AUTO'94

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IF SUBARUS

ARE A BLESSING IN ISRAEL,

TI-IEN TIM PRICE OF ONE AT

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isi me.1/111.11.4
so much of its value at trade-in time.
Navigate the streets of Southfield and the byways of
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DWYER

ANDsONS

VOLVO/SUBARU

Maple Rd. West of Haggerty
624-0400

VISIT OUR NEW SHOWROOM

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MICHIGAN'S EXCLUSIVE BENTLEY ROLLS ROYCE DEALER

A20

40475 ANN ARBOR RD., PLYMOUTH, MICHIGAN

(313) 453-7500

ROLLS-ROYCE MOTOR CARS INC., 1993.
THE NAME - ROLLS-ROYCE" AND THE MASCOT, BADGE AM) RADIATOR GRILLE ARE REGISTERED TRADEMARKS.

ages to mingle formality with
"C'mon, let's go!"
LHS shares LH's 24-valve
3.5L V-6 wit 214 horsepower,
but actually there's only about
25 percent shared componen-
try. The passenger cabin is
mammouth and very pleasing.
They managed to provide 6
inches more rear legroom than
a Lexus LS400 without using a
space warp or making the
trunk vanish.
TRUCK TALK
Year after year, beginning
about halfway through the '80s
and now nearly halfway into
the '90s, the hottest word in
cars sales is truck.
Trucks are the largest part
of the auto market and have
been for a couple of years now.
This fact is making impacts on
the thinking of the automakers
and their offerings. The next
few years should be fun to
watch.
Pickup trucks are perenni-
ally popular just because
they're so darned useful, and in
some parts of the country
they've always been the wheels
of choice for whole major
chunks of the populous.
But the advent of the
sport/utility vehicle (SUV) has
caused the popularity of trucks
of all sorts to explode, and the
carmakers just love, love, love
it.
Of course, people want their
trucks and their CD players too,
so the inside of the average
pickup or SUV is a good deal
more plush and gadget-strewn
than anything your father
would recognize.
Indeed, it'said that less than
5 percent of four-wheel-drive
vehicles ever leave pavement.
But the air conditioners and
shiny surfaces haven't detract-
ed from the astounding capa-
bilities built into some of these
buggies.
CIVILIAN HUMMERS
So SUV's have come a long
way since dressed-up Geos.
The trend is big — the bigger
the better.
Which is why serious SU-
Vers greeted with shrill cries of
gladness the introduction of the
600-pound gorilla of all SUV's,
fresh from a successful en-
gagement in Saudi Arabia and
points north, the AM General
Hummer.
AM General calls it "the
world's most serious 4x4," and
that nickname is really very
hard to argue with. In fact, just
being close to one of these
things makes you want to give
up arguing for life.
The Hummer (its original
handle was HMMWV — High-
Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled
Vehicle) is offered in four civil-
ian versions: four-passenger
hardtop (small open cargo area

in back), two-passenger hard-
top (big open cargo area in
back), four-passenger open can-
vas top and four-passenger
wagon. They all have the same
engine — a 6.2L diesel — and
a three-speed automatic.
Hummers are odd-looking
vehicles, considerably wider
that the average SUV (it fits in
a highway lane, but you don't
want to weave much), and with
the wheels all the way out to
the corners.
That means they're a darn
sight harder to tip over than a
Geo Tracker, and they'll climb
almost any incline short of ver-
tical.
They've got a Central Tire
Inflation System (CTIS) so that
you can inflate and deflate the
tires all at once, from inside.
This doesn't sound important
until you find yourself in the
middle of a desert with an Ex-
plorer and a hand pump. Take
it from me, this is a nice feature.
Of course, there are some
changes. You can get Hum-
mers in three colors. They've
got padded seats, radios and air
conditioning. Maybe next year
there will be an Eddie Bauer
trim package.
The price for all this exotica?
Between $45,000 and $55,000.
IRON VIPER
What's new for 1994? The big
news is in full-size pickups.
Dodge, never one of the big
shooters in the fill-size market,
has launched do-or-die assault
in the form of its all-new Ram
pickup.
This is not just a reskinning
of the venerable power wagon.
This is a completely new truck
from its frame to its power train
to its completely unique form.
Initially available with a
wide variety of axles and trans-
fer cases but a fairly limited se-
lection of engines (principal
among them the new Magnum
V-8), a 5.9L Cummins turbo
diesel is imminent.
Early next year will see the
introduction of the "Iron Viper"
V-10, a 300-horsepower version
of the engine in you-know-
what.
A cursory glance will tell you
that Dodge is going for broke
here. The styling is nothing less
than peculiar. There are a lot
of visual cues from aero-design
class eight trucks, and there is
no question that you are ex-
pected to either love this truck
or hate it.
There's a lot to love. The cab,
and even the bed, are filled with
thoughtful little user-friendly
touches like indentations for di-
viding the bed with lumber,
low-set tie-down hooks and an
optional center seat that folds
downs for a desk and opens up
for storage of office equipment
— even a space for a laptop
computer. D

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