lb Lig!'
in ks

Consumers clamor
for hardy vehicles.

JOEL SIMON SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

The new Land-Rover
Discovery Is designed to
handle the toughest
conditions — or simply a
trip to the supermarket.

choice of explorers who seriously
needed a vehicle that wouldn't se-
riously need a wrecker when the
tires left the tarmac.
The other grand old name in
sport-utilities, Jeep, also shows
no signs of resting on its laurels.
Chrysler is reportedly spending
billions on replacement plans for
the Grand Cherokee and Wran-
gler by the end of the decade.
Grand Cherokee, introduced
only two years ago, has been a
phenomenal seller for
Chrysler/Jeep, and they clearly
plan to keep things that way.
They're currently adding a third
nce a backwater of the ing with their new Passport was a long time ago, and a lot of shift to the Jefferson North plant
automotive industry, sport-utility.
very hot competition has moved in Detroit where the Grand
Cherokees are built as well as
light trucks and
If you've seen one around and in since then.
sport-utilities have thought it looked an awful lot like
Meanwhile the S-series trucks, the European plant in Graz, Aus-
become by far the an Isuzu Rodeo, you were right; caught in a GM "downsizing" lim- tria.
Jeep also has been assembling
most important sin- it is a Rodeo, built in Isuzu's bo, started to look awfully old.
vehicles
in Beijing, and there are
T
afayette,
Ind.,
plant
and
slapped
This
year,
that
changes
with
gle automotive seg-
ment over the past with a Honda nameplate and a the introduction of the next-gen- rumors of a new small vehicle for
several years, and the few trim changes. They have eration S-series. The new Jimmy China and the other Asian-Pa-
market is still growing: two three trim packages, ranging will have two versions: a rakish cific nations.
So what else is new? Would
two-door and a longer, wagonlike
of the American .Big Three from $15,660 to $25,600.
recorded 20 percent-plus in-
Last year's massive new Dodge four-door. The new versions are you believe another contender
creases in their total truck pro- Ram pickup certainly stirred heavier than their predecessors from the old Soviet Union? Actu-
ally, this one comes from Mother
duction between 1992 and 1993. things up in the full-size market, but carry more horses.
The standard engine is GMC's Russia herself.
Riding around in a pickup and they've been selling as fast
UAZ of America (UAZ stands
never used to be a road to popu- as Chrysler can crank them out. 200-horsepower 4.3-liter "En-
for
Ulianovsk Automobile Zavod)
hanced"
Vortec
V-6.
Buyers
have
Inside
and
out,
Ram
is
the
larity except in very particular
parts of the country; that has biggest pickup on the market, a choice between the standard is launching a line of five vehi-
clearly changed. According to the and both its powertrain options five-speed manual or an elec- cles; a sport-utility, a flatbed
Automotive News Market Data and interior appointments are tronically controlled automatic truck, an ambulance and two
vans.
Book, total U.S. production of made for people who use their 4L60-E four-speed.
The claims made for the UAZ
Another new offering from a
light trucks in 1993 was trucks for more than decorating
would
be hard to believe in a
sport-utility
old
boy
is
the
Land-
4,481,314 compared to total pas- their driveways.
The Dodge Ram offers a full se- Rover Discovery, which will be Hummer: able to climb a 60 per-
senger car production of
cent grade, "as durable as a
lection of axles, transmissions, introduced.
5,984,797.
Discovery is a four-door with a tank," able to perform "in the
So, you can see that, although transfer cases and engines, in-
the situation bemuses some peo- cluding a Cummins diesel and an short 100-inch wheelbase but world-record cold of the Siberian
with off-road handling fully wor- tundra and the Arctic north, in
ple on-high in Detroit, they're per- 8-liter V-10.
the searing heat of the deserts of
Almost lost in the clamor of thy of its illustrious ancestors.
fectly willing to go along if that's
With an estimated base price Kazakhstan ... over thousands of
new products is the sport-utility
really what consumers want.
Of course, our friends across that arguably started it all. The around $30,000, Discovery is miles of unbridged, swift-flowing
the pond would like to hold onto General Motors Corp.'s S-series pricey enough to make a person streams and rivers and across the
"Jimmy," with its sibling, the hesitate to ever take it off the blowing sands of the Mongolian
their little piece of the action.
Maybe that's why Honda has Chevy Blazer, pretty much de- road, but that would be a shame. plains."
I don't know about you, but I
recently indulged in an unchar- fined the market following their Since their introduction in 1948,
acteristic bit of badge-engineer- introduction in 1983. But that Land-Rovers have been the first can't wait for a ride. El