‘Crazy’ idea: great cars
With the biggest crowd of the first day of the Los Angeles Auto Show at the L.A. Convention Center gathered around the Ford display to see the 2010 Fusion and Fusion Hybrid, music boomed over the public address system: “Yeah I was out of touch / but it wasn’t because I didn’t know enough / I just knew too much. . . . “
There was something fitting about the event’s theme song, “Crazy,” by Gnarls Barkley.
Once the song stopped, North American head Mark Fields explained that while Ford might not have made the kind of cars people wanted to buy in the past, things were changing. The Fusion, he said, is exactly the kind of car people want now. “These are challenging times . . . but what will power us through, very simply, is great cars.”
Ford’s sales are down 18% this year, so the company apparently hasn’t been making exactly what the consumer has been yearning for up until now. “We’ve made tremendous progress in the last few years,” Fields said.
With Ford’s chief executive in Washington lamenting that his company was nearly as bad off as General Motors and Chrysler, Ford’s messaging might seem, well, a bit crazy. But if the Fusion is as good as Ford promises, it could be a step in the right direction. After all, the hybrid gets 39 miles per gallon in the city, or, according to Fields, 700 miles on a tank of gas in city driving.
How many cars can get that on two tanks of fuel?
-- Ken Bensinger
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Resale values
Kelley Blue Book, the ubiquitous guide to new and used vehicle information and pricing, has released its annual list of best resale value awards for the 2009 model year to coincide with the auto show.
The best resale brand for the 2009 model year was Honda, which had the most vehicles with the best resale value. Toyota was second, followed by Volkswagen.
No U.S. brand made the top 10. The list recognizes vehicles for their “projected retained value five years from now.”
The 2009 winners by category: compact pickup: Toyota Tacoma; full-size pickup: Toyota Tundra; crossover: Honda CR-V; luxury crossover: BMW X5; hybrid crossover: Toyota Highlander Hybrid; SUV: Jeep Wranger; luxury SUV: Audi Q7 Quattro; hybrid SUV: Chevrolet Tahoe; high-performance car: Nissan GT-R; hybrid car: Honda Civic Hybrid; compact car: Mini Cooper; mid-size car: Lexus IS; full-size car: Cadillac CTS; luxury car: Audi A5; Van: Honda Odyssey.
-- Whitney Friedlander
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Jetta goes green
Who’s the greenest of them all? Volkswagen’s Jetta TDI.
The sporty, diesel-powered sedan was named 2009 green car of the year at the auto show, beating out BMW’s 335d, also a diesel; the Ford Fusion gasoline-electric hybrid; the Saturn Vue hybrid; and the ultra-compact Smart ForTwo.
“It breaks new ground in the field of clean diesel,” said Ron Cogan, editor and publisher of Green Car Journal, which sponsors the award. He cited the Jetta’s “satisfying driving experience,” low emissions and 41-mpg highway fuel economy.
The award was bestowed by a panel of nine judges, including Frances Beinecke, head of the Natural Resources Defense Council; “Tonight Show” host Jay Leno; car guy Carroll Shelby; and Carl Pope, executive director of the Sierra Club.
Pope conceded that some Sierra Club members might question the group’s participation in a contest that recognizes any automobile as “green” when there are eco-friendly alternatives such as bike riding and public transportation.
But Pope said environmentalists can help influence the sale, and more important the development, of cars that pollute less.
“The awards make a difference to people who design and engineer cars, and we want to get their support,” he said.
-- John Corrigan
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Hybrid concept
When it comes to picking the fuel of the future, Toyota likes to spread its bets around.
Hence the debut at the auto show of the Japanese automaker’s CNG hybrid Camry concept, which Toyota believes is the first operating example anywhere of a hybrid car with an internal-combustion engine powered by compressed natural gas rather than gasoline.
The concept vehicle marks Toyota’s only current entry in the natural-gas field (it offered a nonhybrid CNG Camry back in 2000, with limited results). Rival Honda has scooped up a boatload of eco-friendly publicity with its Civic GX, which runs solely on natural gas.
Lest anyone conclude that Toyota is about to make a serious play for natural-gas fans, it should be noted that the silvery blue vehicle on display is the only example in the world -- and is likely to remain so for the foreseeable future.
-- Martin Zimmerman
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For more auto show coverage, visit latimes.com/uptospeed
