Who Hates a Hummer?
We used to think it was no one, but apparently the anti-SUV crowd in California has something about the H2 and other mega-utes. In August, Reuters reports, vandals set an auto dealer's warehouse afire in West Covina, Calif., destroying a fleet of to-be-sold Hummers. Across town, more vandals spray-painted Ford and Benz SUVs with nasty slogans like "Fat, Lazy Americans." The FBI is investigating the losses as terrorist incidents; the Web site for the green radical group Earth Liberation Front has claimed responsibility for the attacks.
U.S. Has More Cars than DriversFor the first time ever, America's drivers are outnumbered by their cars. The spooky new stat from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics says that each of the 107 million households in the U.S has an average of 1.9 vehicles for the 1.8 drivers that live inside them. The most recent survey of the same numbers found about the same number of vehicles to drivers. The increase in vehicles across the country comes from longer commutes, more teens with cars of their own, and longer-lasting cars, Reuters reports. According to the survey, the average person in the United States takes four trips per day, with almost half of them being errands, which we explain to our spouses does include returning tapes to the adult video store.
Drive Time: 2004 Mitsubishi Galant
What looks like a Nissan Altima, comes in four models split by engine sizes like the Nissan Altima, and earns all the kudos and criticisms of the strikingly similar Nissan Altima? If you answered the Bentley Continental GT, you're not only wrong, you're an idiot in search of a new village. If you answered the 2004 Mitsubishi Galant, well, hello Mensa!
The new Galant is far and away a better car than the one it replaces. It's based on the Project America platform that already has spawned the Endeavor crossover wagon and is to also offer up a new Eclipse coupe (see it elsewhere in this column). Like the Altima, it's grown into a new mainstream role that puts it squarely in the thick of what's left of the mid-size American sedan market.
The '04 Galant arrives in four trim levels: there's a DE with black mirrors and a four-cylinder engine. The ES is the volume leader-Mitsu estimates it will account for 70 percent of all Galant sales next year. It too is powered by a four-cylinder engine. The uppercrust trim levels are the LS and GTS, both equipped with a throaty V6 and enough equipment to bog down an MLB ballboy. Prices range from about $18,000 on the DE to more than $26,000 for the GTS, with the mass-market ES checking in around $19,000 base.
Equipment check
The engines are both relatively unsophisticated powerplants that feel sturdy and strong. The 2.4-liter four-cylinder pounds out 160 horsepower and 157 lb-ft of torque, and is mated to a four-speed automatic transmission. It's pretty effective except in long passes, where you'll practically feel your pulse speed up in the hope that you'll keep a faster pace than the semi behind you. Still, it's pretty well suited for 90 percent of what you might use a family sedan for, except the daycare-center slalom.