> Based on your experiences with a much more expensive car, and a small
> amount of time with a car of lesser value and much higher mileage than
> the one you're used to driving.
Let's see here. Since 1981 I've driven two or more examples of
virtually every Toyota product built. Corollas, Celicas, a few Camrys,
Mk2/3 Supras and a Mk4. Land Cruisers, 4Runners, the occasional pickup
and Cressida. Only owned two, but a brother-in-law was a Toyota dealer
for a few years so they were all over the family. IS300s (someday I may
go find a good one of those, that was one very nice car), GS, LS. I
don't fit in the Lexus ES or the later GSes so I try to avoid those.
In that period I've also owned a fair number of Fords, Saabs, VWs, BMWs,
two Suburbans and an Audi.
> To some extent, I agree with this. Toyota put much more effort and
> money into the high-dollar Lexus than its lesser brands,
Toyota put a lot of money into starting the Lexus dealership body
correctly. They screwed their dealers down to a very high standard of
behavior.
As for the cars themselves, they're Toyotas. Very elaborate Toyotas,
and almost the only US Toyota product still built in Japan, but Toyotas.
> Why this emphasis on A-pillars? That seems to be a peculiarity unique to
> you and unrelated to the cars.
Perhaps it's my peculiarity but there are three things that matter to me
when I sit down in a car: the seat, the steering, and the outward
visibility. How the powertrain behaves, or even the ultimate limits of
the suspension, those might be an annoyance later, or you might work
around their limits. But the driving position, the outward visibility,
and the steering is either right or wrong in the first minute. This is
as true for a VW Beetle as an E39 BMW.
I can think of only one car I've owned where I was fooled - we bought a
'92 Infiniti Q45. Beautifully built, very fast, its 278 horses were
much beefier animals than the 282 BMW put in the 540i that replaced it,
when it hit its 145mph speed limiter you'd actually feel a pretty good
lurch as it cut you back.
But the footwells were so shallow, the distance from pan to roof too
short, so for someone 6'1" like me you're either sitting with your legs
straight out or your head wedged in the headliner. My 5'2" wife
thought it was just fine. Also, 2.1-turn steering and 4200lb of mass
do not go together, it was a twitchy beast. Nissan slowed the steering
down in '93.
John.
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