Drew Dowdell

Well, it was a little sooner than I expected... Today was promoted to Director of Communication for the municipality I work for. After a few decades in I.T. and Project Management, I am stepping away from those and more into a field that I enjoy. Clearly I will still be using some of those skills in my new position, but they will allow me to finally pivot away from I.T. which I've grown tired of. In the next year I will be leading a complete rebrand of the local government including a new website. In the process, we will completely revamp the way we communicate to the community. It's going to be a fun ride and with a larger (and, frankly, more competent staff) it will also allow me much more time to spend here. I don't expect this to be a long term post, but it is a great jumping off point for where I want to go next.

Yes, that center one. HondaSense is available on lower models also. It looks terrible in person.

I have to disagree with everyone who says this is blah. It is a substantial improvement over the absolute disaster of a front end the outgoing model has. I always hated the way it looked especially with that HondaSense sensor hanging out there in front looking like a JC Whitney aftermarket add-on. The interior of the outgoing model was easily best in class and in top trim would have been perfectly fine in an entry level Audi A4. Honda has always had a conservative style on the Accord. It was NEVER going to look muscled like a Charger or something funky like the Camry. That said, I think this looks almost Germanic. It's a svelte long-distance runner rather than a quarterback. It's kinda "Audi-before the SCREAM grille" in feel. Also, I think the longer hood really helps the overall proportions and is something that has been missing from FWD based cars for a long while. As mentioned, the interior of the previous car wasn't an issue, but they've updated it for this car and kept it very handsome. Here's one that will shock all of you who know my type of car.... this is the first Accord ever that, at least aesthetically, I could see myself owning. (Touring trim of course)

For the first time in a bunch of years, I am actually looking forward to the new year. Work has been quite the roller coaster for me, but I'll have some career change news to share in a week or two. Happy New Year to all.

I can't see the rear badges but it looks like an LT with the 1.5T? Those things get ridiculously good MPGs as long as she keeps it around 70 mph and not a penny more. Perversely, she'll probably get better highway MPGs in this than in her smaller, lighter, less powerful Trax. Just do the oil changes at like 20% rather than waiting for it to get to 0%

…. and to all a good night. Merry Christmas.

The new China built Encore GX has largely taken its place. The EcoSport was built in India and never sold well. Ford should probably find a way to build it on a new platform somewhere else. They were pretty wretched to drive, so it isn’t surprising that people didn’t like it. The Trailblazer and Trax are better. We swung from 40 to -3 in 18 hours

Not launching until spring.

There must be something intrinsic to the design of the Camry and Altima that prevents owners from turning on the headlights in the dark.

I know I was exaggerating, but even the Ace of Base Cobalt was 155 horsepower and 150 lb-ft of torque. We test drove an Astra when new and it was unacceptably underpowered.

It was probably the 112 hp 4-cylinder that killed that idea?