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A car writer's year in new vehicles [w/video]

Christmas is only a week away. The New Year is just around the corner. As 2014 draws to a close, I'm not the only one taking stock of the year that's we're almost shut of. Depending on who you are or what you do, the end of the year can bring to mind tax bills, school semesters or scheduling dental appointments. For me, for the last eight or nine years, at least a small part of this transitory time is occupied with recalling the cars I've driven over the preceding 12 months. Since I started writing about and reviewing cars in 2006, I've done an uneven job of tracking every vehicle I've been in, each year. Last year I made a resolution to be better about it, and the result is a spreadsheet with model names, dates, notes and some basic facts and figures. Armed with this basic data and a yen for year-end stories, I figured it would be interesting to parse the figures and quantify my year in cars in a way I'd never done before. The results are, well, they're a little bizarre, honestly. And I think they'll affect how I approach this gig in 2015. {C} My tally for the year is 68 cars, as of this writing. Before the calendar flips to 2015 it'll be as high as 73. Let me give you a tiny bit of background about how automotive journalists typically get cars to test. There are basically two pools of vehicles I drive on a regular basis: media fleet vehicles and those available on "first drive" programs. The latter group is pretty self-explanatory. Journalists are gathered in one location (sometimes local, sometimes far-flung) with a new model(s), there's usually a day of driving, then we report back to you with our impressions. Media fleet vehicles are different. These are distributed to publications and individual journalists far and wide, and the test period goes from a few days to a week or more. Whereas first drives almost always result in a piece of review content, fleet loans only sometimes do. Other times they serve to give context about brands, segments, technology and the like, to editors and writers. So, adding up the loans I've had out of the press fleet and things I've driven at events, my tally for the year is 68 cars, as of this writing. Before the calendar flips to 2015, it'll be as high as 73. At one of the buff books like Car and Driver or Motor Trend, reviewers might rotate through five cars a week, or more. I know that number sounds high, but as best I can tell, it's pretty average for the full-time professionals in this business.

Mazda previews new CX-9 ahead of LA debut

Mazda will unveil its new CX-9 crossover at the upcoming Los Angeles Auto Show. The teaser rendering above gives us an idea of what to expect. The CX-9 was launched nine years ago. And though it's undergone a series of updates along the way, it's due for replacement. Fortunately that's just what Mazda has in store. We saw that much ourselves in spy photos and videos of the upcoming new model undergoing testing, and the company whet our appetites with the reveal of the Koeru concept at the Frankfurt Motor Show just a couple of months ago. Judging by the rendering above, it would appear that the new CX-9 will draw heavily from that design study in its production form. Naturally some details will be changed along the road from show stand to showroom, including the usual suspects like the wheel size and wing mirrors. Most notable, however, is that while the Koeru concept incorporated five seats, the CX-9 is a seven-seater – and the new model is confirmed to keep that three-row setup. Beyond that, the new CX-9 is set to apply the latest evolution of the company's Kodo design language – as seen on the aforementioned Koeru and sleek RX-Vision concepts – to a larger form. It also promises to feature Mazda's latest Skyactiv technologies to keep it up with the times. For more than that, however, we'll have to wait – but not too long, as the vehicle is set to debut mere weeks from now at the LA show. Mazda to Unveil All-New CX-9 Three-Row Midsize Crossover SUV at Los Angeles Auto Show HIROSHIMA, Japan, Nov. 4, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Mazda Motor Corporation announced today it will premiere the all-new Mazda CX-9 three-row midsize crossover SUV at the 2015 Los Angeles Auto Show, which runs from November 20 to 29. Fully incorporating the latest SKYACTIV technologies and KODO—Soul of Motion design, the all-new CX-9 is a high-end model of Mazda's new-generation lineup. The all-new CX-9 builds on the feeling of life imbued by KODO and moves toward a more premium design execution that befits a three-row midsize crossover SUV.

Autoblog's Editors' Picks: Our complete list of the best new vehicles

It's not easy to earn an “EditorsÂ’ Picks” at Autoblog as part of the rating and review process that every new vehicle goes through. Our editors have been at it a long time, which means weÂ’ve driven and reviewed virtually every new car you can go buy on the dealer lot. There are disagreements, of course, and all vehicles have their strengths and weaknesses, but this list features what we think are the best new vehicles chosen by Autoblog editors. We started this formal review process back in 2018, so there's quite of few of them now. So what does it mean to be an EditorsÂ’ Pick? In short, it means itÂ’s a car that we can highly recommend purchasing. There may be one, multiple, or even zero vehicles in any given segment that we give the green light to. What really matters is that itÂ’s a vehicle that weÂ’d tell a friend or family member to go buy if theyÂ’re considering it, because itÂ’s a very good car. The best way to use this list is is with the navigation links below. Click on a segment, and you'll quickly arrive at the top rated pickup truck or SUV, for example. Use the back button to return to these links and search in another segment, like sedans. If youÂ’ve been keeping up with our monthly series of the latest vehicles to earn EditorsÂ’ Pick status, youÂ’re likely going to be familiar with this list already. If not, welcome to the complete list that weÂ’ll be keeping updated as vehicles enter (and others perhaps exit) the good graces of our editorial team. We rate a new car — giving it a numerical score out of 10 — every time thereÂ’s a significant refresh or if it happens to be an all-new model. Any given vehicle may be impressive on a first drive, but we wait until itÂ’s in the hands of our editors to put it through the same type of testing as every other vehicle that rolls through our test fleet before giving it the EditorsÂ’ Pick badge. This ensures consistency and allows more voices to be heard on each individual model. And just so you donÂ’t think weÂ’ve skipped trims or variants of a model, we hand out the EditorsÂ’ Pick based on the overarching model to keep things consistent. So, when you read that the 3 Series is an EditorsÂ’ Pick, yes, that includes the 330i to the M3 and all the variants in between. If thereÂ’s a particular version of that car we vehemently disagree with, we make sure to call that out.