Welcome to 2014, a brand new year. A pivotal time when one looks forward to the coming year, maybe with a resolution to do things differently than in the year just past.
I’ve been contemplating the decade just past. All the way back to 2004. It sounds so long ago, historic almost, compared to how modern 2014 sounds. Although my 24-year-old daughter insists it seems like only yesterday.
Do you remember 2004?
2004 was the year television shows like Corner Gas, The Rick Mercer Report, Desperate Housewives and Dog the Bounty Hunter were born.
PlayStation Portable went on sale and all available units (200,000) sold in a matter of days. 2004 was the year of the energy drink with the launch of such pick-me-ups as 5-hour Energy, Crunk, Full Throttle and NOS. Paris Hilton finally got to work and launched a fragrance.
Many vehicles were launched in 2004. The BMW 1-series, the Chevrolet Equinox, Cadillac’s SRX and CTS V to name a very few. These ones are still around. More curious are the ones that didn’t make it.
The first SUV sold under the Buick name, the Rainier, made its appearance in 2004. For the first time since the 1996 Roadmaster, Buick was powering a vehicle with a V8 engine.
The Rainier was also Buick’s first rear-wheel drive since the Roadmaster. In 2007, it was pushed out of existence by the Enclave.
Do you remember the Ford Taurus X? It was a full-sized crossover SUV, first released in 2004 as the Freestyle. It could fit six or seven passengers and looked like a really big station wagon. The Flex outmuscled the Taurus X in 2009.
The Chevy Cobalt SS, GM’s first ‘tuner’ car, a zippy little number with a supercharged 2.0-litre engine that produced 205 horsepower, was born in 2004 but didn’t make it to 2014.
Handout,
In 2004, Chevrolet retired the long-in-the-tooth 23-year old Cavalier and produced the Cobalt and the Cobalt SS, GM’s first ‘tuner’ car, a hot little number with a supercharged 2.0-litre engine that produced 205 horsepower. Zippy! The Cobalt had a good run but in 2010, the Cruze came along, saying: ‘Move on over, there, Zippy!’
Others in the GM stable, like Pontiac’s G5, G6 and the curvaceous Solstice stepped onto the stage in 2004. The Solstice was a runaway hit until 2009 and then, in 2010, the 84-year-old Pontiac marque was banished.
The curvaceous Pontiac Solstice was a huge hit and was produced from 2004 to 2009.
GM Canada,
At the other end of the spectrum, 2004 saw the launch of a bellissima Ferrari sports car, the two-door fastback Ferrari 612 Scaglietti coupe, a grand tourer with a 5.7-litre, 12-cylinder engine that could actually fit two adults in the back seat.
Fifty years after film director Roberto Rossellini had Ferrari build his wife, Ingrid Bergman, a one-off custom 375 MM, Ferrari tipped its design hat to Rossellini, Bergman and designer Scaglietti, with the 612.
Like the marriage of Rossellini and Bergman, which succumbed to the ‘seven-year itch’, production on the 612 Scaglietti stopped after seven years in 2011.
The Bristol Fighter, a gull-winged supercar, had a top speed of 338 km/h and reached 100 km/h from zero in four seconds.
Bristol Motor Company,
Planes, trains and automobiles were all specialties of Bristol, a company with a grand history in the United Kingdom. In 2004, Bristol introduced the Fighter, which would be the last vehicle produced by the storied marque. The name sounds like an airplane, and with its gull-wing doors and aerodynamic design, it could be mistaken for one.
The two-seater supercar has a top speed of 338 km/h, can reach 100 km/h from zero in four seconds, and under the hood sits a modified Chrysler Viper 8-litre V-10 engine that produces 525 horsepower.
Concept cars are always good fodder for the gearhead imagination. In 2004, at the Geneva Motor Show, Volvo revealed to the world the YCC (Your Concept Car), a vehicle designed entirely by women.
It was powered by a five-cylinder hybrid engine. There was no hood. The front end had to be removed to do any work on the vehicle. Obviously this was not supposed to happen very often. Access to the windshield washer fluid tank was next to the gas tank. Both were capless. Female drivers, according to Volvo surveys, found caps annoying and a major nuisance.
The car featured run-flat tires so you could get to a garage after a puncture and not have to change a tire by the side of the road. Smart and safe.
The YCC had two motorized gull-wing doors and a hatchback door to the trunk. All could be opened by keyless entry. Bumpers and body cladding were tough and durable.
Inside there was plenty of storage. Seat pads and door side panels were easily removable so colour and texture could change at the drop of a hat, or a shoe. My favourite feature, though, has to be the indented head rests, made to accommodate ponytails or the ubiquitous messy bun!
How about the Rodius? The what? You know, the Rodius, made by the SsangYong Motor Company, a Korean automaker. The Rodius is a large MPV available in seven, nine and 11-seat configurations. Large is right. The name is a mash-up of road and Zeus, the Greek god.
It’s a social vehicle. The seats can be folded to act as tables or turned around to really get the conversation going. The Rodius was discontinued in 2011 due to poor popularity but, like a Phoenix rising from the ashes, was reborn as the Rodius Euro in mid-2012.
That is my obscure list of a few vehicles that were born in 2004 but did not make it to 2014.
Stay tuned for my 2024 list.
Follow Lisa on Twitter: @wFrontLady
