The handling is far more forgiving than before with the slight initial understeer easily overwhelmed with the application of throttle, and the ride is more compliant. The steering isn't particularly communicative, but steering by ass-feel is good enough for this big, brawny beast. Of special note are the brakes, which haul the car down dead-nuts flat and with incredible deceleration. Put these brakes in Congress and they could stop a runaway budget.
At about $80,000, the '03 Viper will once again be, by far, the most expensive Dodge in the lineup. It's also probably the best Dodge ever built.
Fiesta FolliesBeset by quality problems and aging models, Ford's last few years haven't been great financially. But in Europe, the company introduced a new version of the Fiesta, which is smaller than the Focus, and it seems Ford is intent on racing it.
Ford showed this high-anxiety version of the Fiesta three-door at the British International Auto Show on October 22, 2002. Unfortunately, though we have photos, we're writing this against an October 21st deadline, so we don't know much about this car except that it looks dang nasty with oversized wheels and tires, a big turbo intercooler under the front bumper, a big wing on the back, and all sorts of skanky rally stuff. The intercooler implies that there's a turbo aboard, and we guess that it's likely all-wheel drive. We figure this Fiesta will replace the Focus as Ford's World Rally Championship entry during 2003.
But will the Fiesta, which was sold here in first-generation form from 1977 to 1980, ever return to the USA? Well, the plain-looking Fiesta five-door in the third photo is supposedly the version that will go into production in Mexico. Last time we checked, Mexico was still attached to the United States, and there's this thing called NAFTA, so...
Please insert your own paragraph bemoaning this car's front-drive layout and pukey four-cylinder engine here.3a, 3b, 3c
Cavitations[Photo 116-0210.SCUP 10A and 10B on CD]Always on the brink of obscurity, the Chevy Cavalier enters 2003 with a new front and rear appearance and the options of XM radio and the OnStar system. Otherwise, this is the same Cavalier that's been clogging Avis airport lots since, well, who cares?
However, you can expect Kurt Johnson's Pro Stock Cavalier to reflect these visual changes next year. And we still expect that a tube chassis and a 500-inch DRCE will not be on the production Cavalier's option list for the foreseeable future.
116-0301-SCUP H/OA Grander Prix?[Photo 116-0301.SCUP 5A through 5E on CD]What's the best thing about the new '04 Pontiac Grand Prix? The absence of ugly plastic lower-body cladding that has been infecting Pontiacs for nearly two decades. What's the worst thing about the new '04 Pontiac Grand Prix? It's still front-wheel drive.
Gone from Pontiac's presentation of the new Grand Prix is any mention of a two-door version, which means, we presume, there isn't one. Instead what we get is "Sport Coupe-like" styling, which is sort of the same as dating the "pretty-like" girl in school or drinking "beer-like" suds on a hot summer day. For the most part, the design builds on themes established by the '97 Grand Prix without the heavy burden of plastic. It's a cleaner car, but still recognizably a GP.
The interior decoration continues the exterior's cues with "three-dimensional" analog gauges in the dash and "satin nickel" trim pieces (our guess is that they're actually neither satin nor nickel). GM's Heads Up Display (HUD), which projects vital information such as vehicle speed and the radio station on the windshield in front of the driver, returns to the '04 GP and now includes a "stealth mode" that shuts down the regular dash lighting so that the driver can run in interior darkness. We're not sure what kind of paranoid personality needs to run in stealth mode, but we're pretty confident the FBI will be investigating.