The Swan Song of Cars: A Reflection on Luxury and Performance

When it comes to luxury cars, there's always the question of whether they're truly worth the investment. As someone who appreciates both style and substance, I've had my fair share of experiences with high-end vehicles. Recently, I found myself pondering the merits of the latest offerings from manufacturers like Audi, BMW, and Mercedes-Benz. Specifically, I was considering the Golf All-wheel Drive and the GT-R.

The Golf All-wheel Drive is an interesting option, particularly for those who want to experience the thrill of driving a luxury car without breaking the bank. Its all-wheel drive system and slightly tweaked turbocharged engine make it a compelling choice for those who value performance and handling. On the other hand, the GT-R is a more extreme offering, designed for track enthusiasts who crave raw power and agility. While I appreciate its capabilities, I've always preferred cars that are lighter and more agile, such as the Audi A4.

Another question on my mind was whether to opt for a fully loaded Accord or a fairly loaded Avalon. As someone who values comfort and refinement, I think the Avalon is an excellent choice. The Z06 trim level is particularly impressive, with its long-legged highway performance and smooth, quiet ride. In contrast, the Accord's rear seat isn't quite as spacious, but it does save money on fuel costs. Ultimately, the decision comes down to personal preference and priorities.

For those who value space and comfort above all else, the Accord might be a better option. But for driving enthusiasts, there are other cars worth considering – like the Kia Cadenza, which I recently had the pleasure of testing. The Cadenza is a well-rounded vehicle that checks most boxes, from its comfortable ride to its generous features list. While it may not be as exciting on the track as some rivals, its everyday usability and value make it an excellent choice for those who want a reliable luxury sedan.

Of course, not everyone will agree with my assessment – and that's okay! Some viewers have expressed skepticism about my claims, such as Tom, who questioned the quality of the new Impala. As someone who has driven the vehicle extensively, I can assure you that it's a significant improvement over its predecessor. The differences between the old and new models are substantial, with better ride quality, more refined interior design, and improved performance.

Despite this, some people have struggled to separate their impressions of the Impala from those of other models in its line. That's understandable – after all, it's easy to get caught up in the nostalgia for a particular car model. But ultimately, the best way to understand the new Impala is to drive one yourself. And judging by the reactions I've seen from viewers and reviewers alike, there are many who have done just that.

As we move forward into next week's episode, I'll be taking a closer look at some of the most popular cars on the market – including the Acura MDX, Mitsubishi Outlander, 500L, and Kia Soul. Stay tuned for more in-depth reviews and first impressions from these vehicles.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhi everyone and welcome to talking cars with Consumer Reports I'm Tom mutchler I'm Jake Fisher and I'm Joe vlac well Top Gear has the Stig we have Joe as one of our tame race drivers so Joe what do you do here around the track well I do a lot of the track testing I do uh acceleration brakes avoidance maneuver track handling even stuff like fuel economy and uh a whole bunch of other stuff but I won't bore you oh you could never bore me Joe is is there a test you really look forward to doing like right today I get to do this it's usually track handling well we'll talk a lot about track handling in this show we got two cars that really Merit that is there a test you hate um highway fuel economy when it's 90° out right because no air conditioning no air conditioning no windows yeah a lot of people don't know that me and Joe used to drive on the track together so we actually went through the Seca schools together um we and Joe was one of the poor unfortunates that I talked into taking a street car and turning into a race car so could use it he started with a beautiful Miata into this race rack it's wrecked now I think J goes me 10 grand I think I do yeah I I yeah I kind of ruined his car for him you weren't the only one no but we we had some good times yeah definitely that's where basically got a lot of the driving experience in when I uh first started working here and everything so well the good thing is now now you can beat on other people's cars right that's the best part and we're going to talk about that yeah well we were doing Club racing we were one of the only guys driving out to the track racing the cars and then driving home well hopefully driving yeah the tire was a little towed out but never mind that that's that's the price of racing I guess uh we're going to talk about the Fiat 500 aart or a bar or a bar or a Bart however you want you want to pronounce yeah the jur is still out I mean I think it's it's a Bart and I think you were correct I think I've been calling it a b but the reason is is because Italians cannot pronounce th they can't do that so the question is is it really a bar because apparently the guy's named Carl bar now I'm boring everybody yeah is actually Austrian huh they can't pronounce it that's really not fascinating thank you for sharing all the and actually you know I'll stop interrupting you we got to thank Fiat and Chrysler for bringing this car here because it's a badass little car you know it really is yeah it's fun I would uh I wouldn't put it on my top of my list but I think there's a lot of things about it that makes it really fun to drive and uh I don't know I definitely have a spot for it in my heart little heart little you're little cold consum reps C art aart aart art I think the thing that gets you is the exhaust sound though oh definitely definitely being able to once you learn how to make it backfire it's usually a fourth gear low RPM loaded up with gas I wor about F back so for the home viewers who have an aart and they want to make it fart you know what what do you do so I basically well I learned this going you know on my way home you you pretty much just you're in fourth gear you probably should be in third so you're starting off a lower RPM you just go Full Throttle it's bogging a little bit then once you get close to hitting the Power Band you just jump off the throttle which is pop like loud backfire again your neighbor whatever well well that's the thing the the car the car screams probable cause yeah because I mean it's always loud you know it's got big down the side just hypothetically if you have a neighbor who maybe complains that you drive too quick yeah you've got them putt putt by we we literally have neighbors following us through the track this is actually true when they go by we're going by at 40 mil hour in this thing it's like blah blah you know I mean the funny thing about the theart I mean we all kind of had fun with it but um you know I was talking to you the other day and I'm like well why don't you just get like a used GTI put a super trap on it you put some really nasty exhaust on it you know or or better yet just take the exhaust off which is basically what this is this really doesn't have a muffler and it's going to pop and snarl and make all those sounds and I think for the benefit of the people who are listening to this we have a little video clip that will show you it will at least give you a taste of what this car sounds like so we're going to play that for you now yeah I mean the the car just snap crackles and pops but I mean that's not the only cool thing about it if you buy this car they send you you can go to driving school for free and Joe bought the car so you got to go to driving school what was that like so basically I didn't even know when you get the car about this school at all it was later told to me by the salesperson as I was kind of walking out and they're like oh by the way you can fill out our survey oh and get a driving scho I thought it was just like you know some little special thing I get from Consumer Reports to go there but it wasn't no no no everyone gets this no everyone gets this so once you buy the AAR it's actually even aart sorry it's even on the the window sticker I noticed but you go there and uh you can sign up for a free it's a high performance driving event not really a school but they do teach you some stuff so you go there and uh there's there's autocrossing drag racing and uh a full like full out track lapping a track in uh well I was in English town yeah we're showing video that that you you shot to yeah so it's cool and there's a lot of people a lot of people were there I think there had to be over 70 some on 70 bar owners yeah and there what are our Barth owners like I mean I picture them all being vegan skinny Brooklyn hipsters I'm nothing against I wish I was a vegan skinny hipster but but what what what are the owners like there what was it Mario luig I think we were they throwing yeah I got hit with a green shell a few times on the track always no they were definitely like a real diverse crowd compared to what I was imagining like you said I thought it' be a lot younger but no there was it spanned pretty much all age ranges there I felt like I was one of the younger people there actually so did did they know you were a ringer um yeah kind of when I when I went there to sign up or to check in rather I noticed there was like a little star next to my name and they like there's always we put a star next to your name the phone directory here has a star next name was it like a competition did you you know see who could go do things faster and like that exactly did you represent oh I did I felt like I wasn't I think I told someone this I wasn't as much scared about winning is as scared as I was as scared about losing I guess that makes sense I didn't want to beat everyone and look like a jerk but I didn't want to lose and look like the same thing happened to me you know a lot of us went to skip Barber I went to skip Barber and at the end you have a race and I won our race but I was racing 17-year-old rich girls really who were sent there by their parents to learn how to drive you showed them right I showed them that's that's right were they crying when you were done they were too busy texting oh but see this comes back to the my whole thing about my used GTI with no exhaust which is pretty cheap taking the exhaust because for the money you have left over I mean this is a what $ 25 $226,000 car I could go get a you know used GTI for 10 grand I have a whole lot of money left over for professional driving schools heck I I could buy your old Miata and I could start doing Club racing again you know I mean that's well you know we actually we kicked around this idea bit in the office of why don't we go buy a used GTI you know and trick it out and see what it does and see if you know how reliable it is and we started looking at Craigslist to buy one and holy crap you know it was like replacing fuel pump every 10,000 miles as a preventative measure it's and you know I went back and looked at the reliability data it's you know at least the I don't believe I'm going to say at least this Fiat will probably run every day yeah that's true and you know at least it has a warranty let's put it that way come on don't don't get crazy now for the first three years you're at least yeah you're notay to fix it J is still out but you know the car you know it's it's it's very involving it's very entertaining it's got all these flaws though the steering just you know on the track the steering or even on the road it's it's kind of dead on Center yeah it's definitely one of the the downfalls I think of the car with being something you know of a performance oriented vehicle you want on you know you want that steering to be like you know on spot like there's a lot of other vehicles that have great steering that I wish were in this car like what like I I hold the you know Subaru BRZ Scion FRS is that is I think almost The Benchmark of where steering field should be those cars too yeah I think Jake hates them he hates them the most as he D why he so hard right I just hate the tires on them the cars are cool but the tires I Must Destroy but you know in the shifter the shifter is kind of U you know it's kind of rubbery yeah not one of my favorite Shi either I I've never grown to like anything that's on the column or up high you know one of kind of what was that Civic Si hatch you know the r 200 I don't know it's up in the headliner and I like sitting the vehicle you sit high up in I like sitting a little lower and you know a little more like race oriented style setup but I mean to me it feels a bit like a golf cart that you build out a lawn mower parts you know so you there there's all the slob of the steering but you got the really grip gokart tires lawnmower parts it's right there could hear you you're hurting theing the exhaust made it death my lawn mow my lawnmower backfires too so we're good I guess I guess I guess maybe I guess maybe the biggest problem is you know it's 20 you know ours is $26,000 which probably affects the people you saw at the driving school yeah pretty much I I don't know I see so many other Alternatives other routes I would go if I had the money we've got an alternative right here we have a Ford Focus ST I mean there's no question the Fiesta ST is probably the more likely competitor it's not out yet but you how does the focus compare um I think well obviously way more power it's uh its handling is uh you know not it's a little dicey at the limits where it tends to over steer a little more than you would want but other than that steering's good grip it has you know in the right conditions high temperatures high track temps it has you know high levels of grip but um you know I I bet if we're going for lap times I'll be in the St not the abart well crap I we had to we had a drag race we couldn't resist ourselves we had a drag race between the the fataar and our four cylinder automatic Honda Accord with the muffler with the muffler and I mean were you even trying in the yeah it was the Accord smoke distor yeah it was like it was definitely like thear obviously off the line with a man ual transmission you can launch harder but in the end the Accord four cylinder has long legs and it just pulled on it right at the line just to let you know where you stood probably get better Arrow too yeah absolutely you're not driving a cube down the drag strip so what do you think of the focus J well focus is fun I mean we always talked about it's kind of like the front-wheel drive car that drives like a rear wheel drive car you know Ian it's like all these these front you know hot hatches they're always trying to make the cars you know be more neutral less under steer you know they don't want to plow straight this this does that um but I mean it you're you're almost always hanging the tail out even with the stability control totally on so I mean we were you know we did a lot of talk about have they gone too far you know and and you know if you go and you put a car into competition mode a lot of cars have competition mode which kind of like downplays the stability control that's the way this thing normally drives so you could go around there and you could hang the tail out and you know you look at the pictures you got the rear you know inside rear wheel just coming way off the ground and it's fun but it kind of does need a mode for you know it needs a mode for normal driving it needs a mode for normal driving it doesn't have that you know be seen yeah so those those teenagers texting you know there you know our colleague Gabe did did the the road test video on this car and he got into all sorts of grief you know by online commenters because he said he would not let he would not buy this car for his teenage son and I mean a lot of people said well what teenagers is going to have you know a 26 $27,000 Focus St but we know of plenty of wrx's who were bought by teenagers and they're wrapped around trees and there will be ones that get that used so it'll be out there in circulation so um hopefully we'll we'll take a look I mean we're going to we'll do the the the uh fiest ST which I'm looking forward to and I have a very strong feeling that they're going to you know take that into account and have that when that stability control is on and you're not saying hey I'm going fast the thing does keep you at Bay then you go you hit the button and if you're on a track or something then you could really and that's the right way to do it I think also you know I mean I enjoy driving the Focus ST but um I'd rather have a Volkswagen GTI I just feel it's a more mature car it's you know this is fun when I I want to have fun and it's fast this thing is well the focus is faster yeah but but you know just every day I'd rather I think I'd rather drive a GTI yeah I mean GTI me it's different car it's a different thing this thing you know I mean they got the performance on this car so yeah but it's exactly you know if you want the daily driver that you want to go every day and or do you really want to push it on a track and that does perform real nice it actually brings us to a question that we got on um YouTube and and the guy's asked it several times in several shows so I really want to answer it he was asking us to talk about the new golf and the new GTI the Mark 7 yeah because we're in Mark 6 2010 to 20 a lot of marks it's a lot of you can't say MK new rabbit um we saw the car at the auto show uh it has a I like I prefer the interior ior the seats are real nice but we haven't driven it because you know Volkswagen didn't fly us to Europe to to to you know drive the car they did offer that would that's nice but um we say no so we say no uh you know it have a new uh more powerful 2 L turbo um they've upgraded that the thing is though is that buying a first year redesigned Volkswagen is that is that a risk you want to take well you know as with all vehicles you know the designed first years never have the good reliability they're going to have down the road doesn't matter what it is it could be a very reliable car it's not going to be as reliable in its first year um you know what's neat about Volkswagen though is we never really get the first year although Europe gets the Europe usually gets in fact they're doing it now that car is well on sale there you we're not getting it till 15 yeah so hopefully some of the bugs will be worked out by by then somewhat but the other thing is you know better right now you can get probably the Swan Song of the car you can buy a golf r you know the all-wheel drive slightly tweaked turbo version which which I enjoy you know I like that a couple you're not too fond of the golfar no I I don't I don't you know I don't think you need the all-wheel drive on it you know I prefer it lighter and nimbler and and they the the normal ones tend to kind of handle better too you know eh I don't know I mean I got a couple friends who have them they bought them for great prices the cars feel like little Audi you know it's something it's something to consider let's answer another question from YouTube Andy asks fully loaded accord or fairly loaded Avalon please answer in upcoming video thanks well Joe I mean these are your type of cars I mean I know you know you you do dig the Avalon right I would probably get a a ZO6 that's right get like a 22 hard top Z6 that's it uh accord or Avalon I I agree with the Z6 you know it's got long legs on the highway it's very refined comfortable I get a feeling I'm going to have to answer this question as for up I would get un loaded a cord um I think it actually rides better uh you know comparable quietness the back seat isn't quite as big you'll save a lot of money buying a loaded ACC cord not to mention you can you can out drag race Fiat 500s now you're talking yes there you go I mean there's other cars to consider too um there's the Kia Cadenza that we you know just just finished testing we've had someone asking all the time when are you going to report on the kadenza it's out pretty much now you know and that's a very nice car it's a very well-rounded very it it doesn't do much wrong no it's a little little boring on the track but someone who buys that car isn't going to be doing you don't think so oh wait no there's the Cadenza Racing link yeah that was just announced in my mind I'm confused with that in the credenza Racing League of you know how quick can you build a piece of furniture no that might be interesting too also speaking of big sedans um we still have plenty of lot of reactions about our test and the very high score of the Chevy andala um we got this this on YouTube first of all Tom he's he writes I didn't write this Tom you're one of the few car reviewers whom I take their comments seriously your observations are sharp and precise yes yes they are TM 301 thanks Bob yet for the new impella I'm having a hard time believing that it's as good as you claim I really hope CR is not getting paid by GM for this and I've heard this everywhere you know my dad you know he said uh the Impala like really the Impala my neighbors like I saw you on TV the Impala what you know the Impala people cannot can't believe well the problem is they can't distance the old Impala from the new Impala and we probably have never seen such a huge difference in one model year going from 2013 to4 to completely redo this vehicle and um what's funny is that while there are the people who's like you guys are crazy how could you be talking about an I'm what what also bugs me is the people who agree with us who are like yeah I rented one last year and it is a pretty good car like no that's not the same car it's a completely different car they need to drive it that's you just need to drive it and you need to and go drive a luxury car and then start you know thinking them through you know the quietness the room the the power the ride everything about it it's it's right there no I mean it's amazing the extent of the reactions we had you did an interview on a cable news show and they they tried to make it sound like it was some conspiracy with Obama trying to justify the bailouts and you know it but you know GM dug their this whole you know so many years of a bad Impala uh but but again they didn't you know those those commenters on the news shows they didn't drive it yep and most of the professional reviewers who have driven it it's a pretty good car absolutely so that's pretty much all we have for this show uh we'll have another show in two weeks we're going to talk about the Acura MDX The mishishi Outlander we're also going to take a first look at the 500 L and the Kia Soul thank you so much for listening\n"