QOTD: So, What Are You Really Looking Forward To?

Steph Willems
by Steph Willems

No, we’re not talking about Christmas. Chances are you don’t have a hope in hell of getting what you really want under the ol’ tree this year. We’re talking about 2018.

A year of splashy new vehicle unveilings (or unauthorized leaks) awaits, starting just three weeks from now in Detroit. Are you as excited about the 2019 Avalon as the TTAC crew is? It’s all anyone can mention in our Slack chatroom. And what about the electric crossover promise from that automaker you’ve already forgotten about? Or was it that other automaker?

Jokes aside, what we’re getting at is this: are you looking forward to a reveal that’s not the 2019 Ram 1500?

There’s plenty still to come, though recently we’ve seen the 2019 Chevrolet Silverado and its questionable face, the uncomfortably named Nissan Kicks, the completely necessary BMW X2, and a next-generation Infiniti QX50 with a potential revolution beneath its hood, just to name a few.

There’s still plenty more cloaked mystery vehicles to get excited over. Like the, um, next-generation Volkswagen Jetta. Or … hmm … the next-gen Honda Clarity.

Maybe those aren’t good examples.

We can expect Ford to finally pull the wraps off its midsize Ranger in short order, though everyone knows it’ll just be an evolution of the overseas T6 Ranger that’s been around for years. Maybe Dearborn has a tease of the long-awaited Bronco for us in the New Year. There’s an Infiniti flagship concept sedan on its way, arriving just in time to witness the death of flagship sedans. Cadillac has its XT4 compact crossover spooling up, and if there’s one thing we know you love, it’s crossovers. Speaking of which, Lexus has a luxurious soccermobile ready for a Motor City closeup.

Or maybe the looming mid-engined Corvette has you wistfully swirling your eggnog this holiday season. The Jeep Wrangler pickup? We’ll surely get a peek this year. (Finally, no more camo-clad spy shots and artist renderings.) And that’s just a taste of the non-exotic.

So tell us, besides knowing that a certain relative is showing up at the dinner table this Christmas, what’s got you squirming?

Steph Willems
Steph Willems

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  • Derekson Derekson on Dec 21, 2017

    Mid-engined Corvette. Seems likely GM will try to pull off the same kind of show-stealing reveal that Ford did with the new GT.

  • Kato Kato on Dec 22, 2017

    - New Defender - New Bronco That's about it. Toyota keeps hinting that they're working on expanding their SUV lineup, but it's pretty unlikely they'll come up with anything not ugly.

  • Kjhkjlhkjhkljh kljhjkhjklhkjh A prelude is a bad idea. There is already Acura with all the weird sport trims. This will not make back it's R&D money.
  • Analoggrotto I don't see a red car here, how blazing stupid are you people?
  • Redapple2 Love the wheels
  • Redapple2 Good luck to them. They used to make great cars. 510. 240Z, Sentra SE-R. Maxima. Frontier.
  • Joe65688619 Under Ghosn they went through the same short-term bottom-line thinking that GM did in the 80s/90s, and they have not recovered say, to their heyday in the 50s and 60s in terms of market share and innovation. Poor design decisions (a CVT in their front-wheel drive "4-Door Sports Car", model overlap in a poorly performing segment (they never needed the Altima AND the Maxima...what they needed was one vehicle with different drivetrain, including hybrid, to compete with the Accord/Camry, and decontenting their vehicles: My 2012 QX56 (I know, not a Nissan, but the same holds for the Armada) had power rear windows in the cargo area that could vent, a glass hatch on the back door that could be opened separate from the whole liftgate (in such a tall vehicle, kinda essential if you have it in a garage and want to load the trunk without having to open the garage door to make room for the lift gate), a nice driver's side folding armrest, and a few other quality-of-life details absent from my 2018 QX80. In a competitive market this attention to detai is can be the differentiator that sell cars. Now they are caught in the middle of the market, competing more with Hyundai and Kia and selling discounted vehicles near the same price points, but losing money on them. They invested also invested a lot in niche platforms. The Leaf was one of the first full EVs, but never really evolved. They misjudged the market - luxury EVs are selling, small budget models not so much. Variable compression engines offering little in terms of real-world power or tech, let a lot of complexity that is leading to higher failure rates. Aside from the Z and GT-R (low volume models), not much forced induction (whether your a fan or not, look at what Honda did with the CR-V and Acura RDX - same chassis, slap a turbo on it, make it nicer inside, and now you can sell it as a semi-premium brand with higher markup). That said, I do believe they retain the technical and engineering capability to do far better. About time management realized they need to make smarter investments and understand their markets better.
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