The News Are Slow So Let's Judge The Winners: Vibe Check Sunday Edition

As we approach the holidays, the news slow down. Fewer new cars are announced and shenanigans by Florida Man and burnt turkeys take over. So for this Sunday edition of Vibe Check, I’ve decided to go a different route.

Various car media outlets typically do one of two things: pick a winner for one category or choose a list of cars for multiple. Most of the time, this won’t draw ire with buyers and critics alike but this year’s winners from a couple of key publications truly grind my gears. So we’re going to take a deep dive on at least one controversial decision and determine how annual picks can be chosen better.

1st Shift: Chevy Blazer EV Is SUV Of The Year But Nobody’s Driven It

MotorTrend is the first benefactor of the award season, and just like Steve Harvey announcing the Miss Universe contest, they’ve picked the wrong winner.

I want to make clear that the 2024 Chevy Blazer EV is a fine automobile. It’s riding on General Motors’ Ultium platform which supports the Cadillac Lyriq and the GMC Hummer EV. The interior details are rich for the price it commands and I’m sure it’s fine to drive.

Except nobody else has driven it. And it seems not even MotorTrend has driven it enough. A 500-odd word count is not enough to cover whether the Blazer is good enough as an electric vehicle let alone testing it for SUV Of The Year purposes.

Here’s some of the basic praise from the article that picked it:

Chevrolet really paid attention to what worked and what didn't in the Bolt EV and applied those learnings here.

Real door handles on an EV? What a concept.

All the materials are interesting and nice while still feeling and looking like a Chevy should.

Compared to other mainstream EVs, these (performance) results aren't exceptional. Rather, they're more like those of a normal crossover and very similar to those of the gas-powered Blazer RS.

The conventional brakes feel consistently strong.

I’m sorry, but the whole thing reads like gorillas learning to use rocks for the first time. It’s not worth noting the criteria they follow, because none of the Blazer’s attributes meet what is supposed to make it stand out. The final straw for me was knowing that 239 miles of range in a Chevrolet demanding $64,000 is not acceptable in today’s inflated economy.

Otherwise, the rest of the praise says ‘could,’ ‘would,’ or ‘should’ when it comes to optimistic specs of building a faster or a cheaper EV. The fact is the Blazer EV isn’t fully realized, which likely contributes to the decision that Car And Driver or Road & Track or Jalopnik pumped the brakes on reviewing one yet.

The few that have driven a Blazer EV determined it to be mid-pack in terms of comparing it to Tesla and similarly priced competitors. Heck, even Edmunds, who bought one for long-term testing purposes, ranked it 5th behind Tesla and Hyundai competitors.

The more information I gather, the more it appears for MotorTrend to appear as a sellout. It doesn’t help that advertisements for the Blazer EV exhibited their accolades right after. This is plain and clear a brochure to raise awareness for a car that went on sale months ago.

What should’ve gotten the accolades instead? Literally any of the other finalists make a far more compelling case. The budget-friendly handsome Chevrolet Trax, for one, or BMW’s charming X1, or the playful Labrador that is the Subaru Crosstrek? Throw in a surprise on us, not a wrench.

Ending this on a positive note, the picks for Car and Truck Of The Year accolades are more agreeable. The functional yet achingly beautiful Prius is a winner in more ways than one, and the Chevrolet — back on the sellout — Colorado is a revamped truck tailored for light duty. Light duty trucks are always a winner in my eyes so this was a less controversial result.

But the media politics surrounding Blazer EV nomination is turning me sour. Even The Autopian was skeptical of the move when reporting on GM’s financial proclamations. I expect MotorTrend to do better next year.

2nd Shift: Car And Driver’s 10Best Winners Sees A Lot Of Repeats

I’m just going to open the topic with this tidbit:

Over a two-week period, we bring together last year's winners to face a slate of new contenders, with a price cap of $110,000. Our team of editors evaluates them all, driving them back to back over our 10Best loop. Including last year's winners, rather than concentrating only on what's new, results in a comprehensive list of the top choices(…)

That, in large, part is the criteria for determining 10Best winners each year. I hate this. Why $110,000 for starters? Secondly, last year’s winners should come back, but only as a benchmark instead of what’s happened here. The Honda Accord has been a 10Best pick for 38 years now. A lot of my nitpicking has to do with the fact that a lot of the winners are repeats.

If the goal is to “bring back the reigning winner to compete against the new challengers,” then the need to classify where these new challengers fall in, because in reality, a lot of this year’s winners for 2024 are in a league of their own. The Acura Integra Type S competes in a field of small BMWs and Audis, but none of them are front-drive, and none of them offer a six-speed manual transmission. The Kia EV9 is a three-row SUV that looks like a Telluride and undercuts a Tesla Model X by several thousands. The Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing is a supercharged V-8 sports sedan that gets praise for offering a manual and being a rowdy, rear-wheel-drive monster. But the competition is all-wheel-drive and downsizing on engine space.

On the SUV side, the Telluride returns for a repeat award, and the Toyota Grand Highlander makes an appearance for 10Best. Yet, both just got their asses handed to them in a 5-vehicle comparison test by the Mazda CX-90, which didn’t make the cut. The criteria is multifaceted but seems to put the shoe on the other foot. As with MotorTrend, I expect Car And Driver to do better next year.

Also with MotorTrend, there are some choices I agree with, even if some of them are repeaters. The Chevy Trax made the cut, and I do think the Acura Integra Type S is a winner in its own right. The Toyota Prius also is also on the list.

To add to the confusion, there is a separate Editors’ Choice where the field of winners expand, again based on each of the respective segments these vehicles compete in. I’m sure the 2024 roster will get updated in a few months’ time.

While the 10Best field this year is more nuanced, there are some obvious discrepancy in the choices based on the magazine’s own words.

Sunday’s Prophecy: Don’t Moan About Waiting For Grand Theft Auto 6

The anticipated first trailer of the next installment of Grand Theft Auto is here. The first thing you need to know is that the sixth game of the franchise won’t be released until 2025. The second is that it looks pretty incredible in Vice City. Think faux Miami and faint Miami Vice connections.

The third is that you don’t need to bemoan waiting for it. The current iteration of Grand Theft Auto 5 on the latest PS5/Xbox Series X consoles are just as impressive, considering the foundation of it came out two game generations ago in 2013. Since then, the GTA world has expanded considerably with new cars, missions, and chaos thanks to continuous updates brought unto the online multiplayer. As a result, this along with improved graphics thanks to the power of the new consoles/PCs means the game has aged incredibly well.

On the playing aspect of it, I hope GTA 6 only expands on top of what the 5th game has accomplished. There’s every chance the online servers could shut down once us noobs take home a new copy set in Vice City, that we move on from faux Los Angeles and all of the online accomplishments get omitted. That would be a bummer. Ideally, your character should be able to travel back and forth now.

As more details come out, I’m excited and can certainly wait.

-TA