Weekly Top 3: The "Huh, That Car Really Looked Good On Paper" Club
It's hard when you don't have first-hand access to the latest and greatest cars on the market, because all you've got to go on is pictures, numbers, and the words of automotive hacks like me. Based only on these three reference points, it's easy for practically any new car to seem like the coolest thing since Zubaz. A lot of cars look good and make pretty compelling numbers these days, and there's never a shortage of journalists who will fawn on cue whenever they hear the phrase "all new" or "completely redesigned."
If there's one lesson I've learned in this profession, it's that you shouldn't always believe the hype.
I've driven countless ballyhooed cars that have turned out to be letdowns in one way or another. The following three stand out as being the most disappointing in recent memory.
3. Lincoln MKS
. Alright, alright -- the warning signs were there. We knew going in that the MKS was based on the platform of the previous-generation Volvo S80, which wasn't exactly a leading light among luxury sedans back in the day. But the Ford Flex proves that this platform can still give rise to a perfectly competent vehicle, and what's more, the MKS kind of looked cool in early pictures. I was genuinely excited to drive it. And then I drove it. No retrospective rant here could approach the screed unleashed by my 2008 self in his comprehensive MKS Edmunds Test Drive
, so I'll just let him do the talking.
2. Chevrolet Malibu Hybrid . The Malibu is supposed to be the midsize sedan that gets GM back in the game, and the Hybrid version is Chevy's chance to show that it's in tune with the green revolution. Unfortunately, the Malibu just isn't as nice in person as it's been made out to be by overeager American journalists -- and the hybrid technology employed here is so rudimentary that it's hard to see the Malibu Hybrid as anything other than a sly marketing gimmick.
On the first point, the Malibu won the 2008 North American Car Of The Year award, so my expectations were high. In reality, Chevy's new midsizer is merely adequate. Yes, the interior is leaps and bounds ahead of the previous Malibu's, but that's like saying your girlfriend is hotter than your great-grandmother: true, no doubt, but not exactly a compliment. By the standards of the segment, the Malibu's interior materials are satisfactory but unremarkable, a description that goes for the rest of the car as well.
As for the weaksauce Malibu Hybrid, well, what can you say about a car that costs three grand more than a comparably-equipped regular Malibu, tacks on a second or so to the zero-to-60-mph sprint, and only gives you three more miles per gallon? That's $1,000 per MPG. The Camry Hybrid supplies nine extra miles per gallon for a comparable premium, and it's also appreciably quicker than the conventional four-cylinder model. In our Edmunds Test Drives, we always conclude by asking ourselves, "Who Should Buy This Car?" In this case, the answer is clear: "Someone who wants a car with 'Hybrid' badges that's slower and barely more fuel-efficient than the considerably cheaper non-hybrid version."
1. Nissan 370Z
. The new Z's got everything I want. It's fast, it's sexy, it handles well, and it's relatively affordable. Shoot, I even had a Z in high school, an optioned-out '85 300ZX replete with automatic climate control and a sultry digitized female copilot ("lights are on
!"). I should be putty in the new Z's hands. And I was totally over this car after one spirited drive.
To the credit of my fellow scribes, most reviews of the new Z have called out the lackluster engine note. But "lackluster" really doesn't do it justice. This engine sounds miserable by sports car standards: it's coarse, it's loud, and it's so overbearingly truckish in the midrange that I found myself upshifting early just so I wouldn't have to listen to it. Presumably Nissan's engineers know that an invigorating engine note is a crucial element of the sports car formula, but the final product doesn't show it. Furthermore, the Z doesn't feel smaller than it is when pushed; on the contrary, it feels much like its G37 cousin (surprise!) -- plenty capable, but decidedly hefty, more Corvette than 135i.
I should want this car, and I totally don't.
But it sure did look good on paper.
Josh Sadlier, Associate Editor, Edmunds.com
- Posted by
- Josh Sadlier February 6, 2009, 3:00 AM
- Permalink
- Categories:
- Life with Cars
- Technorati Tags:
- Edmunds Daily Weekly Top 3
Josh, LOL, are you basically saying we shouldn't trust the reviews of automotive journalists like you? ;) LOL!
Seriously, though, your comments about the 370Z really sound like nitpicking. I mean, the car is over-rated just because the engine sounds "agricultural"? Who cares about how it sounds if it's powerful/torquey and willing to rev? And can sound not be easily fixed with affordable K&N intakes or free-flow exhaust pipes?
So, I guess my question is, are you nitpicking or do I just not "get it"?
@blackadder5639,
I certainly wouldn't say you don't get it. My two complaints about the Z are based on personal beliefs about how sports cars should be -- namely, I believe sports cars should sound good and drive small.
If you think it doesn't matter how sports cars sound or whether they drive small, then you might like the Z, and understandably so.
In my defense, I would argue that it's pretty hard to think of a highly-regarded sports car/coupe that doesn't sound good. Corvette, M3, R8/S5, anything Porsche, anything Ferrari, etc. They don't have to be uber-expensive, either -- my old Integra GSR sounded like a little F1 car from 6-8k rpm, and the current V8-powered Mustang, for example, sounds pretty cool.
The drives-small thing is another matter. As noted in the post, the Corvette doesn't drive small, but it's still highly regarded, and justly so. Still, there's something about the drives-small sensation that suggests superior engineering, I think, and it's also more confidence-inspiring behind the wheel -- so a car with this quality gets extra credit from me.
-Josh
Oh, and no, the Z's aural shortcomings are not going to be easy to fix. It's not the exhaust note that's the problem (though that could use some work too, as Nissan has done away with the cool quasi-exotic rasp of the 350Z). Rather, it's the engine note, that is, the racket coming at you through the firewall, which means that the internals of the engine just aren't working together in an aurally pleasing way.
My theory on this is that the VQ-Series V6 is just too big for its own good, and has been ever since it was bored out from 3.0 liters to 3.5 (and now 3.7). The 3.0-liter V6 in the '00-01 Maxima, for example, was turbine-smooth and sounded great, but every 3.5-and-up VQ I've driven has had the same off-putting coarseness from midrange to redline.
Clearly it's possible for a big V6 to sound good; look no further than the mellifluous 3.5-liter V6 Toyota puts in everything these days. Honestly, I'd swap the Z's engine for a Camry's V6 anyday -- sure, I'd lose a little straight-line acceleration, but at least I'd have an engine that I enjoyed listening to.
The VG's sounded great and I must say that is one aspect I love about my 300ZX Twin Turbo. The other is the classic low wide sports car look. The new ones just look like crap next to it, IMO. I thought about getting a new one and when I saw it parked next to mine, it was an easy choice to pass.
Not another BMW is engineered better crap...Edmunds writers are so predictble.
Is it the idrive, or the horrid gear lever that got you hooked?
Being a former 350Z owner I can solve all the complaining about the interior engine noise....COLD AIR INTAKE.
Most probably don't understand that the intake noise is responsible for most of what you hear in the car and from the engine, when I put an INJEN CAI the noise went from okay, to more melodic and almost trumpet like.
Try putting that on the dual intake car and if you don't like it you're probably tone deaf.
@beermagazine,
That's an interesting suggestion -- I hope we'll have a chance to test it out.
But there's still no excuse for the 370Z's unpleasant off-the-shelf engine note. It's a sports car! If a fancy intake is the answer, then Nissan should have slapped one on straight from the factory.
-Josh
I agree with Josh - a coarse, truckish sounding, and excessively loud engine turns me off. It's easier to get a lot of power out of a motor than it is for it to also be delivered in a refined manner, and is what helps separate the jewels from the posers.
This has been a pretty consistent comment about the VQ engine over the years - as it has grown larger in displacement, it has become less refined. Although when I hear 350Zs and G35s accelerate at low speeds, the 3.5 liter's exhaust does sound good on the outside.
See I never really disliked the stock sound, yes without the window down it wasn't as sexy but I never had a problem cracking the window to hear the exhaust bounce of the freeway barriers or in a tunnel.
I currently have a 335 BMW and it sounds nice but it's not as loud as my Z was stock. There is a cross between making it quiet for DB ratings or the 98% of people who don't care what it sounds like, but when I put the intake on it sounded good, when I put an exhaust on it sounded even better...a buddy who was an Pro MX mechanic and EVO driver said it sounded like a racecar.
But sometimes you get spoiled by driving different cars and hearing different things you like. When I got my Z I couldn't stop listening to the engine and the exhaust. When I put a twin turbo on it it took some of that engine music away and traded it in for turbo spool and noises.
But If you start wanting an 28,000 car to melt your heart like a Ferrari is that fair?
A Mustang GT with exhaust sounds amazing...stock it sounds like every other V8. So they do leave some things to sell to you aftermarket...because a CAI and exhaust gets you near ZERO HP on the Z, but makes it sound better.
Sometimes I think we like to pick on little things on cars then it becomes the focus. I didn't mind the sound inside, was it bad? NO. Is there better? Yes. But one person says it then it becomes a focus. BTW I never thought the tranny vibration was bad, I just felt like I was feeling what the transmission was doing.
I will agree that it was a hard car to drive smooth at low speed. I've driven MT all my life an I had to relearn on that...and really the same on the 335 it had some learning to be had...just like all cars. They are like women. You have to find what makes them smile and how to drive one.
I guess everyone has a different experience/opinion here. From the outside a VQ35 accelerating usually induces a head snap anticipating a Lambo or something. I hope I hear the same "quasi-exotic" sounds in the 370.
Ditto on intakes really changing (and increasing) the sound. I enjoyed the sound on my SR20DE Sentra stock, but it just came alive with my custom short ram intake. The beauty of loud intakes is they're only loud when you're on the loud pedal hard, while loud exhausts are always loud.
I think Sadler is mostly out of his mind. The VQ has one of the sweetest sounding exhaust notes in existence. To say that it sucks because you don'tlike it is just arrogant and wrong. I have this same engine in my G37S and i constantly get compliments on its exhaust note. Why don't you try laying off of the crack and get your nose out o BMW's azz....