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A Review Of Every Car I Meant To Review But Haven't Yet
A Review Of Every Car I Meant To Review But Haven't Yet-January 2024
2024-02-19 EST 22:09:58

As , the world of handing over “press cars” to journalists and important people has mores but not many rules. One of the most basic rules, unless specified otherwise, is that you review the car. In spite of this, many autojournalists have cars they’ve driven that didn’t get reviewed. I have a lot, so I’m fixing that so it’s not on my conscience when a the company.

Some of my excuses for not reviewing these cars are real and legitimate, like through no fault of my own two cars were double-booked and I didn’t get enough time to drive both of them. In a few cases I made it clear we’d already written a review and I was just curious. On other occasions, through disorganization, we booked the same car across multiple writers.

Often, though, I just forgot to get pictures or let too much time lapse between driving the car and writing it up and then entirely forgot about it. You’ll see most of them grouped in the time of period where I started running the site and thus didn’t focus as much on writing.

So, here we go, what I can remember about the 29 cars I drove and didn’t review (that I have proof I drove).

MSRP As Tested: $22,350

What I Remember: Oh man, this little car was great. It had the beautiful Verde Azzuro paint that made it look like a deep, shimmering South American lake. Plus it came with a five-speed and is essentially the European Abarth (our Abarth is/was the European Abarth SS). I had a ton of fun with this car and, while you’re probably just going to get the Abarth, the non-Abarth car is a little bit of a sleeper.

MSRP As Tested: $48,195

What I Remember: I had a lot of fun tearing through the backwoods of Virginia in this car and I think I tested it right before I moved which is why it never got written up. It was serious fun and, while it wasn’t an M3, the bright blue paint made it a lot more interesting than many BMWs. I do remember cooking it way too hard on a mountain road and nearly putting some of that paint on a guardrail.

MSRP As Tested: $24,360

What I Remember: Almost nothing, honestly. I guess my excuse for not reviewing it as that, deep down, I knew that the car was selling a lie.

MSRP As Tested: $40,055

What I Remember: This is funny. I was helping out with a mayoral campaign in Houston and the nutty professor of a candidate had to quickly get to the dentist in between events and I dropped the hammer on the “sport package” equipped Maxima. It was faster than I’d have guessed and I think I freaked the candidate out a little because after that he suddenly stopped asking me to drive him places. I kind of still like that car. Not a lot of torque but quicker than you’d think and FWD has its advantages. Anyway, that was not this car. There was also another Maxima I got and also didn’t write about.

MSRP As Tested: $Can’t Find It

What I Remember: This was another great car. Low and load and fast and a little archaic. I feel like I did review it and I definitely remember taking pictures with Zerin Dube, but I can find no proof of this.

MSRP As Tested: $102,185

What I Remember: Cayennes are great and I’ve reviewed them before. I think I also had a Porsche 911 around the same time and it just blocked out any memory I had of the Cayenne. I remember my wife loved it and I felt bad that I’d probably never be able to afford a new one for her.

MSRP As Tested: $32,820

What I Remember: Jack Baruth will having owned this car so I’ll just agree with his statement that they’re more fun than you’d imagine and rock solid. This did launch with Honda PR though, so I think it counts as a review.

MSRP As Tested: $24,970

What I Remember: Do we really need to write more about Mazdas? Is that what someone is clamoring for? Yet another Jalopnik Mazda take?

MSRP As Tested $24,965

What I Remember: I had a Nismo Juke not that long after and I remember liking both.

MSRP As Tested: $36,555

What I Remember: I don’t think I ever got this car. I don’t have any photos or any proof other than a window sticker sitting on my desk.

MSRP As Tested: $63,355

What I Remember: A big hint for me in these is the color and the color of this car is “Audi Exclusive Color.” I think it was brown.

MSRP As Tested: $31,355

What I Remember: Mostly being sad. Mitsubishi is the company I’m most sad about not surviving, although I’ve been informed it still sort of exists? Here’s hoping Nissan does right by them because they used to be good and they should be good.

MSRP As Tested: $66,650

What I Remember: The Genesis is a lot of car for the money and also something I could absolutely see a different version of myself that has like 10% less fun and 60% more common sense owning. The Equus is way more car than that. If you were willing to spend upwards of $60,000 on a Hyundai you’d get something about as big as an S-Class with almost all of the weird massaging features and sunshades and even a refrigerator in the backseat. The only downside is it’ll be an Equus.

MSRP As Tested: $17,145

What I Remember: This is another car I have no memory of, but I told my parents to buy a Kia Soul and they liked it so I must have liked it.

MSRP As Tested: $17,389

What I Remember: This must be some kind of joke. I never had a Yaris.

MSRP As Tested: $21,417

What I Remember: The Scion was another car actually much faster than you’d imagine, with a reasonable 180 HP out of what the window sticker calls a “2.5L V4.” I didn’t realize they were still making V4 engines since the Ford Taunus but there you go. I like the tC and I hope it ends up somewhere in the new Toyota Universe.

MSRP As Tested: $56,595

What I Remember: $50,000 is too much for this car, but if money is no option it’s still probably the best version of a small crossover you can get.

MSRP As Tested: $24,365

What I Remember: I forgot this car existed, but someone mentioned it to me when I was looking for a new car and I considered it.

MSRP As Tested: $45,280

What I Remember: Every time I see crumbs in my new car left from some baby crap I remember that this Honda had a vacuum cleaner in the back and I laughed at it at the time and I was wrong. If you can roll with a minivan and you need a minivan get a minivan. Minivans are great. I’m the one that’s not great.

MSRP As Tested: $54,200

What I Remember: We drove this thing to one of our video shoots and it was a nice little SUV. For about 95 percent of the planet, the X3 is all the car you’d ever need.

MSRP As Tested: $41,905

What I Remember: To be fair, before we ran out of money, there was a time when we were going to do a Buyers Guide for every car and I volunteered to drive some things less interesting to the average writer. The Murano was nice. Get a Nissan. It’ll be fine.

MSRP As Tested: $40,685

What I Remember: Jesus, have I ever reviewed a Maxima?

MSRP As Tested: $46,825

What I Remember: This is a cute car. Do you need a cute car? Buy an A3 Cabriolet.

MSRP As Tested: $35,308

What I Remember: I was going to review this car but Raphael fell in love with the thing so he did.

Who gets to do burnouts in the middle of Manhattan? Who gets to stand on full ABS stops on empty…

MSRP As Tested: $21,605

What I Remember: I probably did Honda a favor not reviewing this. Just pretend like no Civic existed in between like 2003-2015 and you can pretend the Civic is still the most consistently good car ever built.

MSRP As Tested: $37,225

What I Remember: Actually did a long road trip with a family of three and my wife and this. We were all comfortable. It was a pleasing drive out to the mountains near West Virginia. This car gives me good feels.

MSRP As Tested:???

What I Remember: People think the Optima is a lot more expensive than it is. Good for Kia.

MSRP As Tested: $55,755

What I Remember: The top of the window sticker says “Choose to be Inspired” and I guess I chose not to be inspired.

MSRP As Tested: $34,630

What I Remember: I wanted a manual.

MSRP As Tested: $30,095

What I Remember: It had a manual and it made me happy and no one else.

That’s certainly not even all of them, but those are the ones I have proof I’ve driven. Well, I feel better.

Also, I’m fired. I just fired myself.

This has been a post from , a celebration of Gawker Media as a purveyor of independent journalism. Thank you for your continued support.

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