Cool, Hot Cars - retro-design and advanced technology - Industry Overview

Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine, April, 1999 by Ed Henry

FOR THE COMING GENERATION OF CARS, EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW AGAIN.

Pause a moment to reflect on the cars of the '40s, '50s and '60s. Whether you drove them or your parents did, that nostalgic twinge you feel explains why, at the dawn of a new millennium, automotive designers are looking back for ideas about the future. The show stoppers at recent auto shows around the country bear a striking resemblance to cars we've seen before.

Automakers want to take us back to the good old days. And the overwhelming response to Volkswagen's New Beetle last spring indicates there are plenty of willing passengers. "We think the past really is prologue," says Tom Gale, DaimlerChrysler's executive vice-president of product strategy.

Honda is offering its first front-engine-rear-wheel-drive car since the '60s. The sporty S2000 (about $30,000) will be among the first 2000 model cars to hit the road when it arrives this fall. This passion-evoking two-seater is designed to compete with the likes of the Porsche Boxster. Honda hopes that upscale Gen Xers will find the car irresistible.

In about a year, more nostalgia will be running in the streets when DaimlerChrysler rolls out its shiny platinum PT Cruiser, a 1930s-gangster-car look-alike patterned after the company's Depression-era Airflow sedan. The cleverly designed four-door hatchback (it looks much bigger than it is) shows what D/C can do when it wants to appeal to echo-boomers. The company says the PT Cruiser, built on the same platform as the redesigned Dodge Neon, will sell for "significantly under $20,000."

The lemon-colored Thunderbird convertible that Ford showed off at the winter auto shows in Chicago and Detroit borrows its lines from the original 1950s T-birds, complete with egg-crate grille and porthole windows in the removable hardtop. For the interior, the car turns to the '60s T-birds, combining modern aluminum accents with white gauges and turquoise dials. Add a Lincoln 3.9-liter V-8 and try to keep your pulse under control. Ford has hinted the car will be ready for the road in about two years but hasn't yet disclosed a price.

The T-bird will be priced far, far below the threatened quarter-million-dollar cost of the experimental two-seater unveiled by Mercedes-Benz. The silver Vision SLR looks strikingly similar to the 1955 300SL Gullwing coupe. No date has been announced for its debut.

Nostalgia in automobiles is only skin deep, and you can be sure that these cars will be packed with technology light years ahead of the cars they're mimicking. Mercedes-Benz just rolled out a tantalizing replacement for its stodgy S-class sedan, complete with safer air bags; a user-friendly, voice-operated navigational system; and sensors that warn you when you're getting too close to the car ahead. This feat of rolling technology will set buyers back $70,000 to $80,000.

Steep, yes, but actually less expensive than the car it replaces. And that hints at some good news: "We can expect continuing cost reductions as a result of the industry's flexibility in production, standardization of components and use of common platforms," says Dave Cole, director of the Office for the Study of Automotive Transportation at the University of Michigan's Transportation Research Institute.

DON'T FORGET PRACTICALITY

As we move into the new century, the pace will accelerate, thanks in large part to advances in computer-assist design capabilities (CAD). Cars will still have steering wheels, seats, glass and tires. But CAD will allow manufacturers to tailor an automobile's shape to fit changing needs.

Jerry Hirshberg, founder and president of Nissan Design International, tells of one designer who was frustrated trying to get a palm tree into his sports utility vehicle for the trip from a nursery to his home. The next day, he whipped up a solution that's now making the rounds as a concept car: Nissan's 4 1/2-door SUT--part sport utility vehicle (SUV), part pickup truck. It could come to market within a few years. Lincoln is working on the Blackwood, a cross between its humongous Navigator sport utility vehicle and a pickup truck.

GEE-WHIZ

Perhaps the biggest change in future cars will come from advances in electronics and computers. "We're on the brink of unleashing new opportunities in wireless communication for the navigation of automobiles," says Bernard Robertson, DaimlerChrysler's vice-president of engineering technologies.

Ford will soon introduce a computer-controlled restraint system that will fine-tune the tension on seat belts and the inflation of air bags in a crash based on the weight of the passenger being protected. Cadillac's Evoq--due early in the new century--will feature a rear obstacle-detection system that relies on three sensors in the back bumper--one radar, two ultrasonic--to signal the driver when the car is nearing an object as he or she backs up. It will also sport night vision, which uses heat-imaging technology to help drivers see objects that are beyond the automobile's headlamp range. Cadillac hasn't announced a price for the car.