A new year is a fresh start, and often that means finally cleaning out some crap. For me, it means clearing the mass of old car and arcade machine parts out of my driveway, while for others it means feeding uncles to dogs. What does it mean for the car world? As in what car should die this year?
This is a tricky question. There's a number of cars we considered, but most were stayed by last minute events or pleas. The Chrysler 200, for example, wouldn't be missed by many, but there will be a new one next week, and without it Chrysler would have all of two cars in their lineup. I considered the Taurus, thinking it was just a barely-bigger Fusion, but our Detroit correspondent Aaron warned me it would break his grandfather's heart. I can't have that image on my conscience.
But there is one redundant, useless, needless car floating around out there: the Mini Paceman. If for some reason, you want the bigger, non-mini size of a Mini Countryman without all that pesky convenience of an extra pair of doors, you'll be upset by this decision. So, too bad. If you want two doors and fun, there's plenty of genuinely Mini-sized Minis to choose from. If you want big and AWD, get the damn Countryman.
Go meet the dogs, you goofy, useless Paceman. So what would you braniacs (good way) pick?