Now that you’ve all sufficiently recovered from your New Year’s festivities, I’d like to welcome you all to the 2015 edition of TTAC. It’s been roughly 18 months since the, *ahem* mid-cycle refresh, and just four months since Jack departed the EIC post (but not the site), to spend more time with his guitar collection.

Yesterday, TTAC contributor Jim Yu volunteered for a virtual Q&A on what it was like to own a Volkswagen Phaeton. I’m pleased to announce that Jim will be back soon for another AMA (Ask Me Anything) on his very first car, an isuzu Impulse. And we’ve decided to open the floor to anyone willing to contribute.

People often talk about particular events being seared into their minds: Pearl Harbor, JFK’s assassination, 9/11…I remember the first time I ever read an article by Jack Baruth.

Less than a month after our “Reader Review” program began (with Bark M taking TTAC reader Gene’s Chevrolet SS for a spin), the program is picking up momentum: we have now chalked up our fourth review, and we’d like to take the chance to formally extend this opportunity to all of our readers.

According to Google Analytics, Calgary, Alberta is one of the top cities where TTAC is read. And in honor of that (and the fact that I’m out here right now), myself and reader Daveincalgary are hosting a mini-meet up, and bringing along a couple of cool cars as well.

Over the past year, we’ve collectively driven hundreds of cars between us. We thought that we’d bring you an unofficial list of some of our favorites for the year.

For the past little while, we’ve been working on a new project expressly for our readers: a TTAC forum. And we want your input to help shape it.

We gave you two different chances to win. Time to announce the winners. We don’t have good email addresses for everyone, particularly some of our longer-serving commenters, so make sure we don’t miss you.

Slightly over a month ago, we had a spot of regime change here at The Truth About Cars. At the time, we unveiled a five-point program to improve the site and improve the reader experience. I’d like to take a moment to review these five points and give you a chance to provide further feedback on our progress so far.

Have you noticed that lately we’ve added a little box at the end of most stories asking you to sign up for the “TTAC E-Newsletter”? Sure you have. You’re observant like that. But why would you possibly want to do such a thing?

It’s no secret that over here at TTAC, we like to pay for it – at least when it comes to test cars. Sure, we do go to the press fleet frequently, but when time and budget allow, abusing our Hertz #1 Club Gold membership is a great way to get behind the wheel of select automobiles.

Every so often, the same tired rumor will pop up again, like a particularly resilient pimple that habitually reappears in the same conspicuous spot. Thanks to the incessant hunger for clicks among auto websites, these rumors refuse to die, no matter how asinine they are. How many times have you seen a “BREAKING” or “EXCLUSIVE” story on the next Toyota Supra or some absurd BS fabrication regarding a diesel Mazda MX-5?

Similar to the TWAT s, we are seeking to nominate the 10 Best cars on sale today. The nominees are selected exclusively be our readership, just like the TWATs. During the nomination process, we recieved nominations for different models of the same vehicle line (i.e. Corvette 427 and Corvette ZR1, Mustang and Shelby GT500). For the purposes of our contest, these will only count as a single model. If you want to vote for the Ford Focus ST or the Boss 302, you will be voting for the Focus or the Mustang. Voting will be announced shortly. The whole list is below.

Some time ago in TTACs history, the site held an award for the poorest choices in the automobile kingdom. We called it the Ten Worst Automobiles Today – or, the TWATs, for short. It’s been almost 4 years since the TWATs were last run, but for 2012, they’re back.