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Olds Utility Vehicle May Raise Some Eyebrows, But Not At Gm

December 18, 1988|By Jim Mateja, Auto writer.

The DL starts at $14,500 with 5-speed, $15,150 with automatic; the S $17,700 with 5-speed, $18,350 with automatic; and the Mi 16 with 5-speed only at $20,700.

On a recent visit to Chicago, Pascal Henault, president of Peugeot Motors of America Inc., the U.S. distributor, said the French automaker expects to sell 15,000 405s and 3,000 505s in 1989 for a total of 18,000, up from 10,500 505s only in 1988.

``We aren`t looking to sell 200,000 cars annually in U.S. Our goal is to sell 40,000 to 50,000 cars in the U.S. in the `90s, decent volume without high risk,`` he said.

``We have a lot to overcome with image,`` he said. ``In the early `80s, we sold lots of diesels and look what happened to diesels. We`ve been out of diesels since the end of 1986. We`ve had to make a radical change to gas engines.``


Based on reader opinions, cigarette lighters and ashtrays should be made optional rather than standard equipment as they are today. The vote was 541 in favor of those items as options, 247 opposed and wanting them left in the dash or the console or wherever.

To say that readers have definite opinions about smoking and ashtrays and lighters is to put it mildly, based on nearly 800 replies.

The majority of those who wanted ashtrays and lighters left in cars were nonsmokers who use the lighter receptacle for such things as radar detectors and ashtrays to hold anything from coins to candy.

Those wanting the items as options were almost evenly divided in their displeasure with smoke as they were with having to pay for an option they don`t use.

Here`s a small sampling of the replies, first from those who want ashtrays and lighters left in the cars.

``This is still a free country. Enough of these pansies and wimps.``

-T.P., Des Plaines. ``Do you expect to save $500 without them?`` -E.T., Elmhurst. ``I don`t fly Northwest anymore, and, by God, in my car or home I set the rules.`` -P.B., Lake Zurich. ``Outlaw phone usage in cars instead.``

-D.T., Chicago. ``What about the right of the used-car buyer to have those accessories?`` -A.G., Glenview. ``Are we supposed to drop our butts out the window?`` -B.G., Des Plaines. ``As options, the automakers would raise prices another $100 to $200.`` -J.S., Glenview. ``My car is one of the last places I can smoke without discrimination.`` -S.H., Villa Park. ``Hate to think how long it would take to wait for delivery of a car if they were to make some with ashtrays, some without.`` -M.C., Chicago Heights.

And from those opposed.

``It`s apparent automakers are run buy smokers. The lighter and ashtray serve no useful purpose for those who don`t smoke.`` -J.G., Des Plaines. ``Put a tissue dispenser in its place, since we all don`t smoke but we all sneeze.`` -J.M., Gary. ``Those of us who don`t smoke shouldn`t have to subsidize the stinking minority.`` -J.S., Schaumburg. ``How about replacing them with little gum ball machines?`` -D.N., Highland, Ind.. ``It bugs me to have to pay extra for a rear window defroster yet get a lighter and ashtray free.`` -J.Z., Chicago.

For those who do smoke: Baking soda in the ashtray keeps the air fresh and the windows from filming, plus it allows you to snuff out a smoke without fumbling around.

Winners in the desk-cleaning giveaway were R.E. Strauss, Elk Grove Village; Gladys Goodson, Evanston; Mrs. Edward Maty, Dyer, Ind.; Martin Schuler, Arlington Heights; Craig Peterson, Melrose Park; Mrs. Allen Peterson, Franklin Park; Clayton Buck, Lake Villa; Rita Weyland, McHenry; C.T. Svienty, Chicago; Bruce Wright, Bloomingdale; Stan Lowe, Niles; Ray Reese, Chicago;

Mariane Maher, Lake in the Hills; Joan Glos, Northlake; Robert Johnson, Schaumburg; Ronna DeKoven, Des Plaines; John Clarke, Tinley Park; Edward Steinhauser, Palos Heights; Thomas Lesak, Lisle; and George Reutell, Chicago. Strictly personal to John H. from Park Ridge. You put what in your ashtray?


Jim Mateja`s Autos column appears Sunday and Monday in The Tribune.