Drew Dowdell

We'll have one next month.

The Polestar seems to be making the journalist rounds... so I think it will make it to production.

It's in the grille, Dodge could have called this a neon and few would have protested.

In a tie race between a car and a train, the train wins.

... and whatever happened to the Jetta 2-door idea that was floating around a few years back?

Honestly, the Ford Focus isn't everything it's cracked up to be. It is not the compact car savior and I certainly wouldn't rate it as best. There are better vehicles out there and no, I'm not saying the Jetta is one of them. Volkswagen has lost nothing. It has seen an 'upscale' image for a mere decade. Before that, being a Volkswagen meant being boxy and and uber-conservative. The Jetta wasn't anything unique or upscale up until the MKV. That's one generation and suddenly Volkswagen is losing it's soul? I think not. Some may need to do some revisiting on what Volkswagen stands for. In Germany, the Jetta/Bora (the older ones) have always been for "old men in tweed hats". They are the Buick Century of the EU.

I dunno, I really like the Evoque 2-door. If I hit the lottery, it would totally be the CR-V's replacement.

Some of you may have noticed a series of small changes being made around here. For every one small change you see, there are 10 more that you can't see that only really apply to how the search engines see the site. This is part of a concentrated effort on my part to raise the visibility of CheersandGears.com in the eyes of the search engines. This is a learning process for me, but since diving into this on January 1, we've seen some slight movement in the right direction. I am expending this effort and money for two reasons: First, we've been turned down by some manufacturers for being too small and not having enough unique visitors per month. There are multiple rating agencies that provide this measurement to the manufacturers, but unfortunately, the one used by the manufacturers who turned us down is also the least reliable at measuring. We are directly measured by 3 major ratings agencies (Google, Alexa, and Quantcast) with a small piece of code in the site that counts each page you view. The other rating agency, Compete.com, measures only by using a pool of 3 million random web surfers and then guessing what our traffic should be based on their actions. Obviously, I have issues with manufacturers using Compete.com as a way to measure CheersandGears.com's traffic, but it isn't something I can control. I can't change the game, so I have to play it. Second - Money. I still want to be able to sell advertising directly rather than going through an advertising exchange but we are still too low with traffic to do so effectively. We need to roughly quadruple our monthly unique views before we can really look at direct advertising sales. What can you do to help? Take a look at the Follow Us thread, and if you're on Facebook, Google+, and/or Twitter, please use those buttons to Like and Follow us. Even if you follow our Facebook page, please "like" us using that button on the front as well, this is a different rating factor. When you're out visiting other websites and leaving comments, drop a link back to relevant articles here on C&G where you feel they would fit. Links back from other websites are one of the largest site rank builders out there. But please, don't spam. Share stories of ours you like on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, etc. Every single story, gallery image, and thread has buttons for sharing at the bottom, just a quick "like" or "+1" really helps. If you see one of our stories come across your facebook wall, share it with your friends. Where are we already doing well? I can see some of the stats for what I consider to be our closest competitors, and in a few areas, we are doing very well. 1. Site stickiness - When most of you visit CheersandGears.com, you stick around a lot longer than when visiting other sites. Our average browse time is more than double that of our closest competition and close to triple of "that other" site. We also do a lot better than some of the big boys as well. Visitors hang around on CheersandGears.com for twice as long, on average, as they do on Autoblog, Jalopnik, and Edmunds. 2. Page views per user - Since you hang around a lot longer, you're not just sitting there staring at the same page all the time are you? Of course not! Another area where we run with, and beat, the big boys is in page views. Think of a top automotive blog or forums out there and more than likely we beat them in this measurement. Of the big boys, only Edmunds comes close... all others we beat by more than double... which leads to: 3. Bounce rate - Bounce rate is the measurement of people leaving as soon as the page loads. If you have a high bounce rate, that is typically an indication that people are not finding what they are looking for on the first try. The lower the bounce rate, the better your information is presented and organized. We're right in the middle of the "big boy" list. Our bounce rate is exactly equal to that of Autoblog.com. We're beaten by AutomobileMag.com and Edmunds.com and beat Jalopnik.com. Most of the Forums sites aren't close to us. What I can share and what I can't. Most of this information is public if you wish to do enough digging, but for competitive reasons, I do not wish to share exact numbers in a publicly searchable forum. However, if you guys want status reports regularly, I would be willing to share those in the generalized format like above once a month or so.

You may have noticed on the front page a new block with the three main social media networks in the upper right. Can I ask a favor of you for all of those on Facebook and/or Google+? Can you like us on each of the networks you belong to? In the case of facebook, this is different than liking our Facebook page, this is liking the Website on Facebook. So even if you already follow our Facebook page, please use the button on the front page again. The number of "likes" a webpage has on Facebook is factored into our website ratings which I will explain in a separate post. Currently, we have 3 "likes" on facebook. Can we get to 25 "likes" on Facebook this weekend?

I don't know that the Haldex system can be used with a manual at all.... can it?

If they did an Escalade competitor, it could be the XXX.

Well they already have XF, XJ, and XK...

XA... no Scion would get mad... XB.... grrr... ditto XC... arg! Volvo got that one XD.... DAMMIT!! WE NEED A WHOLE NEW NAMING SCHEME!!

By Drew Dowdell January 24th, 2013 Yesterday we reported that the Infiniti Q60 coupe would not go on sale until the 2016 model year. It turns out we were half right. That Q60 coupe arriving in 2016 is going to be first coupe to be based on the new Q50 sedan revealed at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit earlier this month. However, in order to speed up the process of renaming the entire model lineup, Infiniti is performing what is likely to be the least costly mid-cycle refresh ever; the current G37 coupe will be renamed Q60 for the next model year and then soldier on into 2015 before being replaced. Infiniti wants to complete the renaming process that all of the current Infiniti models will go through by this summer. Infiniti vigorously defends their renaming scheme, but what do you think? Is it wise to through out all brand equity, especially that of your most well known models, in the quest for uniformity? Album: 2014 Infiniti Q50 Live 12 images 0 comments View full article

I really like the interior... but what is with those center vents? LOVE the color!

2016 model will be 2 years into the new model's run...almost time for an MCE

Gah! Ugly!

Unless things have drastically changed with the versa handling, you may find that department wanting.

Ford is an import now? Sonata and Optima are the only imports that don't offer a V6 in their mid-size car. Camry has one, Accord has one, Altima has one, Passat has one, Mazda 6 has one, In fact, GM is arguably one of the leaders in this trend from when the Regal debuted. Ford is an import now? Sonata and Optima are the only imports that don't offer a V6 in their mid-size car. Camry has one, Accord has one, Altima has one, Passat has one, Mazda 6 has one, In fact, GM is arguably one of the leaders in this trend from when the Regal debuted. Actually the Mazda 6 loses it's V6 with the re-design for 2014 with the 2.5 as it's only offering for NA. So much for Zoom Zoom at Mazda with a deficit of over 80 HP compared to the Korean twins and cars like the V6 CamCord and Altima. GM can hardly be accused of following Mazda on this front when Mazda is 2+ years behind GM

+1 on the TDI

right near my grandmother.

What in the hell did they do to that Firetruck?

heck, if he gets it done, I'll stop by on a trip out there and do a story on it if he's willing.

+1 and nary a beige Camry to be seen