Car Reviews

From the November 1978 Issue of Car and Driver.
When Datsun introduced its 1979 model to the press, the joke of the meeting was that these cars would be competing head-on with Buick and BMW by Christmas—not because of a massive overhaul in the Japanese company’s marketing philosophy, but rather because of the plummeting value of the dollar relative to that of the yen. Datsun would not be building Buick-style cars; it would simply be offering its weight-watcher compacts at Buick prices.

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But driving the new 280-ZX coupe suggests that Nissan has been anticipating exactly this sort of repositioning in the market all along and has already dialed in the appropriate correction. The new Z-car (ZX-car?) is strongly biased toward the luxury side of life. It’s longer, lower, and wider than the old version; quieter and more vibration-free on the inside; calibrated for a mashed-potatoes ride underneath; and just itching to be dolled up with all sorts of packages and gadgets, which the option list cheerfully offers. What was once an appealingly lean sportster has been transformed into a plush boulevardier, a personal cruiser not altogether different from what you’d expect of Buick if it took up a position in the two-seater and 2 + 2 market.
All of this probably makes perfect sense from a hit-’em-where-they-ain’t marketing point of view. The closed-roof-sports-car business-once the almost exclusive province of Datsun-has become a hotbed of activity in the last few years. Porsche now occupies the high end of the middle-price class with its sleek and nimble 924, an automobile that places great emphasis on handling and driver participation. Mazda is putting the squeeze on from the bottom of the price range with its RX-7, a two-seater that’s winning friends everywhere for its agility and sparkling performance. The TR7 has been brought to its knees temporarily because of labor problems in England, but it will be back in full strength by spring, bringing along with it the V-8 powered TR8, which will surely set the performance pace for this class. So what was Datsun to do? The only space left uncontested is the comfort-and-luxury slot. The old Z-car always was a bit more of a tourer than its competitors, and the product planners apparently decided to aim its replacement even more in that direction.

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The term “replacement” is used intentionally here because the new ZX is essentially an all-new car. It retains certain visual characteristics of the Z-the scalloped headlight tunnels, the powerbulge hood, and the large, multi-cell taillights-and the powertrain is carried over with only minor recalibrations, but the body and the chassis are altogether different. The greatest dimensional change is in width, the new car being 2.3 inches wider overall and having an extra inch of wheel track (more with the optional alloy wheels). The wheelbase has been increased by 0.6 inches, and although the new model looks considerably longer, the actual increase is less than an inch. Apparently what happened here is that the sheetmetal is longer but the bumpers don’t stick out as far, resulting in an appearance of greater length with little real change. Some similar optical illusion must also affect height, because, while the new model looks lower, the company specifications list both the Z and the ZX at 51.0 inches. But even these relatively minor dimensional changes are viewed with great significance in certain quarters. Dick Roberts, head of the competition department, was very pleased indeed with the new body shape. He observed that the greater overall width of the car would let the racers get by with smaller fender flares. That, combined with the more steeply raked windshield, would go a long way toward eliminating the Datsun’s considerable top-speed deficit in GTU racing.

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The street value of the new shape is less obvious. In profile, the ZX brings to mind the Ferrari Daytona. While the fastback of the old Z-car dropped away quite rapidly, the roof angle of the new car is shallower, and its high tail combined with a long, thrusting nose gives it an unmistakably Ferrari-like silhouette. Yet side by side with the Z, the ZX does not make it look dowdy or obsolete. The short, truncated tail of the old car provided a highly functional appearance that is absent in the replacement. Probably the biggest tip-off as to which car is newer can be seen in the crisp lines of the ZX. The original Z was designed in the days when Pininfarina was doing soft, rounded Ferraris. The Datsun didn’t have the full, molded-Jell-0 look of, say, the Dino 246GT, but the sheetmetal of its roof and fenders was formed with rather large-radius curves. Since that time, fashion has swung in the Giugiaro direction-sharply creased and folded shapes such as those of the Scirocco and the Lotus Esprit. The ZX doesn’t go wholeheartedly in that direction either, but its curves have been tightened considerably, particularly at the roofline and where the body sheetmetal ends at the tail. So Datsun’s new skin does seem more modern while retaining at the same time a strong family resemblance to the original Z.
The mechanical resemblance between the new and old cars is equally strong. The engine of the ZX is rated at 135 horsepower, down 14 from that of the Z, but Nissan spokesmen claim that the only changes are the addition of a catalytic converter and the associated recalibration of the ignition and fuel-injection systems. This, they say, should increase both economy and performance. Backing up the engine is a standard-equipment five-speed gearbox, the same transmission that was previously optional. You may also order a three-speed automatic if that is your pleasure. Axle ratios have been shuffled to no great consequence, a 3.70-replacing the previously standard 3.54 on five-speed cars. Disc brakes are now fitted on all four corners of the car, vented in front and solid in back. Power steering is standard equipment on the 2 + 2 and optional on the two-seater. In addition to the obvious benefit of easier steering, the power gear also speeds up the steering ratio from 3.5 to 2.7 turns lock-to-lock, with only a small loss in road feel.

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All of this is minor stuff compared with the changes that have been wrought in the suspension. At first glance the pieces appear to be little changed from the old Z, but in fact they are altogether different and very similar to those of the 810 coupe and sedan. The front still uses the MacPherson-strut configuration, but the lower control arm of the ZX is positioned in the fore-and-aft direction by a tension rod ahead of the arm (the Z had a compression rod behind the arm). This is a significant change from a body-structure point of view, but it doesn’t necessarily affect handling. The same cannot be said of the new semi-trailing-arm rear suspension that replaces the MacPherson-strut arrangement of the Z. Semi-trailing arms are everywhere these days. Mercedes-Benz and BMW use them, they’ve been adopted by GM for the new Riviera-Toronado-Eldorado body, and Datsun had them on the original 510 and the discontinued 610, and continues them on today’s 810. But this system would seem to offer no practical advantage on the Z. It still requires two large spring towers in the trunk area, and the parts underneath are not significantly simpler or cheaper. Moreover, it has some clear disadvantages from a handling standpoint. Semi-trailing arms have a great deal more camber and toe change than MacPherson struts and therefore a greater potential for tricky handling. We’ve had plenty of opportunity to explore these limits because Datsun previewed its new models for the press well before public introduction and, to maintain security, our driving was confined to Portland International Raceway. For normal driving, typical of what you’d do on public roads, the ZX is well behaved. As with the old Z, the rear squats on acceleration. There is also a minor amount of self-steering over bumps and during hard braking. In general, the ride quality is plush and underdamped, more along the lines of a luxury car than a sporting machine.

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And typical of luxury cars, the ZX is not very interested in hurrying around racetracks. By nature, the car understeers. Under power, it will widen the radius of a turn in direct proportion to how far the driver has opened the throttle. But getting into the turns is the tricky part. Any driver input that changes the pitch attitude of the car-putting on the brakes, getting off the brakes, lifting off the power encourages the rear to come unstuck. Probably what’s happening here is that the change in the height of the rear suspension produces a corresponding change in the camber and toe of the rear wheels. When the back end of the ZX goes up, the rear wheels toe out and move more positive in camber. They may as well yell “Surprise,” because you are now in a whole new party. In this regard, the ZX is very much like an old Porsche 911, except that the Porsche was blessed with very accurate controls that allowed the driver to keep on top of the situation. The ZX feels rubbery at all times, and even experienced drivers can find themselves sideways at speeds that should be well below the cornering limits. Curiously, we noticed considerable variation among what were supposedly equal cars. Datsun had four two-seaters and three 2+2s on hand for evaluation. One of the two-seaters was quite noticeably worse than the others, but we could detect subtle differences-in both ride and handling between all of them. Generally, the 2 +2s seemed more manageable for fast driving. They are 7.9 inches longer in wheelbase and weigh 150 pounds more, and their reactions to pitch changes were less dramatic. But, to be honest, we really didn’t like how they behaved during hard driving.

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For sedate touring, however, the ZX is easily more comfortable than its Porsche, Mazda, and Triumph competitors. The interior is wider than before, giving more elbowroom. The seats are wider also, gently curved for reasonable lateral support, and adjustable in every conceivable direction. The cushion can be tilted up in front, the backrest angled back, and the lumbar area made firmer. The driving position is fine, and the convenient footrest for the driver’s left foot has been carried over from the Z. The pedals are located perfectly for heel-and-toe work. The gauge placement has not changed, but the instrument panel is all new: still molded plastic but now rather Mercedes-like in appearance. The steering wheel will be a source of frustration for those who have learned to hook their thumbs over the spokes at the three-and-nine position in the Bob Bondurant’s School of High Performance Driving manner, because the ZX’s spokes angle down toward five and seven. Fortunately, the rim section is fat and textured enough to allow a good, firm grip without hooking the thumbs.

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A frequent complaint about the old Z was high steering effort. With power assist, of course, the ZX is easy to maneuver, but even the manual version requires less muscle than before. The new car does not have the fine lightness of the Mazda RX-7 or the Porsche 924, but neither is it ponderous in the manner of the old Z. That is a net improvement.
The Z always was a slick shifter, and that virtue continues in the ZX. Likewise the sensation of more allowable engine revs than you’ll ever use. The redline is still marked at 6400 rpm on the tachometer, but by the time the needle reaches 5500, the noise is high enough and the acceleration is low enough to suggest that an immediate upshift would be in order. And although the engine still turns raucous at high revs, it does not produce such a din as before. As a consequence of this and all the other detail improvements, the ZX is a much quieter and more refined tourer than its forerunner.

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Still, it’s only in the package-and-gadget department that the ZX truly breaks new ground. Datsun has gone over to the Buick side in offering one all-encompassing Grand Luxury option (price not available at press time). Included are six-inch-wide alloy wheels (5.5-inch steel rims are standard), a rear-window wiper-washer, raisedwhite-letter Bridgestone tires, cloth upholstery, door map pockets, power steering, power windows, a central warning system (which tells you such useful bits of information as whether or not you have enough water in the windshield-washer bottle), a four-speaker stereo radio, an electrically adjustable passenger-side mirror (power mirrors are standard on the driver’s side), cruise control, and a dual fuel gauge. That’s a load of stuff, and some of it is clever enough to merit special mention. Take the driver’s-side power-window control, for example. You have two buttons, one of which works in the normal manner. The other button is like a trigger: touch it once and the window goes all the way down (or all the way up if it was already down). You don’t have to hold the button until the window arrives at its destination. Even Cadillac can’t match this. The only thing wrong with the system is that the control buttons are positioned low on the door, just where the old left knee hits during hard right turns.

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The four-speaker radio also has a neat gadget. Called a “surround-sound” control, it’s a stubby lever that can be moved in any direction, much like what is commonly used to adjust remote mirrors. This one acts as a single control to adjust the balance among the four speakers. The radio, by the way, produces a fine sound.
The final item of note in the Grand Luxury package is the dual fuel gauge. The idea here is to provide a highly accurate measure of the last quarter of the tank for all you guys who stay away from gas stations as long as possible. This is accomplished with two needles. One reads full-to-empty in the usual manner, while the full-scale travel of the second is from one-quarter to empty. This should enable you to worry about running out of gas with far greater accuracy.
Apart from the gadgets, the Grand Luxury package also has a few elements of trim that spruce up the interior. The standard ZX is very much like the old Z in that the upholstery is all-vinyl and very little bright-metal decor is used on the dash. But the Grand Luxury models get the full treatment, right down to home-stereo-style knobs on the radio. And finally, Datsun is offering fully color-coordinated interiors, so you no longer have to look at a black instrument panel unless you really want to.

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If all this emphasis on luxury seems to dilute the sporting nature of the two-seater, it only enhances the appeal of the 2 + 2, a model that we’ve shied away from before because of its curiously stretched appearance and isolation-chamber rear seat. But the ZX 2 + 2 makes sense. The proportions are happy—perhaps even more pleasing than those of the two-seater—and while the back is a bit too cramped for adults, it’s plenty big enough for grade-school children. And best of all, its extra length and weight in no way make it less fun to drive than the two-seater.
The message here is that Datsun has made a bit of a side step. The old Z has grown up to be a 2 + 2 sort of car-a sporting carriage rather than a hell-raiser-and it’ll haul your body around with a minimum of abuse. This is not the specialty of the other cars in the class, and it’s not what made the Z famous, but there is room in the market for a car of this sort and Datsun once again would appear to have a corner all to itself.
A Onceover, Not So Lightly
The ZX gets a styling critique from a not exactly disinterested party.
Considering the population density of the island of Manhattan, there are maybe only a thousand people who live four blocks up and just around the corner from C/D’s Park Avenue office. But as coincidence would have it, one of them just happens to be Albrecht Goertz, the man who, as a consultant to Nissan, designed the original Datsun 240-Z. Because he can be counted upon for strong opinions on-automobiles-and a fair dose of personal charm besides-we couldn’t resist inviting him around for coffee, opening up our file of still-secret 280-ZX photos, and asking him what he thought.
Our neighbor goes back a ways in the history of automotive design. He was born Count Albrecht Goertz in Brunkensen, Germany, in 1914, but since the royalty business is usually a bit slow for the second son, he came to the U.S. just before WWII. After various jobs and some design study, he joined Raymond Loewy to work on the l950-through-1953 Studebakers. But his most notable project by far, prior to the 240Z, was the beautiful BMW 507 sports car, an open two-seater that stands today as a high point of Fifties design.
The 240-Z was actually the second car Goertz did for Nissan. The first (not exported to the U.S.) was the Sylvia coupe, a smooth, well-organized shape not unlike the Opel Manta of the early Seventies. “When that was finished, they wanted to do something different, maybe a sports car. They really didn’t know what,” Goertz says. “And because they didn’t know what, I had a free hand. The two-seater concept wasn’t really my idea, but I liked it. I had just finished a stint at Porsche. If you look closely, you’ll see that the dimensions of the original 240-Z and the Porsche 911 are about the same. Designs have to start somewhere and the Porsche seemed right.
“As I look at this new car here, I can’t tell what they were trying to achieve. Apparently, they wanted to ride on the success of the old one, not change it too much.
“The original was a very lean car-exact, taut lines. If you look at it, there really wasn’t a hell of a lot you could leave off. Everything was nothing; the grille was nothing, the back was nothing.”
In this, Goertz is absolutely correct. The old Z grille was a masterpiece of simplicity. It was a rectangular opening bounded on the sides by the inner edges of the fenders and on top by the hood. There were no surround moldings and no mesh. Just a few bars inside and a bumper. It was, in effect, nothing.
“They didn’t even bother to integrate the bumpers on the new car,” he says. “I think you have to do that on any car today.” However, the ZX does follow the modern sportscar pattern set by the Porsche 924 and 928, the TR7 and the RX-7 in that its grille is located entirely below the front bumper. Would Goertz have done it that way? “Probably not,” he says. “You need something to look at, some opening or something. The center emblem, as on the Porsche, is not enough. The car is just a big blob out there.”
The original Z had a power bulge on the hood, which is continued on the ZX. But that was not decoration, according to Goertz; it was necessary to clear the engine. He would have preferred to add interest to the hood by channeling in a pair of air scoops, one on each side of the center, but the bulge took precedence.
Perhaps Goertz’s greatest disappointment with the ZX is centered on the side-windowandbeltline area. The Z beltline swept up into the rear pillar, unifying the side windows into what appeared from a distance to be a single opening. “This area was the Z’s biggest characteristic and they should have noticed it. When they brought out the 2+2, they changed it and something happened. Now, on the ZX, the two windows are not in harmony and they’ve tried to hide that by sticking that clinker on the door post. Actually, the new 2 + 2 looks better than the twoseater. The window shapes are more compatible there.”
Overall, Goertz sees the ZX as inconsistent. “Would you do that kind of steering wheel on a sporty GT?” he asks. And he ticks off other details: the tricky hood cutlines around the headlights, the front bumper that rises up in the middle to meet the hood, the two-tone paint separated by pinstripes, the chrome decoration on the door pillar. “This gets gooky,” he says, “an American look rather than imported. I wonder, when you do an imported car for here, how American should it be. I’ve always believed it should appeal to Americans but not be American. The old Z was like that.
“On the ZX, it really depends on what they were trying to accomplish. It would appear that they were just trying to bring the Z up to date. That sort of rehash is really hard. The designer says, ‘1 don’t know what to do with it anymore but it really hasn’t got it.’ They didn’t ask me to work on it, but if they had, I think I would have turned them down. But when they get ready to do a new car, I hope they’ll ask me.” —Patrick Bedard

Specifications

SPECIFICATIONS
1979 Datsun 280-ZX
VEHICLE TYPEFront-engine, rear-wheel-drive, 2-passenger, 2-door hatchback
PRICE AS TESTED (C/D EST)$13,000
ENGINE TYPESOHC 12-valve inline-6, iron block and aluminum head, port fuel injectionDisplacement: 168 in3, 2753 cm3Power: 135 hp @ 5200 rpmTorque: 144 lb-ft @ 4400 rpm
TRANSMISSION5-speed manual
CHASSISSuspension (F/R): struts/semi-trailing armsBrakes (F/R): 9.9-in vented disc/10.6-in discTires: Bridgestone RD-106 Steel, 195/70HR-14
DIMENSIONSWheelbase: 91.3 inLength: 174.0 inWidth: 66.5 in Height: 51.0 inCurb weight: 2900 lb
C/D TEST RESULTS30 mph: 2.9 sec60 mph: 9.1 sec100 mph: 29.6 sec1/4 mile: 17.1 sec @ 8.3 mphTop speed: 115 mphBraking, 70–0 mph: 184 ft

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From the August 1982 issue of Car and Driver.
Is this a joke or what?

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You open the back of the Honda City and what do you find? Another transportation device, called the MotoCompo. You almost expect to find yet another transportation device inside this two-wheeler; perhaps you’ve stumbled on a set of Chinese boxes. But then you unlock the plastic top-cover and discover the handlebars neatly folded inside. Within seconds they lock in place and you’ve got yourself a fully operational, 50cc, two-stroke motorbike.
But why?

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Well, the MotoCompo has a serious transportation function. Honest. In Japan, parking slots are often located miles from an individual’s place of work. The MotoCompo, a $332 option, is meant to pass the time between parking and working as quickly as possible. So far it all seems pretty reasonable. Then you realize what it’s going to be like lifting that 92-pound motorcycle out of the back of the City; only sumo wrestlers need apply. And there’s no telling what the people in the office elevator are going to think.

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As a plain old motorcycle, though, the MotoCompo is nice enough. It has a centrifugal clutch, so once you’ve kick-started it into life, you can just gas it and go. Better wear a helmet, though. Quick steering, tiny wheels, and a tall center of gravity, and foolhardiness, tend to make mini-bikes the first step toward a lifetime of skinned knees and bruised egos.
The MotoCompo is more than a conspiracy by the Band-Aid lobby, however. Japanese motorcycle manufacturers are convinced that mopeds and such have a future in America despite the bust of the last moped boom in 1978. You’ll be seeing a lot more little motorcycles in the near future. The philosophy behind the City: to get people interested in the big ones, first you have to make the little ones more fun and more affordable.

Specifications

SPECIFICATIONS
1982 Honda MotoCompo
VEHICLE TYPEMid-engine, rear-wheel-drive, 1-passenger motorcycle
PRICE AS TESTED$332
ENGINE TYPE single-cylinder, aluminum block and head, 1×1-bbl carburetorDisplacement 3 in3, 49 cm3Power 2.5 hp @ 5000 rpm
TRANSMISSION1-speed automatic
DIMENSIONSWheelbase: 32.7 inLength: 46.6 inWidth: 21.1 inHeight: 35.8 inCurb weight: 92 lb
C/D TEST RESULTSTop speed: 25 mph

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From the August 1982 issue of Car and Driver.
Quick, Myrna, the Flit! It’s an infestation in the making. First the Medfly, now the minicar. The latest permutation of this important new species is the Honda City. With its front-fender mirrors posed ominously like antennae, it even looks like a Japanese Beetle.
This Honda is more than just an automotive insect, however. It could revolutionize the way America travels. Unveiled at the Tokyo Motor Show last fall, the City earned universal acclaim for the way it fulfills its mission. That mission is easy to understand. If you examine the Honda City with historical perspective, you’ll see the Ford Model T far off in your time telescope. Like the Model T, the City is a minimal automobile designed strictly for utility.

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Ford was able to sell its minimal car virtually without modification for nineteen years because other automobiles were essentially luxury items. Once easy credit and low prices made luxury affordable for everyone, the minimal automobile lost favor and Henry began cranking out “cars,” vehicles that combined utility with luxury, recreation, and status. The minimal automobile survived only on the sidelines, in the form of the Fiat Topolino, Austin 7, and Nash Metropolitan. Now that credit is tight and prices are high, the minimal automobile is again fashionable. Cars like the VW Polo, Fiat Panda, and Daihatsu Charade face up to the modern transportation realities of crowded highways, limited parking, and gas at three dollars a gallon.

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The City is in the vanguard of the minicar revolution. Even now it’s breeding in Japan at the rate of 10,000 per month. It’s only a matter of time before cars like it swarm to these shores, though the American Honda Motor Company insists that it has no plans to sell the City here.
The question is, can minicars survive once they get here? America, after all, is a country where the cities are 60 miles apart, the people are six feet tall, and the trucks are 60 feet long. Since American Honda is as interested in the answer to this question as we are, its representatives caved in immediately when we asked to test one of two Honda Citys in the U.S. for a week.

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Right off, it’s clear that the City is a minimal car, not a miniature car. Its wheelbase is just 1.2 inches shorter than the Civic’s, its track is the same, and it’s 4.7 inches taller. Only the 15-inch difference in overall length makes the City seem smaller.
Other than size, the City shares very little with the Civic. Honda assigned a very young team to the City project (average age: 27) because it wanted a design that would reflect the assumptions and priorities of the future instead of the past. The project engineers decided that people came first and penciled the broad outline of an egg to accommodate them. The suspension and drivetrain were designed to fit the remaining nooks and crannies.

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Just like the Model T, the City makes its passengers comfortable by allowing them to sit upright. We couldn’t locate any thyroid cases to try the City on for size, but a couple of six-foot-two Americans not only were able to get comfortable behind the wheel (despite the seat’s limited fore-and-aft travel), but had enough headroom to wear a hat besides. Rear-seat room proved to be equally good, with far more legroom than a Civic or even a Camaro/Firebird. The City makes you realize that cars like the Civic have been squashed close to the ground to make them stylish, not small. Let the human form sit upright instead, and it can be made very comfortable in a surprisingly tight space. Moreover, Honda managed to make this package aerodynamic with a low, sloping hood, flush windshield moldings, and a vestigial roof spoiler; the factory claims a drag coefficient of 0.40 and zero lift.
Spartan appointments are supposed to be consistent with minicars, yet here again the City is much more than a breadbox on wheels. It brings a clean sense of style to space utilization, with the emphasis on utilization. There are over twenty nooks and crannies in what Honda calls its “Pocketterior,” including a clever space for storing small drink cans where they can be cooled by the car’s air-conditioning unit. There are so many storage spaces, in fact, that you run the risk of putting things away and forgetting them. Like last week’s cheese sandwich. The City’s interior volume might be close to that of the Civic, but its space utilization feels more efficient by a factor of three.

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The engine lives up to the same lofty standard set by the interior. The long­-stroke inline-four’s dimensions enable it to fit into a space Honda initially thought large enough only for a three-cylinder, and its all-aluminum construction makes it lighter than a three-cylinder with balance shafts would probably be. Yet the engine’s power rating is hardly undersized. In the test car’s sporting R configuration, the 1232cc four pumps out 67 Japanese horsepower at 5500 rpm—roughly the same as the U.S.­ specification Civic 1500.

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The engine’s secret is a cylinder head called COMBAX (compact blazing combustion axiom), derived from Honda’s CVCC (compound vortex-controlled combustion) design. In a small, secondary combustion chamber with a separate intake valve, a rich mixture lights off to burn a much leaner mixture in the primary combustion chamber. This stratified-charge design has evolved far enough at Honda to permit the under­square COMBAX engine to combine an overall lean fuel mixture, for fuel economy, with a remarkably high compression ratio of 10.0:1, for power and response. (A third-world version of this engine has a 9.0:1 compression ratio for burning low-octane fuel.) The R engine, in conjunction with the R package’s performance-oriented final-drive ratio, powers the 1660-pound City through the quarter-mile in 18.6 seconds at 70 mph while squeezing 41 miles from a gallon of gas in American driving conditions.
The City also puts its power to the ground efficiently. Fully independent suspension and generous wheel travel with gentle ride rates swallow bumps whole. Some harshness can be felt, and the car pitches a little over freeway expansion joints, but in general the City is stable and controlled where a Civic is vague and mushy. Moreover, the City steers toward an apex almost as crisply as an old Honda S850 sports car, while torque steer is almost imperceptible. In the middle of a corner, though, the City does heel over on its tires like a seasick Citroen 2CV. The R-type’s 165/70SR- 12 rubber (with stunning aluminum wheels) stays on the ground, but too much stunt driving makes you wish you’d stored some Dramamine in one of those twenty pockets. In our brake tests, the stopping distance from 70 mph was a surprisingly short 187 feet.

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Minicar or not, the Honda gives you a tremendous feeling of well-being no matter what kind of driving environment you plunge into. In town, it slashes through traffic with the responsiveness of a sports car and the instincts of a New York taxicab. Only the drivetrain’s tendency to buck in its soft rubber mounts under a less than sensitive throttle foot (a characteristic shared with the Civic and Accord) undercuts its wonderfulness. On the freeway, you’re high enough to see and be seen, so you never feel threatened by oil-truck claustrophobia. The City lacks a little straight-line stability, but that’s its only serious freeway fault.
When you come right down to it, the only thing that restricts this car to metropolitan use is its name. It’s as well suited to the wide-open spaces as an Escort. You just have to get used to the way it looks, that’s all. Even people at the wheel of French cars were poleaxed by the City’s appearance. But once we told them it was made in Remulac (that’s in France, you know), they seemed reassured. After a while the City managed to look loony and sensible at the same time, like a VW Beetle.

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If minicars are this good, you have to wonder why more manufacturers aren’t rushing them to market. It’s a matter of dollars and sense, as a Ford spokesman told the L.A. Times last year: “The sales potential for minicars is there, but no one knows how great it is. It would cost $3 billion to find out, and we don’t have the money to gamble. We just can’t throw that kind of money into a gap in the market that hasn’t been tested.”
Most of the protests seem to be simple posturing, however. A 1981 survey by J.D. Power & Associates, the noted research firm, suggested that 200,000 people would buy minicars right now if they could. Minicars seem to appeal to younger drivers who are no longer interested in trading up to larger and larger automotive emblems of status. They seek utilitarian automobiles that can adapt to the varied requirements of their lifestyles—that is, they care more about what a car does and what it costs than what it represents.

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George LippCar and Driver

Detroit is already on the way with new cars to meet this market. General Motors’ S-car, designed by Opel and scheduled to be built by Isuzu and Suzuki, should replace the Chevette in 1985. Ford hopes to beat GM into the minicar market in 1984 with a car code­named Minx that is smaller than a Fiesta and has an engine built by Toyo Kogyo (the design bogey is the three-cylinder Daihatsu Charade). Volkswagen, Fiat, Suzuki, and Honda all are interested in bringing their minicars ashore, but they seem to be waiting to see what happens with import restrictions and, more important, with the DOT’s standards for crash tests.

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George LippCar and Driver

The Honda City certainly proves that minicars need not be thought of as a retrograde step in automotive evolution, no matter how much some of them might resemble the lower forms of animal life. The City ranks with any automobile anywhere in value, utility, and driving enjoyment. Honda might indeed have doubts about the City’s future in America, but we have none. It is precisely the inexpensive, unpretentious, efficient, and fun-to-drive car that we need to put America on wheels again. Just as the Model T was the right car for the first twenty years of this century, the Honda City could well be the right car for the last twenty years.

Specifications

SPECIFICATIONS 
1982 Honda City
VEHICLE TYPEFront-engine, front-wheel-drive, 4-passenger, 2-door hatchback
PRICE AS TESTED (Japan)$4707 (base price: $3299)
ENGINE TYPE SOHC 8-valve inline-4, aluminum block and head, 1×2-bbl carburationDisplacement 75 in3, 1232 cm3Power 67 hp @ 5500 rpmTorque 72 lb-ft @ 3500 rpm
TRANSMISSION 5-speed manual
CHASSIS Suspension (F/R): struts/strutsBrakes (F/R): 8.4-in disc/7.1-in drumTires: Bridgestone RD-116 Steel, 165/70SR-12
DIMENSIONSWheelbase: 87.4 inLength: 133.1 inWidth: 61.8 inHeight: 57.9 inCurb weight: 1660 lb
C/D TEST RESULTS60 mph: 12.6 secTop gear, 30–50 mph: 11.2 secTop gear, 50–70 mph: 24.2 sec1/4 mile: 18.6 sec @ 70 mphTop speed: 91 mphBraking, 70–0 mph: 187 ftRoadholding, 200-ft-dia skidpad: 0.72 g
C/D FUEL ECONOMYObserved: 41 mpg

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It only seems as if Cadillac has been struggling in the luxury compact segment since Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac founded the city of Detroit in 1701. It hasn’t been quite that long, of course, but it has been nearly 40 years since General Motors’s luxury brand introduced the Cimarron to take on BMW’s and Audi’s compacts. The gussied-up Chevrolet Cavalier was such a flop that it’ll forever be on the list of legendary automotive embarrassments along with Ford’s Edsel, Pontiac’s Aztek, and the Aston Martin Cygnet.

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Bringing up the C-word in a review of the 2020 Cadillac CT4 may seem unfair. The Cimarron was such a debacle that Caddy licked its wounds for nearly 30 years, surrendering the small-luxury-car segment to BMW, Mercedes, and Audi. In 2013 it finally jumped back in with the rear-wheel-drive ATS, and that’s really where the story of the CT4 begins. Cadillac says its latest, smallest, and least expensive sedan is all new, but that’s a bit of a stretch. It’s more like a heavily refreshed ATS.
New Mission, Same Old Chassis
While the ATS attempted to go head to head with the BMW 3-series and Mercedes C-class compacts, Cadillac says it is ceding that role of the new and larger CT5, which replaces the CTS. The CT4 has been reassigned to take on the front-wheel-drive-based subcompacts from the premium brands such as the Audi A3, BMW 2-series Gran Coupe, and Mercedes A-class.

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Cadillac

That makes the CT4 the only rear-drive sedan in the class. Its chassis is carried over from the ATS, along with the majority of its exterior dimensions, including an unchanged 109.3-inch wheelbase. Squint, and it still looks a lot like its predecessor, but Cadillac says all of its sheetmetal is new, and it has grown 4.4 inches in overall length. Its base powertrain is also familiar. Luxury, Premium Luxury, and Sport trims get the same 237-hp turbocharged 2.0-liter with eight-speed automatic transmission used in the base CT5.
Cadillac has shelved the 3.6-liter V-6 as the upgrade engine. In its place is a turbocharged 2.7-liter four-cylinder paired with a 10-speed automatic, a combination also used in other GM models, including the Chevrolet Silverado. Rated at 310 horsepower and 350 pound-feet of torque, it’s a $2500 option on Premium Luxury models and standard in the CT4-V, where it’s bumped up to 325 horsepower and 380 pound-feet. Those are great numbers for this class. Cadillac expects about half of CT4 buyers to opt for all-wheel drive, which adds about 130 pounds to the car and is available across the range.
Dynamically Deficient
Equipped with the turbocharged 2.7-liter—which wears a 450T badge—and rear-wheel drive, our Premium Luxury test car had no shortage of power. Its considerable torque plateaus quickly at just 1800 rpm, so there’s no need to rev it toward its redline. The 10-speed automatic is happy to keep it in its torquey sweet spot. There are paddle shifters, but you’ll use them only for fun, not out of frustration. This is also the only car in this class that can do a John Force-style burnout through three gears. Cadillac says it can sprint to 60 mph in 5.0 seconds, just 0.2 seconds behind the CT4-V and a significant 1.2 seconds ahead of Cadillac’s claims for the base 2.0-liter. That’s quicker than the A3 and Mercedes A220 but in line with the BMW 228i Gran Coupe, which has only 228 horsepower.

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Cadillac

Unfortunately, this large four-cylinder idles with the clatter of a diesel and is alarmingly boomy through the top half of the tachometer. And it sounds like John Deere—not John Force—tuned the exhaust system. Despite a noise-cancellation system and Cadillac “enhancing” the engine’s sounds through the audio speakers, it’s more noise than note. Sound enhancement is paired with the vehicle settings. Tour is the default, Sport is nearly unbearable, and then there’s Stealth. You want Stealth. Or earplugs.
Its stop-start function also isn’t as smooth as it should be, but its EPA ratings of 20 mpg city and 30 mpg highway are in line with the class. And we averaged 26 mpg in mixed driving in Los Angeles, beating its combined rating by 2 mpg.
According to Dave Schmidt, the CT4 lead development engineer, the structure is stiffer than before and cabin isolation is improved, but there’s still some work to do. It isn’t particularly quiet inside, and the CT4’s pedals vibrate on some road surfaces. Only the CT4-V gets the latest version of GM’s Magnetic Ride Control, and it’s missed on our Premium Luxury test car, which rides comfortably but is a touch floaty.

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Cadillac

When pushed in the hills, however, a little float becomes underdamped and imprecise. Mid-corner bumps upset the chassis, and there’s more body roll than expected. It’s competent at an easy, swift pace, especially in fast, smooth sweepers, but it’s not much fun. We applaud Cadillac for mounting the battery in the trunk to improve the CT4’s weight distribution, but the all-season tires keep the limits low, and despite the rear-drive layout, it understeers reliably. For those looking for better handling, CT4 Sport models get firmer dampers, which may improve matters.
Smarter Cabin
The new interior is a huge improvement over the ATS’s cabin. It’s not only more attractive, it’s also easier to live with and uses the space inside better. Cadillac’s experiment with touch-sensitive panels instead of buttons and knobs is over. The normal switchgear and controls in the CT4 work better and are more intuitive. The new seats are soft but proved comfortable during a 250-mile day. It also has one of the roomiest rear seats in its class, but that’s not saying much. Legroom is still tight.
All CT4s come with an 8.0-inch infotainment touchscreen, and Cadillac says a larger screen is on the way. Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, and an onboard Wi-Fi hotspot are standard, and the CT4 is fitted with GM’s new digital vehicle platform architecture, which is faster and accepts over-the-air updates. A full complement of driver aids is available, but most are not offered on the base Luxury model and are optional extras on the Premium Luxury. Caddy’s self-driving SuperCruise is promised for later this year.

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Cadillac

Prices start at $33,990 for a Luxury and $38,490 for the Premium Luxury, putting the CT4 right on top of its German rivals. With the optional powertrain and a long list of other packages that added everything from navigation and wireless phone charging to automatic emergency braking and a head-up display, our test car reached a shocking $48,065. And that price didn’t include a sunroof or a power-opening trunk. And the CT4’s hood is held up with a prop rod instead of struts, which just seems like penny pinching. There’s also the matter of badging. Cadillac says the numbers highlight its peak torque output measured in newton-meters. With the 2.7-liter engine, it’s branded a 450T, but the engine’s torque calculates to 475 Nm. That mistake could be solved with a heat gun, some dental floss, and 10 minutes of your time.
Forty years since the Cimarron dragged Cadillac’s reputation through a Chevy showroom, the brand is still struggling to achieve small-car excellence. The CT4 offers solid performance, more interior space than most of its competitors, and its interior design is a leap forward, but it’s sabotaged by refinement deficiencies and disappointing dynamics. It is a good small sedan, but in Premium Luxury guise, it falls short of its more refined and fun-to-drive German rivals.

Specifications

Specifications
2020 Cadillac CT4 450T
VEHICLE TYPE front-engine, rear- or all-wheel-drive, 5-passenger, 4-door sedan
BASE PRICE $40,990
ENGINE TYPE turbocharged and intercooled DOHC 16-valve inline-4, aluminum block and head, direct fuel injectionDisplacement 166 in3, 2727 cm3Power 310 hp @ 5600 rpmTorque 350 lb-ft @ 1800 rpm
TRANSMISSION 10-speed automatic
DIMENSIONS Wheelbase: 109.3 inLength: 187.2 inWidth: 71.5 inHeight: 56.0 inPassenger volume: 90 ft3Trunk volume: 11 ft3Curb weight (C/D est): 3650–3800 lb
PERFORMANCE (C/D EST) 60 mph: 5.0–5.2 sec100 mph: 11.7–11.9 sec1/4 mile: 13.5–13.7 secTop speed: 140 mph
EPA FUEL ECONOMY Combined/city/highway: 23–24/20/28–30 mpg

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If you could see me riding in the rear seat of the Bentley Flying Spur, which I’m doing right now, you’d have every reason to assume I’m rich. You’d be half right. Yes, I have a chauffeur by the name of Dave. But despite appearances, I’m not actually rich—just Rich, the regular person. And Dave […] More

From the March 1994 issue of Car and Driver.
If the $226,450 price of the 1994 Bentley Turbo R seems a bit, well, extravagant in this era of frugality, a short tour of Rolls-Royce’s assembly plant in Crewe, England, will soon put things in perspective.
The factory where Bentleys are built employs both space-age technology and olde-worlde craftsmanship. There are gleaming clean rooms where engines are assiduously assembled to extremely close tolerances, and there are workshops where craftsmen go to extraordinary lengths to shape and polish veneered dashboards and to cut and stitch flawless hides.

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It is precisely all that diligent craftsmanship that helps offset any financial misgivings prospective owners might have, even knowing there are several arguably better cars to be had for less than half the Bentley’s price. Of course, better is a relative term. After all, the Bentley Turbo R will propel itself from rest to 60 mph in 6.4 seconds, and through the quarter-mile in 14.9 seconds at 93 mph. In our hands, the car also ran a 146-mph top speed, and stopped from 70 mph in just 171 feet.

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Dick KelleyCar and Driver

These are more than modest accomplishments for a five-seat luxury car weighing more than 5300 pounds. And now, after an extensive corporate reorganization that has resulted in significant new product-development programs, the 1994 Bentley Turbo R is also better equipped, more refined, and more efficient. The engines have new cylinder heads with larger valves and manifolds that flow more freely, and the motor electronics have been optimized in the area of turbo-boost control and transmission-shift energy management. Plus the car’s suspension has been carefully recalibrated.

HIGHS: Ample power, glorious craftsmanship, genuine exclusivity.

On the other hand, the car is also another year older. Although the company could argue that it is one year better, the unavoidable side effects of its old design are readily apparent. Climbing into the car, for example, we are reminded how uncommonly high the floors of these cars are. Likewise, the seat and windshield are at an elevation not unlike that of a pickup truck. This is what Bentley calls “a commanding driver’s position.”
And it’s true. You get a lofty perch and a good view of the road ahead. But the driver’s seat is so high that people with long torsos will find their scalps uncomfortably close to—or even touching—the wool headliner, and their view of overhead traffic lights neatly cut off by the roof where it meets the windshield. A retreat to the rear seat will not provide much relief. The space back there, while adequate for passengers of average size, does not compare favorably to that found in, say, a Chrysler New Yorker. (For more space, try the Turbo RL model with a wheelbase that is four inches longer.) Fortunately, the ambiance provided by the elegant wood veneers, the impossibly even-grained leather, the lambs-wool rugs, and the other lavish interior appointments go a long way to negate any niggles about space.

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Dick KelleyCar and Driver

To set the raffish Bentley apart from its stuffy stablemate Rolls-Royce, the Turbo R’s cockpit boasts features like a tachometer and a gear selector that has been moved from the steering column to a much sportier position in the center console. The selector is a switch rather than a lever that sends electronic instructions down to the four-speed automatic transmission as it slides effortlessly from position to position. But it looks the part, and the transmission now has a shift strategy that coordinates engine and transmission functions electronically so that engine torque is reduced briefly during shifts for smoother driving.

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Dick KelleyCar and Driver

The engine now features electronic transient boost control, which provides a brief period of high turbo boost during the initial stages of full-throttle acceleration. This is of particular value during passing maneuvers, when the big Bentley steams by slower traffic with surprising vehemence. At full throttle, the car belies its size and weight, pulling through each gear on an unrelenting wave of torque.

LOWS: King Kong price, lusty thirst, debatable value.

With this much punch, the Bentley obviously needs help from the rest of the chassis to stay on the road in corners. So the car’s suspension is more firmly sprung than lesser Bentleys and Rollers, and has more stringent roll control. It also has Bentley’s adaptive ride control, with three levels of damping firmness for a ride that is poised and fairly taut without feeling harsh.

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Dick KelleyCar and Driver

The refinements have eliminated nearly all of the structural creaks that we’d noticed on poor surfaces in earlier Bentley Turbos. A self-leveling system operates at the rear, and you can set up a series of front-end pogo-ing motions with a couple of well-timed dab at the throttle before the rear jacks up to restore the car’s composure.
Considering its size and role, the Turbo R exhibits a good compromise between comfort and control—an achievement worth applauding even after a decade of development—and it can be driven with enthusiasm while retaining a fair sense of what is going on at the contact patches. The steering is also new for ’94, and it feels much livelier and more naturally weighted than the Rolls version, although it’s still somewhat remote by contemporary car standards.

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Dick KelleyCar and Driver

The brakes leave little to be desired, but we were disappointed when the brake pedal refused to return to its resting position after our braking tests, causing the brake lights to remain on and requiring us to rig up a firmly tensioned bungee cord to restore normal function. We also noticed that at idle the big V-8 produces a discernible bobbing motion, and that it is quite vocal when asked for maximum output. Our car also shook the front passenger seat significantly when it was unoccupied.

THE VERDICT: If you can afford one, don’t let us stop you.

Nevertheless, our microcassette recorder played back our verbal notes with remarkably little rumble and roar, so perhaps the crew at Crewe knows which frequencies to kill and which to ignore. They’ve certainly done a convincing job of making the Bentley perform like a modern car while incorporating the traditional trappings needed to justify the enormous price of ownership. The challenge now is to attract enough wealthy customers to sustain profitable operations. And that will be a considerable challenge indeed.
Counterpoints
Everyone seems enthralled with the Turbo R’s unusual combination of performance and weight, as if weight were a property of some intrinsic virtue. I think the best aspect of this car is its terrific paint job. The color is deep and rich and the finish is uncontaminated by even a trace of murkiness or orange peel. The hood reflects every detail of the drifting clouds overhead, as if it were a flawlessly tinted mirror. There are faster luxury sedans for less money, but if your hangup is paint, there’s no substitute for the Bentley’s hand­-rubbed finish. —Csaba Csere
Is my judgment clouded by bourgeois awe, or is this actually a pretty decent car? Rollers and Bentleys have never been terribly good at doing the things car magazine editors like doing. Yet, if I’m not mistaken, I enjoyed driving this zillion-pound tank at least half as much as I enjoyed arriving in it. It goes and stops as well as many good sport coupes weighing half as much. Its demeanor at 146 mph is as imperturbable as any Mercedes. It corners flatter than most 2.5-ton vehicles I’ve driven. And my neighbors just died! (I guess we’d better not discount the bourgeois awe factor). —Frank Markus
What I like to do with a Bentley Turbo is crawl along a freeway at about 50 mph, then floor it. The sensation is of an old 707 at liftoff, and the sound of this huge, ancient engine issues forth a great deal of fury. There is just nothing like a Rolls. A lot of people will say that’s the problem, and they have their points because it is a dinosaur. But what a dinosaur! What other car has a choice of horns? Or a hood the length of an ICBM? Or leather seats as hard as saddles? Of course it makes no sense to most people, but the Sultan of Brunei and the Duke of Kent are not regular Joes. —Steve Spence

Specifications

Specifications
1994 Bentley Turbo R
VEHICLE TYPE front-engine, rear-wheel-drive, 5-passenger, 4-door sedan
PRICE AS TESTED $226,450 (base price: $226,450)
ENGINE TYPE turbocharged and intercooled pushrod 16-valve V-8, aluminum block and heads, port fuel injectionDisplacement 412 in3, 6748 cm3Power 360 hp @ 4300 rpmTorque 460 lb-ft @ 3000 rpm
TRANSMISSION 4-speed automatic
CHASSIS Suspension (F/R): control arms/semi-trailing armBrakes (F/R): 11.1-in vented disc/10.9-in discTires: Avon Turbo Speed CR27, 255/60ZR-16
DIMENSIONS Wheelbase: 120.5 inLength: 207.4 inWidth: 74.3 inHeight: 58.5 inPassenger volume: 92 ft3Trunk volume: 12 ft3Curb weight: 5316 lb
C/D TEST RESULTS 60 mph: 6.4 sec100 mph: 17.7 sec130 mph: 44.2 secRolling start, 5–60 mph: 7.0 secTop gear, 30–50 mph: 3.1 secTop gear, 50–70 mph: 4.3 sec1/4 mile: 14.9 sec @ 93 mphTop speed (drag limited): 146 mphBraking, 70–0 mph: 171 ftRoadholding, 300-ft-dia skidpad: 0.74 g
C/D FUEL ECONOMY Observed: 10 mpg
EPA FUEL ECONOMY City/highway: 10/16 mpg

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The age of front-engine supercars is over, they say. Finished. Kaput. Mid-engine is where it’s at, just ask the Chevrolet Corvette. But the crowd at the Cars & Coffee gathering says otherwise. The 2020 Mercedes-AMG GT R roadster may have its twin-turbo V-8 mounted between its grille and its dashboard, but it’s been swarmed since […] More

South Africa is always a long way away, but our visit in February now seems distant in more than just geographic terms, coming as it did in the last weeks of a pre-pandemic world. We traveled to Cape Town to drive a late-development prototype of the revised Bentayga, the story set to coincide with what […] More