on the move

Monday, April 30, 2012 For Advertising Information Contact Your Local Cars.Com On-The-Move Sales Team at 599-2329

BEIJING — Ford unveiled a three-cylinder mini-SUV and Chrysler showed a drag-on-theme Jeep on Monday as automakers rolled out models designed for Chinese buyers at the Beijing auto show amid tougher compe-tition in the world’s biggest vehicle market.

Automakers are looking to China to drive revenue amid weakness in the Unit-ed States and Europe. But explosive sales growth that hit 35 percent in 2010 fell to just 2 percent in the first quarter of this year.

Ford Motor Co. premiered the scaled-down EcoSport SUV, designed for “urban adventurers” with a 1-liter engine. It is due to be man-ufactured at Ford’s factory in the southwestern city of Chongqing.

“This new SUV is spe-cially designed for growth markets like China,” said Kumai Galhotra, Ford’s vice president of product devel-opment for the Asia-Pacific region.

The array of vehicles at the show designed with Chi-nese buyers in mind reflect-ed this market’s huge and growing importance to auto-makers that used to sell the same models worldwide with few local changes.

Nissan, Toyota, Audi and China’s young but ambitious automakers also used Auto China 2012 to showcase lux-ury sedans and SUVs with China-specific features. The event, China’s biggest auto show this year, opens to the public on Friday.

Chrysler Group LLC

announced it will sell a dragon-themed Jeep, with gold-toned accents and drag-on designs on headrests and elsewhere.

“To be successful in Chi-na, we must tailor or vehi-cles to the specific tastes of Chinese customers,” said Mike Manley, Chrysler’s chief operating officer for Asia.

Automakers are target-ing both ends of the market,

rolling out luxury models for newly rich urban Chi-nese and economy models for the low-income but vast rural population.

Japan’s Infiniti showed a new luxury sedan with a bigger back seat for Chi-nese businesspeople. Italy’s Fiat SpA, trying to rebuild its presence in China after withdrawing in the 1990s, showed the new Viaggio sedan, designed with its

local partner Guangdong Automobile Co. to appeal to Chinese buyers. The four-door sedan, with a 1.4-liter engine, goes into produc-tion in June at a factory in the southern city of Chang-sha.

“The products that we are building today globally have a lot more attention paid to what the customer needs in China,” said Kevin Wale, president of General Motors

Co.’s China unit, in an inter-view ahead of the show.

Chinese auto sales growth plunged last year after the government tightened lend-ing and investment curbs to cool an overheated economy and inflation.

Total auto sales rose just 2 percent in the first quarter of this year over a year ear-lier to 1.2 million vehicles, according to LMC Automo-tive, a research firm.

Global automakers kept their own sales growing faster than the market in 2011 by taking share from Chinese rivals such as Chery Automobile Co. and Gee-ly Holding Group, though industry analysts and com-panies say that trend is unlikely to last.

Sales by Volkswagen AG and its Chinese partners rose 12 percent in the first quarter, while Chery’s fell 22 percent, according to LMC Automotive.

“I don’t think that’s a long-term trend,” said Wale. Pointing to the experience of Japan and Korea, he said, “You should never underes-timate the ability of a major industrial market to gener-ate globally competitive car companies.”

China’s independent auto-makers, aiming to move up to higher-priced market seg-ments, showcased luxury sedans and SUVs with more

Andy Wong/The AssociATed Press

BMW marketing chief Ian Robertson, center, and Olympic gold medalist diver Guo Jingjing, left, share a light moment after the company unveiled the new BMW 3-series long wheel base 335L model at the Beijing International Automotive Exhibition in Beijing, China, on Monday.

Automakers unveil new models in BeijingBy Joe McDonaldThe Associated Press

See BEIJING, Page 2

The array of vehi-cles at the show designed with Chinese buyers in mind reflect-ed this market’s huge and grow-ing importance to automakers that used to sell the same models worldwide with few local changes.

/ Monday, April 30, 2012 Tallahassee Democrat / OnTheMOve

powerful engines, navigation systems and other features to appeal to more prosper-ous buyers.

New brands created by global automakers and local partners under pressure from Beijing to establish more indigenous Chinese brands showed some of their first low-p r i c e d vehicles aimed at l o w e r -i n c o m e areas of China.

Chery, the coun-try’s top i n d i g -e n o u s b r a n d , p r e -m i e r e d one of its b i gge st s e d a n s yet, the Qiyun 5, w i t h a 1.8-liter eng i ne , w h i c h it says will be priced at $12,000-$16,000.

BYD Co., China’s second-largest domestic car brand, showed off an updated e6 electric sedan that it says can travel 190 miles (300 kilometers) on a charge and other models with more powerful engines. The com-pany is 10 percent-owned by American investor Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hatha-way Corp.

“In the short term, competition will be more fierce, especially when international brands are launching low-cost vehi-cles,” said Henry Li, gen-eral manager of BYD’s export division.

“We try to create our own competitive edge to cope ... We are not only staying in a low segment but are cre-ating new technologies and improving quality,” Li said in an interview. “That’s the way we have to respond.”

BeijingFrom Page 1

The AssociATed Press

Above, Ford’s new mini SUV EcoSports is shown on April 22 in Beijing, China. At right, Mini Senior Vice President Kay Segler speaks in front of a Mini Cooper S Hyde Park car after it was unveiled at the auto show Monday.

Attend-ees crowd around BMW 328i cars displayed during the Beijing Inter-national Automotive Exhibition in Beijing, China, on Wednesday.

VincenT ThiAn/

The AssociATed

Press

Andy Wong/The AssociATed Press

“To be successful in China, we must tailor or vehicles to the spe-cific tastes of Chinese custom-ers.”Mike ManleyChrysler’s chief operating officer for Asia

OnTheMOve / Tallahassee Democrat Monday, April 30, 2012 /

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GM to add 600 dealerships in ChinaBEIJING — General

Motors Co. chairman Dan Akerson said Monday the automaker plans to open 600 dealerships in China this year, and nearly double production capacity despite a slowdown in sales growth.

China is the world’s big-gest auto market by vehicles sold but sales growth slowed from 35 percent in 2010 to

just 2 percent in the latest quarter. Demand has been blunted by government cred-it and investment controls aimed at slowing an over-heated economy.

“We fundamentally believe in the strength of the Chinese market,” Akerson said during the Beijing auto show.

GM will expand its deal-ership network from 2,900 last year to 3,500 by the end of this year, Akerson told reporters.

GM also plans to boost its production capacity in Chi-na to 5 million cars a year by 2016, Akerson said. That would be nearly double the 2.55 million cars and trucks GM and its Chinese partners sold in China last year.

The company’s luxury Cadillac unit plans to intro-duce one new model a year in China, said Joseph Liu, exec-utive vice president of GM China. He said the unit hopes to raise annual sales from

30,000 last year to 100,000 by 2016.

For this year, it will be the all-new XTS sedan, and GM announced Monday it pro-duce the model in China.

Asked by a reporter wheth-er GM would set up a ded-icated factory to produce Cadillacs in China instead of sharing production with other GM models, Aker-son said, “yes,” but gave no details.

GM expects to complete a

deal to restructure its ven-ture with its main Chinese partner and restore a 50-50 shareholding balance “in the near term,” Akerson said.

The American auto giant sold Shanghai Automotive Industries Corp. 1 percent of their venture in 2009 before going through a restructur-ing in U.S. bankruptcy court. That gave SAIC a control-ling 51 percent stake and the right to record the venture’s revenues on its own books.

GM says the latest deal calls for the two sides to cre-ate an operating unit that will be owned 50-50. A separate sales unit will be created, with SAIC holding 51 per-cent, allowing it to continue recording sales revenue on its own books.

Akerson declined to say what GM was paying to recover equal ownership. The company said in 2009 the 1 percent stake sold then was valued at $85 million.

By Didi TangThe Associated Press

Buick Verano brings class, heft to segmentBeat-down Buick finally

found chrome and curves again about five years ago.

Can I get an amen? It must have been like

waking up to new muscle rippling across a battered old body.

For decades after its fall around 1980, Buick sad-ly plied the bingo-parlor and quilting circuit in cars with less shape than a bar of soap.

They came standard with Wayne Newton CDs, I think. Danke schoen, not-so-Regal buyer.

Those frumpy, faceless sedans shared absolutely nothing with the dazzling ‘56 Roadmaster or the stunning ‘63 Riviera or any number of once-great Bufords.

Moreover, most of Buick’s owners looked as, uh, sea-soned as me — no offense.

But when Buick somehow conceived the big, stylish 2007 Enclave crossover — a last-chance vehicle with enormous toothy presence and broad-shouldered grace — everything changed.

Sales shot up. People with dark hair could occasionally be seen in dealerships. And Buicks rarely sported bum-

per stickers proclaiming: “Polka rocks.”

The Enclave was fol-lowed by the LaCrosse, a crisp, good-looking midsize sedan with a slick character line that vaguely resembles the chrome trim on a classic Roadmaster.

That sedan, in turn, pre-pared buyers for the com-pact Regal, which sort of paved the way for the slightly smaller Verano.

I hope Buick is not run-ning out of room.

Through the first two months of the year, its sales dropped 16.6 percent, and many 2011 models offer $3,000 incentives.

Maybe my white 2012 Verano can help.

Like all the new Buicks, it won’t go unnoticed.

In keeping with the brand’s new-old design lan-guage, the Verano wore a big blunt grille flanked by large graceful headlamps — sort of mature Las Vegas.

Though relatively short, the Verano rode on a long-ish wheelbase, its good-look-ing 18-inch wheels stretched to the corners of the body and shod with beefy 235/45 tires.

Its mostly smooth sides looked lean as a gym rat, with a lower character line along

the rocker panel adding some more subtle muscle.

A slightly raised hood flowed sleekly into a steeply raked windshield and nicely curved top. (Just ignore the fake portholes on the hood, which still rank slightly above fake bullet holes.)

In back, the Verano seemed even more German, with a high trunk and large wraparound taillamps. A big Buick crest — in chrome, of course — reminds those behind the Verano that this frankfurter is seasoned with real American mustard.

If the Verano looks sur-prisingly substantial for a compact, your eyes don’t deceive you. It is.

At about 3,400 pounds, the Verano is several hundred pounds overweight, and it shows in its below-average fuel economy.

The current 2.4-liter four-banger in the car — which will be replaced in the 2013 Verano with a more-modern 2.5-liter motor — returns only 22 miles per gallon in the city and 32 on the high-way.

But there are good rea-sons for the Verano’s heft. Items like laminated side glass, triple door seals and an isolated engine cradle keep the cabin unusually quiet — a Buick trait.

Although the Verano’s engine produces a reasonable 180 horsepower and spins through a modern six-speed automatic, the car often feels slightly overwhelmed.

Zero to 60 mph passes in a leisurely 8.3 seconds, accord-ing to Motor Trend, though the engine feels smooth and refined in all but its upper ranges.

It accelerates reasonably well at lower speeds and through the mid-range but gets a bit coarse and winded as it moves past 5,000 rpm toward the 6,500 red line.

Once it gets the new engine later this year and an optional turbocharged two-liter four-cylinder engine after that, the Verano may have some serious market punch — may-be enough to help keep high-stepping Buick moving.

By Terry BoxThe Dallas Morning News

GM/MCT

The 2012 Verano is a new compact sedan from that near-luxury nameplate, Buick.


There’s plenty to criti-cize about the 2012 Fiat 500 Abarth, but the little Italian runabout is irresistible.

The Abarth would be a guilty pleasure, if it weren’t so hard to feel guilty about a sporty car with EPA rat-ings of 34 mpg on the high-way, 28 in the city and 31 in combined driving.

Abarth — pronounced “Ah-barth” — is Fiat’s perfor-mance-tuning brand. It was founded by Carlo Abarth, who specialized in turning inexpensive little Fiats into hotshot road racers.

The 500 is the first mod-el to bear the enamel scor-pion Abarth badge in the U.S. It adds power and an air of menace to the already delightful Fiat 500.

The main drawback is that the $26,200 Abarth I tested cost more than big-ger, more powerful sporty cars like the Honda Civic Si and VW GTI.

“But I’d never drive those cars. I’d drive this,” my friend Cathy, a stylish wom-an with exquisite taste in cars and clothes, announced after a giggle-inducing spin in the Abarth.

The car business is the fashion business. Automak-ers forget that at their per-il. The 500 Abarth is tres chic, tres quick. That’s its edge vs. more practical com-petitors.

Prices for the 2012 Fiat 500 Abarth start at $22,000. All Abarths have a five-speed manual transmission and turbocharged 1.4-liter four-cylinder engine that produces 160 horsepower.

I tested a nicely equipped Abarth with a power sun-roof, leather seats; 17-inch aluminum wheels and a removable TomTom navi-gation unit. It stickered at $26,200. All prices exclude destination charges.

In addition to the Civic Si and GTI, the 500 Abarth competes with compacts and subcompacts like the

Ford Fiesta hatchback, tur-bocharged Chevrolet Sonic and Mini Cooper S.

In addition to 58 percent more horsepower and 73 per-cent more torque from the base 500’s naturally aspi-rated 1.4-liter engine, the Abarth has revised gear ratios and rear suspension, new front shocks, lowered ride height and wider tires.

The car I tested had excellent grip. The ride got a little choppy over closely spaced bumps, but that’s not unusual in cars with short wheelbases like the 500’s 90.6 inches.

The electric power steer-ing is fast and responsive. The Abarth heads into turns quickly and holds them well. Its relatively tall height and narrow track lead to more body roll than lower, wid-er cars like the Mini Coo-per S.

The Abarth darts through traffic, nipping in and out of small gaps thanks to its responsive handling and torquey, free-revving engine.

The 1.4-liter turbo has the sweetest note I’ve ever heard in a small engine, with an appealing back-pressure burble when you back off the throttle.

The engine’s 170 pound-feet of torque available from 2,500 to 4,000 rpm provides plenty of muscle. The Abarth’s EPA rating of 31 mpg in combined city and highway driving tops sporty competitors like the

GTI, Civic Si and Cooper S. It approaches the 33 mpg rat-ing of mainstream subcom-pacts like the Sonic, Fiesta and Hyundai Accent.

The transmission has short, precise throws and a light clutch. A six-speed manual would make the Abarth even more appealing by improving fuel economy and acceleration. Wind and road noise are noticeable.

The black Abarth I tested included a rear spoiler, red

caps on its side mirrors, red side stripes and Abarth’s scorpion badges. Lightning bolts in Italian tricolor — red, white and green — next to some of the badges struck me as overkill.

The interior offers plen-ty of front-seat head, leg and shoulder space. The back seat is best reserved for short trips and shorter people. There’s a useful 9.5 cubic feet of storage space behind the rear seats; 26.8

cubic feet with them fold-ed flat.

The Abarth has a chunky, flat-bottomed leather-wrapped steering wheel and more black leather wrapping the shifter and the cowl over the gauges.

Attractive leather bucket seats are optional. The car had a good Bose stereo and Fiat’s fine Blue & Me voice-recognition for phone calls and audio.

The Abarth could use

more interior storage spac-es. The glove box is useful, but the cupholders are incon-veniently placed on the floor, and there’s no good place for sunglasses and other gear.

Those shortcomings would be a problem in a car that was boring to look at and drive. They’re an after-thought to the sheer plea-sure of walking up to a Fiat 500 Abarth and hearing its powerful little engine spring to life.

By Mark PhelanDetroit Free Press

Fiat 500 Abarth brings sizzle to the street

Fiat/MCt

The 2012 Fiat 500 Abarth has an EPA rating of 31 miles per gallon in combined city and highway driving.

The car busi-ness is the fashion business. Auto-makers forget that at their peril. The 500 Abarth is tres chic, tres quick. That’s its edge vs. more practical competitors.


Shipper profits in unbalanced timesMINNEAPOLIS — Trans-

portation broker C.H. Robin-son Worldwide Inc. thrives when the world is a bit off balance.

As the summer peach harvest approaches, for example, trucks needed to move the fruit to market will become scarce in Georgia. As oil prices rise, as they are doing now, demand for freight trains tends to go up while demand for truck transportation dips.

To solve those imbalanc-es, shippers turn to the low-profile Eden Prairie, Minn.-based company that owns no trucks, trailers, ships or rail cars to get their goods to market. At Robinson’s head-quarters, workers match thousands of ready-to-go freight shipments with avail-able transportation around the world as if they were buying and selling com-modities — which, in fact, they are.

In industry jargon, this is called “third-party logistics” and Robinson has gotten very good at it, regularly grow-ing earnings by 15 percent annually. But the main ques-tion at Robinson these days is whether the 107-year-old firm has peaked. A global reces-sion and slow recovery have delivered a shortage of short-ages for Robinson to exploit. The stock, which hit an all-time high of $82 in July 2011, has dropped almost 20 per-cent since then and closed at $66.14 Thursday.

“We haven’t achieved (historic goals) in the last couple of years because the world has been a pretty choppy place,” said Robinson CEO John Wiehoff. “A lot of people ask if something has changed, if our run of suc-cess is over. We feel strong-ly that’s not the case. We believe there are at least a couple more decades in which we can achieve those long-term growth rates.”

Some analysts aren’t so

sure. Today’s slow econo-my doesn’t create the kind of transportation shortages on which Robinson thrives, they say.

“The company is going to have difficulty growing at 15 percent on the earnings line, given its size and the bal-anced supply and demand in the truckload market,” wrote John Larkin of Stifel Nico-laus after Robinson’s fourth-quarter report in January. Profit margins on trucking declined and the company slightly missed Wall Street expectations. The company has missed three of the last five earnings per share esti-mates, Larkin noted. Rob-inson reports first-quarter earnings on April 24.

Ben Hartford, an ana-lyst with Robert W. Baird & Co. in Milwaukee, says Robinson can return to 15 percent growth, but only if it consistently takes market share away from its trucking industry competitors. The

reason? Trucking accounts for 75 percent of its revenue, Hartford said. Despite Rob-inson’s international reach, the U.S. trucking business remains its bread and but-ter. The company has only a small trucking presence in China and Europe.

For 2011, earnings and revenue both increased 11.5 percent, and the company earned $431.6 million, or $2.62 per share, on revenue of $10.3 billion.

What sets Robinson apart is its worldwide scope and proprietary technology.

Its website offers nine lan-guages. Its 8,350 employees understand both the micro and macro aspects of the global transportation mar-kets. Although it doesn’t own trucks or trains, its trad-ing rooms are packed with computers linked to global networks and loaded with company-written logistics software.

“We have thousands of competitors, but not any-body who’s close to being like us,” Wiehoff said, not-ing that the company com-petes against everybody

from FedEx to railroads to thousands of smaller brokers who also bring shippers and transportation companies together. “In a fragmented competitive industry, we’re unique.”

Karen Donohue, an asso-ciate professor of supply chain and operations man-agement at the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management, calls Robin-son “an asset-light” compa-ny that doesn’t own as much of the supply chain as some third-party logistics com-panies do.

“Because Robinson isn’t asset-intensive, it can be more flexible,” she said. “As the economics of ship-ping by rail versus truck change, Robinson is better able to make those tradeoffs quickly.”

Ryan Pettit, Robinson’s director of technology strat-egy, agrees.

“We’re not trying to bend someone’s supply chain to fit

what we have to offer,” he said. “Instead of approach-ing customers as a truck-ing company, we approach people as strategic partners. We can see the supply chain and the problems in it, and we can offer tips for improv-ing their business.”

Robinson earns the most for its services when either shipments or trucks are in short supply. For example, during Georgia’s annu-al peach harvesting sea-son from mid-May to mid-August “everyone fights to get their hands on a truck,” Pettit said. “Trucks are cheap in Georgia the rest of the year.”

As a result, Robinson’s best results in recent years occurred “when the country was growing fast in 2005 and 2006, and most shippers had more freight than expect-ed and less than enough trucks to haul it,” Wiehoff said. “That’s when what we do is most valuable.”

The compa ny has achieved success by adher-ing to its roots. It began in 1905 as a hauler of fresh pro-duce, a business it remains in today, although it is only about 8 percent of net rev-enue. As a shipper of food, the company was exempt from federal trucking reg-ulations out of concern that food might spoil if it were subject to regulatory delays. When the trucking industry was deregulated in 1980, Robinson expanded into other types of freight. The company went public in 1997, and its revenue has grown more than fivefold since then.

Employment is growing, too, although Robinson is vague about how many peo-ple it currently plans to hire and where they’re needed. It is constructing a new $20 million office building on its current headquarters site in Eden Prairie, which will both replace another build-ing in the city and accom-modate future growth.

By Steve AlexanderStar Tribune (Minneapolis)

Kyndell HarKness/Minneapolis star tribune/MCt

John Wiehoff is CEO of C.H. Robinson in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, which handles freight logistics matching companies that ship with road, rail and air freight companies.

“We haven’t achieved (historic goals) in the last couple of years because the world has been a pretty choppy place. A lot of people ask if something has changed, if our run of success is over. We feel strongly that’s not the case.”John WiehoffCEO, C.H. Robinson Worldwide Inc.


Analysis: Newest innovations in automobilesNEW YORK — When

was the last time you bought a new car or truck? If shoulder pads were fashionable, you’re in for a surprise when you walk into a new car show-room. Even if it’s been only five years since your new set of wheels, you’d be amazed at the technolo-gy missing in your car.

Today’s cars can tell you the exact tire pres-sure on each wheel or report your average fuel economy. But that’s small potatoes given that on average, new cars and trucks have 23 CPUs on board. Knowing that, you may not be surprised that your next car will be able to read your text mes-sages, adjust the suspen-sion on a windy day, or recharge itself wirelessly.

And if you’re looking

for a button on the center console to control the cli-mate you might not find any; some vehicles have touch sensitive panels like an Apple iPhone.

These are some of the options you’ll find on upcoming cars and trucks:

n Hands-free text mes-saging: Nissan introduced Nissan Connect, which uses the driver’s Blu-etooth phone to provide connectivity to streaming audio and the Web. Nis-san Connect will include a hands-free Text Mes-saging Assistant, which can read incoming texts out loud. The driver can respond via voice recogni-tion, or through the steer-ing wheel switches that have pre-set answers such as “driving, can’t text” and “on my way.” Other automakers, such as Gen-eral Motors, BMW and Ford, offer similar sys-tems. Offered on 2013 Nis-

san Altima; Ford, GM and BMW models.

n Rear-seat iPad dock-ing: This new option holds an Apple iPad in place behind the front seat headrests. The iPad docking station tilts and rotates up to 90 degrees, charged by the vehicle’s electrical system. It fits most Mercedes-Benz mod-els, including the rede-signed 2013 GLK SUV.

n Wireless induction charger: While drivers are only now wrapping their heads around refu-eling a car by plugging it in, Infiniti’s 2014 LE elec-tric concept car can be recharged using a built-in wireless charging system. Simply park the LE over a charging pad, which is connected to a power source. A coil encased in the pad creates a magnet-ic field that excites elec-tric current in a second coil in the car, recharging

the battery pack. n Ambient night light-

ing: Low-level LED light-ing illuminates at night, bathing the car’s cabin in a soothing glow, not unlike a fashionable nightclub. More a function of fashion than safety, it’s now com-mon on many luxury cars and is trickling down as an option on less-expen-sive vehicles.

n Automatic start-stop: First seen on gas-elec-tric hybrid vehicles, this fuel-economy feature is spreading to convention-ally powered vehicles. The system shuts off the car’s engine when the vehicle comes to a stop. Once the driver’s foot lifts from the brake pedal, the car restarts. While the engine does shut off during a stop, accessories such as climate control and audio systems still function. Offered on various GM, Porsche models among

others. n Capacitive switch-

ing: If you’ve used an Apple iPhone, you’ve used a capacitive switch; it’s a type of touch screen that’s replacing conven-tional automobile switch-es. For instance, when you touch the flat sur-face of the instrument panel with your finger on the air-conditioning label, you’re changing the charge of an elec-tromagnetic field, which instructs a processor in the car to make the air cooler. Offered on 2013 Cadillac XTS and various Ford models.

n Cross-traffic detec-tion: Ever backed out of a parking spot only to nar-rowly miss being hit by a car coming down the aisle? This feature, first seen on Volvo and Ford vehicles, uses sensors arrayed around the car’s exterior to sense when

a vehicle is approach-ing yours from the left or right. The same sen-sors are also used for such options as blind spot detection, to warn when a car is in your blind spot; and automatic cruise con-trol, which slows down or speeds up automatically to a preset speed and fol-lowing distance. Offered on 2013 Toyota Avalon and other new models.

n Crosswind stabiliza-tion: This new feature adjusts the suspension to stabilize the car when a crosswind is detected. The amount of damping applied by the suspen-sion varies depending on the force of the wind. It’s part of Mercedes-Benz’s optional Active Body Con-trol system, which has been available on Mer-cedes-Benz S-Class and CL-Class models. It’s now offered on the 2013 GL-Class SUV.

By Larry PrintzThe Virginian-Pilot

The last engine you’d expect could change auto industryThere’s a new class

of super-engine on the road, and it’s not what you expect.

The most exciting, tech-nically intriguing engines I’ve tested in the past six months weren’t throbbing V-8s, exotic V-12s, trendy electric-gasoline hybrids or post-modernist hip Europe-an diesels.

My heart — and my eager right foot — belongs to the 2.0-liter four-cylin-der engine. Engines that size were long dismissed as weaklings fit only for little economy cars. Americans weren’t inclined to take an engine seriously if the total displacement of its cylin-ders was the same size as a 99-cent bottle of Coke.

That was then. Today, 2.0-liter engines propel high-powered sport sedans, elegant roadsters and roomy crossover SUVs.

“This is a huge trans-formation in the industry,” said Tom Murphy, execu-tive editor of Wards Auto-World magazine, which publishes the influential 10 Best Engines list.

After building medio-cre four-cylinder engines for years, General Motors and Ford are at the fore-front of the trend, offer-ing high-powered small-displacement engines with the likes of Audi, BMW and Volkswagen. Japanese auto-makers have been slow to join the party, but Korea’s Hyundai and Kia are firmly on the bandwagon.

North American use of

four-cylinder engines will grow 74 percent from 6.9 million to 12.2 million in the next 10 years, accord-ing to IHS Automotive. IHS predicts V-6 and V-8 use in North American-made vehicles will fall 17 percent to about 6 million over the same period.

The new four-cylinder engines produce as much power as six- or even eight-cylinder engines, but use less fuel and emit fewer pollutants. They achieve this thanks to turbocharg-ing, high-pressure injection of fuel directly into the cyl-inders, electronic controls and new transmissions.

“Americans are willing to accept smaller engines as long as there’s power,” IHS analyst Aaron Brag-man said. “This is where

the industry is headed.” The 2.0-liter direct-

injection turbo won me over when I tested a Buick Regal GS last year. The engine’s 270 horsepow-er and 295 pound-feet of torque and 27-mpg highway EPA rating proved equal-ly delightful on a long, fast trip. The next generation of the engine debuts in the Cadillac ATS sport sedan this summer.

“The power is off the chart. GM has polished that engine to a fine sheen,” Murphy said. Three of Wards’ 2012 winners are turbocharged, direct-injec-tion 2.0-liter engines from BMW, Ford and GM. A fourth engine on the list, from Mazda, has 2.0 liters and direct injection sans turbo.

“The trend to 2.0-liter engines is a phenome-non,” Murphy said. “Cer-tain brands have decided they don’t even need to offer a V-6 in their midsize sedans. The new four-cyl-inder engines can power the vast majority of pas-senger cars and cross-overs. This is the next gen-eration of muscle cars.”

There are limits, how-ever. The early consen-sus seems to be that Ford’s 2.0-liter works well in the 3,998-pound Edge cross-over but struggles in the larger 4,500-pound Explor-er.

Today, 2.0 liters is the sweet spot, but even smaller engines are com-ing. Ford — which calls the combination of turbo-charging and direct injec-

tion EcoBoost — will offer it on a 170-horsepower-plus 1.6-liter engine in the upcoming 2013 Escape crossover and Fusion mid-size sedan. Ford reserves its 237-horsepower 2.0-liter engine for performance models of those vehicles.

“Automakers are push-ing displacement down and power up,” said Bill Visnic of Edmunds.com. Witness the 160-horsepower turbo-charged 1.4-liter Chrysler will offer in the new 2013 Dodge Dart compact sedan.

The odds are there’s a small, powerful four-cylin-der engine in your future. I’ll take those odds and bet that you’ll love it. —Mark Phelan is the auto crit-

ic for the Detroit Free Press. He can be reached at mmphel-

[email protected].

By Mark PhelanDetroit Free Press


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