My $1.8 Million Fleet in 2016 - the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Over the last year, the PR departments of 12 automobile manufacturers delivered 38 new vehicles to my driveway. Scheduling quirks and limited autumn availability saw that number slide from 2015, but week-long exposure to new vehicles was nevertheless extensive in 2016.
It’s a good gig. Sure, we work hard to maintain GoodCarBadCar.net — Mrs. Cain has even put in a fair number of hours since the October birth of our second baby boy — while I also contribute a couple of times per week to Autofocus.ca and work daily for The Truth About Cars. But in addition to our favored steed — the 2015 Honda Odyssey EX that we pay for with our own money — I get to drive (and fuel, and clean, and write two reviews about) a new automobile every week.
Those automobiles were collectively valued at $1.8 million in 2016, down from $2.2 million in 2015. The average price of the vehicles sent to GCBC Towers rose 4 percent to $46,671.
Every now and then, though less often than you’d think, I’d prefer a vehicle to hang around for an extra week. At least as often, I’d be content for vehicles to leave before their week was up. With the year now coming to a close, here are the best, the worst, the most surprising, the most disappointing, the most efficient, and the least economical vehicles I tested over the last year.
In 2016, Canada’s Maritime press fleet included one pickup truck, one roadster, two vans, seven sedans, three coupes, two wagons, eight hatchbacks, and 14 utility vehicles.
There were five hybrids, including a plug-in, and only four cars with manual transmissions. There was only one V8 engine; only seven V6s. 20 of the 38 powerplants were turbocharged.
Vehicles are hand-delivered to our driveway, but we don’t have any say in the selection or specification. It doesn’t work that way on Nova Scotia’s far flung east coast.
Best Of The Best: Mazda MX-5 Miata
It may be a painfully obvious choice, but the fourth-generation Mazda MX-5 Miata was by far the most fun I had all year. I’m in this business, rather than the business of measuring the linear feet of category space given to potato chips in grocery stores, because I enjoy driving. Over the last year, I drove vehicles with profoundly higher price tags than the MX-5’s. There was no shortage of cars with more power, more space, and more features.
But the Miata is better.
Honorable mentions: Volkswagen Golf R, Mercedes-Benz GLC300 4Matic, Audi A4
Biggest Surprise: Ford F-150 EcoBoost 2.7
Honorable mentions: Chevrolet Spark LS, Chevrolet Malibu 1.5T
Worst Of The Worst: Fiat 500X Trekking AWD
Honorable mentions: Honda HR-V EX-L and Audi Q3
Biggest Disappointment: Hyundai Veloster Turbo DCT
Honorable Mentions: Audi A3 e-Tron and Infiniti QX50
Most Efficient: Toyota Prius, 57 mpg
Ford C-Max SE (46 mpg) and Lincoln MKZ Hybrid Reserve (39 mpg)
Least Efficient: Acura MDX, 16 mpg
Honorable Mentions: GMC Yukon Denali (17 mpg) and Mercedes-Benz GLC300 4Matic (18 mpg)
THE CARS
Timothy Cain is the founder of GoodCarBadCar.net, which obsesses over the free and frequent publication of U.S. and Canadian auto sales figures. Follow on Twitter @goodcarbadcar and on Facebook.
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- ToolGuy First picture: I realize that opinions vary on the height of modern trucks, but that entry door on the building is 80 inches tall and hits just below the headlights. Does anyone really believe this is reasonable?Second picture: I do not believe that is a good parking spot to be able to access the bed storage. More specifically, how do you plan to unload topsoil with the truck parked like that? Maybe you kids are taller than me.
- ToolGuy The other day I attempted to check the engine oil in one of my old embarrassing vehicles and I guess the red shop towel I used wasn't genuine Snap-on (lots of counterfeits floating around) plus my driveway isn't completely level and long story short, the engine seized 3 minutes later.No more used cars for me, and nothing but dealer service from here on in (the journalists were right).
- Doughboy Wow, Merc knocks it out of the park with their naming convention… again. /s
- Doughboy I’ve seen car bras before, but never car beards. ZZ Top would be proud.
- Bkojote Allright, actual person who knows trucks here, the article gets it a bit wrong.First off, the Maverick is not at all comparable to a Tacoma just because they're both Hybrids. Or lemme be blunt, the butch-est non-hybrid Maverick Tremor is suitable for 2/10 difficulty trails, a Trailhunter is for about 5/10 or maybe 6/10, just about the upper end of any stock vehicle you're buying from the factory. Aside from a Sasquatch Bronco or Rubicon Jeep Wrangler you're looking at something you're towing back if you want more capability (or perhaps something you /wish/ you were towing back.)Now, where the real world difference should play out is on the trail, where a lot of low speed crawling usually saps efficiency, especially when loaded to the gills. Real world MPG from a 4Runner is about 12-13mpg, So if this loaded-with-overlander-catalog Trailhunter is still pulling in the 20's - or even 18-19, that's a massive improvement.
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"Is the 3.5 EcoBoost even necessary?" You'd have to ask Ford engineers that question since the EB3.5 is their designated "go to" motor for any heavy lifting. It would be much more appropriate to ask, "Is the 3.5L Ti-VCT V6 or 5.0L Ti-VCT V8 even necessary?" The 5.0 (soon to be 4.8 V8) is necessary to keep the obnoxious driver and the aftermarket exhaust industry alive. LOL. The NA 3.5 is for the fleet industry. I doubt the 2.7 Turbo would fair well under the abuse of "I don't give a sh!t" fleet drivers and haphazard maintenance.
The general consensus appears to be that the MX5 is a super great car yet it's the only Mazda without The Schnoz. Significant?