Hard-Edged and High-Powered

Pontiac Bonneville

The four-door Bonneville-the name of the car that started Pontiac’s wide-track tradition more than twenty-five years ago-is perhaps the most exciting all-new offering for 1987. Its aggressively styled, contemporary appearance threatens to reshape what has tended to be a clunky-looking full-size car market. The Bonneville is available in entry-level form, a luxury model called the LE, and a sportier option known as the SE.

Buick LeSabre T Type

Buyers seeking room for six and eyecatching looks ought to consider Buick’s sporty-looking two-door coupe, the LeSabre T Type. Although the T Package-special suspension, steering components designed for better handling, and fifteen-inch aluminum wheels-doesn’t elevate the car into the high-performance category, the LeSabre’s clean lines and blacked-out body trim produce a pleasantly lean, mean appearance.

Chevrolet Sprint Turbo

The addition of a turbocharger turns the Sprint, Chevrolet’s tiniest offering, into the little car that could. The turbo produces a healthy 70 horsepower from the otherwise anemic 1-liter, three-cylinder engine-48 horsepower in conventional form-and enables the car to go from zero to sixty in a respectable 9.4 seconds. The Sprint Turbo, built by Suzuki in Japan, is available only in two-door hatchback form.

Ford Thunderbird Turbo Coupe

The T-Bird Turbo Coupe is the unquestioned flagship of Ford Division. Its engine is the zippy intercooled 2.3-liter turbo that had been found in the high-performance Mustang SVO, and both Five-speed manual and four-speed automatic transmissions are available. The most interesting and advanced feature of the Turbo Coupe is an automatic ride control system that allows drivers to adjust the suspension to firm or soft settings.

Ford Mustang GT

Each year, the current-generation Mustang moves a step closer to the frisky standard set when the first Mustang appeared two decades ago. A series of subtle body revisions have transformed what was once a fairly nondescript shape into a real looker worthy of the name Mustang. More important to would-be hot-shoes, Ford’s improved 5-liter 225-horsepower V-8 engine comes as standard equipment on the Mustang CT.

Ford F-150 XLT Lariat

Aerodynamic styling has finally hit the pickup. Although the revised front end doesn’t make wind-cheaters out of Ford’s F- , Series trucks, it does make them look more contemporary than any other full-size pickup on the market. The high-tech approach also extends to the Rear Anti-Lock Brake System, an electronically controlled safeguard against rear-wheel lockup found \ on the Lariat and its F-Series cousins.

Dodge Dakota 4X4

The all-new four-wheel-drive Dakota is being billed by Dodge as the first true midsize, off-road pickup truck in America. In this instance, the phrase “all new” is more than merely marketing hyperbole. The 4×4 is equipped with an all-new 3.9-liter V-6 engine with 125 horsepower mated to an ail-new five-speed overdrive manual transmission designed specifically for truck use.

Dodge Daytona Shelby Z

Like the rest of the Daytonas, the Shelby Z has received a front-end face lift that turns Dodge’s front-wheel-drive sports car into a sleek-looking road warrior. Unlike the rest of the Daytonas, the Shelby Z is equipped with a 2.2-liter turbo screamer that produces 174 horsepower. With performance-tuned suspension components, the car can get through comers almost as quickly as it reaches them.

Chrysler LeBaron Coupe

What a difference a year makes. The 1986 LeBaron Coupe was the kind of squarish car that got lost in crowds. The new coupe, with its lowered and lengthened chassis and pleasantly aerodynamic profile, is bound to attract them. Although the car hardly meets Gran Turismo standards, a five-speed manual transmission is standard and a 2.2-liter turbocharged engine is optional. The bad news is that the car won’t be available for several months.

Plymouth Sundance

The Sundance, like its counterpart the Dodge Shadow, is a brand-new, five-passenger hatchback entry in what Chrysler officials call the “upscale small-car market.” The car is a nicety integrated package combining modern-looking aerodynamic styling with reasonably peppy performance in an effort to entice young car buyers, It comes in two- and four-door models.

Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight Touring Sedan

The Ninety-Eight Touring Sedan is Olds-mobile’s first effort to carve out a niche in the Eurosedan market. Ornamentation and trim found on the standard Ninety-Eight have been subdued to enhance the clean lines of the car, and the front end has been restyled to produce a sportier appearance. The car’s luxury appeal remains evident, however, in items like the outside mirror’s electric defog-ger and the walnut wood door trim.

Pontiac Trans Am GTA

The addition of the 210-horsepower 5.7-liter engine that for years had been limited to the Corvette stable has enabled Pontiac to build an ultimate Trans Am. (Chevrolet is offering the same option in the top-of-the-line version of the Trans Am’s sister car, the IROC-Z.) The Trans Am GTA is immediately identifiable by its gold cross-lace, sixteen-inch aluminum wheels. Less apparent are its high-performance handling characteristics and a standard engine that zooms from zero to sixty in about 6.5 seconds.

Cadillac Brougham

The Brougham has received front- and rear-end face lifts designed to produce a more contemporary appearance, but there still probably isn’t anybody who’d mistake it for anything but a Cadillac. The rear-wheel-drive luxury sedan is billed as the longest, tallest, heaviest production car built in America. Cadillac also touts it as one of the few vehicles today suitable for towing boats, mobile homes, or campers.

Mercury Topaz

The Topaz and its sister car, the Ford Tempo, are Ford Motor Company’s first domestic automobiles with an all-wheel-drive option. But rather than being designed for off-road use, the mid-size Topaz is meant to serve as a foul-weather car. Although New England and the Rocky Mountain states are expected to be the biggest markets for the four-wheel-drive Topaz, Texans will find the option equally useful in the winter.

Oldsmobile Calais

Introduced in 1986, the upgraded Calais gets a new treatment that gives the car a sporty, international flavor from composite headlights to red-and-amber taillamps. The Calais also will feature passive restraint safety belts-a system in which safety straps are attached to the doors so that occupants are strapped into their seats as soon as they slide into the car and close the door.

Dodge Diplomat

The Diplomat is designed for what Dodge calls “those traditional buyers who prefer a full-size, six-passenger, rear-wheel-drive car powered by a V-8 engine.” In other words, if you’ve had it with econoboxes and think European styling is for, well, the Europeans, the Diplomat is your kind of car. Incidentally, there is a police package version of the Diplomat.

Chevrolet S-10 Blazer

With both two- and four-wheel-drive models, the Blazer is touted by Chevrolet as the most popular vehicle of its kind in the country. New for 1987 is a “High Country” package featuring a variety of cosmetic changes, including gold paint that gradually blends into black paint, special gold aluminum wheels, and a black chrome grill.

Pontiac 2 + 2

Based on the mid-size Pontiac Grand Prix, the 2 + 2 offers a performance package that owes more to home-grown than European lessons. Considering the decidedly American look of the car, it should come as no surprise that the 2 + 2’s fastback configuration has been successful on the NASCAR racing circuit. Standard equipment includes a four-speed overdrive automatic transmission and a 5-liter V-8 engine rated at 150 horsepower.

Plymouth Voyager

The Voyager, like its sister mini-van, the Dodge Caravan, will emerge in extended-body form in mid-year for those buyers seeking more room than the standard-size configuration. Although seating capacity will remain at a maximum of eight, the longer wheelbase will provide 25 cubic feet more interior space-up from 125 to 150 cubic feet. By the time the extended-body Voyager is available, Chrysler’s new 3.0-liter V-6 engine will be, too.

Dodge Lancer

For the most part, Dodge has stood pat with its four-door, liftback Lancer-which is to say there are almost too many options to list. Besides the ES sports package, for instance, Lancer buyers may opt for a 2.2-liter turbo or a 2.5-liter electronic fuel injection engine, each coupled to a five-speed manual or three-speed automatic transaxle.

Chevrolet Celebrity Eurosport Wagon

Here is an automotive anomaly-a station wagon that looks more like an automobile than a tank. Although the Celebrity already sports clean lines, the wagon also benefits from the Eurosport package-larger rally wheels, black-out trim, a sports suspension, and an optional 2.8-liter V-6 engine. The largest wagon available will seat eight.

Plymouth Horizon “America”

The Horizon, like its sister car in Chrysler’s America series, the Dodge Omni, features the lowest base-sticker price- $5,499-of any domestically built American car. Standard for 1987 are a 2.2-liter engine mated to a five-speed manual transmission, 13-inch rally wheels, and a rear window defroster. An automatic transmission is available.

Buick Riviera

Besides being Buick’s top-of-the-line offering, the Riviera is General Motor’s flagship for electronic instrumentation. The Graphic Control Center, previously known as a dashboard, includes every bell and whistle from a trip computer to a cathode ray tube. Emblematic of the Riviera’s sophistication is a rear-view mirror that automatically switches from a “day” to “night” position when it senses headlight glare.

Lincoln Mark VII

Operating on the if-it-ain’t-broke-don’t-fix-it philosophy, Lincoln hasn’t done much to the Mark VII besides making a few minor mechanical revisions. The Mark VII, then, remains one of the most successful blendings of the best in the American and European luxury car traditions. Although the body and interior amenities are unmistakably Dearborn, the car’s performance is decidedly Stuttgart.

Ford Taurus

The 1987 Taurus isn’t as startling as last year’s model, when the newly introduced mid-size car set the industry on its ear and waltzed off with nearly unanimous plaudits and numerous automotive awards. The new Taurus, like its sister car, the Mercury Sable, retains the old (but still cutting-edge) bullet-like shape and offers a variety of options including 15-inch wheels and a four-speed transmission mated to a 2.5-liter engine.

Ford Aerostar

Ford’s baby van/wagon gets a power boostfor the new model year. Although the 2.3-liter four-cylinder engine continues to beavailable for some models, a new option-a 3.0-liter V-6-promises to be more popularwith buyers looking to improve the Aero-star’s hauling prowess. The trim also hasbeen upgraded on most models to improvethe vehicle’s appearance.