|
||||||||
  |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Automakers try to arrest decline
DETROIT (CNN/Money) -- U.S. automakers are rolling out new models and concept cars in the hope of putting the brakes on falling sales for the third-straight year. Some 16.8 million light vehicles were sold in 2002, which would have been a record before 1999, but it ended up 2 percent lower than year-earlier sales. The industry enticed car buyers into showrooms with zero-interest financing deals that have crimped earnings. Automakers insisted on Sunday, at the start of the Detroit auto show, that they are close to the new products they need to again spur sales. "There's an old saying that actions speak louder than words, and today it's our intention to prove that products speak louder than actions," said Nick Scheele, president and chief operating officer of Ford Motor Co., which is set to unveil what it said were 15 new concepts and production vehicles at the show, three times the normal amount. Ford unveiled the new production version of its Mustang sports car, the updated version of the F-150 pickup, the nation's best-selling vehicle model. It also debuted far-reaching concept cars such as the 427, which Ford describes as the next generation of family sedan despite its V-10, 590-horsepower engine, and the Model-U, which Ford executives described as an environmentally friendly SUV, with a roof made of corn products, seats that are completely recyclable and a hydrogen-burning rather than gas-burning internal combustion engine that they said would produce emissions cleaner than room air. "This is not science fiction," said J Mays, Ford's vice president of design. "An SUV can be as environmentally friendly as a corn field, especially if it is made out of corn and has water coming out of the tailpipe."
Chrysler Group, DaimlerChrysler's North American unit unveiled a concept version of the new Dodge Durango, which is seven inches longer, three inches taller and two inches wider than the current model, with a comparable larger engine as well. Chrysler executives said they want to position the vehicle as the muscle-car version of a sport/utility vehicle. Chrysler executives hope it will revive sales in the model that saw sales fall 18 percent last year to 106,925 vehicles sold, in the face of new competitors that now offer the third row of seats once the exclusive domain of the Durango in the SUV class. But Chrysler executives were also quick to point out that even with the larger engine the new Durango should be 10 percent more fuel efficient than current models due to improvements in the engine. And while the Durango unveiled Sunday was a concept vehicle, buyers won't have to wait long to get many of the new features.
"The vast majority of what you see here today, you'll see in the showroom by the end of the year," said Chrysler Group Chief Operating Officer Wolfgang Bernhard. Chrysler also unveiled a diesel-powered version of the Liberty compact SUV that should get 30 percent better mileage than today's gas burning models. Diesel cars are quite common in Europe, but have been slow to catch on in the United States. Chrysler executives said the new Liberty, due in showrooms later this year, could start to break through U.S. buyers' stereotypes against diesel. GM unveiled concept cars ranging from a new Chevy muscle car, the SS or Super Sport model, to the Buick Centieme, a crossover between a SUV, wagon and sedan named for Buick's 100th anniversary, to the Chevrolet Cheyenne, a four-door, full-cab pickup with two side access doors directly behind the passenger cabin that give more access to the bed than just the rear gate. GM also unveiled the newest SUV model of its Cadillac brand, the SRX, a mid-size model that joins the Escalade, the full-size SUV that was Cadillac's first move into the light truck arena. The SRX will be joined in Cadillac showrooms later this year by the XLR, a roadster unveiled as a concept car at 2001 auto show, one of three GM concepts to make the quick jump from concept to production. "The concepts really reflect the work going on at GM today and the influence they have on our production programs," said GM Vice President of Design Wayne Cherry.
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
