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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.

Mitsubishi mulling Mirage sedan for US [w/videos]

Mitsubishi is bringing the Mirage hatchback to the US this fall, carrying a price tag of $12,995, not including the $725 destination charge. Mitsunori Kitao, COO of Mitsubishi Motors Thailand Co., says that the Japanese automaker might consider releasing the sedan version of the Thailand-built compact - called the Attrage in Thailand and the Mirage G4 in the Phillipines - if the little hatchback takes off in the US market, Automotive News reports.
Weight is a key concern with importing the sedan. The non-US Mirage hatchback weighs just 1,900 pounds, but its naturally aspirated 1.2-liter three-cylinder engine makes just 79 horsepower and 78 pound-feet of torque, which can only manage a 0-62 miles-per-hour time of 11.2 seconds. The heavier sedan would take even longer.

Mitsubishi recalling 166k cars, crossovers over stall risk

Mitsubishi is recalling 165,923 vehicles in the US because it's possible for the drive belt to detach from their engines, potentially causing a stall. Specifically, the campaign covers 2008-2011 model-year examples of the Lancer, Lancer Evolution (pictured above) and Outlander as well as the 2009-2011 Lancer Sportback and 2011 Outlander Sport. All of the affected models use some version of the brand's 4B1 four-cylinder engine.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the engine pulley can wear causing the drive belt to slip off. If this happens, the alternator, cooling fan and hydraulic power steering can all stop working, and obviously, any of those things could make driving unsafe. However, if the belt detaches, then a warning light should come on in the cabin.
To fix the problem, Mitsubishi dealers will replace the original belt with a redesigned rubber part and will inspect the pulley. If worn, it'll also be replaced free of charge.