BMW News- Long

["Robert Sirico" <websales@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

 Ford, BMW Introduce Hybrid Vehicles
January 4, 1999 6:00 PM EST

DETROIT (Reuters) - Cross-over vehicles took center stage at the Detroit
auto show Monday as Ford Motor Co. unveiled an Explorer sport vehicle with a
pickup truck bed and BMW AG launched its much-awaited X5 sports activity
vehicle.

Called the Explorer Sport Trac, the vehicle is a four-door version of the
popular Explorer sport utility vehicle that features a 4-1/2-foot pickup
truck bed instead of the enclosed cargo area.

``It represents the birth of an entirely new segment,'' J Mays, Ford's vice
president of design, said at the second day of the North American
International Auto Show.

Ford, in another move to boost the versatility of its truck line, also
introduced the F-150 Crew Cab, which it said will be the first truck under
8,500 pounds of gross vehicle weight to offer four full-size doors and a
full rear passenger space.

The Explorer Sport Trac will go on sale at the beginning of 2000 as a 2001
model. Target buyers are current sport utility owners and younger buyers who
want the versatility of a pickup truck.

Ford would not say where the Explorer Sport Trac will be built or what
pricing will be. It will be available in two- wheel and four-wheel drive.
The engine is a 204 horsepower, 4.0 liter V-6 with an automatic
transmission.

The six-passenger F-150 Crew Cab will be built at Ford's Kansas City Truck
Plant in Missouri starting late 1999. It will go on sale in early 2000. To
help with engine capacity, Ford said it is adding 50,000 units of production
of its 5.4-liter V8 engine.

Additional doors and interior space has been a growing demand of consumers,
70 percent of whom now use their full-size pickup trucks for recreation on
weekends, Ford Division General Manager James O'Connor said. Five years ago,
only about 30 percent of buyers wanted extended cab versions.

Automakers also have been experimenting with different combinations of
pickup trucks, sport utilities and passenger cars, carving the segments into
smaller pieces to suit niche markets.

With their new X-5, BMW officials said they have developed a vehicle that
combines handling and responsiveness of a sport sedan with off-road
capabilities. The German automaker said the X5 is an original vehicle, not
built from an existing car, truck or minivan platform and featuring a
``unitized'' body design.

The X5 will be built at BMW's plant in Spartanburg, S.C. The car will go on
sale in the United States in late 1999, then exported to international
markets in 2000. Analysts expect annual volumes to be about 30,000 vehicles.
The base price will be below $40,000, BMW officials said. An eight-cylinder
version will be priced below $50,000.

Monday's hybrid vehicles follows several cross-over concepts unveiled
Sunday, including the Chrysler PT Cruiser, a tall four-door vehicle with a
hatchback that will be sold as a truck.

Thomas Gale, chief of design for DaimlerChrysler AG's North American
operations said the trend will continue.

``We're going to continue to see every time the segments get big enough,
they start to segment again,'' he said.

Automakers also unveiled new cars Monday, including the Focus compact from
Ford. Introduced in Europe last fall, the car replaces the Escort and will
go on sale in the United States this fall. It will be offered in the United
States as a two-door hatchback, four-door sedan and station wagon.

General Motors Corp.'s Chevrolet debuted its new Impala sedan, due out in
the spring of this year. The front-wheel- drive car, which revives one of
GM's best-selling nameplates of the 1960s, is aimed at the Taurus sedan from
Ford.

Meantime, Japanese automakers Toyota Motor Corp. and Nissan Motor Co. Ltd.
introduced vehicles they hope will appeal to the children of the baby boom
generation.

Toyota showed its Echo small car, while Nissan displayed its ``backpack on
wheels'', the Xterra sport utility vehicle.

The Echo, which will begin production in Japan in May and go on sale in the
United States in the fall, has more interior space than Toyota's Corolla,
but has a smaller exterior. Toyota officials said it will cost
``substantially'' less than the Corolla, which starts at slightly more than
$12,000.

The Nissan Xterra will be built on its Frontier compact pickup truck
platform in Tennessee. It will go on sale in June as a 2000 model and
analysts expect it to sell for $20,000- $25,000 to compete against Toyota's
RAV4 and Honda Motor Co. Ltd.'s CR-V car-based sport utilities.

Rob Sirico
BMWCCA #161278
'95 325is ERT Supercharged
'98 Lexus GS 400
'98 Porsche Boxter (wife's toy)
'97 Jeep Grand Cherokee

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