After a sweeping through of winter rains that had many residents of Lynn Valley considering the purchase of stilts, it looks like 2015 will dawn in crisp, sunny, frosty splendour.
Needless to say, every body shop on the North Shore is about to pay off their Christmas Visa bill in three days of work. But it's also a bright and happy time to both look back at what 2014 brought to the table in new cars, and to look forward to what 2015 might hold. Here, as every year, is my own personal look at the news-making sheet metal of the automotive world this year.
The Jurassic Park Award: Dodge Hellcat(s)
Might as well start things off with the two machines that received so much press this year, you'd think Fiat-Chrysler had invented cold fusion. They're called the Hellcats, and they're the last bellows of a dying dinosaur.
Each is a monstrously heavy rear-drive machine (either two-or four-doored), and each has a retro name. Each come in a variety of silly colours. Each is a big, burly brawler that appears to make little concession to either aerodynamics or modern traffic.
However, the Charger and Challenger Hellcats are also both fitted with a 6.2-litre supercharged V-8 that makes 707 horsepower and sounds like a drill press being used to give an Allosaur a root canal. Completely ridiculous, the pair of them, and yet there's majesty in what Dodge has done here.
It's not the way forward: even though both cars get acceptable highway fuel economy thanks to a clever eight-speed transmission, they're more a last gasp of the oil age. If hybridization, electrification, and lightweight materials are the future, these cars will be the ones that make a gearhead's eye glimmer with nostalgia.
And what does Dodge charge for your own personal pet dinosaur? A paltry 60-odd thousand dollars. To quote Samuel L. Jackson's character from the titular movie: "hold on to your butts."
The Maybe Things Won't Be So Bad Award: BMW i8
Flick through the headlines outside the automotive section of any newspaper, and it's hard to keep up a positive outlook if you're into cars. Traffic grows apace, alongside urban densification. Fossil fuel supplies dwindle, while the effects of using them increase. Manufacturers seem intent on not just isolating us in floaty metal cocoons, but would happily wrest the wheels from our grasp, turning drivers into passengers.
However, there is the odd glimmer of hope, and you can find one such machine in the BMW i8. First, it's futuristically pretty, a dagger-like coupe that looks as if a vision of the future was shattered into pieces and then someone fitted wheels to one of the shards.
It's got a frisson of the wedginess of the folded-paper designs of the 1970s, but it's all modern, as if 3D printed from schematics stolen from the Tron movies. It's wonderful looking, and people seem to love it.
Under the slippery skin is a pair of engines, one electric, one a high-efficiency turbocharged unit, totalling 362 h.p. and excellent low-end torque. The result is a sprint to 100 kilometres per hour in a claimed 4.4 seconds, more than quick enough to get you in trouble, yet producing fuel consumption and emissions like a Prius.
Best of all, while the i8 is expensive, it's not hypercar expensive. You'd pay about the same for a well-optioned Porsche 911 Carrera 4S.
In terms of prestige, performance, and attraction, the i8 is right there with the Porsche. Might this sort of thing be available for the price of a Scion FR-S in a decade? Dare to dream.
Mr. Personality: The Kia Soul
Performance is only one yardstick by which the excellence of a modern car can be measured. Other desired features include comfort, efficiency, style, and variety. So go for a Soul.
With the new Soul EV now on the market (and don't ask me why they didn't call it the Electric Soul and hire Grand Funk Railroad as spokes-funk-persons), this sprightly little Kia crossover offers a choice of zero emissions driving in a shape that's a little less dull than a Nissan Leaf. It'll pip the Leaf on range too.
It also comes with a choice of peppy and efficient four-cylinder engines, enough passenger and cargo space to haul most of what you might need, a ride height that's upright to see your way through city traffic, and a design that stands out without compromising practicality much.
As a result, the Soul sells very well for Kia, and has done more for their brand image than any dancing hamsters ever did.
The Don't Bother Wiping Your Feet Award: Subaru Outback
People have been used to Subaru being a quirky niche player in the market for so long, they're always surprised to hear how well the company is doing. To date, Subaru is the eighth-ranked automaker in the United States on sales volume, beating Volkswagen and Mazda, and they're not far off being able to challenge Hyundai. In Canada, they're just ahead of Mercedes-Benz, and climbing. Naturally, congratulations are in order, or at least some pretence to get me in the same room as the Subaru brass and administer the electrodes until they bring back the WRX hatchback. However, if you'd like to get an idea why Subaru's been on the rise so much of late, consider the Outback.
Subaru sells entire forests of Foresters, but their Outback sales are up by nearly half - why so? The car itself is somewhat unremarkable to drive: smooth, planted, but not particularly quick with the volume-selling 2.5-litre flat-four.
It's just that the Outback fits the West Coast lifestyle so nicely. It'll carry bikes n' kayaks without being too tall to load either; it's got plenty of room inside for kids and/or retirement gardening projects and/or big hairy smelly dogs; the ground clearance is better than crossovers like the Toyota Highlander. The Outback is rugged enough to get nearly any outdoors-oriented job done, and its somewhat agricultural roots have been polished smoothed by the years, fading away like (to use an entirely random example) Paul Hogan's career prospects. Nice enough to ferry around your in-laws, still likes to get muddy.
The Derek Zoolander Award for being Really, Really, Really, Ridiculously Good Looking: Jaguar F-Type Coupe
Jaguar's F-type is simply stunning. It embodies the best attributes of the E-Type in that even were it merely broken down in your garage, it'd still be worth an ogle or two.
It's also cramped, slightly thirsty, loud enough to be embarrassing, and the trunk space is that of a sock drawer. And yet: phwoar, as the Brits say, or at least they do in The Beano. The Herbie the Love Bug Award: Nissan Micra If you remember the old 1960s era movies about Herbie and his increasingly unlikely adventures, one of the principal conceits of the films was the unsuitability of a VW Beetle for competition racing. It was thus hilarious when Herbie trounced his much more powerful competition by driving upside-down through tunnels and various other hijinks.
Nissan's Micra echoes this never-say-die pluckiness by being both the cheapest new car you can buy in Canada, and still having its own spec racing series. With a 1.6-litre engine making just 109 h.p., it's no rocketship, yet beat the tar out of this little bugger and it'll scoot along happily.
For many young people, the Micra may be their first new car, in something of a bare-bones spec. It's usefully sized, it's fun to drive, and when you take into account the warranty and the low borrowing rates, it's really rather cheap.
A perfect car for Canadians, then, particularly those of us with a last name like Villeneuve.
Things To Look For in 2015:
-The first drives of the new Mazda MX-5
-Ford Mustang Shelby GT-350 takes on Chevy's Camaro Z/28
-Ford and Nissan both return to LeMans racing
-Maybe, finally, the Acura NSX launches
-Porsche's Cayman GT4 might finally eclipse the 911
-Aston-Martins powered by AMG V-12 may cause Battle of Britain pilots to rise from their graves
-Tesla's Model X may make or break the company
-Crossovers of all kind continue world domination
-Ken Block accidentally uses up world supply of tires and GoPro HD cameras.
Brendan McAleer is a freelance writer and automotive enthusiast. If you have a suggestion for a column, please contact him at [email protected]. Follow Brendan on Twitter: @brendan_mcaleer.
