A look back at 2017
2017 probably won’t be a year that most remember. There was a lot that happened this past year, but who can’t really say that about any other year. I mean there weren’t really any huge historical events besides some rather historically large cyber-attacks, data breaches, and a change of the U.S. Presidency, though some would call that pretty historically significant. To be fair, we didn’t have any September 11-like terrorist attacks, and we didn’t have any new war declarations, even if the North Korean spat is an ongoing predicament.
What can be said of 2017 is that for the automotive consumer, it was a year ripe with new and exciting cars. For the enthusiasts, it was a year defined by anticipation, dreams come true, and hope. I don’t mean hope in the sense that people like me see a concept car revealed at an auto show and hope that it looks that good when it gets to the public. I’m talking about the hope keeps one from getting a good night’s sleep because something new and exciting is happening the next day.
The Cars:
Among the myriad of cars that inspired this hope included the Honda Civic Hatchback and with that, the Civic Type R. The Type R was one of the most highly anticipated cars released in this past decade. For years, it’s been the car that everyone in the states wanted but couldn’t get. Europe has had it for years, and it finally got here without disappointing anybody. Speaking of Honda, the NSX also made its debut with just as much anticipation, followed by disappointment when it got into the hands of consumers. It’s not that the NSX is a terrible car. The new one is just such a far cry from the old one, it doesn’t live up to the standard set by one of the historically greatest cars ever made… and you know what? We can’t really blame Honda for that. The NSX has transcended itself. It goes far beyond its own name.
Credit: Car and Driver
Speaking of what’s in a name, the Kia Stinger made its debut as a 2018 model and is available for purchase right now. The Kia What-er? The Kia Stinger has restored in me some of that hopethat I just talked about. These other cars do too, but let’s let them out of the picture here for a second. The Stinger is a gorgeous looking luxury sports hatchback that has already proved to “wow” those with the exclusive privilege of testing it out. Now to me, I think this is going to be a very Hyundai Genesis Coupe-esque automobile, in that, it won’t be a huge seller that will be tremendously underrated… Why do I think that? The name… it’s a Kia, a far cry from anything they currently offer in their lineup. Well, all I have to say is this: Kia, if you are reading this right now, I want to thank you for giving us this car, even if nobody else ever says this to you. You’ve heard it from me.
Credit: Car and Driver
Another car we got was the Alfa Romeo Guilia. I don’t need to say too much except that it’s been in the running for just about every single award you can give a car, and it’s won most of them. At least, it’s gotten close. It just won Motor Trend’s 2018 Car of the Year award even though you can get one right now. I recommend the rocket ship Quadrofoglio version, but you don’t have to go that route. Any version you get is 100% perfect, even if it’s not.
Credit: Car and Driver
One of my personal favorite releases for 2017 was the Mazda CX-5. It isn’t a new car, because it’s been around for a few years now. It did get quite a sizeable refresh. Already one of the best SUVs on the market, Mazda took its hugely popular CX-5 and made it even better, a feat that’s just about as hard to do as squeezing an elephant into a drying machine. I’m not personally a big fan of SUVs, but the CX-5 is one I’d buy over even a few sports cars right now.
Credit: U.S. News
The Ford GT and Focus RS also make this list. The GT has been around since 2006 when Ford paid homage to the three-time Le Mans winning GT40 by making a modern version of one of the greatest cars ever made. It looked modern but also didn’t let down the past. The newly redesigned GT40 has taken the classic looks and completely abandoned them. It genuinely looks like a thoroughly modern hypercar albeit with a thoroughly modern V-6 engine that backs up its appearance extraordinarily well. The Focus RS is much more attainable and not as fast, but it’s just as fun.
Credit: Car and Driver
To mention a few more cars that 2017 brought us…
The Mazda MX-5 Miata RF: It’s everything we know and love about the MX-5 Miata, but with a hard top roof.
The Fiat 124 Spider: An MX-5 in a disguise.
The Ford Raptor: Gone is the wonderful V-8 monster truck and before us stands a re-sculpted monster with a V-6 heart. Receiving much criticism and hate, it’s not really that bad, but we’re all just going to have to get used to it.
The Sentra SR Turbo and Sentra Nismo: I’ve already given you my thoughts here, but at least they added some guts to the standard Sentra.
The Hyundai Elantra: It’s a fine car, but what gets me excited is the Hyundai Elantra Sport. It’s an Elantra that actually does what it says it’s going to do… Sport!
The Nissan Titan: It got a full on redesign, and it’s bigger than life… literally. It’s a little bigger than an F150.
There were many more cars released in 2017, but they will be left to blend into the background. You’ll notice that I left off one of the most important cars that came out this past year off the list. Yep… you guessed it: The Chevy Bolt. I didn’t say Volt. That horse has already left the barn and is limping along somewhere. The Bolt has shown the world that we are getting ever closer to having a reasonably priced electric car that can give us the range and usability that we have in most gasoline cars.
$35,000 is a little pricier than the average car on the market, but what you get is miles ahead of just about everything else right now as far as electric vehicles are concerned, save some of the much pricier Tesla models. Its closes competitor right now is the Nissan Leaf which gets a measly “up to 107 miles” on a charge, which means that it will do about 20 when you actually drive it in real life. The Leaf will be improved in 2018, but that’s by necessity. The Bolt has come out boldly and is the best EV that everybody can drive right now. Notice that I said everybody… Sorry Tesla.
Along with addition of several new cars, there were also cars that were mercifully, or perhaps begrudgingly left to die. Some that will be missed are the Dodge Viper, the Chevy SS, and the Honda Accord Coupe. A few that won’t be include the Nissan Quest, Buick Verano, and Jeep Patriot.
Another car I failed to mention in the above list is the Mitsubishi Lancer. Some might not understand the significance of this, but those who follow the auto industry will. The Lancer Evolution has already died. That death was pretty significant to the enthusiast community. It was the only real Subaru WRX/STi competitor, but it was also an icon. With the final death of the Lancer, it means that for the foreseeable future, the Evolution has no means by which to claw its way back into the world. Let’s be honest though… Mitsubishi should have ended the Lancer name when the Evolution died. The Lancer needed to die, as it simply devoured itself with how abysmal it had become compared to its “competition”. In a way though, it’s sad. Even though they still make a few SUVs, we just saw the final candle get blown out and the cover of Mitsubishi’s book get shut for the last time.
The Awards:
Enough of new car introductions and old car funeral dirges. It’s time to see the 2017 cars of the year and how they’ve panned out so far. The Chevy Bolt was named the 2017 Motor Trend car of the year, and I don’t really feel inclined to go back and restate anything I’ve already said. It’s a fine car for what it is, but it’s still a work in progress when comparing the Bolt to a regular car like a Toyota Carolla, Subaru Impreza, or even a Honda Accord.
As for the 2017 Motor Trend Truck of the year, we have kind of the opposite situation going on here. Trucks have gotten cushier over the years… that is to say that they have gone from being built solely to haul and work to being something to haul, work, and carry a family in superior safety and comfort. When I look at the Bolt, I see a “car” that isn’t as capable, practical, or affordable than just about any other regular small hatchback currently on the market. Therefore, I see the Bolt has being elected to the highest honor of automotive status without really giving me anything I can’t go to the new or used lot and get literally anywhere. The Truck of the Year Award demands that the winner, the Ford Super Duty, be better at doing everything that a car, SUV, and truck can do. On top of that, it demands that the Super Duty be better at doing those things plus be better than every other truck trying to do all of those things. That’s a monumental task, but there has to be a winner, and Ford did it.
The SUV of the year was the Mercedes GLC. Now, I’m not the biggest fan of Mercedes, and truthfully, I really don’t know a whole lot about them. I have trouble keeping the models straight because they’re all numbers rather than names. I haven’t driven too many, but everyone, including myself, associates Mercedes Benz with luxury, quality, and refinement. Other than that, it’s pretty typical of what you’d expect a Mercedes SUV to be. So, what does that mean for the GLC to be picked for the SUV of the year? To me, it means nothing… it’s just another tidbit of news that you can take and use how you please.
If the past dictates the future, we haven’t really learned anything from any of Motor Trend’s selections. After all, Motor Trend has been doing this for decades now, and yet, these are the same people who picked the PT Cruiser as the Car of the Year in 2001, the Ford Thunderbird the next year, and who seem to have an electric car fetish as the Chevy Volt, Tesla Model S, and Chevy Bolt have all been selected for the award. At the same time, Motor Trend has also picked the Volkswagen Golf GTI in 1985, the Nissan GT-R in 2009, and the Alfa Romeo Guilia as its most recent car of the year. Quite the contrast. It is what it is, and regardless of what you think, it’s interesting to see how they choose what they do.
The News:
The biggest news this year came from Volkswagen. Because the culmination of “Deiselgate,” as it was affectionately called, came way back at the beginning of the year, a lot of people have since forgotten about it. Volkswagen’s scheme was discovered much earlier than the beginning of this year, but admissions of guilt were made, fines were handed out, and everything involved with one of the largest scandals in automotive history all came to a head in January and February.
If you missed it because you were camped out at your local Honda dealer waiting for the first Type R to arrive on the lot, let me refresh your memory. Basically, Volkswagen used some software on their famed diesel model cars that would “sense” when the car was being tested for emissions. In the real world, the cars would essentially come back to life and display their full potential and their real world gas mileage.
I’m a fan of Volkswagen. I think their diesel cars are great, and I’m sure that everyone who has owned one can agree that they’re good. In my opinion, I’m really surprised that this is the first major manufacturer to get caught trying to skirt regulations. Mitsubishi was involved in a similar incident involving gas mileage close to the same time as VW, but again, it is really hard for me to believe that this hasn’t or isn’t happening on a regular basis with a lot of other manufacturers.
The other thing is that this had to do with a regulation concerning gas mileage. To me, if it were such a huge problem, there would have been people seeing a sizeable difference in the window sticker gas mileage versus what they were getting in real life driving… for the past 5 or 10 years. Now, I don’t know all the details, and I’m not condoning Volkswagen’s deception here, but to me, this is a little silly. The Takata airbag issue is a seriously dangerous, disconcerting issue as people’s lives are at stake. The reaction and fines that accompanied a few miles per gallon on a window sticker was a little excessive. At the end of the day, Volkswagen did what they needed to do to “rectify” the situation, and people who decided to keep their seriously flawed, dangerous, and terribly unreliable diesel Volkswagen cars just kept driving them as they had for years.
Another bit of news that was the exact antithesis of Volkswagen’s emissions issues was the release of the Demon… the Dodge Demon. Another new car you say? Well yes, but it’s more than just a new car. It’s a news story all in itself. I’m going to put it out there and just say that I think the Demon is a useless car. It’s so powerful, at almost 900 horsepower, that nobody would ever legitimately be able to use it every day on the road. It was built as a drag racer from the factory which means that you can take it to the drag strip… except that it was promptly banned by the NHRA for competition right after testing. Well then what exactly is it for? I’m not sure, but as I looked closer and thought to myself, I started to realize something about the Demon.
In a world of increasing regulations, cars that are increasingly computerized, and manufactures that must make a car to fit the least common denominator in order to sell anything, Dodge has created an anti-establishment villain. The Demon has one thing that most cars lack today: character. I can say the same thing for the Hellcat and even the various V-8 versions of the Challenger and Charger. They make a statement rather than trying to blend in and make everyone happy. That’s a great sign for enthusiasts and people who just enjoy cars for what they are. It means that somebody sees the value that character brings. The Demon is far from a track car, and nobody could ever use it to its full potential on any road. Whenever you see one, or its Hellcat cousin, just smile, wave, and laugh as you remember that the entire car is a middle finger to the world. If that’s not news, I’m not sure where you can go to get anything better.
In more news from this past year, gas prices have been refreshingly low in 2017. It’s been several years now since gas prices hit record heights in the U.S., which is really good for those of us who drive a lot. The consequence of the threat of increasing gas prices at a moment’s notice have pushed manufacturers to explore better and more efficient electric vehicle technology. A little counter-intuitive to the first consequence, people have stopped buying small, fuel-efficient cars in favor of large SUVs and trucks. This sounds really familiar.
Remember when gas prices first started shooting up in 2003? I certainly do. It was around the time when I was starting to learn how to drive. It was terrible. People started abandoning their large vehicles out of necessity. Smaller cars offered better gas mileage. See… the thing with the automotive industry is that it take time to adapt or react to something like that. Manufactures need to develop their cars to compensate for their consumers’ needs. As was the case in the late 2000’s and early 2010’s, the small car market was up, and large cars, SUV’s, and Truck sales were down. By the time gas prices started going back down, manufacturers had found ways to make cars more efficient. Cars that would have helped out a lot when gas prices were high were now flooding the market. People have a tendency to forget the past. Now, we’re several years removed from the high gas prices that gripped the consumer, and SUV’s are back in. History will repeat itself…
Before you say anything, I understand that modern trucks and SUVs are much more efficient than they were when the latest energy crisis started in 2003. I also understand that electric vehicles will start to become more popular and better as time goes on. In 2017, small car sales have hit an all-time low in the past 5 years as a consequence of lowered gas prices. That may not seem like big news, and really, it’s not, but I bet it will be the next time gas prices go up unexpectedly.
That’s the year in review. We will have to see what 2018 has in store, but judging from some of the things we know are on the way, we have reason to be optimistic. Not everything will please everybody, but rest assured that come December 2018, The Unlimited Driver will be back to cover everything that you loved, and probably some of the things you didn’t.
Happy New Year!
–SWF
