balthazar

tannersoc- you titled the thread 'fit & finish' but never addressed that. Plastic is plastic; judging quality is getting pretty nitpicky, but wood is wood and shouldn't look & feel like plastic! 'Wood' in today's cars is pathetic and far more worthy of criticism that subjective grades of plastic. It all sucks.

I certainly see nothing ground breaking here. The civic lost quite a bit of it's enthusiast rep in recent years and sales have been on the decline overall IIRC. The koreans are eating heavily into this segment and the civic needs to be top-shelf & get back to it's roots to try and rebuild that; I don't see the funky bloated details on this one getting the job done.

The front is a little better but every wrx always screams 'tacky' to my eye: gold wheels, ridiculous wing, oversized scoop... too overwraught. Or maybe it's that I'm no longer 15...

So no cars over 186" are sold & parked in these countries? Nothing over entry level from mercedes, bmw, audi, etc, etc? (BTW: I have never seen 'parkability' claims in any advertising/marketing/ journalism; you'd think if it was so incredibly important, we might.) Were we only talking about parking issues abroad; what's the deal in the U.S.? I am not attacking you, LA; a number of people have expressed this (doesn't prove its valid), but not a one has been able to concretely explain why only the CTS in this segment is out of step & uncompetitive, yet those much smaller than the mid 180"ers aren't too small, nor if the mid 170"ers have some sort of competitive advantage. I mean we're not talking 18" of difference, only 5. No one can look at a half-dozen cars individually and tell you exactly how long each is. In other words, how can this matter if it's indiscernable?

It's not about 'figuring it out', it's a preference. Believe it or not, there are consumers who prefer fabric... even the above fabric... to leather.

I also preferred it the old way, but this is certainly workable.

Looked over a really bitchin '64 Biscayne 4-dr sedan this morning, one that's been sitting since the early '90s. Loaded with manual steering & brakes & a I-6. And rust. Right up until I opened the hood I was positive there'd be a dual-quad 427 underneath. I mean... all the signs were there...

Ahhh, young love! >>"keep it up bro"<< Sounds like that won't be a problem.

>>CTS... too big to compete with anything smaller than the G35...<< For crap's sake can we get over this splitting of hairs on the overall length issue? CTS is 191" long, which is a mere 5" longer than the TL & G35. The very same TL & G35 are 10" longer than the IS300 and 325- are they likewise "too big to compete"?? Should they shrink also... or should the 325 & IS be stretched? The A4 is only 179"- too short to be competitive also? Why not average the lengths of all of these and mandate all future redesigns be within 2" of that average? WHAT EXACTLY IS THE INCH RANGE OF "COMPETITIVENESS" IN THIS SEGMENT?? Oh yea- there is no such thing. No one ever shops for cars with a tape measure! >>Lacking in engines that the overcompensation-minded luxury buyers really need to step to the S-classes and 7-series of the world (V-10, V-12, anything<< I agree: I would like to see a 'multi-cylinder' engine from Cadillac again, but at the same time the cars mentioned seem to be (from casual observation) 90% V-8s