Monthly Archives: June 2018

Honda Accord tests Big Thompson, plains

The 2018 Honda Accord Touring at Drake in the Big Thompson Canyon. (Bud Wells photos)

A comfortable, roomy interior, 2.0-liter turbocharged engine and smooth, 10-speed automatic transmission highlighted the 2018 Honda Accord through a 350-miles circle drive to Wray, Sterling and back to Greeley on Memorial Day weekend 2018.

In its 10th-generation restyling, the Accord sits in a low, wide, sporty stance, 2 inches longer in wheelbase and 160 pounds lighter in curb weight.

Honda has shelved the long-popular V-6 power for the Accord; available are the 252-horsepower, 2.0-liter, turbocharged 4-cylinder or a 1.5-liter turbo 4.

Green fields south of Holyoke add to impression of the Honda Accord’s white pearl finish.

Earlier in the week, I tested the Accord’s new power setup in a descent of Big Thompson Canyon from Estes Park to Loveland. Overall fuel-mileage average for the circle drive and the canyon descent was 29.5.

Switching into sport mode and using paddle shifters for the drive down the Thompson, I locked the Honda into 4th gear and seldom touched the bakes all the way to the Dam Store. Only surprise in both drives was an occasional bit of surge at low-speed acceleration.

The smoothness of the 10-speed was good, an improvement in performance over the previous continuously variable transmission. My first exposure to Honda’s 10-speed came last fall, when Jan and I flew from Phoenix into DIA, where awaiting us was a Honda Odyssey minivan with the first 10-speed automatic in a front-wheel-drive vehicle.

A delight in the weekend drive was an overnight stay at Sterling’s new Holiday Inn Express, four-stories tall with our room overlooking the South Platte River and its lush, green trees and foliage.

This is perhaps the finest looking and best-performing Accord, yet like other midsize sedans, the Accord has suffered a sales decline thus far this year, as consumers look more and more toward the popular SUVs and crossovers.

The cabin is of soft-touch finish, contrasted with leather seats and door inserts and wood trim on the dash. Legroom has been increased in the rear seating area and trunk space is a roomy 16.7 cubic feet. A disappointment was that the extended width of the center stack intruded on the driver’s knee space.

The ’18 Accord Touring I drove is priced at $36,690 and includes safety packages of collision mitigation braking, lane-keeping assist, adaptive cruise control and side-curtain airbags with rollover sensor. Other items include push-button shifter, navigation, premium audio, Bluetooth, CarPlay/Android Auto integration, dual-zone climate control, heated and ventilated front seats and heated rear seats, head-up display, power moonroof and front and rear parking sensors.

Cheapest trim level for the Accord is the LX, and most luxurious is the Touring, which I drove. Others are the Sport, EX, EX-L and Hybrid.

Turbo lets Mazda6 defy midsize sales slump

The Mazda6 is among most stylish of midsize sedans. (Bud Wells photo)

There is no slicker-looking midsize sedan out there, and, now, finally, it’s got turbocharged power.

It’s the 2018 Mazda6 Signature four-door, which has retained its “soul of motion” sleek design in red crystal, and emboldened the front with a larger mesh grille.

The “Six” gains a turbo – a 2.5-liter, 4-cylinder, borrowed from Mazda’s big CX-9 crossover and producing 250 horsepower and 310 lb.-ft. of torque. It’s a superb handler, and, while I’m not a “turbo toe” fanatic, I do appreciate the available boost from beneath the hood.

In an odd twist, Mazda6’s turbo has put a bit of zip in among the midsize sedans, which have been on a severe sales slide all this year. The Mazda6 showed the only increase in sales among midsizers in May. While that’s a positive for the Mazda, its rank in sales has been so low, that, even with the sizable jump,  it outsold only one other model, the Subaru Legacy.

The Mazda6 sold 4,437 units in May, compared with only 2,708 in April.

Total sales for the month among other midsizes and the percentage of decrease are the Toyota Camry with 29,965 and 8 percent decline, Honda Accord 28,212 and 16 percent drop, Nissan Altima 23,030 and 4 percent drop, Chevy Malibu 15,404 and 26 percent drop, Ford Fusion 15,253 and 30 percent drop, Hyundai Sonata 10,728 and 15 percent drop, Kia Optima 10,367 and 1 percent drop, Volkswagen Passat 4,757 and 13 percent drop and Subaru Legacy 3,461 and 25 percent drop.

Combined sales of the 10 above-mentioned midsize models over the first five months of 2018 have declined by more than 116,000 units. Those numbers and more are now increasing the SUV/crossover/truck categories.

Mated to a 6-speed automatic transmission, the front-wheel-drive Mazda6 turbo carries an EPA estimate of 23/31 miles per gallon. My overall average was on the lower side, 24.1 mpg. It included an afternoon drive of May 31 to LifePointe Church in Fort Collins for memorial services for Lynette Kelley Fortunato, 68, who resided with husband Mike at Wellington. She died of injuries suffered in a fall from a horse several days earlier. Lynette was a graduate of Sterling High School and met Mike when he was a student at Northeastern Junior College.

Four Mazda6’s  I’d tested in recent years, all with non-turbo 4-cylinders and 6-speed automatic transmissions, averaged in the 32-miles-per-gallon range.

Mazda has dressed up the sedan’s interior, very comfortably, highlighted with a soft nappa leather touch. It rides on a wheelbase of 111.4 inches, is 192.7 inches in overall length and has curb weight of 3,560 pounds. Trunk space is 14.7 cubic feet.

The high-end Signature model was sticker-priced at $36,435; Mazda6 pricing begins at $23,000 for the Sport. Other trim levels are Touring, Grand Touring and Grand Touring Reserve. Among the Signature’s long list of amenities are lane-keep assist, radar cruise control, ventilated and heated front seats, navigation, Bluetooth, trip computer, brake assist.

 

’19 Ram Rebel rolls in rain, Rist

Smooth on the highway, the Ram Rebel is adept at offroading. (Bud Wells photo)

Offroading along a sandhill trail following three or four rainfalls topped off 10 days for me in the driver’s seat of the 2019 Ram 1500 Rebel Crew Cab 4X4. Earlier, the rugged Rebel showed its mettle in an afternoon drive through Rist Canyon in Larimer County, then glitzed up a bit for carrying us to Denver for a bit of nighttime entertainment.

The Ram, a key player in the highly competitive half-ton pickup market, with the early release of its 2019 model gets a jump on the Ford F-150, Chevy Silverado, GMC Sierra, Toyota Tundra and Nissan Titan.

The new Ram is 4 inches longer than the ’18 model and 225 pounds lighter through use of high-strength steel in the frame, aluminum hood, tailgate and engine mounts.

Packed beneath the hood of the Rebel is its long-used 395-horsepower, 5.7-liter, Hemi V-8 engine and 8-speed automatic transmission; its shifter is a twister dial on the dash. The Ram is built to tow up to 12,700 pounds with a payload of 2,300 pounds. The growl on startup says it’s a Hemi; standard engine is a 305-hp, 3.6-liter V-6.

The 5,700-pound Ram provides outstanding ride comfort and exceptional cornering capability with its coil springs, new Bilstein monotube shocks/dampers and air suspension. The confidence in cornering and ability to control descents with the 8-speed tranny’s manual-mode gear locks added enjoyment during the drive through lightly traveled Rist Canyon and its adjacent areas north of Masonville and west of Fort Collins.

Our Saturday night drive was to the Goldspot Brewing Co., near Regis University, where son Kurt Wells was singing and playing guitar. Between musical selections, two young women, Cara Ferrier of New Jersey and Valerie Warner of New York, enthralled us with stories of their responsibilities in guiding expeditions for the U.S. Antarctic programs. Imagine tent-sleeping in weather as cold as 50-below.

Even with that smooth highway drive in to Denver and back, the Rebel produced no-better fuel mileage average than 16.3 miles per gallon, one of the few sub-par results in the tests. The Rebel 4X4 is rated at 15/21 mpg.

A locking rear differential is standard on the Rebel 4X4, with only a button-push for 4-high and 4-low positioned with the shift dial.

A restyled, aggressive-looking grille lends newness to the ’19 Rebel; the extended length of its body may offer the roomiest rear-seating area of any of the half-ton, crew cab pickups.

Even though the Ram’s pricing list showed it with step rails, there was none, and with the lower set from air suspension, it still required a 26-inch step-in height.

A dual-pane panoramic sunroof, power-folding heated mirrors with signals, 8.4-inch touchscreen navigation/audio, heated front leatherette seats, remote start system and blind-spot/rear cross-path detection boosted price of the Ram to $59,150.

Available soon for the Ram, with either the Hemi V-8 or Pentastar V6 power, will be an eTorque, 48-volt mild hybrid technology which can boost takeoff, restart engine on stop/start and help keep the battery charged, as well as reclaim charge from regenerative braking.

Nissan Leaf, Infiniti VC-T empowered

A floating roofline is distinctive on the 2018 Nissan Leaf. (Bud Wells photo)

Two automobile power sources beyond the norm, one from Nissan and the other from Nissan’s  luxury division Infiniti, have rolled my way.

Particularly smooth is the Nissan Leaf’s fully electric system, which for the second-generation 2018 model has achieved an extended range – to 152 miles. The Leaf was introduced seven years ago, and, according to Nissan, has sold more full electrics than any other make.

The 2019 Infiniti QX50 unveiled high-tech, internal-combustion engine. (Infiniti)

Adding interest was the arrival of a preproduction model of the 2019 Infiniti QX50 with its VC-T power; it is the first production vehicle whose internal-combustion engine will actively vary its compression ratio, from 8.0:1 to 14.0:1.

The VC-T stands for “variable compression turbocharged,” which develops 268 horsepower and 288 lb.-ft. of torque from the 2.0-liter, 4-cylinder engine. It is equipped with a continuously variable transmission.

Though it was scheduled for a week’s stay with me, the loaners of the Infiniti came by after only a day to retrieve the QX50 and its special engine. It apparently is needed for an Asian auto expedition; I thought I heard someone say, “to Mongolia.”

I drove it barely over 50 miles – to Fort Collins with Jan for dinner at an Olive Garden restaurant, before relinquishing the keys the next day. In so few miles, it was difficult to identify characteristics of the new engine, which varies fuel/air mixture in the cylinders depending on driving situations (highway or in-city) and throttle demands by the driver. Acceleration was strong when called upon, the steering was heavily assisted and the ride was exceptionally good.

The luxury compact Infiniti SUV is of front-wheel-drive configuration, with available all-wheel drive (formerly rear-drive and AWD).  Premium fuel is recommended for the variable compression engine.

Key competitors, with their traditional engines, are Acura RDX, Audi Q5, BMW X3, Cadillac XT5, Jaguar F-Pace, Lexus RX, Mercedes GLC, Porsche Macan and Volvo XC60.

As for the new Nissan Leaf, it gained extended range through use of an improved 40-kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery pack (up from 30 kWh) and 147-horsepower/236 lb.-ft. torque electric motor. It is surprisingly quick off the line.

The Leaf also introduces an E-Pedal feature allowing the driver to accelerate and brake with one pedal. If e-pedal is engaged, when throttle acceleration lessens or stops, regenerative braking takes over and slows the car at a rate dependent on the easement of the pedal. This is helpful driving in city traffic; the actual brake pedal is still in place, waiting to be mashed by driver when needed.

ProPilot Assist, which I’ve tested in other Nissan and Infiniti products, maintains lane guidance, cruise-distance control and forward-collision warning and emergency braking. The lane guidance kept the Leaf on course, much less aggressively than it did for a Nissan Rogue in December. Though it should reduce driver stress, the ProPilot system reminds drivers that it is “hands-on” in usage.

Nissan says recharging the Leaf’s battery pack takes 35 hours at 110 volts or 7.5 hours at 220 volts. With a third of its range still available, I recharged it to full range at 110 volts in my garage in 20 hours.

The front-drive Leaf is offered in three trim levels, beginning with the S at $29,900, upgraded to the SV at $32,490 and topped off with the SL, which I drove, at $36,200. The addition of the ProPilot Assist boosted sticker price on the review model to $38,510.