Revival!

No, not THAT kind of revival. Those are annoying anyway. What I refer to as being revived is this blog! Yay!

Now, to begin this new wave of posts, let it be known that most car-dealer visiting has ceased. This is because the main objective (seeking out First Vehicle for Relative Unit Alpha) has been completed with a 2011 Ford Fiesta. It's a Yellow Blaze SES auto with the Upgrade Package (heated seats, push-button start, fancy chrome, etc.). I happen to like it a great deal, and it really was the best thing available that offered any sort of driver involvement. The only real contender was the Hyundai Elantra, but it drove like a bar of soap. Its only real plus was that it had boatloads of trunk and rear-seat room, and we're getting along fine with the (very comfortable and perfectly roomy) rear seats that were described as follows by Motor Trend:

"On the other hand, the Fiesta's triumph of styling comes with the defeat of a whole lot of practicality. That fashionable sloping roof? It pinches the view aft such that the main thing you perceive of the car following you is a hood. Open a rear door for a prospective passenger and he'll start googling Yellow Cab on his smartphone (see our interior measurements)."



Uh huh. Sure. Maybe in comparison to the Maybach 62 or Rolls-Royce Phantom, but for our usage it's perfectly roomy.

In any case, it's a wonderful little car that just so happens to have a heapin' helpin' of Good Looks Sauce on it (a rare commodity among subcompacts of yore, Ford not being exempt from this. See: Festiva). And I was fine with that.

Until I saw this.

If the new Dodge compact looks just as good in real life as it does in those teaser shots, it's going to have to have something special for you once you open the doors, and something even better once you open the hood. Looks like those need substance behind them, or else the car earns the Official BBC Seal of Disapproval.

Also, "Tigershark"? Really? I was hoping for "Hammerhead". Sounds meaner.