I appreciate your response, and welcome your criticism, also. Could I reword my original question to somehow change its perception to curiously convenient instead of conspiratorial and convince you to speak to Mr. Farago?

A vast pistonhead audience awaits…

Flujo :

IC is completely above board and that point is not up for review.

Do you have any idea how ridiculous that statement sounds?

Your link tells me NOTHING about the judging process. And your unwillingness to explain this process in a public forum in a ten minute phone call tells me EVERYTHING about your transparency.

I am saddened but not surprised by your response to our request for clarification.

A full write up on how we identify these annual winners is noted here – http://www.intellichoice.com/carBuying101/2008_what_is_bovy

And thanks for the podcast offer, but we are plenty busy getting the word out as is!

By the way, I am the Editor/Publisher of IntelliChoice and welcome such criticism. But when it gets all conspiritorial, you lose me.

Welcome to TTAC!

So, spill the beans. What’s the exact formula/process/reasoning that led to this award?

And if IC is completely above board, what about a podcast discussing your methodology? Contact me here or at robert.farago@thetruthaboutcars.com

By the way, I am the Editor/Publisher of IntelliChoice and welcome such criticism. But when it gets all conspiritorial, you lose me.

Wow, what a shame. Did the conversations go beyond complaints by the ad buyers? How conspiratorial did it get?

Landcrusher :

I suspect some completely unspoken quid quo pro happens through the motortrend advertising rep’s sales calls if nothing else.

Unspoken my ass. Maybe Stephan Wilkinson will tell you what he told me about the Chinese Wall between C/D’s editorial and advertising departments. And that was back when there WAS a wall.

Who calls who? Does Intellichoice drool over low sales reports and give the manufacturer on the short end of the stick a call and say “Psst – we’ve got a great idea. I think your slow selling car just won an award!”?

Does it start the other way around? Evil plans starts somewhere…

The way the steering wheel feels in your hand, the consistent linear feedback from the wheels, just perfectly weighted steering, the ability of the car to feel both light on it’s feet and stable at the same time, flat cornering, the awesome instantaneous DSG… it all adds up man. I hate when people refer to a car’s “soul” or a certain “something” when they need to jusitfy it as a better car, I hear a lot of MB and BMW owners do it, but the GTI definetly has it over the price-class competition.

Too bad about all the VW reliablity gremlins though.

Soul? Soul of what? An apple/mac-o-phile with an Ipod chock full of Daft Punk? I never understand it when person says that. It just sounds like a cop out.

As for interiors, I believe that’s just a matter of a person’s priorities. Personally, numbers are more important to me than how luxurious the interior is. As long as its comfortable, functional and as a good stereo, mission complete.

What would irk me is that I could probably own a G35 for the price of an R32 or a faster EVO/STI, and that I’m paying a higher note for the slower GTI versus the MS3 and WRX.

“The new R32 isn’t any faster than a GTI in a straight line”

I wonder if the new R32 is any faster than a GTI around curves.

and with a $500 chip, the 2.0T GTI blows the R32 out of the water.

For that much cash ($34,000), I did actually get a new 2007 G35X, and I’ve loved every minute of it.

It isn’t as tossable as an R32 or GTI (it’s bigger), but it is a lot more luxurious, and who can argue with 306 HP on tap from a VQ series V6?

-ted

The GTI has soul, and an interior that puts the STI and EVO to shame (and even the Mazdaspeed3, there, I said it). Yeah, it could be faster, but that’s true of a lot of cars. When you’re stuck in traffic, do you curse every piece of ill-fitting plastic in the vehicle, or do you sit back and enjoy the (non)ride?

As for Intellichoice, I knew something was fishy when I saw that the xB was their car of the year (no one, i repeat, no one else would even dream of giving it such a distinction, not even with substantial quantities of silver crossing palms)… seeing the R32 as the tops in the base sport category confirmed that their list was most useful printed out and used as toilet paper. But printer ink is expensive, so I’ll just have to settle for rolling my eyes at it and being glad that I don’t pay by the bit for internet usage.

The VW Golf R32…its not faster than any of our competitors, nor does it really handle much better. In fact, its heavier, and not anywhere near as agressively styled. But it does have soul*.

And a chilled cup holder.

*Soul is not a measurable performance number, nor do we actually know what that means. But hey, if all else fails, slam it!

Why would anyone pay this much for a Golf when an Evo or STI are faster, more competent around corners and can actually seat 5 people.

For this much cash I could also twist some Infiniti’s dealers arm and get a G35.

beetlebug:

However, the last generation R32 kept it’s value with eerily little depreciation for years.

The old R32 was an awesome car– right until the new GTI showed-up. At that point, it was game over R32. The new one has customers lined-up none deep. To wit: they're still plenty of them left lingering on VW lots.

AKM:

But why would VW pay anybody to promote a limited-edition vehicle that’s probably already sold out, as opposed to the very alive GTI, which swims in a sea full of competitors?

Because the GTI sells itself. The R32 is DOA.