2009 Car and Driver 10 Best Cars - no Lexus, no surprise?

Which of those do you drive, john?

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No surpise at all. I used to be an avid C&D reader up until they early

1990s. Before that, I would eagerly await my monthly issue and read it cover to cover. Back then they had great humor, perspective and understanding of the needs of the average consumer/car enthusiast.

Then Csaba Csere took over and the magazine became a R&T wannabe. Lot's of articles about impracticle phallic symbols like Corvettes, etc. That's when I dropped my subscription. I still look at C&D when I'm in a library and each time it looks more and more like R&T.

In fact, I just read that Csaba Csere resigned and will probably be going over to R&T.

My personal favorite: from the 10Best Cars from Third World Countries--Number 3, Chevrolet Chevette, Lakewood, Georgia.

Typical C&D mish-mash nonsense. If I had to guess, I'd say that they were trying to compile a list of cars that are "driver's cars" where the act and pleasure of driving counts for more than just getting from A to B reliably. But the presence of two Hondas and a VW blows that theory all to hell. Plus there are other Porsches that fill the bill better than the Boxster/Cayman. Plus there are far better cars that aren't even on the list (notably the Viper and Challenger SRT-8, any Benz product, any exotic).

But the absence of a Lexus, per se, is no surprise. It says "high_performance" right in the link, which pretty much rules out a luxury-only brand.

Of course that *should* also rule out econoboxes like Fit and Accord.

I'm going to quit trying to make sense out of nonsense now....

I haven't a clue what you're talking about and I suspect that most readers here don't either.

I think this is good advice. Lots of people see cars in different ways, and some of the hi po rigs out there may be fun, but they may also be a POS as far as dependability, maintenance, resale, etc.

I want to buy a Porsche Cayman, just from its heritage and looks, but will hold off until I DRIVE one. And see why there are so many on the block at $20,000 discount with less than 5K miles on the odo.

Some of us get it.

Or at least think you do.

I recently saw a Car and Driver article on Cars.com where they went back and looked at past Top 10 selections and more or less trashed many of their own past picks. So why should I think this years "10 Ten" is credible?

Ed

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I just now saw a tv commercial.Gray Daniels has ordered hundreds of new Chevrolets.

cuhulin

At one point they had a price ceiling on the ten best list. Their explicit rationale was that $40,000 or whatever it was (this was a while ago) *ought* to get you a car that leaves little to be desired, and the purpose of the review was to sort out the pros and cons of the sort of cars most of us working stiffs might actually buy.

I went from subscriber to irregular dentist-office-and-barbershop flipper-througher circa an ownership change that they underwent sometime in the early 90s. That was about the time the identity merchandise started appearing in the back; and Jean Lindamood went to, where was it, Automobile magazine; and the interjectory [Ed.] seemed to blunt his edge.

It still has some things that are humorously written (after all these years the whole genre still owes a great debt to Tom McCahill, late of Mechanix Illustrated) and sometimes informative. The days when its arrival in the mailbox was by definition a fine day are long gone, which admittedly might have as much to do with me as with the magazine...

--Joe

Another tv commercial I saw today.Repo Joe is backkkk.

cuhulin

I used to snail mail subscribe to Mechanix Illustrated (and Science and Mechanics) untill they went belly up.Tom ''Chrome Dome'' McCahill's road test were the articles I always read first in Mechanix Illustrated.Nowadays all that is left that I still snail mail subscribe to are Popular Mechanics and Popular Science and two computer magazines. cuhulin

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an old C&D 10 best issue had an article about the 10 best cars from Third World Countries. They were able to make fun of Chevettes and Georgia at the same time. Nevermind, it's not funny anymore.

If you have to explain it...

Have you *driven* a VW? They really are head and shoulders above their competition, and have been since the introduction of the first GTI.

Possibly, but they are out of reach for the average person.

I think I'd take a Cayman over any of those cars you list.

Nate

Don't look now, but the Accord is EPA classified as a "large" car, and with the V6 (three liters and 270 horsepower!) it can be a pretty quick one too.

Getting back to the Ten Best list, though: I know (as if there were ever much doubt) that if I throw enough money at the problem I can get a truly fine automobile. One of the things the magazines can do is go through the lesser ranks of cars, kissing all the frogs so they can tell you which one is the prince. That used to be a goal of the ten best list (and still is of their occasional category comparos).

Conversely, putting an M3, Corvette, etc. on the same list with a Fit or even an Accord makes you wonder about the purpose of the list. Best in each of several classes, maybe? They certainly don't compete with each other even vaguely...

--Joe

Who, exactly pays off the EPA to define these? I drove a Maxima for several years. I cannot believe people put that subcompact as a "midsize."

An accord as a "large" car? WTF??