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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.

Nissan, Infiniti issue recall for replacement Takata air bags in older models

Nissan and Infiniti are recalling older vehicles that were repaired after collision damage to address problems with Takata replacement air bag inflators that were potentially installed. The overall campaign population is difficult for Nissan to pin down because the only vehicles impacted would be those that Nissan and Infiniti know to have been serviced with the replacement units in question. Officially, the recalled population numbers just 375, but Nissan says more than 18,000 cars could have the defective parts installed.  Drivers of 2001-2003 Nissan Maximas, 2002-2006 Nissan Sentras, 2007-2012 Nissan Versa Sedans/Hatchbacks, 2002-2003 Infiniti QX4s and 2006-2010 Infiniti M35s/M45s that had their vehicles repaired after a collision or theft should be aware that these deadly replacement parts may have been used.  "The potentially affected inflators may have been installed on vehicles after final remedy repair completion under the vehicle recalls as part of a subsequent theft or collision repair," Nissan's notice said. "Vehicles that received the subject parts prior to December 9, 2016, are not affected as they would have been subsequently included in the final remedy recalls and replaced with a final remedy driver and/or passenger air bag inflator. Nissan has identified 18,422 vehicles that may have had these parts installed during service." The air bag inflators in question were inadvertently shipped to service inventory between December 9, 2016 and November 12, 2021 — after the dangers of Takata's inflator design were known to the industry. Notices are already being mailed; owners will be asked to bring their cars in for inspection, and if defective parts are found, they will be replaced.  Related video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.

2018 Ford Expedition vs other big SUVs: How it compares on paper

With our Alex Kierstein rightly impressed in his first-drive review of the new 2018 Ford Expedition, we decided to dig a little deeper into the numbers, and we came up with the spreadsheet below to highlight how the new 2018 Expedition compares on paper to its main full-size SUV competitors: the 2018 Chevy Tahoe and Suburban (and therefore the 2018 GMC Yukon), 2018 Toyota Sequoia and 2018 Nissan Armada. We also threw in the new, even bigger 2018 Chevrolet Traverse since, as you'll see, its massive dimensions should put it on the radar for anyone who needs loads of passenger and cargo space but doesn't care as much about towing. A few notes about the chart above. First, the 6.2-liter V8 that's included with the new-for-2018 Tahoe RST trim level is the standard engine on the GMC Yukon Denali. You can apply most of the Tahoe's numbers to the entire Yukon and Yukon XL lineup. Second, though we highlighted categories where the Traverse led, we also highlighted the runner-up full-size SUV, since this was ultimately about that segment. Traverse numbers are broadly applicable to the new Buick Enclave. Related Video: Chevrolet Ford GMC Nissan Toyota SUV Comparison consumer ford expedition gmc yukon chevy traverse toyota sequoia nissan armada chevrolet tahoe ford expedition max