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The Good 12

   
GoodCarBadCar The Good 12 2012
All over North American roads there are cars with as much personality as a hunk of metal. Many new car buyers have grand expectations when they fork over tens of thousands of dollars for a hunk of metal. The desire for a relationship, the kind of machine-to-man connection you don’t get with your new dishwasher, is paramount. Sure, performance is nice. So is cargo capacity, and Bluetooth compatibility, and stability control, and seating for seven. 

What you want, however, is something less tangible, something you know when you see but can’t precisely define. 

You want to want it. A new car can’t simply tick off all the boxes. That’s not good enough. Spreadsheet supremacy does not cause a passionate GoodCarBadCar-reading customer to sign on the dotted line.

In a realistic pricing arena - let’s say, under $75,000 - there are cars which measure high on the desirability meter. Not many. Not enough. But there are these certain vehicles, these twelve specific vehicles, which drive by and instantly cause a little something to fire up right under your ribcage. That little something is desire, a desire so strong you run a credit check and re-think how often you can eat Kraft Dinner for lunch.



There’s nothing worse for a car writer, even the sales analyst type, than hearing from people who acquired a new vehicle and, less then a year later, hate their new vehicle. We can’t all own 45-year-old Lancia Fulvias or brand new Lamborghini Aventadors. But we can have cars we like, cars that pique our interest, capture it, and hold it. For now and for always.

Each year, GoodCarBadCar chooses twelve vehicles capable of piquing, capturing, and holding your interest. This year, every new vehicle on sale in North America for less than USD $75,000 is eligible. This sounds like a recipe for happiness, but beware: GoodCarBadCar also chooses eight vehicles you must avoid, at any cost.

To land in The Good 12, vehicles are first expected to excite, to ignite some form of passion. Don’t be ugly; don’t be priced beyond your market; and don’t cause us to suffer boredom. Please consider performance, even if tiny levels of horsepower are a regulated necessity. Be unique and unanticipated. Turn traditional on its head. Show us things we’ve never seen before. Go ahead, show us what we have seen before, only make it better. Make appropriate use of history and cause us to feel nostalgic, but not nauseous. Reach beyond normal expectations. Look good in the process.

2012 GoodCarBadCar The Bad 8
The vehicles you’ll find in The Bad 8 fail to excite. The only passionate response is vehement rejection. They are, in many cases, ugly. They are often overpriced. They don’t perform well enough to overcome their long list of negatives. If unique, they’re unique like LowChen-fathered Affenpinschers. Worst of all, they’re boring. Around here, boring always loses.

If you still don’t understand how this works, check out the FAQs below. Access The Good 12 and The Bad 8 through the dropdowns above or by clicking the links at the bottom of this page.

FAQs

Why Is There A Maximum Price Of Entry? It's safe to assume the Ferrari 458 Italia is great - you don't need GCBC to tell you that. Cars of a certain class - over $75,000 - are assumed to be worth purchasing. In cases in which genuinely expensive cars are not worth purchasing (the $112,250 Lexus LS600hL comes to mind), we already know it sucks and wouldn't be considered for the receipt of any award.

Why Twelve In The Good 12? If GoodCarBadCar.net honoured only one or two or three vehicles, many deserving vehicles would be considered second-rate. If GoodCarBadCar.net honoured ten vehicles, it would look like attempts were being made to be like Car And Driver. So twelve it is.

Why Not Just Newly-Introduced Vehicles? Many publications throw together the whole fleet of new-for-this-year vehicles and hand out their Car Of The Year as well as awards in different categories. Yet vehicles introduced last year or the year before aren't necessarily sucky already. In fact, they may well be better than this year's crop of new cars. Conversely, recent unappealing vehicles may still manage to be less unappealing than last year's worst cars. Imagine if sports leagues like the NHL only gave out an award for Rookie Of The Year but acted as though the winner was automatically the league MVP. That's how strange Car Of The Year selections are.

Why Only Eight For The Bad 8? As a symbol to recognize the improvements being made by automobile manufacturers in this golden age of the car, GoodCarBadCar.net places greater numerical emphasis on good cars than bad.

Aren't Most New Cars Built These Days Reliable And Therefore Not Bad? True enough, the least reliable new car in 2012 will likely be far more reliable than the most reliable car of the relatively recent past. However, when greatness is in abundance, an utter lack of excitement or excellence is perceived as, well... bad. Outside of quality (although quality/durability/reliability can come into play), The Bad 8 dishonours cars that are especially undesirable for a variety of reasons.

Where Did Last Year’s Bad 8 Losers Go? 2012’s The Bad 8 is more concentrated on its original purpose: to banish the frumpy car and eliminate boring vehicular abominations. One can argue that the Acura ZDX and BMW X6 are awful, but boring? Not really. (They’re still not recommended purchases.) The BMW 5-Series GT is still technically in production, but GoodCarBadCar seems to have made some local progress as the 5-Series GT has been roundly rejected by new car buyers. Lexus intends to cancel the HS250h, another sign of success. Lincoln's MKT is as ugly as its sibling but is infinitely more practical. The Nissan LEAF, meanwhile, is inadequate on so many levels but fails to bore. By GoodCarBadCar’s long-running standards, the Acura RL, Chrysler’s droptop 200, Lincoln’s MKS, Ford’s 4-cylinder Explorer, and the basic Toyota Corolla are more deserving of derision.

Who Is On The Selection Committee? The opinions proffered on GoodCarBadCar.net are those of The Good Car Guy, Timothy Cain. Thus, the victories garnered have not been won by the acquisition of multiple third-place votes. Each winner and loser is given a full-tilt opinion-filled explanation.



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