Bows and Busts of the Year of Living Automotively
It was a most mobile Year of the Motor Car.
The federal government added new trauma to sticker shock with a 10% luxury tax on cars that cost more than $30,000. The price of even a pedestrian Rolls-Royce now goes up about two Geo Metros. Or $15,000.
Volvo was squashed by stories that it rigged a television commercial showing one of its station wagons surviving a crushing by a Monster Truck. Nobody thought to examine Lee Iacocca’s commercials. So the question left hanging by one commercial: Can anyone name three of those 100 Californians who could have bought an imported car but instead chose Chrysler?
The bad news: Crisis in the Middle East inflated gas prices by more than 30%, but Americans still drove 2 trillion miles.
The good news: The Environmental Protection Agency’s super-saver rating went to the Geo Metro, with a city-highway fuel economy closer to that of a Zippo lighter--or 53 to 58 miles per gallon.
The best news: If you own a Dodge Aries or a Plymouth Reliant, according to the Highway Loss Data Institute, there is virtually no chance it will be stolen.
General Motors unveiled a prototype electric car and Nissan announced it would sell a voltmobile in California by the turn of the century. Solar-powered cars raced across Australia and methane gas pumps opened in Los Angeles. The writing on the wall for the internal combustion engine is spreading wider than graffiti.
Yugo failed to make its threatened comeback and nobody really cared. Saddam Hussein’s armored Cadillac was impounded at a Michigan maintenance shop and everybody gloated. The All-American Indy 500 announced that next year’s pace car will be the Dodge Shadow and the yelping carried from Indianapolis to Tokyo--where the Stealth begins life as the Mitsubishi 3000.
And not one automobile made Esquire’s annual list of dubious achievements.
In 1990, View reviewed two dozen cars.
There have been further developments:
* ACURA NSX. This snarling, mid-engined, slope-nosed $60,000 sports car that goes like the wind has collected more excellence awards than “Gone With the Wind.” It was recently named Car of the Year by Playboy and appears as a multipage, full-color spread in the January issue. Said Playboy spokesman Bill Farley: “The car was photographed naked as a jaybird.”
* HONDA ACCORD. In 1990 it became the first Japanese car to top the nation’s bestseller list. Marysville, Ohio, was delighted. That’s where Accord is built. Patriots may take further heart by noting Ford Taurus and Chevrolet Cavalier were second and third and six domestic cars appeared among America’s Top 10 sellers.
* FERRARI F40. Four of these street-legal race cars with turn signals arrived in California in August and even car-jaded locals gaped at the numbers. Engine: 500 horsepower. Speed: 200 m.p.h. Buyer-investors quickly predicted that limited production and high demand would push the price of the car to $1.4 million. F40s have since appeared at American auctions and not one bid has topped $1 million. In Europe, F40s are being offered for sale for a piddling $560,000--which proves a Ferrari can outrun everything except a recession.
* LAFORZA. Designed in Italy, assembled in Michigan and sold by a California company, the multinational Laforza sport utility celebrated its second year of production. We said it just might catch hold before the capital ran out. Last month, the capital ran out. Laforza of Hayward is bankrupt and several dozen of the $45,000 luxury off-roaders are being offered at liquidation prices. Try $20,000.
* TOYOTA PREVIA. Minivans continued to make market magic and that translated to about 900,000 new American owners. Half of those sales went to Chrysler. But it was the Toyota Previa, distinctive, charming, and sculpted like a gum ball, that made Car and Driver’s list of the 10 best cars of 1990.
* SATURN. Fathered and financed by General Motors, Saturn has done everything horribly wrong. The sedans premiered in October when industry sales were softer than yogurt.
Saturn promised 16,000 cars by the end of this month but has delivered only 2,500. Production was halted to fix ill-fitting doors, engine vibrations and other problems. And the Saturn Coupe has yet to show in the nation’s half-empty showrooms.
Yet not one word of criticism has been slung at Saturn.
See patriotism within the patience, says Chris Cedegren of industry analysts J. D. Power & Associates. And maybe mental body English by consumers willing a domestic car to succeed against Japanese competition.
“Our commitment is to produce quality cars and the public appreciates that . . . and I think (customers) are prepared to wait,” said Saturn spokeswoman Nannette Wiatr. “We are not going to ship cars that don’t match our standards of quality or the demands of our customers.”
* CADILLAC SEDAN DEVILLE. This 2-ton house of gadgets, this automotive sofa better suited for presidential motorcades and retirees with several bank accounts, entered its 15th year of production in 1990. This time, whispered many, the American decadence of Cadillac would be severly dented by the continental elan of Lexus, Infiniti, Mercedes, Jaguar, BMW and other luxury cars in its class. But at the end of the model year, Cadillac remained an unchallenged symbol of wealth with 1990 sales larger than the combined sales of Lexus, Infiniti, Mercedes, Jaguar and BMW.
* MAZDA MIATA. A two-seat retrospective of sports cars of the ‘60s, the little Miata continued to add lilt and necessary nonsense to young American lives. Yet if Mazda really wanted to re-create the past, it was suggested by really picky customers, the Miata should be offered in British Racing Green with real leather seats and wood cockpit trim by Nardi. So next year, there will be Miatas in British Racing Green with real leather seats and wood cockpit trim by Nardi.
