Yahoo Finance 17 Cars That Aren't Coming Back For 2016
The best new cars of the 2016 model year are just hitting the streets–cars, crossovers, SUVs, minivans and trucks, like the Honda Civic, Volvo XC90, and Chevy Camaro.
Then there’s the list of cars headed to their demise–early, or well after their freshness date has expired.
Before they’re gone and forgotten, it’s time to pay respects to that group of cars, crossovers, trucks and vans–the ones that you won’t see in showrooms next year. Send your condolences to the automakers of these cars:
The Spark EV was one of the better electric cars we’ve driven in the past few years–but an older architecture and a limited selling area (just a handful of states) were only a couple of its issues. Another one: the Bolt electric car, with 200 miles of battery-powered driving, coming in production form to January’s CES.
Oh, Crosstour. The ill-conceived Accord fastback went so far for so little styling and cargo-carrying payoff. It may have even gone in reverse, where looks are concerned. Nonetheless, the same idea’s been applied–to rollicking success, we’d say–with the new 2016 Civic sedan.
Honda’s great idea: “let’s hybrid the Accord with a new and clever gas-electric drivetrain.” Done. It won Green Car Reports’ Best Car To Buy award in 2014, but sold only in handfuls before car-buyer indifference sent it back to the drawing boards. (A new plug-in Honda Clarity hybrid is likely to take its place in a couple of years.)
The hybrid versions of the Civic were strong sellers for a time, when gas prices hovered near $4 a gallon. But after state incentives and HOV access withered, so did sales. You can’t even blame the Insight and CR-Z hybrid hatchbacks that sat in the same showroom. Honda’s dropped the Civic for the 2016 model year and we don’t expect it to make a comeback.
Q all the things! When Infiniti changed its car names, it needed a clever way to keep selling the former G37 sedan while it pivoted its product lineup. Hence the Q40 that made a single model-year appearance–and joins other one-hit wonders like the Kia Borrego in the annals of “oh, so we’re not doing that now?”
Pardon us while we curl up into a ball and cry. It’s gone, replaced by the smaller but just about as expensive F-Type.
The LR2 was the replacement for the unloved Land Rover Freelander, but it didn’t warm the cockles of the SUV-shopping public. It’s taking a dive in favor of the much more evocatively named Discovery Sport, which practically implies some sort of sub-Saharan safari could happen at any moment once you bang a right out of the soccer-field parking lot.
The 7-Up of minivans, the Mazda 5 was neither particularly roomy or sporty–and it posted some ugly counterintuitive data for family-car buyers in the form of poor crash-test results. The altogether more handsome and useful 2016 CX-9 will be a better idea, in almost every dimension, we think.
Back in the ball in the corner, still crying. But at least in this case, the less expensive AMG GT is here to spoon with us, and reassure us that everything’s okay. It’s fine, we’re good now. Thanks, AMG GT.
Mini Coupe and Roadster
In its quest to iterate the Cooper hatchback until it was blue in the face, MINI decided a helmet-headed two-door and a scalped edition of that same coupe were natural product-line gap-fillers for the brand. You disagreed; you won. Congratulations, score one for clarity.
Nissan introduced a new Rogue for 2015, but kept selling the old Rogue, crossfading production of the crossovers like some sheetmetal DJ on the ones and twos. The Select model’s gone for 2016–let us hear you make some noise.
We’re not sure how to feel about the recently departed Xterra. On the one hand, the hardtop Jeep Wrangler shouldn’t have all the fun. On the other, the barely-updated Xterra’s poor road manners and chintzy cabin reaped what they sowed. Bottom line, we loved the idea of the Xterra more than we loved the actual SUV.
The Porsche 918 Spyder is exactly like the Infiniti Q40, in that it was sold only for a single model year (2015). Not because it seats four comfortably, because it doesn’t, unless the two extra passengers are shaped like turbochargers andhybrid battery packs.
Scion knew what it was, when it kicked into gear with the original xB hatchback. That JDM street cred dissolved with the bloated second-gen xB, which was basically a squared-off PT Cruiser in size and mission. Then Scion went on to add the next car…
…and we completely lost the thread. Today’s Scion is reasserting itself by selling a badge-engineered Mazda, a badge-engineered Subaru, and a badge-engineered Pontiac Vibe (sort of). Mazel tov? Mazel tov.
A confession: a four-cylinder Toyota Venza doubled as a Winnebago one fateful Pebble Beach weekend for the then-High Gear Media edit crew. We dogged an M5 on the canyon roads near Laguna Seca and that earned the Venza a place in our hearts that will not be filled by the new RAV4 Hybrid, no matter how much it tries. Sorry, RAV4. You’re no Venza.
More at The Car Connection
2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV: Production Car Spied Before 2016 CES Reveal
2016 Chevrolet Volt Video Road Test
2016 Ferrari 488 Spider: Five Details That Make It Go Faster, Look Sexier
2016 Bugatti Chiron Spy Shots
