Few thoughts on last few pages:
1) That Infiniti SUV looks like an elephant. It's the definition of disgusting, oversized excess.
2) Ford GT? Ford continues playing to win. GT 350 will be sublime.
3) Caddy ATS? Considered it until I realized they packaged options like Japanese brands and VW where I had to spend $45k MINIMUM to get xenons. Automatically eliminated from my list, never looked back.
4) Ripping on Acura for options for the price by comparing to Germans does not compute. The worst offenders for "luxury" vehicle features are BMW and MB, Audi perhaps a little less so. Go to your BMW dealer, ALL you will see is crummy black, no-line, halogen cars. I went to the MB dealer recently and there was an entire row of $50k+ SUVs and not ONE had anything but halogen headlights, and reflector halogens at that. They should be ****in' ashamed of themselves for even selling cars without HIDs or better standard across the line on supposed luxury brands in 2015.
5) Caddy and Corvette excepted, GM interiors are hideous junk with oversized bubbly rounded plastics. Didn't they learn anything from the mid-'90s garbage that ran them into the ground? Anything at all about interior design? Ugliest interiors of any manufacturer, period.
6) Caddy pricing is ok, the option packaging is the problem. I can spend upper $30ks on a Honda Accord which is borderline criminal as it is so where should the Caddy slot in? Surely it's worth a few points better.
7) Caddy styling is nice, the image is the problem. Old people or drug dealers, take your pick. Most people would rather badge whore a soft 328i off the lot that is black with halogens and no-line even though it's surely the crappier car.
8) German engineering is bad engineering. Good engineering is simple engineering, not overly complex engineering (I'm an engineer myself). The Germans haven't figured this out yet - or since everyone just wants to badge whore and will lease some off the lot turd perpetually either because they can't afford to actually buy the vehicle or because they know the vehicle will be a financial nightmare of garbage reliability beyond the warranty, the Germans have literally zero incentive to turn their crap around and build something reliable. At least the Americans had a major kick in the pants to turn it around, and they have (except GM interiors).
9) $150k for an NSX? No thanks. Still too ungodly ugly.
10) German cars (except P-car) are no longer benchmarks. Not reliable, BMWs in particular have very low-rent interiors for the price paid ($60k+ for a loaded 335i and an interior no different than a 320i? lol), and even the driving dynamics have gotten soft. I will say though that MB is playing to win with the W205 C-class. BMW builds extremely mediocre cars but has a wonderful marketing machine that has everyone drinking the Kool-Aid, buying lot junk no-line 328s with halogens and soft suspensions thinking it's the ultimate driving machine. BMW hasn't built that in over 20 years. They're selling cars on reputation and getting lazy, and people are starting to notice. $90k for a loaded M3? Go **** yourself BMW, seriously. We are only a couple years off from a $100k 3 series. lolololololololol
11) Lexus has made great strides. The RC-F still makes no torque though, and they are still boring and the grilles are painful to look at. Still, they're a lot better than the tarted up Toyotas they once were, even if underneath some still are.
12) Want a good sport sedan? BMW 320i with sport and lighting and a manual, probably the truest and most distilled driving experience BMW offers today, and probably the best value in the entire lineup.
13) Acura needs to just do what it does best - make tarted up Hondas for non-car people who want a nice car they don't have to worry about maintaining and who think it's nice to be seen in. They are not a performance company and shouldn't bother trying to be one. They are also not a luxury brand. They sure are ugly from the front though, they still haven't gotten the memo on that.
14) The new S class owns the market. The upcoming G01 7 series looks like a 320i inside. BMW claims the 7 doesn't compare with the S, but that's BS in the minds of shoppers and everyone knows everyone cross shops the two. MB owns BMW here, and Audi. BMW claims the 7 is a drivers car while the S is a car you get driven in, but then why is the G01 coming with an anemic 4-pot? lol, there's literally no market for that car.
15) BMW has lot its way so badly with the severe diluting of the brand with 500 different models between gran coupe, coupe, sedan, GT, etc. It's a mess over there. Oh and they now have a FWD pile of **** called the 2 series Active Tourer. That model says it all, BMW has some FWD minivan. Ultimate driving machine? lol
16) America needs more diesel offerings, but this will never happen. VW owns this market.
17) Ultimate drug dealer car? Chrysler 300, called that way back in 2005 and sure enough that came true. Didn't take long to sink in value enough to be hoodrat cars.
18) Challenger is a neat car but continuously outperformed in every metric by the other two. Dodge doesn't get it, the Challenger is stale as hell and looks like a minivan inside. Challenger owners are the saltiest bunch of any community, bunch of old redneck boomers who claimed for years they didn't care their cars got left in the dust by the other two because "they have useable trunks and enough power, they are boulevard cruisers while the Mustang and Camaro are too cramped." Maybe the boomers are just too fat to fit in the other two. Then the Hellcat comes along and they are waving it all over, too bad the car is still a fat pig and doesn't handle well. Try losing 500 pounds instead. Chrysler doesn't get it, and it took 8 years to get a minor mid-cylce facelift, come on.
19) That Jag interior above is horrid, I too mistakenly thought they had turned a corner.
