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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.

Kia teases distinctive next K7, which previews the 2020 Cadenza

The Kia Cadenza has made a home in America for only three years, but it's already up for a serious transformation with its next facelift. Kia South Korea has begun teasing the future of the sedan called K7 in its home market, and the rather anonymous midsizer is ready to make an impact. The four sketches and short video reveal much sharper lines all over, as if the sedan has spent many nights watching YouTube makeup tutorials on how to contour. The concave grille remains, forming a hard vee instead of the angled "C" shape of the current car. Prominent edges on the lower bumper form larger, swept-back intakes, the openings connected by a full-width trim piece with unfurled origami wings at the edges. The headlights go narrow on the coming car, highlighting their jewelry and a new LED DRL pattern. In back, chrome accents are toned down, formerly soft forms adopt hard edges, while taillights with a "Z" pattern get connected by a row of red lights spanning the fascia. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. There's far more drama for the interior. The instrument panel's been reworked to look more plush and make room for a single central feature, the large infotainment screen. HVAC vents move below the screen, and sleek climate controls occupy a compact slot between the vent and a gloss black covered cubby. The shifter has been shrunk into the shape of large, cut gemstone, the entire center tunnel area adopting a luxury sheen. And we can't be certain, but it appears one of the images shows an all-digital dash cluster. Camouflaged Cadenza prototypes have been spotted roaming South Korea for the past seven months. A South Korean reveal is likely just around the corner, giving us a glimpse into what we'll see later this year.

2021 Kia Sorento caught completely undisguised at a commercial shoot

Remember when Kia just sold cheap warranties wrapped in sheetmetal? After looking over these fresh spy photos of the 2021 Sorento crossover, we'd forgive you for saying no, as those days are clearly well behind the Korean automaker.  Not even a week ago, we saw leaked images of a finished example hiding out underneath a sheet, but this week's unveiling is far more comprehensive. Our spies weren't crafty enough to position themselves for any interior shots, but we have just about every angle of the new Sorento's exterior, and quite frankly, we like it a lot.  Like most newer cars, the 2021 Sorento is rocking an almost full-width grille, but we'll forgive this unfortunate bit of trendy convention because the rest of the design looks clean, contemporary and practical.  While there are plenty of details and nuances to the sheetmetal, the overall shape is fairly minimalist. It's a classic SUV silhouette with only a slight taper to the rear glass, which should allow the new Sorento to hold a good bit of cargo even with the second-row seats intact.  Also in the rear, we see that Kia has taken a page out of some European designers' playbooks with a widely spaced "SORENTO" made up of individual letters across the bottom of the tailgate. Kia has also gone for a split vertical tail light design that places interior housings on the tailgate itself and exterior housings in the quarter panels.  This Sorento also shows what appear to be integrated exhaust finishers that are mirrored by reflector housings above them, giving the whole lower rear bumper a very futuristic look.  A Kia executive confirmed that hybrid and plug-in variants are planned for the redesigned crossover, however it's not clear yet whether (or when) those variants will come to the U.S.  We're expecting to learn more about the new Sorento soon, as we've just learned it will be revealed at the Geneva Motor Show in March.  Related Video: