The 100th anniversary edition of the Chicago Auto Show opens Friday in McCormick Place South, so let’s take a peek at those vehicles that soon will arrive in showrooms or are being displayed here so showgoers can judge whether they should be produced or sent packing.
Those unveiled at media previews this week include:
Ford SVT Focus. A high-performance rendition of the compact replacement for the Escort due out this fall and geared for the youth market.
The SVT arrives compliments of Ford’s Special Vehicle Team operations, the same folks who brought us the Mustang Cobra SVT coupe and Ford F-150 Lightning SVT pickup. SVT is charged with making high-performance, limited-edition renditions of existing Ford vehicles.
The SVT will be joined this fall by another Focus version, a four-door hatchback that’s not at the show.
The SVT, dubbed by Ford as “the hot little racer that leaves room in the budget for gas money,” is a two-door hatchback powered by a beefed-up 170-horsepower version of the same 2-liter, 130-h.p., Zetec 4-cylinder offered in the Focus ZX3. It will be teamed only with a 6-speed manual.
“The SVT is youth, it’s the future,” said John Coletti, chief engineer for Ford’s SVT operations. “The younger generation today is embracing small, 4-cylinder, front-wheel-drive cars as `their’ performance cars in the same way Baby Boomers embraced the V-8 muscle cars in the ’60s. This car is key to attracting younger buyers who typically wouldn’t have considered owning a domestic.”
But why a FWD 4-cylinder compact coupe when youth reportedly is attracted to all-wheel-drive sport-utility vehicles or hybrids?
“Not everyone is a backpacker,” Coletti said. “Performance is still king. Kids today want the same performance from their cars that their parents wanted 30 years ago, only in a different type of car,” he said.
“Our [SVT] mission isn’t to come up with a high-volume product as it is to polish the Ford oval and show people what we’re capable of doing in performance to take advantage of a growing market for FWD performance cars,” Coletti said.
“We still build the rear-wheel-drive Mustang and in fact, last year Mustang sales were the best in the last 15 years, but a different segment is emerging–FWD performance cars–and we want to be there,” he said.
The SVT comes out this fall. No firm price but Coletti said the target is less than $18,000. Production will be limited to 7,500 units.
The SVT features novel dual-stage intake manifolds and variable cam timing; larger-diameter four-wheel disc brakes with anti-lock; handling tuned suspension with revised spring-and-shock rates; as well as larger anti-roll bars and 17-inch wheels and tires.
The SVT carries unique front and rear facias, black honeycomb grille rocker panel moldings and rear spoiler to further differentiate it from the regular Focus two-door hatchback.
Other standard equipment includes air conditioning, AM/FM stereo with single-disc CD player, cruise control, remote keyless entry, dual front- and side-impact air bags, leather-wrapped steering wheel and shift knob, engine oil cooler and electro-luminescent gauge cluster with titanium color faces.
Only options will be a traction control/heated seats/engine block heater package, upgraded audiophile system with six-disc CD changer and steering column fingertip controls and power sunroof.
– Dodge Ram. The next-generation pickup coming out this fall sports its first major restyling since it first appeared as a 1994 model.
In addition to a redesign, the 2002 Ram also gets a pair of new engines, with a 3.7-liter, 210-h.p. V-6 (to be shared with the new 2002 Jeep Liberty replacement for the Jeep Cherokee) replacing the 3.9-liter, 175-h.p. V-6 and the 4.7-liter, 240-h.p. V-8 (shared with the Jeep Grand Cherokee sport-ute, Dodge Durango and Dodge Dakota trucks) replacing the 5.2-liter, 230-h.p. V-8.
And the Quad Cab model will offer four swing-open doors rather than two swing-back access doors as it had.
While it still looks much the same as it did, changes for 2002 include shortening the pickup box by three inches to increase the size of the passenger cabin by that much.
Those three inches also allow for added front seat travel for taller occupants as well as larger rear doors that swing open 85 degrees for easier passenger entry/exit.
Other changes include rear windows that drop all the way; a rear seat that folds out of the way to carry large packages inside; optional power adjustable gas/brake pedals that motor to the driver offered for the first time; heated leather seats and dual climate control as new options; and 17-inch radials to replace 16-inch treads as standard.
– Toyota RSC, or Rugged Sport Coupe. This is a vehicle Toyota calls “purely a visual concept, but one that we hope sticks.”
Close in size to a RAV4 sport-ute, RSC explores a next-generation sporty car that could be front- or all-wheel-drive. That’s still to be determined, along with platform size and choice of powertrain, Toyota says, because, again, the emphasis for now is styling.
The RSC, just like Toyota’s compact 2003 Matrix sedan also at the auto show, is aimed at the youth market.
– Hyundai HCD6. An “affordable exotic” from South Korea whose styling supposedly was influenced by windsurfing and kite flying. Hyundai is testing the market to determine whether it should expand its lineup by adding a two-seat roadster.
Code-named Apex, the HCD6 was designed by Hyundai’s studios in California. HCD6 suggests there were five earlier concepts, the most notable being the HCD I about five years ago, a roadster concept that wowed the media as well as the audience on the auto-show circuit, but was shelved in favor of the HCD II concept coupe the next year, which evolved into the Tiburon coupe.
The subcompact HCD6 (96.5-inch wheelbase, 166.7 inches wide, 45.2 inches high) is powered by a 2-liter, 240-h.p. turbocharged 4-cylinder teamed with a 6-speed manual. Claimed zero- to 60-m.p.h. time is six seconds.
– Pontiac REV. A four-door AWD performance sedan with a 245-h.p. V-6 and adjustable suspension that raises for off-roading. Looks like a two-door coupe, but has two rear doors that slide open and back like on a minivan. The compact REV could replace Firebird in the Pontiac lineup. Novel features include push-button starter rather than a key, and headlamps that reflect in the direction you turn the steering wheel.
– Mazda Premacy. The automaker calls it “a versatility vehicle with a tall roof and short body,” a cross between a minivan and a sedan, a vehicle with the function of an MPV minivan yet the size of a Chrysler PT Cruiser.
Premacy, which is sold in Japan and Europe, has been brought to Chicago to determine whether consumers would like such an addition to the Mazda lineup in the U.S. in the next few years.
Premacy is built on a 105-inch wheelbase, two inches longer than a Mazda Protege sedan, yet at 174 inches, is one inch shorter overall. It boasts flexible seating for five, with three seats in the second row, any of which can be reclined, folded flat or removed for added storage.
It is powered by the same 1.8-liter, 125-h.p. 4 in the Protege with a choice of 4-speed automatic or 5-speed manual.
“We have no plans as of now to sell it in the U.S., but if after seeing it at the show, consumers start sending us deposits, well …” a Mazda source said.
If added to the lineup here, sources say it would be slotted above the Protege ($12,600 to $15,500).
– Mercedes-Benz AMG. A trio of high-performance 2002 AMG models due out this fall, the C32 AMG with a 349-h.p. version of the 3.2-liter, 215-h.p. V-6 in the regular C-Class sedan; the SLK32 AMG roadster, sporting the same engine as the C32 sedan; and the CLK55 AMG cabriolet, with 5.5-liter, 342-h.p. V-8.
The C32 and SLK32 AMGs will feature SuperShift 5-speed automatics with not only quicker shifting, but also intelligent shifting that automatically selects the proper gear for optimum acceleration when coming out of a corner.
The soft-top CLK55 cabriolet won’t offer SuperShift, but all three will offer special performance handling tuned suspensions and larger brakes.
Also being unveiled here are:
– The 2002 Mitsubishi Galant with fresh sheet metal coming this fall.
– The Subaru Impreza TS sport wagon, RS sedan and Outback Sport wagon also coming this fall.
– The Kia Optima SEL, a concept top-of-the-line rendition of its midsize sedan to determine public interest in a luxury Kia.
– The Jaguar S-Type Sport coming this fall, aimed at offering a more performance-oriented edition of the luxury sedan in the lineup.
– The Nissan 2002 Xterra sport-ute that this fall will get the same supercharged V-6 offered now in the Frontier pickup truck, as well as the 2002 Frontier Crew Cab truck that adds a long bed version this fall.
– Mercury is mum about its media sneak peek of what is expected to be a performance Marauder addition to the Grand Marquis lineup that reportedly would be added about the same time the Grand Marquis undergoes a major redesign in 2002 for the 2003 model year.
