Runts of the Liter

Darwin was only half right. Certainly, living things evolve, but so do machines.

Consider the automobile. Eighty years ago, it was only a buggy with a gasoline engine instead of horses. Today, it is the most sophisticated machine ever put into mass production. Now, if only Darwin were still around to tell us why, as people are growing larger, cars are getting smaller.

Clearly, they are. Compact and subcompact cars, the standard throughout most of the world, have become a major force in the U.S. market over the past 15 years. And the signs all point to even more downsizing. These so-called liter cars are now available, tiny little cars with three-cylinder, 1.0-liter engines (Chevy Turbo Sprint, Daihatsu Charade, Subaru Justy), and there's more to come. In Japan, for the first time in 20 years, the subcompact Toyota Corolla has been displaced from its top sales spot by the Suzuki Alto, a microscopic car powered (if that isn't stretching the term too far) by a 550-c.c. engine. In this vision of the future, the automobile is small.

Enter Jay Leno, star of stage, screen and the hot seat on The Tonight Show and an honest-to-monkey-wrench hands-on car guy.

"Ah, I see the hors d'oeuvres have arrived. Will the main course be here soon?" he asks, unfolding himself from behind the wheel of his vintage Lamborghini Espada and strolling like some spit-and-polish battalion commander down the line of 16 very shiny, very small cars assembled by Playboy for his inspection.

"They look so cute all lined up like that, like a series of Time-Life books on cars. The only problem is that if you want to send one back after the ten-day free trial is over, you'll have to mortgage your house for the postage."

It is no accident that finds Leno doing vehicular stand-up in the parking lot of the Playboy Building on Sunset Boulevard. Cars, particularly big cars, have been a recurring theme throughout his life. "I was a grease monkey at a Rolls/Bentley dealership in Boston," Leno told us. "And it was there that I was exposed to the cars that gave me such a case of the car crazies that I had to go into show business to support my habit." After hitting the road to comedy and winding up in Los Angeles, he spent more than one long, lonely night in the back seat of a '55 Roadmaster he still owns and calls, respectfully, Mr. Buick. "I keep it around in case I ever need someplace to have a formal dinner for seven."

Leno's current stable, most of which he restored and works on himself, includes a dozen motorcycles of various vintages, the aforementioned Roadmaster and Lamborghini Espada, a recently acquired vintage Lamborghini Muira, a Morgan three-wheeler and a beautifully crafted replica of a legendary Sixties sports car called a Cobra. With such credentials, he seemed the perfect judge to test the current crop of pocket rockets.

Not that every car we chose to test, and he chose to drive, was the most high-performance model, nor even, in some cases, the smallest. Some were two-seat sports cars, some were four-door sedans, and we threw in a couple of four-wheel-drives, a utility vehicle and a station wagon, just for variety's sake. What we wound up with was a cross section of what the downsizing trend in automotive evolution has delivered into new-car showrooms of America.

After a day of joking and driving, a couple of close calls and some tire-screaming hand-brake turns into the parking lot that left the attendant wondering if his ticket shack was going to be turned into a toothpick concession, the cars seemed to fall into four categories that we'll call New Age Slot Cars, Turbo Beefcake, Lawn Tractors for the Masses and Maytag-Mobiles.

New Age Slot Cars: Leno defined this group with the comment "Looking at these cars, you just know that they were designed by somebody who owns a complete collection of Buck Rogers comic books."

Styling was the principal criterion for this category, which included the Honda CRX Si, Daihatsu Charade, Ford Festiva, Chevrolet Turbo Sprint, Pontiac LeMans, Mitsubishi Mirage Turbo and the Nissan Pulsar NX. Principal among these is the Honda CRX Si, the most overt bad-boy street racer in the group. It proved to be Leno's favorite and, coincidentally, was the only car in the group with an extra little window in the rear end, just like Leno's Espada. "This is definitely a driver's car, and I even like the way it looks ... kind of like a one-tenth-scale model of Devo's tour bus," he said.

The CRX series has been redesigned for 1988, with changes that include slick new styling that not only provokes envious looks from other drivers but also lowers the already low 0.32 drag coefficient to 0.30.

Also on tap are race-car-derived double-wishbone suspension and a more powerful fuel-injected power plant. The base CRX engine is a 1.5-liter four-cylinder that produces 92 horsepower, while the higher-performing Si motor is a 1.6-liter with 105 hp, enough to let you indulge your most Mittyesque race-driver fantasies. It might be a good idea to prepare your witty retorts in advance, because, as Leno noted, "Get stopped for speeding in this thing and the cop's first question is going to be, 'OK, Krypto, where's the meltdown?' "

Next on Leno's must-drive list was the Mitsubishi Mirage Turbo. With the introduction of a turbocharged model in 1984, the Mirage, also sold under the name Colt at Dodge dealers, made a giant evolutionary leap from econo-box to a three-fourths-scale muscle car disguised as a three-door hatchback. A four-door sedan is also available, but only with a 68-hp, 1.5-liter, four-cylinder engine, while the Turbo model is powered by a 1.6-liter that puts out 105 hp. Both are available with a standard five-speed manual or optional three-speed automatic transmission, though, as Leno said, "Ordering a Turbo with an automatic is like putting army boots on a race horse."

The Turbo hatchback is distinguished not only by the motor but also by a sport-tuned suspension (stiffer springs, shocks and sway bars), turbo-boost gauge and an add-on aero body kit consisting of front air dam, rear spoiler and side sills. The exterior is devoid of the large turbo graphics with which many manufacturers festoon their vehicles, but the interior makes up for it with "turbo-accented" upholstery fabric and a large Turbo logo in the middle of the steering wheel.

"My automotive sensibilities were formed in an era when if you had a Nardi wood-rimmed steering wheel on your car, you were hot stuff," said Leno. "To my eye, the steering wheels on all these new cars look like something off a video game, and the dashboards look like a GoBot about to change into a laser-powered whirlpool."

Moving down the line, Leno slid behind the wheel of the white-on-white Chevrolet Turbo Sprint (that and red-on-red are the only two colors in which it's available). Built for Chevrolet by Suzuki, the Sprint is the smallest car ever to sit in a Chevrolet dealer's showroom. It's made in only a two-door hatchback style.

The 1.0-liter turbocharged and intercooled three-cylinder engine pumps out a healthy 70 hp. Leno felt that the engine "sounds like Popeye humming Pagliacci, but it moves the car down the road like Mighty Mouse on steroids." Loosely translated, it means that the Turbo Sprint can accelerate from a standstill to 60 miles per hour in ten and a half seconds.

In addition to the turbocharger and the intercooler, the Turbo Sprint's capabilities are enhanced by wider tires and upgraded suspension, an add-on aero kit and dual tail pipes. "This is a car you can drive as fast as you want all the time and never get a ticket," said Leno. "Paint a red cross on the side, put flashing lights on top, and everyone will assume you're rushing to the robot hospital for a battery transplant."

Walking around the Nissan Pulsar NX prior to taking it for a blast down Sunset Boulevard, Leno observed that "this car has such a California look about it, you just know that the guy who designed it still has his surfboard up in the rafters of his garage. And he might even take it down and use it once in a while."

In fact, the Pulsar is built in Japan, but it was created at the Nissan Design International center in San Diego, which accounts for the surf-modular styling. And it is the first mass-produced modular automobile, made so by virtue of the interchangeable bodywork in the rear. It can be converted from a coupe to a convertible to a station wagon, all with simple hand tools and all without ever losing its sporty character. Power is supplied by a new, larger, 1.8-liter, 16-valve, four-cylinder engine that puts out an enthusiastic 125 hp.

"What a clever idea," Leno noted. "A station wagon/sports car so you can get to the country club by tee-off time. Too bad I left my transistorized golf clubs in my other suit." The SportBak station-wagon module is a $925 option that led Leno to speculate about future offerings. "Perhaps a drop-in whirlpool bath so you can unwind on the way home from the office, or a portable transporter so you could have Scotty beam you up when you get stuck in traffic."

And traffic tends to magnify the virtues of a nimble little car, such as the new Daihatsu Charade. Daihatsu is the ninth, smallest and last of the Japanese auto manufacturers to enter the U.S. market. The vehicle it chose for the task is the Charade, one of the new breed of liter cars. Powered by a 993-c.c., 53-hp, three-cylinder engine, the Charade went on sale December first at 122 dealers in eight Southwestern states.

The Charade has been sold in 70 countries for the past ten years, so although it's new to these shores, Daihatsu (of which Toyota owns about 15 percent) has plenty of experience building small cars. And it has identified a new target market for the car: upscale young professionals looking for a graceful way to unshoulder the burden of Mercedes payments. Or, as Leno put it, "I expect you'll be seeing a lot of these on Wall Street in the near future. Do they make a stretch version so the chauffeur has someplace to sit?"

Company officials claim the marketing plan is working, and the Charade has some typically Germanic virtues, including a two-door body style that is at once contemporary and conservative. It feels bigger inside than outside, and it feels solid, even at speed. Although the current model does not pretend to be a sports car, the multivalve, turbocharged GT Ti model, already available in Japan (and doubtless soon to be available here), is a sports car that does not need to pretend.

No pretense was involved in the "world car" concept that Ford was espousing a decade ago. Its dream was of one single vehicle that met every country's regulations and could be sold all over the world. What reality served up was a car built all over the world, the Festiva. Conceived by Ford of Japan, developed in cooperation with Mazda (of which Ford owns 25 percent), the Festiva is assembled by Kia Motors, one of South Korea's leading vehicle makers.

Just 140.5 inches from bumper to bumper, the Festiva has 98.4 cubic feet of interior room, which is a measurement you'd expect from a car two feet longer. "I hear AT&T is going to put out a special edition," said Leno. "It's the Clark Kent model, with dark-tinted windows for people who change their clothes in public."

The engine is a frugal 1.3-liter four-cylinder that puts out 58 hp and, combined with the optional five-speed manual transmission (a four-speed manual is standard), gives the Festiva the lowest EPA estimated annual fuel cost in the Ford line--just $366 per year.

Three trim levels are available, of course, but they all ride down the road on rack-and-pinion steering, front disc brakes, MacPherson struts in front and torsion beam in the rear. Pretty much standard fare these days, but the Festiva has a smooth, willing personality that comes through when you motor briskly. As long as you don't fling it into the turns thinking sports-car thoughts, you can think fun-car thoughts all the way from A to B.

Nor is Ford the only auto maker with a world car sitting on the showroom floor. Pontiac is in the game, too, with its latest deluxe transpo module, the LeMans. Tales of the car's convoluted lineage threw Leno into game-show overdrive: "And now, for the matched set of nymphets and an all-expense-paid weekend to Plato's Retreat, give us the complete history of this car in 25 words or less."

Well, it was named after a famous European race track, engineered by Adam Opel Ag. in Germany, built by Daewoo in a Korean town called Pupyong. Count 'em, pal. Now, where are those nymphets?

The LeMans is available in a two-door Aerocoupe and a four-door sedan, both powered by a 1.6-liter four-cylinder that puts out 74 hp. We're talking zero-to-60-mph acceleration in the 13-to-15-second range and fuel economy of 31/40 (city/highway) miles per gallon with the standard five-speed manual transmission, or 27/32 with the optional three-speed automatic.

TV commercials for the LeMans are positioning it as an econo/sports car for the enthusiast driver, and it is appropriately nimble on the road. But the particular virtue that sticks in the mind is that it handles and rides like (continued on page 164)Runts of the Liter(continued from page 123) a French car, which, noted Leno, "means that it corners on the door handles, but you can hit a speed bump at 60 miles an hour while drinking a Perrier without blowing bubbles out your nose."

The second category of cars, which Leno dubbed Turbo Beefcake, includes the Mazda 323 GT and Isuzu I-Mark Turbo. "What we got here," explained Leno, "is a pair of college-educated Hulk Hogans dressed up for a prime-time wrasslin' spectacular."

Equally to the point, he observed that the Mazda 323 "looks like a Japanese Volvo and drives like a BMW on a caffeine high." It's true that you don't get the full dose of that teenage-athlete-in-pinstripes thing that the Germans do so well, but then, most German suits don't come with three pairs of pants, as is the case with the Mazda. Depending on your sartorial preferences, you can get it dressed up as a full-figure five-door wagon, a four-door business suit or a three-door Hawaiian-print ensemble with turbo motor and four-wheel drive.

The sporty GT four-door sedan we tested is new for 1988 and is powered by a turbocharged, 132-hp, 16-valve version of the 1.6-liter four-cylinder found throughout the 323 line. Apart from its ability to display its prominent taillights to almost anything else on the road, the 323 GT is distinguished inside by special upholstery and seats with even more ergonomic adjustments than usual. Outside, except for a small GT badge, the only indicator is a set of 14-inch alloy wheels shod with special high-performance tires. As Leno put it, "This is the perfect car for stop-light macho contests."

Fibulist Joe Isuzu would probably describe the Isuzu I-Mark Turbo as being "more nimble than a Formula I racer, more predictable than a Johnny Carson monolog, and the adjustable bucket seats include several positions from the Kama Sutra."

Actually, the Isuzu I-Mark Turbo looks like a Japanese Volvo and drives like a ... well, like a Mazda 323 GT. The turbocharged Isuzu four-cylinder engine puts out 110 hp from a displacement of 1.5 liters (a 46 percent increase over the nonturbo base engine) and gives the car zero-to-60-mph acceleration capabilities in the under-ten-second range. "What you've basically got here," said Leno, "is a four-door sports car that goes with your attaché case."

A rather neat summation of a vehicular concept, and one that, with a quick mental two-step, leads rather neatly to the category Leno dubbed Lawn Tractors for the Masses. This is machinery in which form follows function and not vice versa. Included in the group are the Suzuki Samurai, Subaru Justy and Yugo GV--vehicles whose principal virtues are mechanical simplicity, utilitarian character and a low price. "In Beverly Hills," said Leno, "they buy these things by the dozen and give them out as Christmas gifts." Any of the three will get you from A to B. The chic quotient, however, varies a bit.

At the top of the chic list is the Suzuki Samurai, a sort of transistorized jeep from Japan. In the two years it has been available here, the Samurai has become one of the best-selling four-wheel-drive vehicles in America and one of the few available as either a convertible or a hardtop (which is a $150 option). "The Samurai has become a very hip lifestyle accessory here," Leno observed. "But park it anywhere but Beverly Hills and when you come back, there'll be a 4-H club brochure on the windshield."

Mechanical simplicity is the hallmark of the Samurai's design, with a Spartan yet comfortable interior, a rugged 1.3-liter, four-cylinder, 64-hp engine, and trucklike live axle suspension that yields a ride so stiff it led Leno to observe, "It's such a cute little thing that you might be able to lure Miss April into going for a ride. But advise her to wear her jogging bra or she's going to wind up with a severe case of titlash." A soft-ride suspension option is also available.

If you're looking for four-wheel drive in a form a bit closer to the mainstream, the Subaru Justy might be just the ticket. The Justy is available with the new-for-1988 optional on-demand four-wheel-drive system that costs just $600. Activation is achieved by thumbing a red button in the middle of the shift knob, and the hardware necessary to drive all four wheels adds only 100 pounds to the weight of the standard two-wheel-drive model.

The Justy's styling and interior design are what might be termed Tokyo techno-minimalist, but you have to get used to the engine, which Leno characterized as sounding like "a steam-powered sewing machine." If so, it's the racing version, because the Justy's 1.2-liter three-cylinder engine puts out 66 eagerly obliging horses, and once you get over the rubbery feeling of a jacked-up, semi-off-road suspension that has 7.1 inches of ground clearance, the Justy can be tossed down a windy road with the best of them.

"This looks like a car for people who make goat cheese by candlelight in their condo at the beach," was Leno's preliminary assessment of the Justy. "And they order the four-wheel drive because those darn neighbor kids keep tracking sand on the driveway." But halfway into the test drive, he started making more positive noises and wound up picking it as his second favorite, behind the Honda CRX. "So many cars today are like a middle-aged dentist in a toupee and gold chains, desperately trying to be something they're not. The Justy doesn't have a pretentious bolt in its body."

Another unpretentious vehicle relatively new to the U.S. market is the Yugo, built in Yugoslavia, which, the PR people are careful to point out, is not a Communist-bloc country. "Cute little car," said Leno. "But the name sounds like Boris Karloff's cousin from New Jersey."

Despite its bad rap when it first went on sale in 1985, the Yugo today is on the move. It's the cheapest new car in America and a sponsor of the U.S. Olympic men's and women's volleyball teams. A Yugo placed third in the One Lap of America rally. The new convertible model is on the way, so is a new "luxury" model called the GVX, and thanks to a 136-percent jump in sales since June 1986, Yugo has become the fastest-selling European import in history.

The vehicle causing all this commotion is the GV, a $4199 three-door hatchback sedan, just 139 inches from bumper to bumper and powered by a 1.1-liter four-cylinder engine that puts out 52 hp. Fuel economy, according to the EPA, is 29 m.p.g. around town and 31 m.p.g. on the highway, with zero-to-50-mph acceleration of about 10.6 seconds. The upcoming GVX luxury model features a larger, 1.3-liter engine, five-speed manual transmission, heavy-duty suspension, aero body kit, alloy wheels with low-profile radials and designer upholstery, all for $5699. The convertible model (with electric top), due midyear, has been restyled by an Italian carrozzeria and carries a price tag of $8300.

The fourth and final category of cars in our test, which includes the Toyota Tercel, Volkswagen Fox, Hyundai Excel and Plymouth Horizon America, was categorized by Leno as "the automotive equivalent of a Maytag, complete with a lonely repairman." Hence the category Maytag-Mobiles.

There are no style statements here. These are cars for those who simply want to get to and from without a fuss, without a doubt and without being noticed, which is not to say that among this group, there are no sensory rewards for the driver. The Toyota Tercel is a prime example of how attention to detail can enrich your perceptions. The styling is what Leno calls "Harvard wedge modern," the controls are light and precise, the ride smooth, the handling nimble. Power for all three Tercel models (two-door notchback, three-door and five-door hatchbacks) is provided by a silky-smooth 78-hp, 1.5-liter, four-cylinder engine and routed through a choice of smooth-shifting five-speed manual transmission or three-speed automatic.

Smooth is the operative word here, and the visual, the kinetic and the tactile aspects of the Tercel conspire to give the impression of a more expensive car. The seats feel German, and the dashboard has the starkly expensive look of a Porsche-design watch. Leno particularly liked the nubbly cloth upholstery material and asked, "Can you get me a swatch I can show my tailor?"

In the category of cars that feel good, the newest offering from Volkswagen also deserves attention. Code named Project 99 during the three-year-long start-up phase, the all-new Fox was designed in Germany, built in Brazil and is being marketed in the U.S. as the Beetle of the Eighties. Although lacking the distinctive styling that (along with its reliability and low price) made the Beetle a world-wide phenomenon that has lasted almost 40 years, the Fox has the full measure of the Germano-tactile feel competent drivers world-wide demand and happily pay for.

Designed as an entry-level car, and in direct competition with the microsize, minibuck wonders from the Orient, the Fox is currently available in both two- and four-door notchback-sedan body styles and a stylish three-door station wagon. All are powered by a 1.8-liter fuel-injected four-cylinder that develops 81 hp, allowing the Fox to do zero to 60 mph in 11.5 seconds. This is the same basic engine used in the Golf and Jetta models and is currently available only with a four-speed manual transmission, to be joined momentarily by a five-speed manual.

The fully independent suspension, MacPherson struts in front and torsion beam/trailing arm in the rear, yields a ride that is firm without being harsh, and the handling (despite the skinny tires) is sporty. Leno, however, had his eye on the interior. "It's got great seats, an expensive-looking dashboard and a trunk you could sublet to a couple of college students," he said. "And the glove box is big enough to put in a pay phone so they can call home for the money."

Hyundai (rhymes with Sunday) is the largest auto maker in Korea, sells cars in 65 countries and bills itself as manufacturing "cars that make sense." All of which might suggest that money, and how little of it is required, is the major attention-getter. Which is true, up to a point. More to the point is that the Excel is the embodiment of a concept that is right on target for the times--a car that is not only very inexpensive but very good.

Built in Korea, the Excel is available as a three- or five-door hatchback or a four-door sedan, all of them powered by a 1.5-liter, three-valve, four-cylinder engine that puts out 68 hp. A four-speed manual transmission is standard on some models, a five-speed with overdrive is standard on others and a three-speed automatic is available on some. All ride down the road on fully independent suspension and are covered by a 36-month/36,000-mile power-train warranty, a 12-month/12,500-mile new-vehicle warranty, a 36-month corrosion warranty and a free one-year membership in the Cross Country Motor Club, which has a toll-free hotline for emergencies such as towing and roadside service. For this price category, a remarkably comprehensive package of benefits that provoked Leno to speculate, "I hear that next year they're going to come with a butler."

Which brings us, at last but not least, to the one and only American-designed, American-built, American car in the group, the Plymouth Horizon America (called the Omni America at Dodge dealers). The Horizon is the result of a collaborative effort among management, labor, suppliers and dealers to create a genuine built-in-America import fighter targeted at the entry-level and second-car markets.

Fitted with a higher level of standard equipment than comparably priced imports, the Horizon America is available in a four-door hatchback powered by a 2.2-liter, 93-hp, four-cylinder engine upgraded for 1988 with fuel injection and fast-burn combustion. And even though Chrysler expects the Horizon to be the lowest-priced American-built car on sale in the U.S. in 1988, the car is still covered by Chrysler's industry-leading seven-year/70,000-mile power-train warranty. This is the quintessential American-designed, American-built transpo module--affordable, comfortable, reliable and styled to be practically invisible. "What we have here," said Leno, "is a car designed to make a banzai run to the airport without worrying about speeding tickets. An interesting example of specialized evolution."

Once again, our fearless comedian has put his finger on the heart of the issue. Even as evolution on a large scale is leading to smaller cars, evolution is going on among and within the small cars themselves. The Japanese have what's been called the "nichiest trigger finger in the West," and it shows in the proliferation of task-specific and image-specific small cars. Evolution driven by marketing. And the steady trickle of go-fast hardware and electro-techno bells and whistles that used to flow from the big cars to the little cars is, today, equally likely to flow in the opposite direction. Evolution driven by enthusiasts.

And they keep on driving. "If Darwin was even half right," concluded Leno, "somewhere along the line here, we ought to wind up with a car that looks like a Lamborghini Countach, will do 150 miles an hour, gets 40 miles to the gallon around town, is easy to park and you can buy for less than 15 grand."

To which the PR man from Suzuki replied, handing his card over with a smile full of secrets, "Come see me in 1990."

Baby Boomers Jay Leno's Sweet 16

Maytag-Mobiles

Toyota Tercel

Volkswagen Fox

Hyundai Excel

Plymouth Horizon America

New Age Slot Cars

Honda CRX Si

Mitsubishi Mirage Turbo

Chevrolet Turbo Sprint

Nissan Pulsar NX

Daihatsu Charade

Ford Festiva

Pontiac LeMans

Turbo Beefcake

Mazda 323 GT

Isuzu I-Mark Turbo

Lawn Tractors for the Masses

Suzuki Samurai

Subaru Justy

Yugo GV

"Leno says the Mazda 323 'looks like a Japanese Volvo and drives like a BMW on a caffeine high.' "