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2006 New York Auto Show Coverage by TCC Team
(4/10/2006)
Mazda Crosses Over with CX-9

2007 Mazda CX-9
Though Mazda’ first crossover
vehicle, the CX-7, hasn’t even hit showrooms yet, the Japanese automaker rolled
out a second car-based utility vehicle on Thursday. With the largest interior
ever for a Mazda, the three-row, seven-passenger CX-9 will serve as a more
stylish and sporty alternative to the carmaker’s past minivan offerings. Under
the hood? A 3.5-liter V-6, mated to a six-speed automatic. The CX-9’s rear seats
fold flat, while the second row is a split-fold arrangement. The CX-9 also
boasts the largest production wheel ever offered by Mazda, at 20 inches. The
crossover will be offered in both front- and all-wheel-drive configurations,
noted Robert Davis, product development chief for Mazda North America.
Davis
emphasized that while the CX-9 bears the “visual DNA” of the smaller CX-7, the
two have virtually nothing in common, at least not mechanically. He also
corrected earlier reports suggesting the CX-9 is simply a Japanese
interpretation of Ford Motor Co.’s new Edge. The two crossovers are “cousins,”
he said, but Mazda’s offering is largely based on the same platform used in the
Mazda6 sedan. Mazda is clearly committed to the car/truck concept,
Davis
hinting, “We’ve got
more to come.”
Differentiating between two new
crossover models wasn’t easy, Mazda’s global design director, Moray Callum,
acknowledged, during an interview with TheCarConnection.com. Trying to maximize
passenger space in that sort of product presents a particular challenge, he
explained. But there are some visual differences, inside and out. The CX-9 is a
“striking and bold” shape, he suggested, though “more refined” than the CX-7.
The challenge was “keeping the sportiness that is Mazda.” But that was perhaps
the single most important reason to move away from the automaker’s classic
people mover, the MPV, and switch to a crossover, anyway, according to Callum.
For all the restrictions, designers, he added, find crossovers “more liberating
for us than a traditional minivan.”
Mazda Puts Speed into
3

2006 MazdaSpeed3
Continuing to expand its new
performance line, Mazda also used the
New York
auto show to roll out a sporty new
version of its Mazda3 hatchback. The MazdaSpeed3’s direct-injection engine will
churn out 250 horsepower, giving the vehicle a top speed of 150 mph, according
to product development boss Robert Davis, who claimed, “It will be one of the
fastest front-wheel-drive cars in the world.” Along with models like the
MazdaSpeed6, the automaker is hoping to put a bit more zoom in its catchy and
long-running “zoom, zoom” tag line. So don’t be surprised to see more MazdaSpeed
offerings. But the line isn’t limited to specialty spin-offs, stressed
Davis
. There is an expanding emphasis on
racing, as well as a growing lineup of MazdaSpeed performance accessories.
Kia Shows New
Sorento

2007 Kia Sorento
Once little more than a sideshow
to the competitive
U.S.
automotive market, Kia has
pushed itself into the mainstream, thanks to an expanding lineup of products
like the Sorento. The automaker pulled the wraps off a new version of the SUV at
Javits
Center
, putting it squarely
up against Japanese alternatives such as the Toyota Highlander. The Korean ute’s
big 3.8-liter V-6 makes 262 horsepower, a 36-percent increase from the old
Sorento, and even more than the
Toyota
4Runner’s V-8.
Towing capacity has been bumped up 42 percent, to 5000 pounds. Kia officials
also emphasized the Sorento’s five-star crash ratings, as well as safety
features like anti-lock brakes, traction and stability control, and a tire
pressure monitoring system. The Sorento is part of a tidal wave of new models
that have rolled off Kia assembly lines in recent months. By the end of 2006,
noted COO Len Hunt, the oldest product in the lineup will be Kia’s small
Sportage SUV, which will have been around for barely 18 months.
Ghosn: Tenn. Move Is Worth the Disruption
There is clearly going to be “some
disruption” when Nissan moves its
U.S. headquarters from the suburbs of
Los
Angeles to
Nashville
later this year. And it won’t come at
a convenient time, what with critical product launches, such as the new Altima,
Sentra, and Infiniti G35, in the works. Nonetheless such problems will be more
than offset by the long-term payoff, asserted Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn during a
meeting with reporters. “Nothing is as important as the performance of the
company,” Ghosn said, though he added that Nissan is working to make the move as
painless as possible. It has extended by a month the deadline for workers to
choose whether to head to
Nashville
or leave the company, he said. And
even if a good portion of the workforce opts out, the Nissan CEO insisted things
will work out reasonably smoothly. “We have 20,000 candidates for the jobs in
Nashville,” said Ghosn, “a lot coming from
Detroit
, and a
lot of them with a big background in the auto industry.” Staying in
Los
Angeles
would have been both costly and disruptive, he
stressed, saying that “We would have had to change a lot of things,” possibly
even rebuilding Nissan’s offices there to deal with changing needs and advancing
technologies.
BMW Targeting More New
Segments
Long reluctant to grow its product
lineup, German automaker BMW is intent on finding and filling new niches, CEO
Helmut Panke told TheCarConnection.com. “We will have more models because
customers want more choice,” he explained, during a
New York
auto show dinner. BMW has already grown a good bit,
he noted, from three prime models generating less than 500,000 annual sales,
back in the 1980s, to volumes of more than 1.1 million last year from six
product lines. By 2008, Panke hinted, BMW will be bringing out what some have
described as a “people mover.” The CEO’s own codename is NMV as in “not a
minivan.” Meanwhile, BMW is also readying a new crossover vehicle that some
analysts and observers are calling the X6. That’s likely not the production
name, Panke cautioned, though he made it clear that the broad crossover category
is one that it makes sense for BMW to fill.
Automakers “Destroying
Value,” Ghosn Says
One only has to check the
morning stock tables to see that smart investors are steering clear of the auto
industry. And it doesn’t take much more to realize that automakers are
“destroying value” through a series of poor decisions, declared Nissan/Renault
CEO Carlos Ghosn, during his keynote speech to the 2006 New York Auto Show. “One
of the biggest destroyers of value is the development of bland, safe,
cookie-cutter designs,” Ghosn asserted. “When the industry churns out too many
competent but interchangeable products, customers get the message they are not
worth the price,” and in a buyer’s market, that is the recipe for all-time
record incentives, which last year totaled around $3500 a vehicle. Put another
way, that added up to about $60 billion of lost revenue for the U.S. auto
industry in 2005, “the equivalent of what you’d spend on developing 120 new
cars,” at a typical investment cost of $500 million per vehicle. The
prescription? The Brazilian-born executive suggested it’s simple: “Products that
people really want to buy.” That’s not as easy as it seems, of course, and
automakers have to take risks, said Ghosn. The edgy design Nissan originally
came up with for the next-generation Sentra sedan proved to be a disconnect with
potential buyers, but the automaker was willing to delay the program nearly a
year to get the Sentra’s styling fixed. “We have to be flexible enough to make
mid-course corrections, when necessary,” the CEO stressed.
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