“Happy New Year,” I shout from the driver’s seat of the 2015 Dodge Charger AWD to readers of my automotive columns.

I opened year 2014 aboard the Nissan Rogue all-wheel-drive compact crossover and ended it this week in the full-sized Charger sedan. In between, I drove 67 other new cars and trucks.

The decision for my favorite car of the year, the 2015 Acura TLX AWD sedan, came to light during a drive to Vail and back. Fashioned so elegantly with a much sleeker design than the two old bodies it replaced, those of the TL and TSX, and with a 9-speed automatic transmission and push-button shifts, the TLX made a hit with me. A 290-horsepower, 3.5-liter V-6 with Sport mode and paddle shifters kept pace, often on the inside fast lane, with no problems on the I-70 climb up the mountains.

Truck of the year? It is the 2014 Ram 1500 Crew Cab 4X4 with 3.0-liter EcoDiesel V-6 and 8-speed automatic transmission, carrying an EPA highway rating as high as 28 miles per gallon. This one boasts a torque rating of 420 lb.-ft., a standout in the half-ton field. An optional electronically controlled air suspension will, with the push of a button, adjust the height of the pickup.

Other highlights among my automotive drives for 2014:

Weighting game – Ford, on a cold, windy November morning, showed off its new aluminum-bodied F-150 pickup at a parking lot in Broomfield. It is 700 pounds lighter than last year’s steel bodies, and time will tell the durability of the new skin. For me, a big impression was the ease with which Ford’s little 2.7-liter V-6 engine moved the full-size truck.

Cheapest – The little 2015 Honda Fit 5-door EX, which carried Jan and me to Shanahan’s in southeast Denver on Labor Day weekend to join our kids and their mates for an excellent dinner, at $18,225 (the car, not the dinner). The Fit offers lots of quality for reasonable price. Another cheapie was the Nissan Versa Note at $21,015 with heated seats and rearview camera.

Most expensive – The 2015 Jaguar F-Type R Coupe, with 550-hp supercharged 5.0-liter V-8 and 8-speed automatic transmission, at $102,825, nosed out the 2014 Audi A8L TDI, $99,445 with massaging front seatbacks and Bang & Olufsen advanced sound system.

MPG – 40.1 by 2014 Volkswagen Jetta TDI diesel, 35.6 by the 2014 Nissan Versa Note and 35.1 by the Honda Fit.

Hybrids – 46.4 by the 2014 Ford Fusion Energi plug-in, 38.9 by ’14 Honda Accord Hybrid and 38.5 by ’15 Toyota Camry Hybrid.

Guzzling – In cold and snow of February, with brief warm-ups on a couple mornings, the 2014 Nissan Titan and its 5.6-liter V-8/5-speed automatic transmission averaged 13.4 mpg.

Most horsepower – 550 from the 5-liter supercharged V-8 in Jaguar’s 2015 F-Type R Coupe, which will run 0 to 60 in 4 seconds.

Surprise transaction – Christmas Eve a year ago, it was 100-year-old O’Meara Ford buying a Volkswagen store from Doug Moreland. This time, a week before Christmas, it is John Elway swapping his Chevy store on South Colorado Boulevard for the Don Massey Cadillac dealership in Lone Tree. This gives Elway a luxury marque to go along with his other Chevy store on south Broadway and his Chrysler/Dodge/Jeep/Ram business in Greeley, and Massey, owned by Sonic Automotive Group, lands the Chevy property on South Colorado Blvd., adjacent to Mercedes-Benz and BMW locations, formerly owned by Mark Murray, bought by Sonic in 2013.

Falls flat – An August test of the 2014 Ford C-Max Energi plug-in would have been perfect – a drive to Coors Field in Denver for the Colorado Rockies’ retirement of Todd Helton’s No. 17 jersey. A flat tire, though, threw a wrench into that. The C-Max has no spare tire, as the car’s large battery pack fills the rear area where a spare would normally be stored. In place of a spare, it has a sealant compound in a canister and an air compressor to inflate the tire. The kit can be used only to seal punctures within the tire tread, not in the sidewall. So, Jan’s C280 4Matic sedan got us to Denver for the big show.

Extremes – Delivered to me back-to-back last January were the 5,850-pound Infiniti QX80 and the 2,500-pound Nissan Versa Note. Sit them side by side and the little Nissan falls short of the luxury make by 3 ½ feet.

Cold ride – In a 2014 Dodge Durango R/T in February, it was 11 below when we left home, still 11 below with 11 inches of snow when we arrived in Sterling for the funeral of Delbert Davis, an uncle of Jan’s.

Warm touch – Heaters beneath the head restraints in the 2014 BMW 435i retractable hardtop convertible blow warm air on the necks of front-seat occupants in cold weather. This feature was introduced several years ago by Mercedes-Benz.

Great catch – Halibut shared with General Motors executives at the Oceanaire Seafood Room two blocks from the Colorado Convention Center on opening night of the Denver Auto Show in April.

Best color – Velocity yellow tintcoat on the 2014 Corvette C-7 coupe in August.

Best book – “The 100-Year Deal,” the 100^th anniversary volume published by the Colorado Automobile Dealers Association. It includes a reprint of The Colorado Car Book, which I produced in 1996.

Jan’s favorite – The Chrysler 200C AWD.

Best greeting – Happy New Year!

“The sportiest Camry yet,” Toyota says of its new 2015 XSE sedan.

It does have a stiffened sport suspension and 18-inch wheels; in reality, though, it’s simply another model that reinforces Camry’s rank as one of the finest of family four-doors.

I remember years ago driving a Toyota Supra Turbo – that one was sporty. I wrote of it, “This 320-horsepower, 6-cylinder dynamo will get you from Franktown to Castle Rock in about five blinks. I’m talking wide-awake blinks, of course; sleepytime driving isn’t permitted in a car of this type.”

The front-drive Camry today is the best-selling sedan in the U.S.

Adding appeal to the XSE’s ruby flare pearl finish are a wide black-mesh grille and redesigned headlights and taillights. The Camry’s overall length of 190.9 inches is within a half-inch of matching those of the Ford Fusion and Mazda6.

Mated to a 6-speed automatic transmission with paddle shifters, Toyota’s 268-horsepower, 3.5-liter V-6 engine turns out decent, smooth performance. Standard offering for the Camry is the 178-hp, 2.5-liter 4-cylinder, which earns an EPA mpg estimate of 35 on the highway.

I averaged 26.8 mpg with the V-6, which is rated at 21 in town and 31 on the highway. The V-6 operates adequately and quietly in low-range demands. The XSE rides on Michelin P225/45R18 tires.

Positions of the brake and accelerator pedals near the same level gave me opportunity twice on the highway to experience Toyota’s Smart Stop technology. As my foot touched both pedals at cruising speed, the vehicle’s speed quickly dropped 15 miles per hour from an immediate cut in engine power along with the light touch of the brake. It is noticeably effective, designed to help bring the vehicle to a stop. The feature is standard on the Camry for 2015. Smart Stop engages in the event of simultaneous brake and gas pedal applications, with immediate reduction of engine power to idle.

Inside, the Camry dashboard is stylish with the look of a leather overlay, stitched in red, and the seat inserts are of microsuede with good comfort. Touchscreen usage for a 7-inch display set is fairly simple and reaction is quick; audio channel listings are larger than many of those in competitive makes. The system includes navigation with traffic and weather, a USB port and Bluetooth.

The rear seating area is very roomy and the trunk is of 15.4 cubic feet, enough to hold family luggage.

The Entune premium audio, rearview camera, blind-spot monitor, lane-departure warning and automatic high beams pushed price of the Camry XSE to $35,668 from a base of $31,370.

Here are the specifications for the ’15 Toyota Camry XSE V-6:

• Capacity 5-passenger
• Wheelbase 109.3 inches
• Length 190.9 inches
• Width 71.7 inches
• Height 57.9 inches
• Curb Weight 3,480 pounds
• Track 62.4 inches front, 62 rear
• Ground Clearance 6.1 inches
• Turn Circle 36.7 feet
• Drivetrain Front-wheel-drive
• Engine 3.5-liter V-6
• Horsepower/Torque 268/248
• Transmission 6-speed automatic
• Steering electric power
• Suspension sport-tuned front strut, multilink rear
• Fuel mileage estimate 21/31
• Fuel mileage average 26.8
• Fuel Tank 17 gallons, regular unleaded
• Wheels 18-inch
• Tires Michelin P225/45/R18
• Cargo Volume 15.4 cubic feet
• Warranty 3 years/36,000 miles basic, 5/60,000 powertrain

Competitors Honda Accord, Ford Fusion, Hyundai Sonata, Chrysler 200, Chevrolet Malibu

Assembly Plant Georgetown, Ky.

Parts Content N.A.

Base Price of Lowest Model $23,795; Base Price of Review Model $31,370; Destination Charge $825; Sticker Price $35,668.

Today, I review a ’15 on 12-13-14.

It’s the Chrysler 200C all-wheel-drive midsize sedan, which posted the hottest sales gain in the auto industry last month.

Whether the numerically based lead of the column is liked, or disliked, it is the last one this century. Three years ago, in the fall of 2011, an opportunity arose when I wrote, “Two-doors continue to roll my direction, and I have a ’12 for you on the morning of 9-10-11.” It was the 2012 Honda Civic Coupe. The year 2015 will be a step beyond linking up consecutively with months (which, of course, end with 12) and date numericals. Something else will come to mind, I’m sure.

To put Chrysler’s AWD system to some use, we drove it to 9,500-feet-high Bear Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park where 17 inches of snow was on the ground. That’s 17 more than was in the lower lands of northern Colorado.

The all-wheel-drive option makes the 200C a nice entry in Colorado country. Few midsize sedans offer grip at all four wheels – Toyota Camry doesn’t, nor does Honda Accord. It is available on the Ford Fusion and Subaru Legacy, and the Volkswagen Passat has recently added 4Motion. It is more common on luxury models.

The 200C handled easily the little bit of ice we encountered near the parking lot of Bear Lake. The new AWD system, when called upon, instantly splits torque between the front and rear wheels for optimal traction. When front-wheel-drive performance is sufficient, the system disengages power to the rear axle, gaining increased fuel efficiency.

A powertrain highlight is Chrysler’s 9-speed automatic transmission, tied to its 295-horsepoower, 3.6-liter Pentastar V-6 engine. A rotary dial on the center console, something like that used by Jaguar, has replaced the traditional shifter for the 200. It simplifies the shift process and is enhanced by paddle shifters at the steering wheel. Using the paddles in manual mode, the driver controls limitless gearing possibilities among the nine speeds. A Sport mode increases throttle response, quickens shifts and lessens the normal traction control.

The Pentastar, smoothed by the 9-speed, seems to work very hard and noisily under stressful acceleration demands. A bit more oomph is needed on occasion. And that may soon be at hand. One afternoon while the 200 was in my possession, a daily Internet newscast from Detroit (Tom Worobec, Automotive News) informed me that Chrysler plans to turbocharge the Pentastar V-6 later in 2015.

This, if added to the 200C, will make it a leader among the midsize sedans.

Overall driving, including the climb to Bear Lake, averaged 26.9 miles per gallon.

With improved soft-touch, high-end materials, the 200’s cabin has gained a spot on Ward’s 10 Best Interiors List for the year. The upgraded 200C has power controls for both front seats; a complaint with lower-end models is that the front-passenger seat is positioned very low and there is no height adjustment. A large storage bin has been carved out in the center console, and another wide opening has opened beneath the center portion of the dash, designed somewhat like those in Volvos for a number of years.

A heated steering wheel is among interior niceties; the heat into the steering wheel can be set to turn on automatically when a temperature drops to a certain cold level.

An impressive Uconnect 8.4 infotainment system, navigation, adaptive cruise, automatic high beams, park assist, premium leather heated and cooled seats and lane-departure system helped push sticker price of the Chrysler from a base of $30,425 to sticker of $35,900.

Base engine for the Chrysler 200 is a 184-hp, 2.4-liter 4-cylinder.

Sales of the 200 sedan last month totaled 14,317, a 156 percent increase over the previous month. It has been years since a Chrysler midsize model has sold that many units in a month. It outsold the Chevy Malibu, Subaru Outback, Kia Optima and Volkswagen Passat for the month.

Here are the specifications for the ’15 Chrysler 200C AWD:

• Capacity 5-passenger
• Wheelbase 108 inches
• Length 192.3 inches
• Width 73.6 inches
• Height 58.7 inches
• Curb Weight 3,473 pounds
• Track 62.1 inches front, 62 rear
• Ground Clearance 5.8 inches
• Turn Circle 39.8 feet
• Drivetrain All-wheel-drive
• Engine 3.6-liter V-6
• Horsepower/Torque 295/262
• Transmission 9-speed automatic
• Steering variable-assist power
• Suspension strut front, multilink rear
• Fuel mileage estimate 18/29
• Fuel mileage average 26.9
• Fuel Tank 15.8 gallons, regular unleaded
• Wheels 18-inch
• Cargo Volume 16 cubic feet
• Warranty 3 years/36,000 miles basic, 5/100,000 powertrain

Competitors: Ford Fusion, Acura ILX, Volkswagen Passat, Subaru Legacy, Toyota Camry

Assembly Plant: Sterling Heights, Mich.

Parts Content: U.S./Canadian 67%, Mexico 16%

Base Price of Lowest Model: $21,700; Base Price of Review Model: $30,425; Destination Charge: $995; Sticker Price: $35,900.

It’s a beautiful finish, in melbourne red metallic, which adds $550 to its cost.

Impressive, too, is its interior, white nevada leather with red contrast stitching, and that’s an extra $1,450.

It is BMW’s new 2015 X4 crossover hatchback, which looks like a coupe, even with its four doors. It is styled like the bigger X6, which was introduced seven years.

Of the X6 when I reviewed it in The Denver Post of July 4, 2008, I said, “Its new look is hot as a firecracker.”

The same holds true now for the new X4, still a hot coupelike look, even in December.

Interestingly, the X6’s review model back in ’08 was $63,700, just $100 higher than sticker price on the ’15 X4, which is a size smaller. Price bumps along the way have pushed the total on a well-equipped X6 into the $80s.

From the driver’s seat of the X4, the results for pushing the Sport driving button are under-hood performances fitting of a BMW – tightened steering, stiffened suspension, more responsive shifts, capped by paddle-shift capability. Three other modes are Eco (mild), Comfort (normal) and Sport-plus (blast-off).

A twin-power turbocharged, direct-injection 3.0-liter, inline-6-cylinder engine mated to an 8-speed automatic transmission provides the multilevel power modes. It generates 300 horsepower and 300 lb.-ft. of torque.

BMW’s xDrive all-wheel-drive system uses dynamic stability control to send torque to the outside rear wheel when cornering to improve traction, turn-in and directional stability.

The inline-6 with the 8-speed carries an EPA estimate of 19/27 miles per gallon. My overall fuel mileage average was only 21.5; I didn’t often call on the Eco mode. An optional power source for the X4 is from a 2.0-liter, turbocharged 4-cylinder engine, also tied to the 8-speed.

The X4 is built on the chassis of BMW’s X3 SUV and is much the same size. The X4 is a half-inch longer than the X3 and its roofline is 1.5 inches lower than that of the X3. Its roofline slopes back to the trailing edge of the tailgate; that and its low-slung structure create shallow vision out the rear window.

Among interior highlights are M leather steering wheel and M door sill finishers. The rear seat is split 40/20/40, and cargo space behind is 17.7 cubic feet. Rear-seat footroom is somewhat tight.

A few of the many options are heated front and rear seats, heated steering wheel, blind-spot detection, automatic high beams and stop/start system.

Here are the specifications for the ’15 BMW X4:

• Capacity 5-passenger
• Wheelbase 110.6 inches
• Length 184.3 inches
• Width 74.1 inches
• Height 63.9 inches
• Curb Weight 4,260 pounds
• Track 62.8 inches front, 63.4 rear
• Ground Clearance 8 inches
• Turn Circle 39 feet
• Drivetrain All-wheel-drive
• Engine 3.0-liter twin-scroll turbo inline-6-cylinder
• Horsepower/Torque 300/300
• Transmission 8-speed automatic
• Steering rack-pinion
• Suspension strut front, multilink rear
• Fuel mileage estimate 19/27
• Fuel mileage average 21.5
• Fuel Tank 17.7 gallons, premium unleaded
• Wheels 19-inch
• Tires Goodyear Eagle 245/45R19
• Cargo Volume 17.7 cubic feet
• Warranty 4 years/50,000 miles basic, 4/50,000 powertrain

Competitors Porsche Macan, Lincoln MKC, Range Rover Evoque, Acura RDX, Meercedes-Benz GLA

Assembly Plant Spartanburg, S.C.

Parts Content N.A.

Base Price of Lowest Model $44,700; Base Price of Review Model $48,000; Destination Charge $950; Sticker Price $63,600.