Long Term Update 4: 2011 Mazda2 Touring

The Green Goblin, the Jolly Green Rancher, Kermit, the Appletini, or the Mighty Green Machine / Photography by Motor Trend Staff Hi, I'm Emiliana, the contented caretaker of MT's long-term Mazda2 Touring. Or, as my sister and I call it, the Green Goblin, the Jolly Green Rancher, Kermit, the Appletini, or the Mighty Green Machine. It's small and cute with a smiley-faced grille, and it's painted bright, pearly Spirited Green, which the women on staff love and the men definitely don't. The Mazda2 shares a platform with the Ford Fiesta, and when it rolled into the MT garage everyone was curious how it would compare to its Detroit sibling. Turns out it's about 5 inches shorter and 220 pounds lighter, and just a little bit faster. Those of us who drove both of them at Car of the Year thought the '2 had a slight handling edge over the Fiesta. It's a zippy little hatchback, easy to drive, easy to park, and, with a base price of $16,230 for the Touring, easy on your wallet.

The 1.5-liter, four-cylinder five-speed '2 is well-suited to my daily commute, which is about three miles of surface streets and eight miles on the 405. In the past month I've averaged 33.6 mpg combined, according to the dash calculator. That's a very good thing with gas prices climbing ever-upward. The clutch is light and relatively easy to engage, but more often than not I lurch forward awkwardly when heading into first gear. While I'm not a racetrack-caliber driver, I am a good shifter, so I'm blaming the stutter on the transmission. With only 100 horses, the Mazda2 isn't a speed demon, but it wasn't meant to be one. Road noise, engine noise and vibration increase exponentially when the speedo passes 80 mph. The nimble little car keeps up with L.A. freeway traffic no problem, but whenever I have to merge up a hilly on-ramp into 70-plus-mph rush hour traffic, I floor it and hope there aren't any semis approaching. And though I've never been given a reason to doubt its braking prowess, I'm careful to make sure I have more than enough room to halt suddenly if needed.

Inside, the Mazda2 definitely feels like a budget car. The Touring package's seats are plenty supportive if you weigh 110 pounds. They're black fabric with red piping, which I guess is supposed to look sporty, but it's a weird contrast with the green exterior. My biggest interior gripe is the lack of a USB port. This car's demographic is the iPod generation. While you can plug your MP3 player into the aux outlet, you can't control it with the stereo tuner buttons, and to recharge your iPhone/iPod while listening, you have to also plug it into the power outlet. Shifting gears and operating an iPod with the same hand while going 70 mph is risky behavior. There is a CD player, but who under the age of 30 even owns CDs? I'm perfectly happy with the headroom and legroom up front, but I'm only 5 feet tall. Adults of average size won't want to spend much time sitting in the back. Parents who are shopping for their teen's first car should take note: Nobody will get any action in the rear of a Mazda2, unless they're skinny, short, and an expert contortionist. Next month I'm moving, so it'll be interesting to see how much cargo I can cram into the back, and a drive to Disneyland is around the corner. For now, the '2 gets a bright green thumbs-up.
$73.52 (1-oil change, inspection, rotate tires)

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Lexus LS 460 Touring Edition adds style to flagship

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Long Term Update 3: 2011 Mazda2 Touring

From the June, 2011 issue of Motor Trend / Photography by Jessica Germiller For those who think the Mazda2 is merely a rebadged Ford Fiesta, think again. Associate editor Scott Evans "was skeptical when people remarked there was a noticeable difference in handling between the Mazda2 and the Ford Fiesta, but then I realized that they were right. This little car is ridiculously fun to throw around." Evans and senior editor Jonny Lieberman would love to see a Mazdaspeed2 -- with more torque. Executive editor Ed Loh adds that the 2 "might have the best shifter for an under $20,000 sticker. The shifter is weighted perfectly and canted so that it falls right under hand. The throw is short and crisp, which is nice because you're rowing often. The 2's engine could be described as pathetic; you have to wind it up constantly to just stay ahead of traffic. The clutch is light with a low engagement point. It's fun to zing the engine on downshifts; this may be the perfect car in which to practice rev-matching."

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Long Term Update 3: 2011 Mazda2 Touring

From the June, 2011 issue of Motor Trend / Photography by Jessica Germiller For those who think the Mazda2 is merely a rebadged Ford Fiesta, think again. Associate editor Scott Evans "was skeptical when people remarked there was a noticeable difference in handling between the Mazda2 and the Ford Fiesta, but then I realized that they were right. This little car is ridiculously fun to throw around." Evans and senior editor Jonny Lieberman would love to see a Mazdaspeed2 -- with more torque. Executive editor Ed Loh adds that the 2 "might have the best shifter for an under $20,000 sticker. The shifter is weighted perfectly and canted so that it falls right under hand. The throw is short and crisp, which is nice because you're rowing often. The 2's engine could be described as pathetic; you have to wind it up constantly to just stay ahead of traffic. The clutch is light with a low engagement point. It's fun to zing the engine on downshifts; this may be the perfect car in which to practice rev-matching."

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Review: 2011 Chrysler 200 Touring

Thursday, Mar 17th, 2011 @ 11:45 a.m.

Chrysler made quite the splash when it paired its new 200 with rap-star Eminem and the tagline “Imported from Detroit” in a two-minute Super Bowl ad, but can the revised sedan really live up to all the hype?

Let’s take a look to see if the 200 is a super star like its ad suggests.

What is it?
Despite its all-new name, the 200 isn’t an all-new model for Chrysler but rather a rehash of the outgoing Sebring. The 200 features revised front and rear fascias but retains the Sebring’s overall look.

If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, well, you know.

Our tester was a modestly equipped model with a rehash of the existing four-cylinder engine, not the new Pentastar V6 is optionally available. While the V6 sounds nice, Chrysler estimates that around 80 to 85 percent of all buyers will wind up with the four.

What’s it up against?
Situated as Chrysler’s mid-size sedan offering, the 200 takes on the Toyota Camry, Honda Accord, Nissan Altima, Ford Fusion, Chevrolet Malibu, Hyundai Sonata and Kia Optima.

Oh, and there are probably some leftover Sebrings still on lots.

Any breakthroughs?
The fact that Chrysler was able to transform the Sebring into the 200 in such a short time is a testament to Fiat’s leadership, but if you’re looking for any real breakthroughs, keep moving.

How does it look?
If you view the 200 straight on from the front or back, it’s actually a fairly handsome vehicle. Up front the Sebring’s washboard front hood is (finally) gone for good and the whole package just looks more attractive. Chrysler’s new slatted grille looks far better on the 200 than the egg crate design ever did on the Sebring and we even like the look of Chrysler’s new logo. The 200’s bi-functional halogen projector headlamps even give it an upscale look.

Out back there are even more welcomed improvements, including a redesigned bumper and new-look LED taillights.

However, move a few degrees off center and it becomes painfully obvious the 200 is heavily based on the old Sebring. In profile the 200 almost looks like an elongated VW Beetle and the car’s stubby deck lid just looks out of place.

Chrysler designers clearly did the best they could with what they had, but it’s time to put the Sebring to rest – and not just in name.

And on the inside?
The 200’s interior is a vast improvement over the Sebring’s, but that’s not exactly saying much.

However, the overall design of the 200’s cabin is much more attractive than the outgoing car’s and the build quality is much improved – gone are the crudely-formed plastic seams that always had a little extra material and were sometimes razor-sharp. In fact, virtually all of the Sebring hard plastics have been replaced with soft-touch materials.

Our car came equipped with Chrysler’s 6.5 inch touch screen audio system, but we found the system more annoying than anything else. Without navigation, we don’t really see the point of having a mini TV screen in the dash, not to mention one that hinders nighttime driving. The system’s ‘auto’ setting never once dimmed the screen during night driving, giving us an eye-full of LCD glow. We found the only way to dim the screen was to manually set it to “night,” which was equally annoying the next day when we had to manually reset the system to “day.”

Chrysler’s “Imported from Detroit” commercial painted the 200 as a luxury vehicle, but it just felt like a car without a true identity to us. You can tell the 200 is aiming for the feel of a luxury car (do you need any more evidence than an analog clock?) but it comes across more as an economy car playing dress up.

What good is a finely-wrapped leather steering wheel if we’re sitting in a cloth seat that feels like it came out of a Caliber?

But does it go?
Unfortunately, our tester came with Chrysler’s 2.4-liter four-cylinder rather than the company’s all-new 3.6-liter V6. Having recently stepped out of our Hyundai Sonata long-term test car, we were rather disappointed with the 200’s 173 horsepower engine – both in terms of power and fuel economy.

Around town the 200’s four-cylinder feels adequate enough, but the 2.4-liter feels completely overwhelmed when it comes to highway entry ramps or passing maneuvers. And while better fuel economy is usually the result of less power, that’s not the case with the 200.

Even with Chrysler’s optional six-speed transmission we averaged about 17mpg in mixed driving, despite the 200’s 20/31 mpg city/highway ratings. In comparison, our 200 horsepower Sonata averaged no worse than 25 mpg on the same loop.

Although the 200’s four-cylinder powertrain is still very reminiscent of the Sebring, Chrysler has improved the car’s ride and handling for 2011.

The 200 has a noticeably better ride than the Sebring and can actually take a corner without completely rubbing off the writing on the side of its tires. Steering is still vague but, once again, better than the outgoing Sebring.

Why you would buy it
You currently own a Sebring or have access to an incredible Chrysler discount.

Why you wouldn’t
The Chrysler dealership wasn’t your only stop.

Leftlane’s bottom line
The 200 is amazing achievement for Chrysler – light-years ahead of the old Sebring — but even the best Sebring is well short of mid-size segment benchmark.

It’s well documented that the 200 is just a hold-over until a new Fiat-based sedan arrives, but that doesn’t automatically give the 200 a passing grade. With the mid-size segment as good as it is, the 200 is a very difficult proposition.

2011 Chrysler 200 Touring base price, $21,245. As tested, $22,680.
Cold weather group, $385; Media Center 430 CD/DVD/HDD, $300; Destination, $750.

Words and photos by Drew Johnson.

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1923 Buick Model 23-6-49 Touring 7 Passenger

Engine Number 999,816
Frame Number 920,129
Horsepower 27.5

We named her SPARKIE and here she sits in all her glory after 15 years in a ground up restoration. She's 83 years new and ready to go. In 1923 she was bought from the Lincoln, Nebraska Auto Company by my grandfather Franz A. Wangerin and taken home to the farm in Kensington, Kansas. He had six children all of whom ended up driving her at one time or another. My father Clarence Wangerin used her for attending Kersingtn High School, but most noteworthy is that he also used her exclusively for dating my mother, and I heard alot about some of those wilder dates.

Grandpa often visited a sister in Colorado Springs, Colorado, so he's load the family (kids and all) bag and baggage and off they would go. The trip would take some six or seven days or a distance of some 300 miles. They camped out at night along the road, cooked over an open fire,n' patched tires along the way (usually 4-6 a day) On rough days they all had to get out and push the car through sand and mud, up steep slopes not to mention having to ford the Canadian River near Limon, Colorado, where again they had to bull out and push. I did establish that she has made about 12-13 trips to the springs in the 20's. They always made if there and back, as the kids had the job of repairing the tires in the back seat as they drove off awaiting the next flat, grandpa took care of the mechanicals. Remember now that in the 1920's the highway was graded dirt county roads, trails, cow paths, wagon tracks, few if any bridges and open prarie (routing was usually nicely marked). This was grandpas 2nd. Buick the first was a 1917 Buick, Model D-45 Touring and he liked it so well he bought the 23 Touring (larger) to carry the crew. Preceeding the 1917 Buick Touring was a 1911 Oakland Touring. I'm not sure just why he liked touring cars.

The 1923 served the family well as old reliable till 1931, after that passenger section was removed in favor of a pickup bed. The car was finally retired to the machine shed in 1936. Linda and I picked It out of the shed, removed the bed and rettached the passenger section, put her on a trailer and brought her home to Lakewood, Ca. Now some 15 years later, here she stands in all her glory. We totally restored everything, just about every part is original, new manufactured parts have replaced the worn ones, we did have to cast some door handles, and a robe rack, and even reconditioned all the original nuts and bolts. With her block lacquer fenders, cobalt blue lacquer body, leather interior and the original type top material, replating, added a second spot light to match the existing one. For safety we installed turn signals and brake stop lights for the final touch.

She's on the road now and has about 10 miles on the odometer, nedless to say, we plan on putting many more on in time. Buick in March of 1923 produced the (1,000,000) millionth car as a 23-6-55 touring, that same year Lowel Thomas drove a 23-6-49 touring into Afganistan and a 23-6-55 was driven at a top speed of 108.24 mph at Maroe Dry Lake, in California. Today there are only (2) 23-6-49 Buicks in the Buick Registry that are operable and still distinguishing themselves on the road.

Like the old Buick Slogan, "When better cars are built, Buick will build them"

Lee and Linda Wangerin, Lakewood, BCA # 15259

February 21, 2011, 6:02 am

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