Hammer Time: It's A Given!
Nothing drives like a Mercedes. Toyotas are reliable… but expensive. Honda makes great stickshifts. 20 years ago you could say all of these statements with complete confidence. The world had been a simpler place with brands that offered a very stringent range of offerings to a very particular audience. Now it seems that all the lines of differentiation have been smudged and greyed out.
Subaru, a brand that had been one of the ultimate niche brand providers for decades is now diving headlong into the mainstream. VW is right there behind them with a line-up that ranges from de-contented Jettas to Porsche shared Touaregs. Scion, Toyota’s youth brand, has been supersized for the middle-aged. Buicks are all of a sudden sporty. Chrysler now offers premium interiors. And Honda? Who knows? Except TTAC’s Best & Brightest. What would you say is a ‘given’ in today’s market as far as brands go.
More by Steven Lang
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1. The next model will be bigger and heavier and uglier. 2. Once any brand establishes a name for quality and value the cost-cutting starts immediately. 3. Whatever it is, GM will fuck it up on a massive scale. Just name it. Anything.
No matter how big of a piece of cr_p your newer Ford or GM is, some Detroit poster has the same ride that went three hundred thousand miles with only oil changes and tires. Sucker
Audi has the best interiors. BMW has the worst exteriors.
Some things that haven't really changed: Toyota still builds boring mushy driving cars for people that don't care about driving or the blue haired set. Hondas still have lots of road noise, longer braking distances and automatic transmissions that certainly don't last forever. VW is still making an engine that consumes oil and has a timing belt. Germany still believes in complex vehicle interfacing. GM is poor at advertising and updating some of it's core products and still has failed to make a no compromise compact entry that does everything well. BMW's are still bland generic looking vehicles with no flash whatsoever and there interiors are equally austere with poor cup holders and older designs. Audi still has some very nice interiors- (too bad there exteriors are looking plainer and more mainstream than ever) Chrysler still has indifferent fit and finish and the worst CAFE rating with all it's guzzler trucks and SUV's. Hyundai/Kia still make lower priced affordable decent looking entries with more content that other competitors cars that cost thousands more. Toyota still can't make a full sized pickup as good or that sells as well as the Detroit 3 The Corvette is still a performance bargain. Mustang and Camaro owners are still warring it out which is better. Subaru is still the car company thought of the most when 4 wheel drive cars are brought up.