Good morning, dear reader. Writing from a brutally cold, wonderfully snowy scene. My thermometer is reading four degrees Fahrenheit right now, and per the ruler we got just shy of eight inches of beautiful, fluffy snow yesterday morning. That’s a pretty good combo for winter hijinks in my book, but the forecast is calling for warming temperatures and even rain by this evening.

This is the sorry state of our Upstate NY climate these days, where such swings are the norm. Case in point, my ice racing club, which has been in operation for 70 years now, is having its final banquet next weekend, an unfortunate end to one of my favorite pastimes, one that I’ve been blathering on about online for over 15 years now, having written my first Intro to Ice Racing for Autoblog way back in 2010.

Alas, let’s not linger long on that topic. I’ve been sad enough lately. Let’s instead do the thing that one tends to do at the end of the year. Let’s look back. There’s plenty enough to shake one’s head at from the last 12 months, so I hope you don’t mind if I focus on the good things instead.

I was lucky to share a car with my friend and former colleague Antuan Goodwin on the Mercedes-Benz CLA drive recently, and he asked me what my favorite car of 2025 was. It took me a fair few moments to ponder before I could even come up with a response, and even then, I couldn’t make up my mind.

It’s been another good year for yours truly, getting to drive some astonishing cars, like the Lamborghini Temerario, Mustang GTD, Corvette ZR1, and the Czinger 21C.

But my favorite of the lot this year is actually slightly more attainable and far more practical. It’s the Porsche Taycan GTS Sport Turismo. The Slate Grey Neo example that Porsche sent my way was equipped with Porsche’s new and insanely good Active Ride suspension, which was sublime on the terrible roads around here. If I had an extra $196,475 burning a hole in my pocket, I’d be bundling up and scampering down to my local Porsche dealer to place an order.

Sadly, my review for this one isn’t online yet, but without spoiling too much, it’s damned fine.

I felt like I had to break this out a bit because it’s not fair to just pick some insanely expensive machine. The car that really impressed me the most was BMW’s iX3. While it may sound like just another EV from BMW, it’s a step-change in terms of everything from range to charging speed and even braking smoothness. I can’t wait to spend more time with one this year, and unlike the Porsche, this is one machine I might actually be able to take home for good.

It was so impressive, I wrote about it an awful lot:

As per usual, I spent a lot of time on planes and in hotels in 2025. Dear TripIt says I covered 201,891 miles, spent 143 days away from home, hitting 12 countries and 52 cities over 37 trips.

I, then, have a lot of incredible journeys to choose from for my favorite of the year, and my annual run to Tokyo always ranks at or near the top. This year’s trip was extra special as I got to turn it into a bit of a guide for would-be visitors.

But I have to say it was my trip to Austin, Texas, this year that really stands out. I was there for the launch of the Cadillac ZR1, the 1,064-horsepower monster that recently cleaned up at Hagerty’s Ultimate Lap Battle. I was there to drive on the Circuit of the Americas, a place I’ve driven before, but never like this.

Yes, I got to do a little bit of gadget reviewing in 2025 as well, a topic that many of you know is near and dear to my heart.

I was incredibly impressed by this year’s Samsung Galaxy Fold, the first smartphone I’ve held in over a decade that literally made me say “Wow.”

But it was the Analogue Pocket 3D that I had the most fun testing. No, it’s not perfect, but it’s a brilliant product and a big step up in most respects over the company’s former efforts.

In 2025, I wrote just short of 240 assignments for dozens of amazing outlets, including my first placements for Alloy, Roundel Magazine, GreenCars, the Mastercard Newsroom, The Guardian, and The Washington Post. All told, I wrote just shy of 280,000 words this year, which is about half a War and Peace.

Tolstoy I ain’t, but I loved pulling all those features together, and so it’s impossible to pick a favorite. That said, I had a really good time chasing my pup Koopa around with a camera to work on this guide on the best eco-minded dog toys.

But the feature that really made me smile was this story for Japan’s Car Graphic Neo Classic, where I got to write about my car for once. In this industry, the cars that most of us never get enough time with are our own.

That’s all from me this year. I am so very thankful to each of you out there for not only subscribing but taking the time to open and read these things. It means more than you know. I wish you the best in the new year ahead.

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