OCR Text |
Show The Park Record Sat/Sun/Mon/Tues. March 5-8, 2005 C-25 GREXT NEWS! SUMMIT COUNTY RESIDENTS! THE XEW 2005 FORD FIVE HUNDRED "ALL WHEEL DRIVE" HAS ARRIVED! Utah " Grtez/fes 6 Hockey/ r r FREE5 Game Pkg. with Test Drive!* -«af "While supplies last NEWS, TRENDS AND GOSS P Hot off the press 2005 Ford Five Hundred SELAWD. Stock#NC07513 00 • Chicago, Chicago Don't think Detroit is the only town that can throw a car party. There was plenty of big news out of the Chicago Auto Show this week (Detroit was about a month ago), where the Sleuth had tiis ear to the ground and pen pressed to pad And who dominated the show'' Who attracted the most attention9 Japanese automakers Wmle Toyota unveileo its Toyota's FJ Cruiser. cool new sport-utility vehicle the FJ Cruiser, Honda went after the same demographic with j its slick new Civic Si Concept the most powerful Si ever built and a good indication Honda Clvfc Si Concept. of what the new one will look like Toyota thinks the FJ will attract Scion (U.S. markets only) shoppers who are looking (or a bigger vehicle. Honda hopes a 200-horsepower SI coupe - not a hatchback as in the past - will bring more young buyers to the brand. "Hatchbacks do well m Europe said Honda America boss John Mendel We think the coupe fits here' • Malcolm's in the middle (of controversy). Entrepreneur Malcolm Brlcklin is apparently quite serious about his whole Chinese-vehicle importation plan, first revealed by the Sleuth several weeks ago. Bricklin told the Sleuth he's interested in getting 250 U S. dealers ready by the summer to sell the Chery. a Chinese-built vehicle Before he has any inventory, Bricklin wants dealers in place He said that beginning in January 2007. his company will introduce a new model every J two months for three years Doing the math. ^ that's, 18 vehicles. I'm just trying to run a car company by using common sense, he said. • Dodge to add another sport-ute? The Nitro concept is a hint at this Chrysler division's next sport-utility vehicle, which is due in North America in 2006, the Sleuth hears. To create the Nitro, the Chrysler group took the Jeep Liberty platform and stretched the wheeibase. I he Nitro is 22-inches Dodge considers adding shorter than the Dodge Durango and styling draws another sport ute to Us lineup. on cues first seen on the Dodge M80 pickup concept introdxed in 2002 at the Detroit Auto Show. • The Q7 Is on Its way. German automaker Audi is ready to bring a seven-seat sportutility vehicle, called the Q7, to North America and another might be on the way. The Sleuth hears a small sport-ute based on the A4 car platform could come cut of Audi by the end of the decade. The Q7 Audi's new Q7 makes use of the Volkswagen Touareg will have three rows of platform. seats and be based on the Touareg from Audi's sister division. Volkswagen • Always there, always On(Star). Last week the Sleuth learned General Motors is about to dive head-first into its safety technology. By 2010, GM will make its OnStar telecomunications helpdesk service standard (as well as stability control) on vehicles sold in the United States and . Canada OnStar will be standard on all GM vehicles while all trucks and sport-utility vehicles wll have stability control by 2007 All other vehicles will reportedly have stability control by the end of the decade. tar Market indicators Demand for AWD •C'f\ Is it good news when your • L*^£i company can't make enough high-priced vehicles to meet demand? Maybe, but as it stands. Ford (Five Hundred, Freestyle) Ford Five Hundred. and General Motors (Cadillac STS) are struggling to meet demarKJ for t.ieir all-wheel-drive vehicles Both obviously plan to step up production. Cadillac STS. /, )%. G M i n C h i n a : General Motors announced it will )L:1 launch a new series of ___ __ made-in-China Chevrolets The ^ . • ••'• r ^ L new small and mid-sized models will be sold through a network of 100 dealerships to be set up across China to sell and service the vehicles GM has invested more than US S2 billion in China since 1998. Much more is on the way. Been sleuthing around yourselt? Do you have a hot automotive tip for The Sleuth'' You can email him by logging on to www wheeibase ws/mailbag htrrtl. Lease Only $385. • So long, Bonny Slow sales and a change in consumer preferences are the reasons being given for the death of yet another prominent car name The buzz out of Motown this week is that Pontlac is killing off the Bonnevllle sedan at the end of „ h a 8 b ^a | o n g _a n d | a l e j y the summer The bumpy - road for the Detroit factory where it Bonnevllle. is assembled will shift to production of the new Cadillac DTS and Buick Lucerne sedans The Bonneville was no flash in the pan It debuted in 1957.at the Daytona Fla . beach races and went into production one year later North American sales peaked in the 1960s, but demand has been falling ever since The Bonneville shares its platform with Cadillac MSRP $26,495.°° ik FIRST SEDAN WITH ALL WHEEL DRIVE IN ITS CLASS! ' . )< PLATFORM & SUSPENSION DERIVED FROM VOLVO! ^CONTINUOUSLY VARIABLE TRANSMISSION! . ?< POWERFUL DURATEC3.0LV-6 ENGINE ((WOmph In 7.45seconds)< NOW AT CRANDALL FORD-MERCURY! *39 Month Lease Based on 12,000 Miles per Year. Plus Sales Tax, License Fees, & Dealer Doc Fee. Requires approved Financing with Ford Credit Expires 3/31/05, 4MATIC All Wheel Drive How to weather the weather. • Mitsubishi partnership. As the Sleuth hinted to you about a month ago, Mitsubishi and Peugeot are now officially teaming up. Mitsubishi will supply 30,000 sport-utility vehicles a year to the French automaker No word on which SUV Peugeot wants, but It does want 30,000. beginning in 2007 4MATIC Available on select C-CIass Sedans & Wagon E-Class Sedons & Wagons S-Class Sedans Mitsubishi has been floundering in red ink this year and could certainly use the shot in the arm Market indicators Here in Utah, even luxury vehicles need to get a grip. With a Mercedes-Benz equipped with 4-matic, your .driving experience won't suffer no matter what the weather conditions. Experience a vehicle unlike any other, purchased from a sales staff unlike any other. Over 75 years of Certified Mercedes experience. Hard-to-find high performance vehicles can now be found here! " £ * Y B M W S t y l e : The controversial styling of the BMW 7 L^-I series is the subject cf an upcoming mid-life face-lift actually a rear makeover - that should appease critical customers The new design will tone down the bulbous aft section of BMW's biggest and best lux- Not everyone's favorite view of the 7-Serles. ury car. a feature notso-affectionately known as the 'Bangle Butt' (since it was designed by stylist Chris Bangle). The new 7 series also gets a redesigned iDrive - the sophisticated nerve center of vehicle operation - with two new buttons that allow 'users - a.k a drivers - to change to the CD player from the radio without having to use the iDrive knob AMCi • SL55 • ( 1 5 5 • G55 • CLK55 KenGarff Mercedes-Benz of Salt Lake 575 South State Street Downtown SLC . / Q f l i \ 9 ^ 7 9 0 0 0 www.kengarffmercedes.com \U\J i ) C%J i ouuu rememBer... • • Hyundai profits: in a Mercedes-Benz Certified Pre-Owned '01 SL5OO $4 1,900 Ul_«C«. 3 ! • ulLfC •O2 CL60O Duct O»Jii_ Ot $S9.9OO "i Stick with the dealer you really know. .$49.900 ( MSRP $45,1 1 5 'O4 C23OK S22.5OO 5 TO CHOOSE STARTING AT '04 C240 $32,5OO $40,604 PROMISE 'O3 G5OO $6 5,9OO '01 ML430 J28.5OO O5 ML35O'S $99.5OO BACK-U-UP 75 YEARS SPECIAL PURCHASE •O3 SL55 THI www.parkrecord.com $^W'4 ^ .V THE LARGEST TRUNK OF ANY SEDAN IN AMERICA! • Bye-bye Thunderbirdie? It looks like a two-year rumor is about to come true. The Sleuth hears that Ford is considering laying the axe to its Thunderbird Ford Division President Steve Lyons told Automotive News recently; "Our volumes __ _. .. , .. „ «.,^.i ih i • The exact time Is up In the a r, t ^ 2 but Ford intends to drop the about 500 a month Thunderbird. Aside from a power boost. Ford has left the Thunderbird pretty much alone since its introduction for the 2002 model year Plans for final production have varied in the last year, but looks like either 2006 or '07. • More derivatives of the Chrysler 300. The Sleuth has learned that Chrysler is planning many different versions of its popular 300 sedan "We don't see the 300 as a one-car wonder,' Chrysler product development boss Eric | Ridenour told Wards.com, an industry trade Web site A A e S R T ' 8 P r o v o e > J ue t about convertible or a » " * • " " ! > ' ? P ° " l b l < ; w ^ "l l c o m e e t ot h eC h r y e l e r 3 0 0 stretched sedan could ' be in the works. ASC, a specialty manufacturer showed a 300 convertible at this year's Detroit Auto Show Been sleuthing around yoursell? Do you have a hot automotive tip for The Sleuth? You can email him by logging on to www.wheelbase ws/mailbag html k %Y BEST IN CLASS INTERIOR VOLUME! • Not everyone has hybrid fever. Here's a quote worth remembering. Just when you think it's time to get excited about hybrid gas/efectric technology, Nissan Motor Co. CEO Carlos Ghosn recently questioned their value 'They make a nee story, but they're not a good business story yet It appears that the popular because their value is Alt I ma will be the first Nissan to lower than their costs" receive an electric helper motor. Nissan doesn't yet offer a hybrid, although Toyota. Lexus and Honda do, but will begin making such a version of the Altima sedan in 2006 Sales of U S. gas-electric vehicles reached 85,699 units in 2004, up 97.3 per cent from the 43.435 sold in 2 X 3 ^ ^ r bit of a surprise announcement. we've learned that Hyndail's global automobile operations (Hyundai Motor ] Company) posted a 21 -per-cent drop in fourth-quarter profrts (2004 compared to 2003) High steel prices and currency fluctuations are apparently to blame. Hyundai hopes to be one of the world's top-five automakers by 2010 ZERO DOWN! WnlTf. 31' MILIB 'O2 S6OO •O5 SLK3SO Value - Up to 10 Year/250.000 Mile Limited Engfne Warranty Protection • Froe 24/7/365 Roadside Assistance Selection - 24 Vehicle Brands Available Convenience - 26 Sales & Service Locations from Ogden to Provo $64,BOO SAVE |