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What was your news for the year?

Greg Kachadurian

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The lingering fart that is 2022 is nearly finished. As we look forward to 2023 in hopes that it isn’t just 2020 Part IV, let’s look back and reminisce about what might not have sucked this year. In keeping with tradition, I’m leaving the last of the coveted Friday news slots to you, the people that make our corner of the internet possible.

What’s the year been like for you (car related or otherwise)? If you picked up any new projects, “finished” one, sold something, went on any big adventures, or did anything even remotely interesting, we want to hear about it.

I hope you all had a fantastic holiday season and have an even better 2023. Let’s do this again next year.

About

Greg Kachadurian

Greg Kachadurian

I’m the guy that spoiled the site with all the new car stuff. Hooniverse News Editor since 2011, amateur motorsport photographer, sim racer, and mountain road enthusiast.

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14 responses to “What was your news for the year?”

  1. Sjalabais Avatar
    Sjalabais

    Wishing everyone a happy new year, in waiting, too! For the Hooniverse, I’m thankful you guys keep producing varied content, which I keep returning to, despite an overall quieter comment section.

    What was supposed to be a fun car for me after years without one as a small kids’ dad with lots of house projects, has turned weird. We’re approaching two years of inactivity, during which my former neighbour, friend and mechanic died. My son cries the second I mention selling the car. So a lot of emotions over not much activity. Currently waiting on a price from a shop for my list – how outrageous could it be?

    Something the absence of a big car has proven for the family, is that we can go on vacation – during the summer, for Christmas, whatever and whereever, in a compact car. Our 2015 i20 has been working hard, with emphasis on working. I’ve never been a fan of stæshing vehicles with luggage, toys and all kinds of crap to go somewhere. The smaller car has been a teaching occasion for my wife, who could easily pack three giants bags of stæsh for a one night trip.

    Reply
    1. crank_case Avatar
      crank_case

      I feel like once they switched over from a Disqus to a manual comment system, it killed the back and forth flow of conversations. I know it had it’s issues and stuff, but the place feels less vibrant since.

      Reply
      1. Sjalabais Avatar
        Sjalabais

        Yeah, that was a loss…of both easily scroll- and readable conversation, but also quite literally of years of existing comments.

        Reply
      2. Zentropy Avatar
        Zentropy

        I agree. For me, it’s like this site went from “favorite meet-up cafe” to “occasionally glanced-at notice board”. I’m still passionate about the subject matter, but it feels like the sense of community is gone. It seems much more cumbersome to chime in now. I’m still active on other hobby boards that have a more streamlined comment interface, so perhaps it’s own my fault for just being lazy.

        Reply
  2. wunno sev Avatar
    wunno sev

    i purchased a car i’ve always admired, a Mercedes 190. have been dailying this 40 year old tractor for nearly a year and it’s honestly been great. after the initial fixes it’s needed nothing to make it from A to B and back.

    but i am reminded every time i carry passengers about how loud and slow and inconvenient it is. i’m happy to take it on a road trip myself, but i also know that i’m basically subjecting others to it. they get very little out of riding in it.

    2022, i’ve relized recently, is also the year i stopped wanting to do maintenance on my own cars. hopefully a year from now i’m telling you that i sold my other old car, bought a reliable used Honda as a daily, and turned the 190 into the extended project it was intended as, instead of a car that has to work on Mondays so i can make it to the office.

    Reply
    1. wunno sev Avatar
      wunno sev

      reading through a lot of these comments, it sounds like we’re collectively sick of broken old cars.

      my shift in perspective has come from death and aging in the family, not living with roommates anymore, feeling financially secure, and just some self-reflection. i’m still happy driving beaters, but in my 30s, the comfort and safety of my passengers matter much more to me than they once did. and as i’ve aged, i’ve developed anxieties about safety. i can have beater projects, but my daily driver should have side airbags and ABS.

      i’m sure some feature of the last several years – job-hopping, wfh, political turmoil, social life rearrangements, shifting priorities – has helped bring us all to this at the same time, despite disparate ages and locations.

      i’m looking for a manual TSX and will add sticky tires, coilovers, and maybe poly bushings. i’ll do all the work to refresh it when i buy it, and when it breaks, it’s going to a mechanic.

      Reply
  3. Batshitbox Avatar
    Batshitbox

    The most significant car-thing this year for me was I went into a dealership and ordered next year’s model built to order.

    Haven’t heard much from Ford since then. I wonder do they know I have $30,000 I want to give them?

    It’s significant for me because for most of my life I’ve been a believer in “always repair”, or more simply, “never buy new.”
    “New cars lose 30% of their value the second you drive them off the lot.”
    “You can drive a Fleetwood Eldorado to Neptune and back and you won’t emit as much pollution as it takes to make a new car.”
    “Corporate America bad, Punk Rock good.”
    These, it seems now, were partly just rationalizations for the situation I was in, which was I could never afford a new car. True, I’ve always liked the weird, the unloved, and the cheap as compared to the dolled-up, mass marketed dealer floor options. But also I just never had the scratch, nevermind the itch.

    What changed? At some point I got sick of shitboxes, projects, pipe dreams… I’ve known myself long enough to know I have no follow-through on projects. Nowadays I just like riding motorcycles and driving pickup trucks.
    After decades of low-end, last gasp, hail-Mary, white knight rescue operations I came to understand that all of the oldest and most reliable wrecks that crossed my path were Honda motorcycles and Ford trucks. So I bought a new (but not new, two years on the dealer floor, leftover lunch) Honda motorcycle and went and ordered a spec Ford Ranger (proper new.) By the time those shit the bed I’ll be an octogenarian.

    Will the Ranger lose 30% of it’s value as soon as I drive it off the lot? Maybe. But who cares? If you never sell it, you get your $30K out of it. (In today’s bizarro market, Ford doesn’t even take a deposit for new orders. The shortages are so bad that anything they build they can sell, so why take a deposit?)

    Will I create more pollution by sustaining demand for new cars than I would if I drove the 14 MPG Econoline for ten years? Yes, but I have no children, and am a misanthrope. Not my problem. Plus I have carbon credits from all the bicycle riding I did when my shitboxes were broken down.

    Have I abandoned my Punk Rock, anti-corporate, DIY cred? Yes, yes I have. Have you tried to charge even a plate of shrimp to your Punk Rock Credit lately? It’s bankrupt.

    Reply
  4. I_Borgward Avatar
    I_Borgward

    I’m scanning my herd with narrowed eyes right about now.

    I still love my ’82 Volvo 240 Turbo wagon, so it stays. But the other two 240s cluttering up my space? Maybe not so much. All of these cars clock in at 40+ years old. Parts are starting to become scarce, even in the 240-rich environment where I live.

    The kicker has been dealing with K-Jet fuel injection. It’s a great system and works well, until it doesn’t. Spares are non-existent, self-repair a sketchy PITA at best, pro rebuilds painfully expensive. Thus, I’ve decided that having three out of four of the cars I own running K-Jet systems is two too many.

    As it stands: The Turbo runs like a champ, my sedan’s K-Jet is junk, the spare wagon is a running but rather janky thing that followed me home one day along with a giant pile of spare 240 parts.

    I could repair, replace and frankenstein my way into (yet another) decent, driveable 240 between the sedan and janky wagon, but in my heart of hearts, I have to ask: do I really want to? I can finally say no. What would I have at the end? A 40-plus-year-old car with K-Jet. And I am tired… so tired… in fact, really tired (of air and fuel leaks, lumpy idle)… enough.

    So, the plan is: part out the sedan, sell the spare wagon, make the Turbo the recipient of all of the best stuff from the three.

    Then what? Something with EFI, and an OBD port, please. Made in the current century, lots of aftermarket support… a man can dream, can’t he?

    Reply
  5. GTXcellent Avatar
    GTXcellent

    Happy New Year to all! I don’t have a whole lot of Hooniversal news that happened in 2022 up here in the hinterlands. Probably the biggest is that the MiSSus must have been having a mid-life crisis, so she decided to get her bike endorsement and then buy herself a sweet little Honda Rebel. Even though I’m definitely NOT a motorcycle guy, it is fun to just hop on and spin up and down the road a little. The lads keep getting bigger, so we have to get them bigger toys. Picked up an older 250 Polaris Trail Blazer wheeler for them to fight over. I guess I did put a new heater core in the GTX this summer (I had mentally blocked that experience. I hope to never need to do that job again). Hope every one’s ’23 is a great one – now, I’m gonna enjoy this glass of bourbon and hope I can stay awake long enough to see the ball drop in NY – there’s no way I”ll make it to midnight central time. I wonder if the Canadian Maritimes have a celebration I could watch? Hmmm, what’s on the BBC?

    Reply
  6. Maymar Avatar
    Maymar

    Not much for 2022, my Mazda2 is 8 years old now, and a handful of things are starting to wear out, so I’ve been slowly chasing after them as possible, as it should still have plenty of life in it (only 130k kms). It’s surprisingly manageable as an only car (creative packing helps), but if my wife hasn’t agreed to drive stick by now, she never will. So, the hunt for a cheap second car is starting in earnest. I imagine we might even drop back to a single car in a few years, but until we get some home updates done and find out just how bad our mortgage ends up on renewal in a few years, we don’t want a payment. So, might as well just find something supplemental to tide us over – we both work from home, have decent transit access and some amenities in walking distance (plus another reliable car). Older Jeep is looking most likely, manageable issues, kind of fun, and my wife likes them, but we’ll see what turns up.

    Reply
  7. mdharrell Avatar
    mdharrell

    This was a relatively quiet automotive year for me. I recently realized I haven’t had a change in my fleet since 2018 and most of what I own has been with me much longer than that, so there’s little to report beyond maintenance and repairs. I’m out of room to add anything so I may have to engage in some turnover this year just to keep my hand in the game. It is a bit odd to note that the passage of time means my newest vehicle (in age, not in duration of ownership) is now a forty year old Austin…

    As far as last year’s activities go, I worked as staff at three Lemons races and intend to do more this year. (Anybody planning to be at Thunderhill next month?) I competed in the Lemons Rally in California in August, winning Organizer’s Choice in my fully-caged two-stroke ’67 SAAB 96, which marked the first time I succeeded in running an entire rally in a single vehicle under its own power, after four previous attempts. My ’77 Lyman Electric Quad was invited to be on display in the California Auto Museum from late Spring through early Fall as part of an exhibit on the history of alternative fuel vehicles, which meant a road trip from Seattle to deliver it and another to retrieve it. That’s about it. Overall not a completely quiet year but, as I said, relatively so.

    I’ll see you all in 2023!

    Reply
  8. Slow Joe Crow Avatar
    Slow Joe Crow

    Big news is I replaced the motherboard in my ThinkPad so I can visit Hooniverse again without a blue screen of death.
    On the automotive front, things were quiet this year. For 2023 I need to buy tires to replace both worn out an aged rubber on many vehicles so project cars aren’t happening. On the bright side I resurrected my wife’s Honda CM250 so it will see some actual use for the first time in 25 years. I also have some more road trips planned and with luck our daughter may finally drive enough to get a license thereby hastening her departure from the nest.

    Reply
  9. Zentropy Avatar
    Zentropy

    I still don’t have a project car, and it’s wearing on me.

    Soon I’ll have only one kid left at home, meaning I can finally stop daily-driving a minivan (since 2005… ugh). I’ve decided that if I get a new-used vehicle, it will likely be a low-trimmed Bronco, but only if I can talk my wife into a manual transmission. She wants access to any vehicle we own, but she refuses to learn to drive a stick. If she outright blocks the purchase, I’ll just buy an old beater. Preferably something built before 1973.

    Which brings me to my latest self-observation: the older I get, the more I value simplicity. That’s what soothes my soul. Forget “comfort amenities”. I absolutely despise driving my wife’s Audi. It’s not even a top-trim model, but it’s option overkill, IMO. I wish I could turn off 95% of the electronic bullshit on this car. It feels like I’m driving an Xbox video game, including the sensation from the numb steering. I want something with minimal electrical components– lights, ignition, radio. Nah, forget the radio, as long as I can plug in my phone.

    Reply
  10. stella jones Avatar
    stella jones

    great

    Reply