2WD Explorer In the Snow; BMW Reflections; SAAB 9-5 Wagon; Slip Slid’en with Jag and other tidbits in this months “Letter from Europe”

By Andrew Frankl European Bureau Chief There were high dramas in the Sierras over the holidays. We were due to go up in the latest, all-singing, dancing Cadillac SUV but owing to a glitch with a selfish colleague who forgot to it return in time it didn’t materialize.

As my children were flying in from Los Angeles that afternoon and I was due to meet them at Sacramento Airport in desperation I phoned old friend Terry Page of Page One Auto. My saviour very kindly provided me with a Ford Explorer, albeit with two-wheel drive.

It didn’t seem to matter as the roads were bone dry and in fact we sailed up to the very accommodating Olympic Village Inn at Squaw Valley in record time. A perfect location, 400 yards from the lifts and if you are too lazy to walk there is a shuttle.

While some of the new developments are somewhat iffy-more at home in Aspen than in Squaw-nothing could ruin some of the magic runs such as Granite Chief. Magic if you can see, bit tricky if you can’t.

As it started to snow with visibility around 15 yards things got positively interesting. As you can see from the enclosed photograph of the Ford, exaggerating I am not! To Henry’s eternal credit the Explorer started every single time and once we got some chains everything was just fine. It swallowed all the gear and was even economical by SUV standards.

Only major error-the emergency button is invisible from the driving seat so had we needed it things may have been a shade uncomfortable. By the way Plumpjack have an excellent bar and restaurant there but avoid the new sushi place if you have some sense.

BMW Moving on to BMW’s 3 series brought up a very interesting point. Without a shadow of a doubt it is one of the finest cars on the road. Looks great, handles like a dream, goes like smoke. For now, I am sure many of you will have read a fascinating article in The New York Times entitled “For some BMW owners this man is the enemy.” You don’t need a degree in automobile engineering to guess that the subject of hate mail and even death threats (seems a bit extreme to me, after all we are only talking about something on four wheels) is none other than Chief Designer Chris Bangle. There are two internet sites devoted to the subject and to other matters relating to BMW and no fewer than 4000 people have demanded his resignation! The company argues that they are selling more cars than ever and cannot understand what all the fuss is about. My reading on the subject as a contributor to Bimmer magazine- people are buying the cars in spite of the styling and the ridiculous iDrive (5 and 7 series) because dynamically the cars have no equal. I am convinced that any other company would have been brought to its knees by the looks of the 7 series and that exasperating iDrive. It was only the strength, the reputation of the company combined with an exceptional sales team led in the US by CEO Tom Purves that managed to turn the 7 series into a success. What annoys me as a BMW aficionado that both the extreme styling and the farcical iDrive were totally unnecessary! As Dr Sparks, an associate professor at Lee University in Cleveland said in the NYT “we who treasure BMW’s styling heritage can only shake our heads and wonder what Munich is smoking”.

While sales are indeed up and up, one could argue that the company could have sold even more cars had they stayed a bit more rational. Anyway, the 64 thousand or should I say 64 million dollar question is-what will Bangle do the forthcoming 3 series. Can he be restrained? Can common sense prevail? For the company’s sake I sincerely hope so. One thing for certain-they will have a very tough job improving on the current 3 series. SAAB

I’ve never been a huge fan of Saab, but the 9-5 aero wagon turned out to be a very pleasant surprise. We arrived back at San Francisco Airport late at night with a great deal of luggage. Park & Fly were their usual efficient self, collected us and in no time at all we were opening the doors of the car.

My beef in the past has always been that any car that cannot be user friendly in the dark should be re-designed. Well, the Saab passed the test with flying colours. The rear seats folded within seconds and all the luggage went in without any fuss at all.

The 9-5 was an automatic and has almost no torque steer. It had the old fashioned, sensible hand brake unlike the latest 9-3 and it went like a charm. All the controls were where they should have been, the seats were supremely comfortable and at 26 miles per gallon it didn’t bankrupt me either. It isn’t cheap at 45 thousand dollars-with all the extras- but I am certain that deals can be had. It felt very solid, very robust and as an alternative to a BMW wagon a sensible one. The company has been in a bit of turmoil with GM not quite knowing what to do with it, if I were in charge I wouldn’t mess with it too much as it is fine just as it is. Jaguar

Next stop-Colorado! Jaguar have decided to give us a lesson. Well, to be more precise a lesson in driving under extreme conditions. They had X types for us to drive, one of them, in a way the most significant-the 2.5 liter selling for under $30,000! Granted, the all singing, dancing versions were several thousand dollars more but to have a perfectly competent, beautifully designed Jag for under 30 grand is a very sensible and exciting marketing move. Now that the clutch has been dramatically improved the manual is a joy to drive.

They’ve decided to stop being shy and now there is an AWD (all wheel drive) symbol on the trunk, a very sensible move. There is a certain feeling of reassurance provided the tires are up to the task. Well, I have fairly strong views on that subject. The Continental all weather tires are, shall we say extremely modest. They are sort of all right under normal conditions but should there be a drop of snow-you’d better get the prayer book out! We had to slow to about 10 miles per hour to avoid one of those huge drops into a gully, the sort where you grow a beard before you hit the deck! Yes, it was that far down. The following day we were off-on Continental winter tires to Steamboat Springs to the ice driving school. This facility-which is every year open for several months exists to teach people how to drive on ice. Easy it ain’t. We were all over the place but at least I wasn’t one of those who stuffed the Jags into the snow banks. A colleague from Alabama who’d never driven on snow before really had a go and got stuck to such an extent that a tow truck had to be called. To the Jaguar’s eternal credit it emerged covered in snow but with all its parts intact! No dangling wires, no missing headlamps-zero. I can testify because it was MY car, the one I had to drive back to Jag’s HQ 75 miles away! The instructors were given strict orders not to talk about rival tires but in an unguarded moment one of them did confess that the Conti winter tires were also considerably below par compared to Bridgestone and Michelin. I had a very interesting conversation with old friend and Jaguar head honcho Mike O’Driscoll. He explained the reasons for NOT bringing in the new X type wagon. Apparently even BMW have trouble shifting the ones they bring in and the cost of training the mechanics and the very small numbers just didn’t add up.

A pity because the car was launched to rave reviews in Europe and even the normally highly outspoken Jeremy Clarkson-Britain’s most influential automotive writer had nothing but good words to say about it. Apparently the diesel version is an absolute gem. What amazed me in Colorado was the build quality of the X type. The plant where these are built – Halewood ,near Liverpool in England was the absolute pits. They used to put together Ford cars there when they worked which wasn’t very often. I must salute Jaguar on having the guts and the patience to turn this place into an award winning production facility. Prices have also been reduced in the United States making them highly competitive against main rivals such as BMW , Mercedes and Audi. The 3 liter X type costs about the same as the 2.5 BMW and the 2.6 Mercedes C240. Off the record Jaguar people will admit that their engine is not quite as silky smooth as BMW’s world famous in line six but they do run it close second.

They were also honest enough to admit that one thing that could help sales more than any marketing or advertising campaign would be the mess Chris Bangle may make of the new 3 series BMW. If he manages to alienate as many people as he did with the 5 and in particular the 7 series Jaguar could have a boom year. Having said that, the boys in Munich are not stupid, they read the web sites, magazines and newspapers so I would be astonished if they were to fall into the same trap once again. Coming back to Jaguar all my colleagues who were on the trip expressed a hope that one day, hopefully soon, the company will reconsider building the F type which they feel would give Porsche’s ageing Boxster a very hard time indeed. I am with them all the way