Even After 9/11, Vehicle’s Size Matters
Not global warming, not sticker shock, not even addiction to foreign oil, seem to have chilled interest in Dumbo-size vehicles at the Greater Los Angeles Auto Show.
A small electric car, called Think, was almost crushed by the stampede heading for the likes of Ford’s new lineup of SUVs and the luxurious 2003 Lincoln Navigator, described as even bigger than last year’s model.
Cooing from atop a revolving stage, an attractive spokesmodel said the Navigator’s 300-horsepower engine is big enough to pull a large boat or horse trailer.
I asked a Lincoln rep if he gets many questions about mileage, and he looked at me as if I’d been drinking.
“Do you think someone who spends $55,000 on an SUV is going to worry about mileage?” he asked.
Good point.
“I haven’t heard one person mention Sept. 11 as a factor in deciding what kind of car to buy,” a Ford representative told me, and my own research backed him up.
John McNamara, a San Fernando Valley general contractor who owns five SUVs, gazed admiringly at a $45,000 Ford Excursion that is the approximate size of the Love Boat. This thing is so humongous--more than 8,500 pounds--Ford is not even required to divulge how many miles per gallon it gets.
“I think we get about 11,” said McNamara, who has a 2001 Excursion.
“Twelve,” said his wife, T.C., who added, “I’ve had people yelling at me at the gas station because it takes forever to fill the 44-gallon tank.”
The Excursion was parked next to an Explorer that gets 14 mpg in the city and 19 on the highway. A Ford rep said the company sells far more of the mid-size Explorers than the larger Excursion.
But the McNamaras favor the biggest of the big, and John explained why.
“We’d be in a smaller SUV and bigger vehicles would pull up alongside us, and I felt intimidated. I’m interested in keeping my family safe.”
And he believes in buying American, which McNamara equates with patriotism. He singled out Japanese cars, in particular, as vehicles he would never own.
I did not press him on whether it’s patriotic to burn vast quantities of Saudi oil, even though that country produced and harbored many of the terrorists involved in the Sept. 11 attacks on America.
And it seemed prudent, under the circumstances, to withhold information about my Japanese car. The new model Nissan Sentra, slightly larger than a splat on an Excursion windshield, was pushed so far to the rear of the showroom, it was almost out the door and onto the shoulder of the Santa Monica Freeway.
The McNamaras said they’d certainly prefer large vehicles that got better mileage, but as Mr. McNamara put it, the world is going to run out of fossil fuel regardless of what he’s driving.
The Bush administration, which has seemed intent on making this happen sooner than later, broke news Wednesday on this very subject. The White House dumped a government project to develop gas-powered vehicles that get 80 mpg. The car of the future, according to the Bush team, is a hydrogen-powered model.
If the pipe dream ever becomes reality, it could be great for the environment. But critics say the hurdles are so numerous and the technology so undeveloped, it could take decades to put such a car on the market.
In the meantime, auto makers, which have spent a fortune lobbying against higher mileage requirements, are off the hook even though average mileage has hit a 21-year low. That’s because for the first time ever, more people are buying trucks and SUVs than regular passenger cars.
After another fan of the Excursion told me he needs a vehicle “big enough to carry my wife, three kids and the living room,” I wandered over to the electric Th!nk, which could probably fit in the Excursion’s cargo hold.
The Th!ink is made by Ford, and Ford rep Tom Bastianelli said it can go about 50 miles on $1 worth of electricity. You can recharge it in four to six hours by plugging it into a wall socket, but it won’t be on the market until later this year.
Bastianelli said there were more clean cars downstairs, so I made my way to the basement, only to get lost. Auto parts displays, car-themed gifts, guys with NASCAR T-shirts, and a truck sitting atop tires the size of Ferris wheels, served as reminders that I was not attending a global warming convention. Finally, in the back corner, I found what I was looking for.
Instead of a purring spokesmodel, there’s a science guy in khakis pitching the electric, gas/electric hybrid and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. Ryan Fitzgerald, of the Electric Vehicle Assn. of the Americas, wasn’t getting the foot traffic I saw upstairs, but there was a steady trickle that picked up after Bush’s new strategy hit the news.
Something tells me it’ll be many a moon before a knockout spokesmodel slinks across a revolving stage at the car show, holds up an extension cord, and tells a fawning crowd that the Th!nk takes only four hours to recharge.
But there were more alternative-fuel vehicles at this year’s show than ever before, said Fitzgerald. And anybody who cares about national security, fuel economy and the environment, can reach only one conclusion, according to him.
“We’re the future.”
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Steve Lopez can be reached at steve.lopez@latimes.com.
