This past year was a year on the move with more than 150,000 kilometres racked up on 80 or 90 different vehicles, not to mention the 103 flights it took to get into and out of them.
There was plenty of change in the automotive industry in 2018. Ford announced its push-back from building sedans in favour of crossovers, SUVs and trucks.
GM commenced its strategy to prepare for what is happening as humanity inches toward a world of autonomous and electrically-powered vehicles.
It was also the year I realized the writing is on the wall about how future generations will look at personal transportation requirements.
Going forward, especially in large cities, the need to own an automobile is a question many urban dwellers are already asking.
With car-sharing platforms such as Evo and Maven entering the transportation fray, 21st-century transportation options and trends are driving the biggest industry transformation since the dawn of the automobile.
When I look at 2018 in terms of my personal automotive experiences, they are certainly not as Earth shaking, but here are five that stand out.
Most Thought-Provoking Drive:
This was spending a couple thousand kilometres in the driving seat of a Super Cruise-equipped Cadillac CT6 sedan.
The next level of adaptive cruise control has arrived and Cadillac will eventually have Super Cruise available on their full model lineup.
When on a controlled access highway that has been mapped by the system, drivers can cruise indefinitely without putting their hands on the wheel.
The system keeps the vehicle in the centre of the lane and properly spaced in traffic while a camera on the steering column monitors the driver to ensure eyes are on the road.
It’s another step closer to autonomous driving.
I was skeptical of Super Cruise at first but after a few days in the CT6, I found myself using it as I would a normal cruise control system.
Favourite road machine:
This was the 2018 Mustang GT I drove from Toronto to Halifax.
Its 5.0-litre V8 engine, 10-speed automatic transmission, throaty growl and 54-year pedigree made it a no-brainer to love this car.
With 460 horsepower, 0-100 km/h in the three-second range and an exhaust note the engineers have tuned to perfection, this is one sweet ride.
It brought me down nostalgia lane as I reminisced about the two-year-old 1967 Mustang 390 GT twin Larry and I bought when we were in university.
Most settled into in a vehicle:
This was the Chevrolet Colorado I rented as a support vehicle in Inuvik, Northwest Territories, during the media launch of the 2019 Chevrolet Silverado.
It wasn’t a tricked-out ZR2 Colorado, just the well-appointed 4x4 crew in which I drove the new Inuvik-Tuktoyaktuk Highway 12 times.
The road, not even a year old, crosses the habitat of three caribou herds and reaches the world’s largest cluster of ice-cored Pingos, a national landmark on the outskirts of Tuktoyuktuk, so there was eye candy everywhere.
Using a pick-up as a working vehicle hauling event materials and checking off-road trails and drive routes in a place where the only paved roads were in the town on Inuvik was gratifying.
It was mud like I’ve never seen when it rained and relentless dust when it didn’t, but I loved the remoteness, the beauty and the grubbiness of settling into a rented pickup truck and using it as a pick-up truck.
Breakdown paranoia:
This is a common state when you own 12 cars and trucks and the newest one is nine years old.
As with any vehicle that hasn’t been driven in years, the first couple hundred kilometres should flesh out any problems.
It’s a few nerve-wracking hours of feeling for vibrations, smelling for strange odours, listening for sounds that shouldn’t be there and frequent stops to visually check for leaks.
I had two scares this year, with our 1991 GMC Jimmy then our 1965 F100 Ford pick-up. Both had been in storage for years.
A fuel smell in the Jimmy turned out to be a leaky lawn mower I parked beside and an oily smoke screen was from over-sprayed undercoating burned off the exhaust system.
A few months later, a faulty fuel pump flamed out the F100 Ford’s 352 V-8 at road speed, earning it a ride on a flat deck tow truck to a repair shop.
Ahh the joy of driving a 53-year-old truck.
The biggest surprise:
This was how much I enjoyed the Tacoma TRDPro pick-up, a solid everyday ride with a long list of off-roading features and options including a Desert Air snorkel intake that runs rearward from the right front fender then up the A-pillar with a hungry-for-clean-air scoop at the top.
Aside from being a tad fuel thirsty because of its all-terrain off-road tires, the truck displayed civilized road manners on a trip to Moncton.
What stood out, though, about my time in the Tacoma TDRPro was the number of people I met.
From kids to seniors, everyone wanted to know about the Desert Air snorkel on the tricked-out electric blue Tacoma.
Obviously, this is the ride for someone who wants to meet people, even if they never drive it across the Sahara Desert.
Now, as 2019 is about to surface, I can’t help wondering what our 41st year in the automotive adventure business will bring.
Happy and safe motoring for all hopefully.
Follow Garry on Instagram: @garrysowerby
