With a heavy heart the staff of AutoGuide.com say goodbye to 2012, along with its triumphs and tragedies. We await the New Year with open arms, and welcome its promise of a better world.
According to the Chinese zodiac, 2012 was a year of the dragon, and it proved to be the stuff of legend, but thankfully it wasn’t a fire-breather. The Mayans were flat-out wrong; their doomsday prophecy was about as accurate as Bernie Madoff’s promise of a sound investment opportunity.
Still, the year brought other significant stories. Scientists at the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland discovered a subatomic particle consistent with the legendary Higgs boson. Astronaut Neil Armstrong, the first person to walk on the moon, passed away, and in a brutal political battle Barack Obama won a second term as president of the United States.
Of course the automotive industry made its share of headlines throughout the year. Here’s a rundown of the Top 10 stories from the past 12 months.
And we start with the Mustang. America’s original ponycar has been an ambassador of carefree driving fun for nearly five decades, but Ford’s famous filly is set to benefit from revolutionary changes with the next update.
Today’s Mustang features a class-leading powertrain lineup and dynamics to match, but that’s not enough to keep up with the next generation of competitors. The rumored 2015 version of the car should finally do away with the iron log propping up its rear end. The live axle is 19th-century technology and it’s finally expected to be replaced with a proper independent suspension.
Additionally, the 2015 Mustang should exchange its retro-themed styling for something more modern, like the new Fusion. A turbocharged EcoBoost four-cylinder engine will likely join the lineup as well. Look for it to deliver more than 300 horsepower.
Aside from revolutionary technical and styling changes the Mustang will also be sold in markets around the world, the first time it’s been offered to global enthusiasts. The move is part of the company’s much-publicized One Ford strategy.
Back in August the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the EPA finalized new fuel-economy standards for the automotive industry. The hurdle they must clear is a 54.5 mile-per-gallon average for cars and trucks. They’ve got until the 2025 model year to figure out how to do it. When combined with previous efficiency-boosting legislation the move is expected to double the fuel economy of vehicles compared to new models sold today. These changes should save drivers an estimated $1.7 trillion in fuel costs and slash national oil consumption by 12 billion barrels.
Cadillac is the comeback kid. At long last GM’s luxury division has found the drive and determination it needs to compete with the best in the world. Its new compact sports sedan, the ATS, is proof the brand can go tire to tire, bumper to bumper with the industry’s best.
SEE ALSO: 2013 Cadillac ATS Review
Put it in motion, hurl it into a sweeping corner and it’s immediately obvious the company knocked it out of the park and clear into the next county. The ATS is a masterpiece of driving dynamics and refinement, beating the benchmark BMW 3 Series at its own game. This statement would have been unthinkable just five years ago.
Don’t believe me? Well, the ATS was a finalist in AutoGuide’s first-ever Car of the Year competition, ultimately losing to an able opponent in the form of the scrappy and affordable Scion FR-S.
Modern diesels are an automotive delicacy Americans have been almost completely deprived of. Europeans live and breathe compression ignition, but automakers have been slower than continental drift in bringing them to the U.S. Thankfully this situation is changing.
Today’s diesels are smooth, torquey, clean running and champions of efficiency. For myriad reasons they typically deliver 15 to 20 percent better fuel economy than their gasoline counterparts.
SEE MORE: Five New Diesel Models Coming to America
Keen to meet upcoming CAFE regulations OEMs are taking a second look at oil-burning engines. For example, Jeep plans to offer a diesel Grand Cherokee, as does Mazda with its 6 midsize sedan. Audi is making a major compression-ignition offensive and Ford will offer a diesel option on its upcoming Transit commercial vans, as will Chevy in the Cruze compact car.
Earlier in 2012 the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) introduced a tough new crash test for vehicles. The so-called “small overlap test” features an immovable five-foot-tall barrier that covers 25 percent of the driver’s side front of a vehicle. Cars are plowed into the steel barricade at 40 miles an hour.
IIHS is famous for its off-set crash test and this is another variation of that. Hitting a fixed barrier with a small portion of a vehicle’s front end pushes crumple zones and safety structures to their limits. In initial testing only two out of 11 luxury and near-luxury cars earned a “good” rating in the test, the highest score possible. Top honors went to the Acura TL and Volvo’s S60. In later testing for family sedans, the Toyota Camry managed only a rating of “Poor.”
While tests like this one are not yet mandatory, more demanding safety regulations are almost a guarantee going forward.
With the exception of Toyota’s Prius lineup, sales of hybrids and electric vehicles have been all but nonexistent. Customers just aren’t interested in paying top-dollar for cars with compromised range and other tradeoffs. When recent customer satisfaction scores are factored in the situation goes from bad to tragic.
For dealers, moving EVs in any significant volume is like trying to sell sand to a Saudi. Executives at Nissan have even had to back-track on past statements about how many Leav EVs would be sold in the year.
But there is one exception to this situation. Tesla, the Silicon Valley startup, has a winner on its hand in the form of the Model S sedan. This $50,000 four-door is sold out and supposedly the company already has more than 6,500 orders in the book for 2013. They expect to turn a profit in the new year as well. How’s that for bucking the trend?
Chrysler’s all-American supercar is making a comeback. The SRT Viper is expected to strike back in late 2013. The company’s 10-cylinder monster will sticker for just about 100 grand when it goes on sale. Look for around 640 horsepower and 600 lb-ft of tire-vaporizing torque under the snake’s hood.
In the game of golf a mulligan is a redo, a second chance, another opportunity to take a shot. They don’t come along very often, especially in the automotive business. When they do it’s always big news. In this case it’s one of the biggest stories of the year.
Honda took unprecedented action by refreshing its Civic compact car, which was just redesigned for the 2012 model year. The company took heat from the motoring press and even Consumer Reports about the car. Many viewed it as a half-baked effort. To be fair it was a decent vehicle, just not up to Honda’s lofty standards.
SEE MORE: 2013 Honda Civic Review
The 2013 model gets a handful of exterior design changes, an updated interior and more safety features. Disappointingly the powertrains carry over. Making up for that, the driving dynamics were improved.
Thankfully Honda’s Civic sidestep appears to be a one-time fluke. The brand-spanking-new Accord midsize sedan is a rock-solid effort in its class, becoming one of AutoGuide’s Car of the Year finalists.
One of the automotive casualties of 2012 was Suzuki. The Japanese carmaker is wildly successful in its home market, but it never really found a niche in North America. For years it was stuck in the same boat as Mitsubishi, muddling along with an incomplete lineup and pitiful sales. In 2007 Suzuki dealers moved more than 100,000 vehicles, but by 2011 the company sold fewer than 27,000 units, and that is simply unsustainable.
Back in November Suzuki made the announcement it was pulling out of the U.S. and filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. It will continue selling motorcycles, marine products and all-terrain vehicles in America, though.
One of if not THE biggest automotive story to break in 2012 involves Hyundai and Kia. The South Korean duet admitted to overstating fuel-economy numbers on most of their models for the past THREE YEARS. Depending on nameplate, the discrepancy could be as high as 6 miles per gallon. An audit by the U.S. EPA uncovered the inconsistency.
To remedy the problem, Hyundai and Kia began replacing inaccurate window stickers and reimbursing nearly 1 million owners. Customers were paid back depending on how much they’d driven. Reimbursements will continue for as long as they keep their vehicles. As a nice gesture, the automakers added an extra 15 percent onto the total.
Hyundai and Kia may have royally screwed up but they’re handling the situation with grace. Let’s hope 2013 turns out to be a more honest year.