What SUVs Are Meant For
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Porsche boss Wendelin Wiedeking once famously remarked: "No one needs a 911." Not many people need an SUV, either. Oh, sure, plenty of folks have convinced themselves they do, but in most cases what they actually buy is a high-riding station wagon with faintly macho styling: Some 50% of all SUVs sold in the U.S. are actually two-wheel-drive models, and so about as useful off the pavement as the Wagon Queen Family Truckster. Go figure.
I was thinking about this over the weekend as I tiptoed a Land Rover LR3 through a forest ablaze with fall color on the 8000 acre Biltmore Estate in North Carolina. Tricky climbs, heart-stopping descents, deep waterholes, nasty ruts, chassis-twisting undulations: It was a walk in the park for the LR3, our 2005 Sport/Utility of the Year winner.
I learned to drive in an early 1960s Land Rover Series II with about a million miles on the clock and no synchro on first or second gears. It went damn near anywhere, that old Landie, but it was a visceral ride; all sweat and muscle when the going got tough. In the LR3, Land Rover's impressive Terrain Response System, which electronically links all the vehicle sub-systems -- suspension, differentials, throttle, transmission, braking -- and optimizes them to suit the surface you select from a menu on the center console, does most of the heavy lifting.
One thing hasn't changed, though: Although you might be travelling at little more than walking pace, serious off-roading is driving every bit as technical and challenging as hot-lapping a racetrack. You're constantly thinking about the physics at work in the interplay between vehicle and surface; always aiming to place each wheel with millimetric accuracy. The most notable difference is that, if you make a mistake off-roading, you usually have a lot more time to think about it as the consequences unfold before you in slow motion.
The Land Rover LR3 is a lot like a Porsche 911: Function has been transcended by fashion. Many owners buy the style or the badge rather than the ability; few have any real idea what their vehicle can do, and fewer still have gotten anywhere near the limits of its performance. Demonstrating to folks what the Land Rover badge really means is the idea behind the Land Rover Experience Driving School.
The Land Rover Experience Driving School at Biltmore Estate (it uses land around the stunning 250-room Biltmore House built by George W. Vanderbilt in the late 1800s) is one of four in North America. The others are in Manchester Village,Vermont, Carmel, California, and Montebello, Quebec. The schools offer everything from one-hour tasters for people who have never ventured off the blacktop, to full-day advanced winch-and-recovery techniques for those who understand that a four-wheel-drive vehicle, however accomplished, does not transcend the laws of physics.
As we noted during this year's Sport/Utility of the Year evaluation, the term SUV is now applied to everything from high-riding hot-rods (BMW X6, Infiniti FX) to 21st-century riffs on the traditional full-size station wagon (Ford Flex, Chevy Traverse). Form following marketing, I guess. Like a track day in a Porsche 911, my drive in the Land Rover LR3 at Biltmore Estate was a welcome reminder of a deeper truth, however: Form still follows function.
Blinded by the Light? Comparing New LED Headlamps with HID/Xenon, Halogen
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Be prepared to encounter a new kind of bright headlamps coming at you on the road. I recently ventured out to GM's Milford, Michigan, Proving Ground to try out the Cadillac Escalade Platinum's spanking new LED low- and high-beam headlights. Cadillac is the first to offer light-emitting diodes for low- and high-beam lights and turn signals in the U.S. (Audi's European R8 also offers them, and the Lexus LS 600h uses LED for its low-beams only).
LEDs promise daylight-bright illumination with low current draw and unprecedented packaging and styling flexibility. They're little silicon computer chips, so they're relatively slim by nature and they can conform to unusual shapes, though they still need to shine through a lens of some sort. Cadillac has adopted them for its ne-plus-ultra flagship model, arranging the LEDs in a narrow vertical stack to match the vertical taillamps that have become a signature design motif (they're also LEDs).
Each Cadillac headlamp includes five LED arrays and lenses to cover the low-beam pattern and two for high-beam, with each of the seven units dedicated to lighting up a particular area of the road. LEDs throw little or no infrared heat forward (stick your hand in front of most any headlight and it'll feel warm -- not the LEDs), but the chips generate heat that has to be removed, so they have finned heat-sinks like many computers use, with a fan that circulates cooling air (in the winter, this helps defog and de-ice the headlamps). Further development will reduce the heat generated, resulting in lower energy consumption than High-Intensity Discharge (aka Xenon), but for now they draw just a bit less than Halogen bulbs.
We got the chance to compare the Platinum's LED headlamps against the Escalade's standard HIDs and against a Yukon Denali's halogen compound-reflector lamps. From the driver's seat the illumination is amazing. The "color temperature" of the light is about 6000 Kelvin (10,340 *** which is whiter than daylight (5600K). HID lamps, the ones that look bluer, are 4500K. At the bottom of the scale is the yellower looking light of your halogen headlight bulbs (3200K) and plain incandescent foglamps (2800K).
The light reflected back from roadside signs seems much brighter with LED than HID. The HID lamps illuminate the sides of the road more brightly and their high-beam pattern is like a huge cone of light reaching quite high. This is in part because each lamp produces more lumens of light -- about 2500 to the LED's 2000 total, though the total light perceived on the road is roughly equivalent. That means the LEDs must focus their light right where it's needed, so there's less sideways scatter and the high-beam pattern appears maybe twice the vehicle's height and four-lanes wide at a quarter-mile distance. The upper cut-off of the low-beam light pattern seems sharper on the HIDs, because there is a sort of "eyelid" cutting it off until you turn on the high beams. LEDs light up the same pattern on the road, but the edge of the light is less sharply defined. By comparison, the halogen beams appear dangerously inadequate -- a pool of yellow light right in front of the truck with far less reflection coming back from road signs, less side illumination, weaker high-beams, etc.
Cost is the big unknown. All anyone is saying is that it's "considerably more" than HID at the moment, though with time and volume production LEDs should achieve parity or become cheaper. The Platinum model costs $10,705 more than an Escalade optioned as close as possible to the Platinum's equipment level. Along with the LED lamps, that premium pays for unique front-end styling that apes the CTS's, a four-screen rear-seat entertainment system that can play something different on each screen, heated and cooled cupholders, a special overhead console, spectacular two-tone inlaid wood and handsewn leather trim on the dash and door panels, plus glove-soft aniline leather seating surfaces. The LED chips are expected to last the life of the vehicle and the cooling fans are replaceable if they fail, in which case the light dims by 20% to prevent damage if the temperature tops 300 F. If the chips fail or the unit suffers crash damage, a replacement lamp assembly part will cost about $1500 (which may or may not be subsidized).
How do they look to opposing traffic? Utterly blinding in high-beam mode, though not much worse than HID high-beams. The low beams don't look blue and there isn't too much glare, but the unusually tall stack of lights is sure to be perceived by oncoming motorists as high-beams. One flash of the Platinum's REAL brights will set lamp-flashers straight, pronto. I expect LEDs to propagate slowly through the market. Within three to five years, the light output per energy input should improve by 50%, which will make LED a fuel-savings feature. In the more distant future, LED lighting can provide adaptive illumination with no motors or moving parts, turning different LEDs on and off to provide cornering illumination and to alter the light pattern and prevent glare in approaching vehicles or even in the rearview mirrors of a car ahead (no Escalades currently offer adaptive front lighting to illuminate the direction the vehicle is turning). And I'm hopeful that by then, affordable LED-powered replacements for sealed-beam headlights will bring high-performance illumination to old-car hobbyists like me.
2008 Motor Trend SUOTY Contender: Buick Enclave
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On the very first day of our SUOTY competition, before most of us had even driven it, the new Buick Enclave served notice that it's a player. "Hey, check out the Enclave," said more than one editor, noting its designer curves and expensive presence. "Looks really good."
For sure, Buick is going to move a ton of Enclaves on appearance alone. Okay, maybe the nose is as prominent as Karl Malden's, but this seven-passenger rig knows how to dress for the party.
Under the hood, a DOHC 3.6-liter V-6 delivers a sturdy 275 horses through a six-speed automatic and, on our top-model CXL test car, optional all-wheel drive. For relaxed motoring, the powertrain feels up to the job, revving with a pleasing note and cruising with refinement. Unfortunately, the six has to move around a whopping 5077 pounds, a curb weight topped in our test only by the Godzilla-size Land Cruiser. Climbing steep, wriggling Highway 18 to Lake Arrowhead, the Enclave strained (a V-8 is said to be coming in a year or two). Shifting with the electric manual selector helped-and made driving through our handling loop more fun-but the pushbutton is inconveniently (and almost discreetly) mounted on the shift column.
The Enclave radiates a similar "I'm a limousine, not a plaything" character when you leg it. The variable-effort steering telegraphs little in the way of tire information, the engine turns coarse, and the sheer, shifting mass constantly hints that you should be looking for thrills elsewhere-though, in fairness, the Enclave remains poised and holds its line through turns.
The spacious, well-insulated interior is dressed in neatly tailored leather, camphor burl wood trim, and copious electronic conveniences. Worthy of special mention are the brilliant SmartSlide second-row captain's chairs that easily flip completely out of the way for access to the rear bench. This is a cabin worth fighting to ride in.
After two days on the road the Enclave's logbook was overflowing: "Surprising." "Impressive." "Very significant." Suddenly, we realized, Buick has created a truly formidable, class-challenging vehicle. Perhaps even good enough to . . . well, for the SUOTY results you'll have to stay tuned.
Audi Mileage Marathon Prologue: Dieselmania Running Wild
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Much like a faded rockstar who's found a new muse, diesel passenger cars are seemingly on the comeback in oil-burning-phobic America -- at least that's what automakers like Audi are hoping. The last time the climate was ripe for diesels to take over, Jimmy Carter was president, the Corvette had less than 200 hp, and the minivan was nowhere on Lee Iacocca's radar. Famously, or perhaps infamously, the first diesel experiment ended poorly, with customers balking at the engine clatter, the pollution, and in some cases, serious mechanical issues.
Version 2.0 suffers from none of these indignities. The clatter has been virtually eliminated -- oh, sure, it's still there, but no more so than the telltale rumble of a V-8 under the hood of a Mustang GT -- the pollution has been eliminated with trick technology designed to meet California's stringent emissions regulations (unlike Europe, the U.S. has one single standard for diesel and gasoline engines), and the mechanical problems look to be a ghost of the past.
We've already sampled offerings from three of the four major European players in the diesel game -- Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Volkswagen. Last month, we took a brand-new Mercedes-Benz ML320 BlueTEC on a cross-country voyage from Los Angeles to New York with an old 190D playing Robin to the M-Class' Batman. El Jefe MacKenzie has just finished putting major miles on a brand-new 2009 BMW 335d in Europe that will eventually be spending a year in our garage, joining the recently arrived 2009 Volkswagen Jetta TDI. Now its Audi's turn.
Auto Union will enter the fray next year with a 3.0L turbodiesel V-6 under the hood of its Q7 SUV. The engine makes 225 hp and over 400 lb-ft of torque and can hit as high as 25 mpg. To prove that the latter figure isn't just an empty boast, Audi is putting on the Audi Mileage Marathon, a 13-day, four-leg adventure taking journalists from New York to Los Angeles, but in a manner about as direct as our Mercedes adventure. Yours truly is on Leg Two, which runs from Chicago to Denver -- by way of Memphis, Dallas, and Amarillo. As the name implies, fuel mileage will be paramount, but there won't be any silly hypermiling tricks involved and no semis will be drafted since speed counts as well. The winner will be the person who achieves the highest average fuel economy with the highest average speed.
To ensure there are no shenanigans, Audi has brought IMSA along to monitor the action. For the uninitiated, IMSA -- the International Motor Sports Association -- is the sanctioning body for the American Le Mans Series among others. The ALMS is the most relevant since Audi's R10 has been dominating the LMP1 class there for several years. At the start of each day, the cars are given to us journalists with fully filled and sealed tanks, and there are instruments on board that monitor speed and fuel consumption. Topping off at the nearest Chevron is not an option. Besides the Q7, Audi also has A4s and Q5s on hand that feature the same 3.0L V-6, as well as a pair of A3s with a 2.0L I-4, though only the Q7 is a concrete part of Audi's North American product plan at this point.
The folks at Audi have been cagey about what fuel economy the first wave was able to achieve, merely saying it was "remarkable," but the aforementioned 25-mpg figure doesn't seem out of the realm of possibility. Tomorrow's leg to Memphis is the longest of the entire escapade, with around nine hours of travel time scheduled. Is 25 mpg a reality in a full-size luxury SUV weighing north of two and a half tons? We shall see.
Audi Mileage Marathon Day One: Chicago To Memphis
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The fuel-mileage figures for Leg One of the Audi Mileage Marathon are out and the bar for Leg Two (the Chicago to Denver trip I'm on) is set high. Several teams managed to wring more than 28 mpg out of a 3.0L diesel-powered Q7, and more than 40 mpg out of the A4 with same engine. Two teams recorded about 36 mpg in the Q5, and the duo in the lone, 2.0L diesel A3 hit 45.3 mpg. Meeting or beating those figures -- specifically those of the Q7 -- will take some serious effort. But will it be worth it?
From the standpoint of the average Q7 diesel buyer, the answer is more than likely no. Few if any Q7 TDI shoppers will be resorting to tactics like drafting semis or sticking to 65 mph with the dedication of a Buddhist monk. Instead, they'll set the adaptive cruise control to 75-80 and forget about it until the nav tells them it's time to exit and fuel up. On a drive as long as this one, the difference between 65 and 80 is about an hour and a half. Time, unlike fuel, can't be bought at the nearest Shell station. My partner for the trip, Jennifer Geiger of Consumer Guide, feels the same way. Conflict of interest avoided. Both of us have agreed to drive our diesel chariot the way we'd drive any other car -- since that's how it will be driven by Audi's customers.
On trips of this length, misadventures are always a possibility. But they usually don't happen within the first mile or two. As pilots of Q7 No. 1, we were told to lead the caravan and follow the video car. Unfortunately, the video car was on a different wavelength from everyone else and chose to take what can be best described as the scenic route through downtown Chicago. Jennifer, a Windy City native, repeatedly expressed her concern that we were going in every possible direction except the right one. Once everyone got in sync and the journey to Memphis finally got going, the rest of the trip has proceeded without a hitch. We've made several pit stops along the way, including lunch at the Depot Supper Club in Salem, Illinois. The closest we've gotten to another misadventure was when Jennifer had an unexpected lunchtime encounter with a German TV crew who asked her why Americans don't like diesels.
On our route through Illinois, the seemingly endless horizon of cornfields is interrupted by the occasional curiously placed subdivision. Further south, a span of various trees is replaced by more farmland. In Missouri, cotton has replaced corn. Quite a difference from what I'm used to in Southern California. We've also had several encounters throughout the day with folks curious about our heavily decaled SUV. One gentleman, who's spent some time in Europe, recognizes the TDI acronym and proceeds to praise the oil burner. Several other people, including a friend with whom I speak on the phone, pose the usual questions upon finding out we are driving a diesel: Is it loud? Does it smell? The answer of course is no. Those misconceptions are relics of a bygone era, but these encounters underscore the challenges Audi and others face in getting the mainstream public on board.
Far from being loud and rough, the 3.0L V-6 is smooth, quiet, and plenty powerful. On the highway, it's impossible to tell that the Q7 is in fact a diesel until you put the pedal to the floor and it hustles forward without much fuss. On city streets, the engine note is just different enough to give it away as different than a gas-burning V-6. Besides the engine, the diesel Q7 is remarkably similar to our since-departed 2007 Audi Q7 long-termer, which was powered by a 4.2L V-8. Though official prices won't be released until closer to the Q7 TDI's early 2009 launch, word on the street is the base price will be far less than the Q7 4.2's $60,000-plus asking price. Before options, of course.
As for the fuel economy, the figures won't be ready until Friday morning, shortly before our 22-car caravan heads out for Dallas, but rough calculations can be made. During the 480-mile trip from Chicago to a pre-designated gas station about 40 miles outside of Memphis, the Q7 goes through only about three quarters of a tank -- an impressive range. Assuming the fuel tank in the Q7 3.0 TDI is the same 26.4-gal tank as the gasoline Q7's, this results in a fuel consumption of about 19.8 gal of fuel, resulting in a fuel economy of roughly 24.2 mpg. Slightly below Audi's claimed 25 mpg, but considering our average speed is probably somewhere north of 70 mph, it's not too shabby. It won't take much to get to 25 or 26 mpg. To put things into perspective, our V-8-powered long-termer averaged 14 mpg during its stay.
Audi Mileage Marathon: Memphis to Dallas
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At the morning briefing, the initial mileage figures for the Chicago to Memphis leg of our Audi Mileage Marathon adventure are released. We've finished dead last with a recorded 25.6 mpg at an average speed of 62 mph in the Audi Q7 we're driving to Denver. The Q7 at the head of the mileage class has recorded 28.8 mpg for the day. Clearly, impromptu detours such as we had getting out of downtown Chicago -- combined with plenty of lead footing past the endless corn and cotton fields -- conspired to send us to the back of the mileage pack. Still, what we recorded was an impressive figure for a vehicle the size of the Q7.
The much shorter 450-mile journey to Dallas first took us back over the Mississippi River into Arkansas via the I-55 and then onto the I-40 toward Little Rock and much needed lunch. The Arkansas capital proved far more pleasant than I had ever expected and good eating was had at Mike Selig's Vermillion next to the river walk. After lunch, we were commandeered by another German television crew, this time they wanted to use our Q7 as a background for an interview with Gunter Schiele, one of two TDI development engineers on the trip. After they finished interviewing Schiele, they turned their attention to my driving partner Jennifer, who unexpectedly ended up on the business end of a camera yet again. Yours truly, happy to say, escaped unharmed.
After Little Rock and a detour to a local Wal-Mart for some necessities, the journey to Dallas is uneventful, though the scenery in western Arkansas transforms from cotton-filled flatlands to slightly hilly terrain with mixed forests on either side, offering much better scenery. In Texas, however, the flatlands return, though the cotton fields do not. In their place are strip malls and large parking lots filled with unsold pickup trucks. It is truly a sign of the times when dealers are having problems moving pickups in the truck capital of the country.
Two more encounters with civilians today. The first at an Arkansas rest stop with an older gentleman who is apparently an ALMS fan since, during our conversation about the TDI and its fuel economy, he brings up the mighty Audi R10. The second is at our scheduled gas station stop just outside downtown Dallas. While our car is being filled, a diesel aficionado in an early '80s Mercedes-Benz 240D pulls in to fuel his car. Based on his reaction, seeing the Q7 has made his day.
Day Two's mileage should be better than that of Day One. There are no city detours, we go at a slower pace due to an advance warning about a substantial Arkansas State Trooper presence on the state's freeways, and less maneuvering is needed due to thinner traffic. Tomorrow we head for Amarillo, Texas, where we're apparently scheduled to attend a rodeo. Beyond catching the occasional tail end of a bull riding event on Versus before a hockey game comes on, my experience with rodeos is nil. It should be interesting. At around 360 miles long, the Dallas to Amarillo segment will be the shortest of our four-day trek. The shorter distance is a welcome reprieve.
