word that BP Amoco is moving ahead with plans to introduce lower-sulfur gasoline for motor vehicles within two to three years.
Unlike the ’70s, when the two industries fought technology, Amoco, as it was then called, and GM announced just last year at the Chicago Auto Show a joint research venture to develop cleaner fuels for cleaner engines. Already some results.
Lower-sulfur fuel means carmakers can develop pollution controls to meet stricter emissions regulations coming soon that won’t be undermined by high-sulfur fuel, which is common in Illinois. It could mean automakers can cut back on plans to add a second catalytic converter to treat high-sulfur fuel that a single converter can’t.
Automakers are hoping for fuel with 50 p.p.m. or less of sulfur. Today’s Amoco Ultra has about 200 p.p.m. Stay tuned.
– Some American Dental Association officials are a tad upset over the Chicago Auto Show Feb. 12 through 21 in McCormick Place South. The ADA convention takes place Feb. 18 through 21 in the old McCormick Place across Lake Shore Drive. One ADA convention perk for top officials, we were told, is a Fairmont Hotel suite. But car dealers have booked the rooms there, which is also auto-show headquarters, and won’t give them up.
Hope no dealer needs dental work during the show.
