It’s not a bad gig. 45 different vehicles have appeared in my driveway in 2014, delivered here by a man who’s driven around 110,000 miles this year ferrying press cars across the country and organizing product launches.
A summer trip to Prince Edward Island also presented me with an opportunity to spend a morning with a Tesla Model S. The year’s not over. Something else, probably a GMC Yukon Denali, will be exchanged for the black Acura TLX that we’ll drive across town to my parents’ for Christmas dinner later today.
I can’t remember when I started forgetting things, but while I can list all 50 states, I can’t immediately recall all the cars I drove this year and the ones which came before and after. Prompt me, however, and memories of each come flooding back into view.
With the diesel-powered Volkswagen Passat, I decided to drive it with a measure of enthusiasm for the duration of its visit to see if it could still match its EPA fuel economy ratings in the middle of a cold winter. Polar vortex and all that. It did.
The Jeep Cherokee crawled over many tall, hard-packed snowbanks for the fun of it. The outgoing Subaru Legacy was more deserving of being outgoing than anything else I drove all year. The Honda Fit sipped fuel like the fuel-sipper it ought to be, but the Honda Civic I drove earlier in the spring consumed no more fuel than the Fit.
Chevrolet’s Impala LTZ impressed in nearly every way, but the steering recalls another era. Steering Cadillac’s CTS Vsport was another matter. Nothing I drove all year measured up to the CTS’s admirable athleticism and strong performance credentials.
The Chrysler 200’s 9-speed transmission was weird, in a bad way. The Honda Accord Hybrid’s unique powertrain was weird, in a good way. The Tesla Model S P85 was mindblowing, particularly given the wide-open island roads on which I could explore its talents. To my pleasant surprise, Porsche’s Macan is every inch a Porsche.
The Toyota Tundra’s 12.6 mpg (observed) was by far the worst rate of consumption I encountered all year. Tesla excluded, the Lexus CT200h’s 46.1 mpg was best, and a good deal better than its official EPA ratings. The Lincoln MKZ Hybrid’s 45.2 mpg wasn’t far behind.
The Tundra was one of only two V8-engined vehicles to visit us this year, the other being Chevrolet’s Duramax-equipped HD Silverado. There was one three-cylinder car, 18 six-cylinder powerplants, 21 inline-fours, and three boxer fours.
Although I’m not convinced of its value, that lone three-cylinder car, Ford’s Fiesta EcoBoost, was responsible for perhaps the most enjoyable week of driving all year, although it was one of the least powerful and least expensive cars I drove in 2014. Sure, the manual transmission played a big part in that enjoyment, but the chassis was a communicator, and I was able to drive the car with verve and not approach speeds that would land me in jail. Volkswagen’s Golf GTI, a car with which I spent a week in mid-December, was of the same ilk, only with more speed and slightly less involvement. The Mazda 3, too, was a distinctly enjoyable car to drive without needing to resort to criminal behaviour on rural roads. Yes, the CTS Vsport is the superior performer, but accessing that performance – accessing the Tesla’s or the Macan’s or the Audi S4’s – requires behaving in a manner my mother frowns upon.
Regardless of which car I’m reviewing or which sales story I’m covering, contributing to TTAC is not like uploading articles to any other outlet. Though Derek first invited me to join, though Bertel permitted more activity, though Jack fostered my participation, though Derek called for daily contributions, TTAC is differentiated most of all not by the masthead but rather the B&B.
You and I won’t always agree on the merits of the latest Camry or the Buick Encore’s ability to line up with the BMW X1, but a typical member of the B&B accepts information, formulates an intelligent opinion, does not allow the discourse to devolve, and increases the desire of the writer to stay (or become?) sharp. That’s not replicated on the vast majority of web publications. I’m fortunate to have a space in which to discuss the sales achieved by countless cars, especially fortunate to have driven many new cars this year, and very pleased to be able to tell you about them all.
Here’s hoping for more manual transmissions, more diesels, more wagons, and at least one brown car in 2015.
THE CARS
2014 Chevrolet Malibu • 2014 Volkswagen Passat • 2014 Honda Accord Hybrid • 2014 Toyota Corolla • 2014 Chevrolet Equinox • 2014 Toyota Highlander • 2014 Hyundai Sonata • 2014 Jeep Cherokee • 2014 Lincoln MKZ Hybrid • 2014 Hyundai Elantra • 2014 Subaru Legacy • 2014 Volkswagen Jetta GLI • 2014 Honda Civic Coupe • 2014 Nissan Rogue• 2014 Chevrolet Impala • 2014 Subaru Impreza • 2014 Cadillac SRX • 2014 Mazda 3 5-Door • 2014 Buick Encore • 2014 Toyota Tundra • 2014 Kia Soul • 2015 Hyundai Genesis V6 • 2014 Ford Fiesta • 2014 Audi S4 • 2014 Ram P/U EcoDiesel • 2015 Chevrolet Silverado HD • 2014 Lexus CT200h • 2014 Cadillac CTS Vsport • 2013 Tesla Model S P85 • 2014 Mercedes-Benz CLA250 • 2014 Chevrolet Traverse • 2015 Subaru Outback • 2015 Hyundai Sonata • 2014 Ford Fiesta EcoBoost • 2015 Subaru Legacy 3.6R • 2014 Toyota Camry Hybrid • 2015 Chrysler 200S • 2014 Audi SQ5 • 2015 Porsche Macan S • 2015 Mercedes-Benz C400 4Matic • 2015 Volkswagen Golf 1.8T • 2015 Honda Fit • 2015 Cadillac XTS Vsport • 2015 Mitsubishi Outlander • 2015 Volkswagen Golf GTI • 2015 Acura TLX
Timothy Cain is the founder of GoodCarBadCar.net, which obsesses over the free and frequent publication of U.S. and Canadian auto sales figures.
Looking forward to many more reports in 2015. Thank you, we appreciate your contributions as the basis of many lively discussions
Amen!
That is a lot of cars in a year. Amazing you can keep any of them straight. Thanksfor the great content all year, and looking forward to more next year.
Sowerby has an interesting job. Shame he is kind of a dull writer. The Herald had a great automotive section for a while, but then cut almkst all of the local content. (Although I am probably biased as my wife wrote for it for the better part of two years.)
Now about that commenting system…
Just as a s*de thought, I’m bes*de myself cons*dering all the s*de notes that the TTAC comment filter must have cons*dered spam, but I must s*de with those who through careful cons*deration figured out how to s*destep the issue
What kind of grille (insert?) is that on the Impala? Looks pretty neat.
That’s the collision Mitigation/ active cruise control grill for the radars and such.
From what I understand, Impala units equipped with the adaptive cruise control option employ that grille, with the radar housed within said grille. It just goes to show you how little grille area is actually needed on most modern cars…
Thanks for all your work! Merry Christmas!!
How’s the TLX? Nice car for Christmas (but I’m a fanboy)
9-speed is a fun-sapper. Interior is convoluted. Feels too heavy to be a sports sedan. But it’s a lot of car for the money, it’s right-sized, and I’m starting to like the way it looks.
Any chance you’ll be reviewing a Dodge Journey?
If so, please seek out surfaces like the one that Soul’s sitting on. That’s my local infrastructure.
A bit older and a different style, but… http://www.goodcarbadcar.net/2013/06/2013-dodge-journey-rt-rallye-review-canada.html
OK, that was pretty sobering. I know “that scrunch sound” of which you speak from the build quality of a cheap chest freezer on wheels and painted red.
Thanks, I’m back to my senses.
The only thing is price. That R/T can be had US for about $10K under the CDN price as tested. That’s a lot of crossover for the money
Well, in addition to the styrofoam chassis integrity the fact that Tim wasn’t prompted to mention any special ride softness concerns me.
Maybe because it was an R/T the suspension was stiffer than the standard Journey’s, but what I’m after is mooshiness so egregious it would be mentioned, nay, excoriated in any car guy’s first paragraph.
Where, oh where shall I find my cush?
Probably something like a Ford Edge will provide a certain degree of cush without breaking the bank
I’ve ridden in a couple Edges and found them to be hollow, rattly earschplittenloudenboomers over major bumps.
“I’ve ridden in a couple Edges and found them to be hollow, rattly earschplittenloudenboomers over major bumps.”
You never got the memo?
This is TTAC, and with exceedingly few exceptions, all Ford products are to be praised without reservation, and the objectively middling Edge is on the “do not criticize” majority list.
I probably deleted it without opening. Except for the C-Max and Transit Connect I haven’t been interested in anything Ford for decades so I never closely read articles or comments thereto.
Most of the pro-Ford attitudes here seem due to Mustangs and the little ST things, Focus and Fiesta? Seems Ford has the boy racers and mullets pretty happy.
“Seems Ford has the boy racers and mullets pretty happy.”
You forgot about us windrow annihilators… I love my Escape
Why am I reminded of Da Yoopers’ AK-57 when you talk about your Escape?
um, I dunno
Good, informative review
No Volvos in that impressive lineup?
I understand it is very hard to single out one vehicle in that impressive collection as “the best”. It is really interesting though that the Fiesta got close to that distinction. Do you think it is or will be an economic success for Ford of USA, too? Are thr NA Fiestas still build in Europe or do they manufacture locally?
About your blog…love it! But one thing bothers me: Try to read your tables with Opera for Android without suddenly loading other pages or just try to see all the numbers. Doesn’t work. Maybe that can be umproved?
Haven’t had a Volvo press car to drive in the last six years. The Fiesta was by no means the best car I drove in the last year. But from a pure driving perspective, in the real world, it was more fun day in and day out than a lot of the vehicles which possess far greater spec sheets but can only display their talents on the right road, at the right time, for brief spurts of time. Our Fiestas are assembled in Mexico. As for mobile versions of GCBC, we’ve tried a few different formats, and it is difficult on a limited budget to make a perfect mobile version for such a data-centric site. That’s not to say we’ve given up trying, only that I acknowledge the difficulty and recognize that at this point the full web viewing experience is superior for frequent use.
Oh what a horrible job that must be!
Timothy is simply right. Most drivers cars can only give their pilots fleeting moments of hooning nirvana. The Fiesta ST delivers that nirvana 90% of the time. I would save my money and purchases a slightly abused Fiesta fun ride and use that saved money on something useful like a PU or a Connect
The beautiful scenery of Prince Edward Island. Oh how much I will miss Atlantic Canada when I move back to Florida. Thank you for all the tests Timothy and keep up with the good work in 2015.