The B10 A5 is an absolute disaster of an interior and exterior. I don't know what Audi was smoking but the B9/9.5 is way ahead of the 10 - in fit and finish, materials and design.

Mechanicals are mostly the same so not even worth mentioning.

Lucid Air: Legend ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

Throw an E39 M5, Porsche GT steering hardware, and S class in a blender.
Season it with Porsche’s latest HUD and Rivian’s UX.
Press the button ….

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/lAl28d6tbko/maxresdefault.jpg

Sell it at like 5 dealerships total and wonder why no one has bought one….
Discount the lease to be cheaper than a C class….
Presenting the Lucid Air.

https://cars.usnews.com/static/image...Touring_31.jpg

Its parts are better than each of those cars, and summing them makes the goodness even greater, no notes.

Real talk: there’s this incredibly empowering comfort and confidence that washes over you every time you do anything in this car …. Not unlike a E46, 39, or W221 S class. If you’re an enthusiast that cares about the finest details in experience, this is the car that breaks the pattern of cost cut shitboxes like the new A5.

Want specifics?

They benchmarked E39 M5 for rear suspension, RS6 for front - steering and dynamics are better than both.

Seats? Foam, massage, and comfort is better than the S class. Immediate relaxing feeling.

Throttle and brakes? Perfectly tuned, this is the only car I’ve ever kept regen on in.

The drive? The steering, brakes, powertrain have a polish that gives old-school v8 sedan in a way that the Ioniq 5N could never match.

The tech? It has the HUD from Porsche Macan, putting all the self driving shit perfectly ON the lane so you can look out of the windshield like you normally would.

The only issue I’ve found is the self driving behaviour is sketchy. BMW’s is super brainless and Lucid needs to get there. They also need to hire the B9 Audi guy to make the buttons more consistently clicky and high quality feeling.

C8 Corvette: Don't Meet Your Heroes ★★★★⯨

So as I was being dragged along to Atlanta by the wife and had to kill two days while she was at the conference, I managed to find a neat trick - Enterprise Exotics will rent you a C8 Corvette mid-week for $149USD plus fees and taxes, totaling out to $185USD for 24 hours and unlimited mileage. Friday to Sunday rates are about triple that. They also have stuff like Porsche Caymans and 911s but those are still expensive mid-week, unlike the Corvette. The C8 Corvette has always intrigued me as this is the first time the Corvette has gone to a MR layout, and it has been praised quite a bit by journalists and those that have driven it as being a huge improvement in terms of how the Corvette drives compared to previous generations.

https://i.ibb.co/8gPSK3Jn/image.png

Exterior

The exterior of the Corvette is very angular and almost pointy, evoking fighter jets through the side intakes and perhaps a bit of Lamborghini/Ferrari through an American lens. The rear deck is huge and flat without a wing, almost shapeless - I think something is needed to break up the expanse of flatness here. The rear haunches are huge, the proportions almost comical. Unfortunately I don't think the rental car wash routine has been kind to this Corvette as it has quite a few swirls, water spots and other paint issues, but in general the build quality looked pretty good. Everything seemed solid and well put together, and the panel gaps were all acceptable.

I think the Z51 package would have done wonders here to make the car look more special and aggressive but unfortunately the rental Corvette did not come with the performance wing. The wing, splitter, bigger brakes and other bits would have improved the look of the car and made it look less bland. I think that was my general impression of the outside. Besides the red colour, the car kind of looked bland.

https://i.ibb.co/b57mM2dN/image.png

Interior

The interior was actually nicer than I expected - this rental was a 3LT (top trim in GM terms) and had faux-Alcantara(?) trim in a lot of places, not a ton of piano black and some pretty nice switchgear. The driver display screen is nice and crisp, the center infotainment display was a bit small, but both were a bit laggy unfortunately. Switching drive modes took an eternity, and trying to customize the driver display took more time than I would have liked. Climate controls are a bit confusing especially for the heated/vented seats. I was never sure whose seat I was turning on haha. Wireless CarPlay worked well, but the phone holder/charger location is utterly baffling - it is behind your elbow between the seats and very difficult to use. I ended up stashing my phone in the center console box which was a bit shallow but worked for that purpose. The interior does not have a ton of storage space, and more cramped than I was expecting. I have serious doubts about being comfortable with a helmet on which was kind of unfortunate - I do have a long torso which does not help.

https://i.ibb.co/5hbsnvPX/image.png

The steering wheel took some getting used to as it was that weird squircle shape, and the location of the volume/track buttons was pretty much a tacked on afterthought; I was not a huge fan of the wheel controls in general. The paddles were nice and heavy metal ones, but the actuation felt too long and mushy. There was no tactile click at the actuation point, simply a thunk at the end. The digital rear view mirror that can switch between regular and video feed was a godsend as at night the regular view was not very usable. The blind spots were huge as well, and shoulder checking simply netted you a view of the rear buttress/quarter pillar.

The seats were supremely comfortable and a pleasant surprise. They held well, had good padding and bolstering, were vented/cooled and currently one of my favourite performance seats. I put on a total of 475 miles during the time I had the car and I did not feel sore at all after that much driving in a 24 hour span. I believe these were the GT2 seats with the microfiber inserts. Seating position was good in the car, and I had room to spread out during cruise control periods on the highway.

Trunk wise, the rear trunk got surprisingly warm after driving around so I would not stash groceries in there, and the frunk was decently sized. Some wind noise from the targa top.

https://i.ibb.co/xkZG2Vd/image.png

Features (or lack thereof)

Why the hell did GM not put radar cruise control/lane keep assist on this thing? It has collision warning and lane departure alert already. Utterly baffling given the price and the grand touring nature of the car. It has a hilarious distance warning thing that basically says "Hey you're getting too close!" but doesn't do any braking at all.

The Bose Performance or whatever sound system that is in this car utterly sucks. Super disappointing. No highs no lows must be Bose.

Performance/Drive

Ah now we come to the meat of the matter.

The suspension is surprisingly great, has a very supple ride and incredibly comfortable in the city and on the highway. I don't know if this has MagneRide or not but I was blown away by how good this thing is as a highway cruiser over crappy American highways with tons of expansion joints. Managed to get 32-34MPG on the highway averaging 75MPH so that was a pleasant surprise. Eats up the miles very quickly and confidently.

The V8 power delivery is super flat and strong, almost feels supercharged/turbocharged. There's basically a torque plateau when you step on it and it doesn't stop pulling until redline (6500RPM). That much power on tap is intoxicating, and passing on two lane roads are not a problem (looking at you, S2000). However - and this is my big disappointment - it's too damn quiet. You can't hear it inside even in Track mode and stepping on it. With the windows down it doesn't get much better either. This issue is probably solved with the Z51 exhaust, but with a plain-Jane Corvette the sound is very muted.

DCT transmission is a little unrefined, it is definitely no DSG or PDK in terms of smoothness. In Track mode there is a nice aggressive shift shock though not as prominent as a BMW M ZF transmission in M mode. Not great creeping in city traffic, but that's true of most DCTs.

In cornering there is a boatload of front end grip - and rear end grip - in fact grip everywhere. I could not push this car to the limit as that would be suicidal on public roads. The suspension stayed very flat, the chassis communicated clearly what it was doing and how it was doing, the controls felt very linear and crystal clear. Throttle response was excellent, and like mentioned before power on tap at any RPM at any time. Steering was a bit numb and too heavy in track mode, feeling very wooden. The limit is so very high, and the car is very easy to approach/get comfortable driving. In fact it was so competent and so good that it made everything drama free, almost Porsche-like. You would need a track environment to push this car to the limit and truly get to know its personality.

I got to have a fun little encounter with a Turbo S Cabriolet on the highway, we did a few pulls and I got gapped every time - that's what 640 German horses will do to 490 American ones I guess. Not a fair fight but it was a fun five minutes.

Conclusion

The C8 Corvette is an excellent grand tourer, however as a performance car I wish it had more emotional range. The C7 and the preceding Corvettes were loud, raw, brash in your face Americana and the C8 is the polar opposite. It's as if they sent the Corvette to a Swiss boarding school and turned it into a European gentleman. Chevrolet has managed to create their take on a 911, and somehow lost its country roots in the process.

I want to drive one with the Z51 exhaust/performance package to answer whether or not a louder exhaust would help wake the car up.

Perhaps the Z06 is the answer, but until I get to drive one I won't know yet.

Bonus: that flat rear deck makes for a great dining table.

https://i.ibb.co/wFNByHGZ/image.png

Other than the exhaust note, it seems to me that the hero you met is almost exactly the hero you wanted to meet!

And now I wanna try it too, but I feel like it'll be too wide a car for me to like. I generally prefer something smaller and narrower.

Is it though? I wish it didn't feel as sterile or German, it didn't really have any playfulness to it.

To be fair it handles excellently, and you don't notice the width. The C8 Corvette is one of those that shrinks around you as you drive it.

I wonder if the 2026 Z06 will change your mind. They updated the interior with a new display and faster processor, and no more wall of buttons. I drove behind a Z06 and the flatplane V8 reminded me of the 458. Loud AF too.

Corvettes used to be the sports car for the nascar loving hicks but starting with the C7 they stepped their game up IMO. Still relatively "cheap" to maintain compared to other cars in its class too.

Yeah I want to try the Z06 and see if that adds the "drama" back into the Corvette. Will have to try and find one for rent.

Outback Onyx 2.5: Special Needs ⭐️⭐️

Seats and materials feel nice, powertrain is strong to 30kmh, space is good, and eyesight feels predictable.
Beauty here, however, is skin deep.

Let's talk about 18L/100km. E63 on the same route around Manhattan then to airport got better mileage.
Outback's boxer shakes car at 5000 RPM trying to merge, like a dropout attempting calculus - embarassing effort, 0 results.

Forums are filled with people like me, wondering why strut mounts/sway bars are clunking at 15k km.
Unibody construction! Independent suspension! This was an open book test and Subaru failed!

Speaking of IRS, the back end wiggles and pushes the front end around... just like a Wrangler.
Someone needs to audit how Subaru is designing these because something is lost in translation.

That Auto Vehicle Hold light blinks like broken smoke detector... it can't remember it's job without reminding itself every second.
The infotainment has 5000 buttons and fonts because it never learned that more shit doesn't equal intelligence...

In 10 years, while the Subaru's back on academic probation waiting for its third CVT, you could be in a Jeep with doors off, nothing between you and fresh air, another V8 upshift fart, and the sound of your own giggling. Or I guess.. 30 miles of EV range and 370hp.

One vehicle admits it's a C-student, threw a a party about it and got kinda smart.
The other flunked out of an undergrad in piston rings, got fat, but still corrects your grammar at Thanksgiving.
Choose wisely.

https://i.imgur.com/JDdduoO.jpeg
https://i.imgur.com/14Pad3g.jpeg
https://i.imgur.com/XwdOHvW.mp4

It's been a running joke with my friends, friends don't let friends buy Subarus. They were never all that amazing back in the day but the halo around the STI and an actually sporty Legacy made them cool.

There's no more STI, the Legacy is a boat and doesn't sell, the WRX has got open diffs all around, and the only reason why the BRZ even exists is because of Toyota. This is looking like the last gen of the BRZ if the rumours of the Toyota/Mazda collab is true.

subie love is copium from ppl who feel smug about not driving a jeep / audi
but were really just too poor/arrogant to experience a better product

I really wanted Legacy GT or Spec B too but EJ207/257 and the 5MT come with a bento box of issues.
Even 1.8T Audi weren't as bad as those..

I really wanted a Spec B as well. The 6sp had no issues, the problem was with the VF42 and the banjo bolt with it getting clogged and then starving the turbo. Common upgrade back in the day was either the VF48 from a STI or a BNR S2.

Big part of the unreliability is Subie dealers only doing shortblock for rebuilds.
Old oil pump and shit blows up the new engine.

My buddy had 3 rebuilds on GR STi and they refused to do new longblock still.

I've never tried an STi, but the 3rd gen WRX I test drove was one of the most bland things I've ever driven.

7 years and 75k on our Subaru problem free. Testing my luck? :accepted:

HBL Autosport is known to be one of the local shops that are very good with Subarus, and I know the owner quite well. As he has always said -- as long as you take care of your Subie and stay on top of the maintenance, their cars are generally still very reliable.

That's probably true - I wouldn't expect a Crosstrek or Forester to blow up.

That said, every Subaru my family has looked at would have failed because of a design issue:

1) '04 Forester XT: turbo banjo bolts
2) '10 Outback 2.5: CVT was recalled, EJ25 head gaskets
3) '12 Forester 2.5: FB engine issues
4) '14 BRZ: valve spring, rod bearings
5) '19 Ascent: CVT was recalled

I guess if we got the '10 3.6R outback with 5EAT, that would've been fine.

You'd think after 3 or so bad experiences, your family would want to switch it up.

Subaru folks are deathly loyal to the brand, despite the issues experienced.

all the head gasket fumes have put holes in their head.

Just pinged my master tech friend...

CVTs are fucked until 2024
- TR580 CVT (4-cyl, non turbo) from 2010-2023 has valve body that will fail in 160-250k km range. 2024+ got updated valve body.
- TR690/SPT CVT (4cyl turbo) got new valve body for 2021+

Engines are now ok

- FA24DI/DIT is good now, the 20s will blow up.
- FB25 is ok except for cam carrier/front plate leak.

Older stuff:
- EZ36 is generally reliable but 6 cyl head gaskets will seep internally, causing misfire and overheat. 2019+ have some sort of a leak.
- EJ257 Turbo had bearing issue until 2017, there's a TSB.

Exactly, I'm saying we DIDN'T buy them but if we did, we'd have hella issues.

I do not trust any CVTs with Subaru. If you are driving a lowly Crosstrek you might be ok. A big SUV like the Ascent, or anything with a turbo, you are asking for trouble.

The VA WRX auto is a CVT, it's common knowledge you cannot mod the car as even a tune will put the car outside of the CVT's range and you will break the tranny.

My opinion is every subaru driver would be better in audi ... they just can't afford double the cost or want something cheap they can beat up.

Failed myself for reading comprehension challenges

Given Audi's reliability record, I am really skeptical about whether someone would be better off in an Audi than a Subie lol~

Toyota FTW~! (Except for Hobz. But he is driving the Ratoulla and Camry anyway.)