Not everything was all loud race cars and smiley Miatas in 2015.
10.) The Continued Appreciation In Value Of Good Used Cars
I’m sick of looking on eBay and Craigslist and seeing these absurdly-priced BMW E30 M3s, Porsche 911s, and so on. It has gone on for far too long. When will this classic car value bubble finally pop? Even Porsche 944s and lower model E30s have become caught up in this madness. Car gods, please let 2016 be the year of the affordable, classic, enthusiast cars.
I mean, the bubble can’t keep growing forever, right?
No, it can’t. And when it collapses, I’ll be on the side of the transaction picking up those already-enjoyed, sloppy-second classic cars. I’m waiting.
Suggested By: Luke’s Dad Sold His 2000TL To Get a Sienna, Photo Credit: Sam Woolley/Jalopnik
9.) The Washington Post’s Story On The Death of Car Culture
Car culture is thriving, no matter what The Washington Post says. Reader themanwithsauce can share his frustration:
The continued success of simulator and realistic focused driving games, the embracing of online streaming bymost motorsports, the sales success of small, cheap, great handling cars, organized drifting, the continued health of car enthusiast websites and online stores and tuner garages are all proof that yes, millenials are eating up car culture in droves.....they’re just doing it their way.
The ‘70s-2000s were focused largely on drag racing and saving the V8. Car shows demonstrate wild colors and options on normally staid family sedans. And that’s great. I hope they never die. But now we have regular 100+ people in attendance at our college autocrosses, many just being enthusiasts wanting to see us toss around crapcans. The SCCA is offering all kinds of motorsport that any daily-driver can get into. Hell, my own Fiesta ST has done autocross, ralycross, track days, and drag racing. And my car resume includes building a slammed Jetta for a car show with a build and buy budget of under $2k. Oh and I also have woodward avenue stories with my Buick Riviera... My ‘90s riviera with the supercharged-6.
I get it, I really do - you’re afraid you aren’t passing on “the way of the enthusiast,” But that was the wrong way to look at it. The fact that it can be reborn and evolve means it can never die out.
So PLEASE! Can we stop with the lies that because I’m a 26 year old I hate my car? The joke stopped being funny last year. Now it’s just sad.
Suggested By: themanwithsauce, Photo Credit: via Jalopnik
8.) The Continued Loss Of Authentic Engine Noises
It looks like there’s no going back now. Engine noises, real and manipulated, are being pumped into a growing number sports car’s cabins whether we like it or not. For some cars, it’s just the best and easiest way to get an aurally pleasing sound into the cabin and through the ear canals of the car’s occupants. Those loud, thirsty, beautiful-sounding engines might truly be a thing of the past.
Suggested By: NasalRadiator911, Photo Credit: BMW
7.) The Acura NSX Saga
The games played by Acura have gone on far too long. It’s now been almost four years since the world was promised by Acura that new NSXs would be on dealership lots sometime in 2015. It’s now 2015 and I can’t walk over to an Acura dealer and drop $156,000 on an NSX. Not that I would anyways.
The NSX is neat. It’s high-tech, of course, in ways that most people won’t care about, but first drives report that it’s also bland, expensive, and not what the brand needs. The future for the NSX is grim and unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like there’s much Acura can do for it at this point.
Suggested By: damnthisburnershitsux, Photo Credit: Acura
6.) The Untimely Loss Of Nissan’s LMP1 Team
Sure those results at Le Mans weren’t the most enticing, but there was hope! Well, until they cancelled all plans going forward for 2016 and fired all of the employees working on the program, right before Christmas. Dick move, Nissan. For both your fans, and your hardworking employees.
Suggested By: mkbruin, Photo Credit: Nissan
5.) Exxon’s Early Knowledge Of Climate Change
You know, if your company has some potentially world-altering intel but is afraid that if they come out with it, it might ruin their own business, keep in mind that might look bad in the coming years. In July of this year, The Guardian reported that ExxonMobil employees knew about climate change seven years before anyone else in the industry and funded climate change naysayers from then on. That’s beyond immoral, it’s inhumane.
Suggested By: Holmer S, Photo Credit: Getty Images
4.) The Loss Of Top Gear As We Knew It
Top Gear with Jezza, Hammond, and Captain Slow was something car enthusiasts and lovers of good TV alike could come together for on many Sundays (or the hours after it when that torrent finally downloaded). That all changed when Clarkson got angry after a day of shooting, wasn’t given the food he wanted, and chose to strike a BBC producer because of his poor attitude. It’s sad that it had to come to this, but hopefully next year we’ll have two even better new shows because of it.
Suggested By: BiTurboBoxer, Photo Credit: Top Gear via Jalopnik
3.) The Racing Deaths Of 2015
The risk of death in the world of racing and motorsport has always been incredibly real. This year, two of the most prominent racing deaths were the deaths of Formula One driver Jules Bianchi and IndyCar driver Justin Wilson. In 2016, let’s all hope for the best.
Suggested By: Captain Pedantic, Photo Credit: AP Images
2.) VW’s Dieselgate
In 2015, news broke that VW, vying for the title of the world’s biggest automaker, had been cheating on emissions tests in several of their most well-liked models for years. It created a complete shitstorm that affected car owners, dealers, corporate employees, the automotive industry as a whole, and potentially the global environment as we know it. Damn straight it pissed people off.
Suggested By: AJ Feldman, Photo Credit: via Jalopnik
1.) GM’s Safety Scandal
After it was announced that GM would have to pay $900 million in fines for knowingly hiding a safety defect that killed innocent people and not doing anything about it until the government got on their ass, people were upset. Not only because of the loss of life, but also because this fine amount was less than Toyota was forced to pay after their unintended acceleration fiasco, and later also found to be a much smaller penalty than what VW would be forced to set aside for Dieselgate, an embarrassment that fortunately has not resulted in the death of people.
Suggested By: filmlandgrab, Photo Credit: AP Images
Welcome back to Answers of the Day - our daily Jalopnik feature where we take the best ten responses from the previous day’s Question of the Day and shine it up to show off. It’s by you and for you, the Jalopnik readers. Enjoy!
Top Photo Credit: via Jalopnik