I have no trouble remember the cars I don’t like and cars I love are even easier to recall. There’s this valley, though, where I forget perfectly good cars until I’m reminded of them when a high Floridian drives one into a Whataburger.
(Ed Note: In rolling out our new Buyers Guides we’ll be rounding up some posts for the purposes of directing your eyeballs there. This is one of those posts.)
Audi A6/S6: The One That Isn’t The S4 Or S7 Or S8
There is no Audi sedan that I wouldn’t consider when shopping for a luxury car, but my mind is trained to see an Audi as either an A4 or A8. For reasons I can’t explain I can never remember the 6-sized Audi.
And that’s nuts, because it’s a perfectly fine automobile. I even drove one recently! The Audi S6 is the car that could perfectly represent what the entire German auto industry has been for the last century. It’s handsome but not boastful, powerful but not boisterous, and luxurious without being blinged out.
If you want to be stealth without giving up any of the benefits of a great car, buy this one.
Kia Sorento: It’s A Kia
For all the shit that we give automakers for using alphanumerics, at least I can tell you exactly where the BMW X1 slots next to the BMW X3 and BMW X5.
“Is the Sportage smaller than the Sorento?” I frequently ask myself.
It turns out the Sorento is the bigger one and it’s also quite nice. It and its Hyundai sibling offer a reasonable compromise in terms of performance, cost, and space in the increasingly heated battle for consumers who might actually need three rows of seats and are decent enough people to not buy a giant ladder-frame SUV.
Scion FR-S: The One That Isn’t The Subie
I so badly want Scion to be successful and if I was going to buy one of the Toyobaru twins I’m fairly certain I’d get the Scion FR-S. The cars are mostly indistinguishable and I’d probably rebadge it as a GT-86, so the Scion is a good starting place.
The FR-S is better than perfectly fine. It’s a car we asked for and it’s a car every car enthusiast should shake your hand for buying.
I always get excited when I see an FR-S on the street, except when I see an FR-S on the street I immediately think it’s a Subaru BRZ. That makes no sense, as the FR-S is actually outselling the BRZ this year, but Subaru is so ascendent I just give them the benefit of the doubt.
Volkswagen Tiguan: Did You Get A Deal?
If you get a deal on a Volkswagen Tiguan (and odds are you can), you should take it. Is it the best car in its class? No. Is it the worst car in its class? Possibly, but it’s also one of the oldest cars in a class where everything has gotten much, much better.
The biggest knock against the Tiguan was that it was too expensive for what you got, but because its sales are abysmal it’s suddenly not that expensive anymore (especially if your dealer is desperate for sales).
So go out and get a Volkswagen Tiguan for a song and put a ski rack on it and laugh at all of those people who spent $34k on a Ford Escape, which is a better vehicle in almost every way but probably not $6,000 better.
Contact the author at matt@jalopnik.com. Image Audi via NewspressUK.