NewsIt used to be that sports were played with sticks and balls by gentlemen of the leisure class. Now it seems that everyone and his grandmother is diving off bridges wearing nothing but a bungee cord, jet skiing backward in lakes of Jell-O, or outrunning flowing lava on a mountain bike. It's those "extreme sports" that have inspired Mazda to build the B-Extreme concept pickup. Or maybe Mazda execs have just been watching too much MTV.
The B-Extreme is a B4000 four-wheel-drive pickup dressed in special side cladding, fender flares, integrated side steps, a tubular front bumper, PIAA off-road driving lamps, a rail-mounting system to fit a kayak over the bed, and a bed liner with storage for the kayak's paddle in the tailgate. Atop all that, Mazda Research and Development of North America in Irvine, California, applied a vivid red, violet, yellow, and green paint job. Unchanged is the stock 4.0-liter/ 160-horsepower V-6 turning the oversize aluminum wheels.
Every manufacturer out there is trying to anticipate the next big trend in the youth market. If going to extremes is it, then this Mazda is a portent of things to come.
How Long Can The Suv Boom Last?Every manufacturer knows it can't afford to ignore the red-hot sport/utility market; the question is, how long can the boom last? A J.D. Power and Associates' report on this market sees it continuing to grow in the near term, with a leveling off sometime in the early 21st century.
According to Paul Bellew, chief economist for J.D. Power, the current 1.8-million-unit SUV market will grow to about 2.3 million by the early 2000s, with "demand continuing to chase supply." The market continues to be driven by baby-boomers, now in the highest-earning years of their careers. In fact, the new-vehicle market as a whole has become more dependent on upper-income buyers. Currently, 55 percent of all vehicles are bought by members of the top 20 percent income group. As this trend continues, two-thirds of all buyers will reside in that income bracket, and the demand for SUVs also will rise. Increased competition from luxury and near-luxury autos, along with the aging of the boomers, most likely will balance the demand.
Bellew sees Ford and Chrysler as the two companies best poised to prosper with the continuing SUV explosion, but he also anticipates demand for the $20,000-$23,000 price range, which is relatively underserved.
See R-VHonda is previewing its first self-designed and -built SUV on the Internet's World Wide Web. Aim your browser to http://www.honda.com/ to view downloadable movies of the impending CR-V (see this month's Trends International Report) and express your opinions about it to Honda's powers that be.
Truck TestWaldoch Crafts Ford Conversion VanAbout 60 percent of the full-size cargo vans sold in the U.S. end up transformed into rolling rumpus rooms. With about 170,000 van conversions every year, figuring $30,000 per unit, it's a $5.1-billion market. No wonder manufacturers take the van-conversion industry so seriously.
Waldoch Crafts' top-of-the-line Boundary Waters Edition of the Ford E-150 Econoline is amazing. Under the raised roof covering its 138-inch wheelbase is an indirectly lighted cocoon containing four leather-lined captain's chairs, a rear power-operated leather sofa that converts into a bed, a 10-disc CD changer, loads of safety equipment, five TV screens, a VCR, and over 90 other features we'd exhaust the world's ink supply listing-but the concealed drop-down radar detector is too cool not to mention.
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