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A car writer's year in new vehicles [w/video]

Christmas is only a week away. The New Year is just around the corner. As 2014 draws to a close, I'm not the only one taking stock of the year that's we're almost shut of. Depending on who you are or what you do, the end of the year can bring to mind tax bills, school semesters or scheduling dental appointments. For me, for the last eight or nine years, at least a small part of this transitory time is occupied with recalling the cars I've driven over the preceding 12 months. Since I started writing about and reviewing cars in 2006, I've done an uneven job of tracking every vehicle I've been in, each year. Last year I made a resolution to be better about it, and the result is a spreadsheet with model names, dates, notes and some basic facts and figures. Armed with this basic data and a yen for year-end stories, I figured it would be interesting to parse the figures and quantify my year in cars in a way I'd never done before. The results are, well, they're a little bizarre, honestly. And I think they'll affect how I approach this gig in 2015. {C} My tally for the year is 68 cars, as of this writing. Before the calendar flips to 2015 it'll be as high as 73. Let me give you a tiny bit of background about how automotive journalists typically get cars to test. There are basically two pools of vehicles I drive on a regular basis: media fleet vehicles and those available on "first drive" programs. The latter group is pretty self-explanatory. Journalists are gathered in one location (sometimes local, sometimes far-flung) with a new model(s), there's usually a day of driving, then we report back to you with our impressions. Media fleet vehicles are different. These are distributed to publications and individual journalists far and wide, and the test period goes from a few days to a week or more. Whereas first drives almost always result in a piece of review content, fleet loans only sometimes do. Other times they serve to give context about brands, segments, technology and the like, to editors and writers. So, adding up the loans I've had out of the press fleet and things I've driven at events, my tally for the year is 68 cars, as of this writing. Before the calendar flips to 2015, it'll be as high as 73. At one of the buff books like Car and Driver or Motor Trend, reviewers might rotate through five cars a week, or more. I know that number sounds high, but as best I can tell, it's pretty average for the full-time professionals in this business.

Tuning shop plans to turn C8 Corvette into a supercar homage to Cadillac

In March 1902, Henry Ford walked away from his Henry Ford Company investors, leaving his former financial backers to dissolve the concern. The engineer brought in to appraise the old equipment, Henry Leland, convinced the investors to form a new car company and back him instead. Hence, six years before Ford gave the world the Model T, he inadvertently gave the world the Cadillac Automobile Company in August 1902. That makes 2022 the 120th anniversary of the brand that once called itself "The Standard of the World." We don't know if Cadillac has anything planned for the year, but U.S.-based tuner Competition Carbon does. As Carscoops picked up on, the aftermarket shop specializing in Corvette and Lamborghini mods intends to turn a current C8 Corvette into a supercar homage to Cadillac called the C120R. There will be two versions of this creation, one of them a V12 roadster. All we have are Instagram captions and photos to go on at the moment, one of those photos tagged with a list of Competition Carbon's partners in the project. One of the names is Kasim Tlibekov, who specializes in creating body kits for all manner of cars, another is Group A Motoring, which makes and sells body kit parts for six Japanese automakers. In a post on the Group A Instagram page, a Competition Carbon caption informs us the C120R is its "2022 SEMA project! Inspired by [2002] Cadillac Cien Super Car Concept (100 Anniversary), we redesigned and updated to our modern world after 20 years." On the same post, Group A writes that this bodykit is "prob the first complete rebody C8 project, already at 3D Printing." So, yes, despite the name, the body kit is worked up in SLA resin, not carbon. As for the kit's looks, the rationale for its intensity makes sense after looking at the Cien. The twin-duct hood dipping below the vectored front fascia, the reshaped side intakes, the flying buttresses over bulked-up and squared rear fenders, all come straight off the Cien, pictured below. The adjustable rear wing and the roof scoop are new. That scoop would be one of two engine cover treatments for the car. The first has eight cutouts, and we suspect the car that Competition Carbon brings to this year's SEMA show will use the Corvette's 6.2-liter V8. However, another of the tagged names is Hartley Engines, a small engine builder out of New Zealand. There's apparently another C120R already planned for the 2023 SEMA show, that one packing an open top above and a V12 behind.

VW ID. Buzz revealed, electric Chevy Blazer SS teased | Autoblog Podcast #720

In this episode of the Autoblog Podcast, Editor-in-Chief Greg Migliore is joined by Senior Editor, Green, John Beltz Snyder. The Volkswagen Bus revival is the big news this week, but first, we discuss winter driving in our long-term Hyundai Palisade, and review the Hyundai Kona Electric and Jaguar F-Pace SVR. Then they dive into the reveal of the VW ID. Buzz, and Chevy's tease of the Blazer SS performance EV. John's been compiling lists of the most efficient EVs, plug-in hybrids and plug-free vehicles of 2022. Finally, they take to the mailbag to help a listener pick a suitable replacement for a 2010 Mazdaspeed3. Send us your questions for the Mailbag and Spend My Money at: Podcast@Autoblog.com. Autoblog Podcast #720 Get The Podcast Apple Podcasts – Subscribe to the Autoblog Podcast in iTunes Spotify – Subscribe to the Autoblog Podcast on Spotify RSS – Add the Autoblog Podcast feed to your RSS aggregator MP3 – Download the MP3 directly Rundown Cars we're driving Winter driving in our long-term Hyundai Palisade 2022 Hyundai Kona Electric 2022 Jaguar F-Pace SVR 2025 VW ID. Buzz revealed 2024 Blazer SS will be Chevy's first electric performance model The most efficient cars of 2022 Spend My Money Feedback Email – Podcast@Autoblog.com Review the show on Apple Podcasts Autoblog is now live on your smart speakers and voice assistants with the audio Autoblog Daily Digest. Say “Hey Google, play the news from Autoblog” or "Alexa, open Autoblog" to get your favorite car website in audio form every day. A narrator will take you through the biggest stories or break down one of our comprehensive test drives. Related video: