There is no doubt that 2021 has been rough on us all. It was our second full year of a global pandemic. The car market has been upended by microchip and other supplier shortages. Car dealerships have little inventory if you don’t want a Chevy Trax, and used car prices are through the roof. While that’s good for anyone selling their ride, it’s bad for anyone who needs a decent used car. Also, the dynamic and perennially impressive Mazda6 was discontinued, as were the beautiful Swedish longroof V60 and V90 models. Sad news indeed.
Culturally we’ve seen some shit too. Right out of the gate we witnessed an unprecedented insurrection against the government as lawmakers were certifying the results of the 2020 election, followed up by winter storms that crippled the Texas power grid resulting in a tragic loss of life. June saw the most extreme heatwave in the history of the Pacific Northwest. In August, Hurricane Ida killed more than 30 people along the Gulf Coast and December saw a late season tornado outbreak with 70 tornadoes that killed at least 90 people.
Still, 2021 wasn’t done yet. On the last day of the year we were crushed by the loss of cultural icon, television pioneer and true queen Betty White, just weeks shy of her 100th birthday. It goes without saying that the fabulous Mrs. White could have lived to be 200 and it still wouldn’t have been long enough… a true testament to her character. What a year.
But there were some good things in 2021, too.
Some really cool cars have hit the market such as the Rivian R1T and Hyundai Ionic5 and the future looks promising too. Honda delivered us a properly distinguished Civic and we’ll soon see a related Integra return to the roads. Segment busters like the Maverick and Santa Cruz have arrived to compete for your truck (or crossover?) dollars. There’s a new Tundra afoot, and while it does little to heal our hearts from the withdrawal of the Land Cruiser from the US market, new Tundras don’t happen very often and so we should celebrate nonetheless.
From a personal perspective, this blog picked up some steam and saw its first real articles being posted. We gained our first contributing author, Ned Egan, who wrote a piece on will-they-or-won’t-they subscription-maybe startup, Canoo. Additionally, The Roadworthy has seen month over month increases in unique visitor in most months of this year.
The Roadworthy also gained its first official project-not-a-project car, a 1996 Cadillac Superior hearse. It doesn’t need much, so it’s more of a maintenance relationship (we hope), so expect to see more hearse and procar coverage as time goes on.
We’ve also begun some product testing and should have some interesting product reviews coming soon. Additionally we are working on some really interesting car content that we can’t wait to share with you.
So in the wake of a difficult year let’s try stay focused on the good things that have happened and keep a positive outlook on 2022. The upcoming trip around the sun has a lot of potential so let’s make the best of it.
Cheers to a happy and successful New Year!
