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Loki, the god of chaos, never ends it for humans who are willfully stupid, but rather inhibits their stupidity so it is never terminal. People just keep enacting the means of their own suffering.

I’ve been busy, and it’s a few days late, but here is what will probably be the penultimate edition of “Cheers and Jeers.” Next year will be the 25th edition, and that seems to be the right time to put this to rest or for someone else to carry on with it. Cheers! For the first time in the history of the United States, a convicted felon was sworn into office as President, and he wasted no time on his priorities of revenge, retribution, illegal immigration, dirty energy, and gutting DEI policies and subsidized healthcare, and generally making people sicker. With tariffs used to punish perceived enemies and the longest federal government shutdown in history, chaos and economic uncertainty reigned. The Department of Government Efficiency, led by Elon Musk, was a bust, with either miniscule savings or net cost increases. Worldwide turmoil continued with wars in the Middle East between Israel and the Palestinians, and the Russia-Ukraine conflict continued. In the beginning of the year, the Palisades fire in the Los Angeles area destroyed nearly 7,000 structures, and resulted in 12 deaths and damage in the $100 billion range. Towards the end of the year, the horrifying Wang Fuk Court fire in a Hong Kong apartment complex killed 161 people. 2025 will not be the warmest year on record, but the second or third warmest, as the El Niño conditions that contributed to the record heat in 2024 was not replicated for 2025. Prominent passings included actors Robert Redford, Malcolm-Jamal Warner, Diane Keaton, and Gene Hackman, director Rob Reiner, and musicians Ozzy Osbourne, Roberta Flack, and Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys. Other passings included conservative political activist Charlie Kirk, former Vice President Dick Cheney, Pope Francis, fashion designer Giorgio Armani, primatologist Jane Goodall, wrestler Hulk Hogan, and boxer and kitchen appliance spokesperson George Foreman. In automotive news, the $7,500 electric vehicle tax credit expired at the end of September, and fines for not meeting Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards were eliminated. Against the EV headwinds, automakers made significant adjustments to their future product portfolios by substantially scaling back EVs and investing instead on hybrids and range extenders. Tariffs resulted in some production being shifted to the U.S., and some prices were raised, but manufacturers for the most part absorbed the tariffs and will take major earnings hits. Stellantis brought back the Hemi V8 to the RAM pickup, due to popular demand, after the Hurricane inline-six that had replaced it a couple of years ago did not catch on. The Hemi will also be brought back to the Dodge Charger. With great fanfare, Tesla debuted robotaxi service with safety drivers in downtown Austin, Texas in June. There were at least eight reported crashes over the next 6 months, even with the safety drivers. Lucid is busy getting their midsize EV offerings ready to market, and Rivian likewise with the more affordable R2 model. Toyota repositioned the Century model into an ultra luxury brand above Lexus to be sold in select Lexus dealerships. Jaguar fired their lead designer, Gerry McGovern, one year after their bold Type 00 concept reveal and heavily criticized rebranding effort. In December, Mercedes-Benz announced that their Chief Design Officer, Gordon Wagener, is leaving the company the following month after 28 years with the company. In a rare instance of the Chinese government taking the lead on a vehicle safety issue, with some occupants unable to exit Teslas and Xiaomis on fire, backup mechanical mechanisms will be mandatory for electronic interior or exterior door handles in 2027 and 2028 in the Chinese market. With globalization, that will likely lead to changes to EVs sold elsewhere. Vehicles canceled prior to the New Year include the Acura TLX and ZDX, Cadillac XT4 and XT6, Chevrolet Malibu, Ford Escape and related Lincoln Corsair, Infiniti QX50 and QX55, Kia Soul, Lexus RC, Nissan Versa, Porsche Boxster and Cayman, Subaru Legacy, and the Volvo S60 and S90. The Ford F-150 Lightning made it to the 2026 model year but is already out of production for good as a fully electric pickup. There were several concept vehicles in 2025, but none was particularly notable. New vehicle introductions were sparse. Against that backdrop, here’s the 24th annual edition of Cheers and Jeers for the best and worst things automotive in 2025: Cheers to BMW for the Best New EV with the iX3 for providing class-leading technology and a reset to BMW styling. The “Neue Klasse” design dials back a lot of the excessive surface excitement of recent years. Honorable mention to GM for bringing back the Chevrolet Bolt with more modern technology, faster charging, and an affordable price in a familiar package. The vehicle will be a limited edition offering, but it was also revealed that there will be a family of Bolts, without further elaboration. Jeers to the Tesla Board for Worst Corporate Governance for failing to rein in Elon Musk, who seems to be doing a good job of making people not want to buy Teslas, and for providing an absurdly excessive pay package. Tesla is losing the carbon credits paid for by other manufacturers, who have previously provided billions of dollars of revenue, and future profitability is uncertain. With an aging lineup and the spectacularly unsuccessful Cybertruck, Tesla is betting it all on autonomy. Jeers to Mercedes-Benz for the Worst Luxury Vehicle Interiors with their focus on massive screens rather than cohesive style, material quality, or build quality. Mercedes-Benz has become a shadow of its former self when they used to be “Engineered like no other car in the world.” Cheers to Kia for Best Non-SUV Introduction with the K4 hatchback, which makes the compact K4 much more attractive and functional than the awkwardly styled sedan. Kia is on a roll with record-breaking sales the last three years. Honorable mention goes to Honda for the Prelude in the near-dead sports coupe market. The new Prelude has not been embraced by performance enthusiasts, but the Prelude was never about all-out performance. The Prelude is being marketed to middle aged to older buyers wanting to relive the glory of their youth. Jeers to the Honda dealers who have been tacking on $15k market adjustments. Cheers to Cadillac for the Best Luxury EV Lineup with the Optiq, Lyriq, Vistiq, and Escalade IQ. Cadillac has been successful reinventing itself. The lineup is far from perfect, with charging speeds that are not class-leading and excessive heft, but the vehicles are proof that a legacy automaker can be successful in the EV realm, at least until Chinese EVs are unleashed on American soil. Cheers and Jeers for the Best and Worst Rebadge Job with the Nissan Rogue Plug-In Hybrid. Mitsubishi has only about 300 dealerships in the U.S, compared to Nissan with about three and a half times as many. The Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV is a decent 7-passenger SUV with about 7,000 sales in the U.S. every year. Nissan is broke and desperate for fresh product to fill gaps in its lineup. The Outlander is based on the Nissan Rogue, but Nissan chose to take the cost-effective move of making only minor trim changes to the Outlander PHEV to turn it into a Nissan. It will serve its purpose. Jeers to the Federal Government for the Most Regressive Sustainability Move by attempting to pull back National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) funds and removing EV chargers from federal government facilities in their all-out quest to promote the consumption of petroleum. As the rest of the world electrifies their fleets, the long-term competitiveness of the American automakers will be diminished. Wishing everyone a safe, healthy, and prosperous New Year.

@oldshurst442 Last nights protests across the country have clearly stirred up Americans and Hopefully the Murdering ICE agent will face his required day in court for his murderous act. Seems some are willing to get more violent as the protestors in Sacramento California broke down the gate at the ICE center and entered.

Yup. I wanna know though, where is the pushback from americans. You know, the riots... Because the ONLY thing that can get americans out of this is violence... If not, well...look at how real deal every day Russians and real deal every day North Koreans cope with their realities and that is the life that americans will have going forward for the next whatever years UNTIL you phoquers fight back... trump is weighing in on not even having mid-term elections... (because he knows impeachment is heading his way if republicans lose the mid terms...not that will stop him from anything anyway...) trump was hinting on running for president...again...for a 3rd term in 2028... Im mean...what other hints do you phoquers need to phoquing actually revolt???!!! yet here is another reason. 2 phoquing reasons. Forgetting that he caused an insurrection full of FALSE claims... 1. An actual invasion of a country with a KIDNAPPING (I do not care of this man was also a dictator, its NOT up to the usa to settle this...because the REAL reason is to steal THAT country's oil) 2. AN ACTUAL KILLING of an american CITIZEN... A MOTHER. A 35 year old MOTHER. oh....I KNOW how deep this is... CANADIANS KNOW....how deep this is. It seems the ONLY phoques that do NOT know how deep this is... is americans... Do I have to post Elbows Up or Gloves Off pics? Do I have to post phoque the usa with pics of burning american flags? Well... PHOQUE THE usa!!! And in the garbage where the american flag belongs!!! The ONLY concern you guys NEED right NOW, the ONLY ICE concern you need right now is THIS kinda ICE

I understand your concerns on ICE, but their EVs have been pretty rock solid as a standalone group. As I posted here, the savings and reliability have been impressive. So many coworkers are taking advantage of buying value powered EVs as we have moved into a large return period this year on EVs coming back off lease. I will say this, the latest coworker who has joined the Kia family picked up a 2yr lease return of the EV6 GT, powerful 4 door hatch that was $78K new and with only 18K miles on it he paid out the door $32K for the auto and it still has full warranty. He loves the 18 minutes to 80% fast charging as he is awaiting the install of an L2 charger in his home. Great deals to be had on EVs that can go the distance.

At this point (Every rant from Olds Hurst, every rant I have made here in the last 20 years, every rant Noam Chomsky has made, every rant ever made about America) has been proven to be wildly true. But Buffet is part of our corrupt system in that he is American. I can't dunk on everything American m BNSF is an amazing railroad and I think Buffet owns part of it. Overall though...the country just needs to die and be replaced by something else. Its beyond redemption. I fully expect to have ICE in Montreal shooting Sikhs because they think they are Muslim. Don't kid yourself on how deep this stupid cycle is. The United States is beyond moral redemption, and needs to die and be replaced with something else. I did my part! The United States is vile, it needs to die and be replaced with something else. Hopefully. The United States is beyond moral redemption, it needs to die and be replaced with something else.

This guy nails it, showing that EV range loss in below freezing is not what it used to be and is on par and even better than ICE. I've Driven 5 EVs in the Winter. Here's Why People Shouldn't Be Scared of the Range Drop - Autoblog

Warren Buffett is superior in every way compared to Idiot47. Warren Buffett exposed the top reason for Donald Trump’s business failures long before he became president. What to learn from the mistake

Today is National Spaghetti Day. There's still time!

Not surprised by this with Idiot47 tariff tax on Americans that sales have fallen off a cliff and with it made in Germany, not selling at all here. Plus the terrible range due to such a small battery pack. VW’s $60K electric bus dead 12 months after US launch

Grand National

Talk about crazy weather.

This car proves why American Auto Companies are DEAD MAN WALKING. This is one SEXY EV.

Very interesting read and clearly Tesla is not up to par with the Chinese. Testing was done in Mongolia with -20 temps so the batteries took a major hit, Tesla was around low 30% range with a Tesla 3 RWD having 48% over their normal range where Chinese were around 50% over their normal range. Clearly, Tesla needs to update to at least 800V system and put some engineering into their battery packs. Sadly no Korean EVs were in the test mix. The Newest Mercedes CLA was and really took a hit for being the newest 800V system, sad that the battery system sucks so bad. 67 EVs Were Range-Tested In Sub-Zero Conditions. Here's Where The Teslas Ranked Story is based on this posted YouTube video. This cracks me up, so much great Karma to these crooks, amazing that one of them has a CyberTruck and was putting it in the frunk when it blew up.

Kia is on a hot streak, taking over times square for the New Year Count Down. KIA AMERICA CELEBRATES THE ALL-NEW 2027 TELLURIDE WITH NEW YEAR’S EVE TIMES SQUARE TAKEOVER College graduates are asking Dude where is my Job as Growth goes up, jobs go down. The weakest labor market since 2011 has BofA asking, 'Dude, where’s my job?'

The IRS released new tax brackets for 2026. Some Americans will save thousands while others won't be so lucky https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/irs-released-tax-brackets-2026-121500860.html https://www.howtogeek.com/15k-budget-ev-reliability-better-than-ice/

It looks like they're scraper bots. They don't seem to be doing anything except crawling the whole site.

Ford has seemed to really drop the ball in recent years. trinacriabob's post on Saturday about 20 years on C&G got me thinking, had to look...I joined August 21, 2005 so it's been 20 years this year for me also. That date was coincidentally, my late brother's 56th birthday--an age I'm 7 months from now. Life moves in mysterious ways at times.

Interesting read, seems ford is looking for another cheap way to make money without actually investing in engineering. Ford gave up on beating China on batteries and cut a deal instead Ford clearly is giving up on EVs as it looks to commercial battery packs for storage to make money. They are giving up on being a leader in the Auto sector. Wonder how Henry Ford would have felt about this, also it does rais the question, how long till Ford as an Auto company is dead. Trucks, a few SUVs and falling farther behind in all auto fronts tells me Ford is not a stock work investing in.

Sad that corruption is the new norm now in DC. State Dept. 'not functioning' as staffers get sidelined for warning Trump is breaking law

It's probably a bit late, but there is a $0.99 plug-in on the Windows Store from Microsoft that lets your computer read HEIC files and do any conversions locally on your computer. I bought it a few years back to avoid that kind of hassle. Once you have that, I have used Irfanview for 25 years to do batch photo conversions and with the Windows plug-in, should be able to convert HEIC files to jpeg for you.

Sure has been a while. We're about to head into our 25th year!

Today - depending on the time zone - marks 20 YEARS that I have been on C&G. It seems to have gone in chapters: First 3 years: Needed a new car, the LaCrosse was being released, and I was weighing the options, including test driving. Some of you will remember one ghastly initial design for the LaCrosse the Bob Lutz threw the book at the design staff for. Next 15 years: Owning the car, reporting on it, and driving other cars while on vacation, not to mention a lot of fighting with ocnblu ... which was hard to avoid! Last 2 years: NO car ... living on 2 continents ... (I would have never imagined this) ... renting cars as needed. There's a lot more to this decision than deciding between a LaCrosse, a Grand Prix, and a Monte Carlo.

Yeah...it is a beautiful road for what I could tell from the videos I see. Like you @Robert Hall from seeing all kinds of video media of it. I do admire the fact that you actually drove on it. Plus all of your travels of your country that you did and continue to do. @A Horse With No Name and @trinacriabob also have that respect from me for the same reasons. Matt Farah does plenty of car reviews on this road. At least I think its part of this road. Or when Jay Leno references to get out of Los Angeles and head to the mountains where there are no people he says. In a different time, I would have loved to visit California. I was California dreamin' during my teen years and always loved the sights and dreams of California. Then in my 30s or 40s, I wasnt into California as much. Then JUST before trump became president for the 2nd time, I was falling in love with California again (minus that hollywood creepiness) only to be happy to shyte on ALL of the usa including california. I know I have become a douchebag these past few months regarding your country, but the political climate of your country has made me bitter and hateful. I know I shouldnt be lumping ALL of the crap that is maga and trumpism into one huge bowl of hate for all things american, but it is what it is... There are many parts of the usa that I NEED to see before I die. California is one of these parts that I NEED to experience. And for all the maga deplorable bullshyte that is florida, the Keys are another part I NEED to see. Video gaming talent being lost due to excessive speeds (on roads that seem to be heavenly to auto enthusiasts) is sad indeed. For the human element of someone dying... There will be others to take his place. What is sadder is that he could actually afford "track days" on SEVERAL California race tracks. He could have asked Ferrari (paid an additional small fee) to have Ferrari, the OEM, to tune his Ferrari with THEIR engineers and race crew to the optimal race track settings of ANY race track IN THE WORLD and he could have raced his SF 90 to the car's fullest capabilities without the risks of killing innocent peoples on public streets. And if he chose an additional option on his Ferrari purchase, Ferrari race crews could have also taught him to reach his fullest capacity of his talents. And he could have afforded all those things too. What I find extremely frustrating is that he has money to feel like a superstar with his $800 000 Ferrari racing his car in all kinds of exotic locations having a personal Ferrari pit crew cheering him on, and if he chose, to have high priced escorts in scantily clad clothing as cheerleaders but no...he chose to have street take-over/cars and coffee hoodlums cheer on his and hid friend's demise. While a couple of them stood their in disbelief and yelled "oh shyte" and "oh phoque" and dragged his friend's body like it was diseased away from the burning wreck, most of them fled the scene like cockroaches they were. I guess this was the way he valued his life. Driving fast in the lowest common denominator kind of way and dying in that same low common denominator way. THIS is what is frustrating to me, he had the money that he worked hard for to enjoy the prestige of owning and racing a Ferrari... Instead, he put innocent people at risk for cheap thrills. I understand why poorer people drive fast, especially on intoxicating roads like Angeles Crest, because I understand the adrenaline rushes that come from that environment. I do not condone it, I understand it. But he, he had the money to die a more dignified death with the same adrenaline rush. But THAT also wouldnt involve in risking any innocent peoples lives either. At least with me, if I ever remember his death in the future sometime, I will remember him as the clown who drove too fast and killed his friend.

She NAILS every point of why Red states have the lowest education, lowest quality of life, cast system of HELL. The U.S. Population needs to WAKE up to WE THE PEOPLE which means all and not giving in to the 1%. The U.S. is a 3rd world if not 4th world country for most states.

OUCH, I think GM has a multi-billion dollar cost coming its way. GM’s big V8 recall just got way messier — here’s why everyone’s suing

WOW Idiot47 Voters are truly as dumb as he is about the economy. Pinched by higher prices, many Trump voters say: Don't blame him