The calendar says nearly half of 2004 remains, but it’s already 2005 in the global auto industry.
Car companies worldwide are introducing next year’s models this summer. Some 2005-model cars have been on the road for months.
The tradition of waiting until Oct. 1 to kick off the new model season has been dying for years. It’s the victim of intense global competition, new technologies that have cut vehicle development and production times, computer-assisted engineering and design techniques that allow automakers to produce discernably different cars and trucks using the same basic platforms, and increasingly segmented and ever-changing consumer demands.
I’m betting most of my money on American car companies in 2005. That is neither a matter of exuberant optimism, nor of unrestrained nationalism. It’s just that I like what I see coming from General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and the Chrysler Group of DaimlerChrysler Corp. (Yeah, I know that Chrysler is now German. But Chrysler still says “America” to me.)
GM is the one to look at. The company’s Cadillac division is on a roll with its new CTS and CTS-V sports sedans, its SRX “crossover” sport-utility wagon and its XLR luxury roadster.
For 2005, Cadillac is introducing a completely revised STS sedan, with a 320-h.p. V-8 engine that already is being hailed in the automotive media as a worthy competitor to Honda Motor Co. Ltd.’s Acura RL and to Nissan Motor Co.’s Infiniti M45.
On the lower-cost end, GM is introducing the Chevrolet Cobalt (base prices will range from $15,000 to $20,000) as a replacement for the quite serviceable but much-maligned economy compact.
Ford is bringing forth its full-size Audi-like front-wheel-drive Five Hundred passenger car to replace the Ford Taurus. The exterior isn’t stunning, but the Five Hundred’s passenger cabin is one of the best Ford, or anyone else, has developed for a family sedan.
Ford also is introducing its seven-passenger Freestyle sport-utility wagon for 2005. It looks good, but it’s a latecomer to the sport-utility-wagon party.
For 2005, Chrysler has launched the Chrysler Crossfire and PT Cruiser convertibles, already at dealerships.
People who want to buy the first Chrysler automobile priced in the $50,000 range will get that chance in 2005 with the Chrysler Crossfire SRT-6 convertible.
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Edited by Cara DiPasquale (cdipasquale@tribune.com) and Kris Karnopp (kkarnopp@tribune.com)
