thoughts on Euro cars: Japanese cars

[Roger M. Woodbury]

Last year a friend came to visit in her Toyota Camry.  Her car was a couple
of years old, and over the weekend that she was here, I drove everywhere
that we went.

That was my first experience driving a fairly new current Japanese car of
that sort.  I was favorably impressed, although I don't think that I could
drive own one.  It was a very "nice"....."car". Inoffensive for the most
part and relatively quiet.

As I recall, her car was a four cylinder, and the transmission was always
hunting for the right gear, which is the case with EVERY Japanese car that I
have ever driven....the worst was a Subaru Legacy that I rented a few years
ago.  Oh, no, no, no.  The worst was a Mitsubishi Diamante that I rented in
Florida about six or seven years ago.  I thought that that car was perfect
for Florida so long as you didn't want to exceed the speed limit....just
tickle the throttle a little and the transmission would downshift.  Seemed
to have the torque of a toaster....but I digress.

Anyway, my chief disagreements with the Camry were that Toyota, and all the
other Japanese cars as far as I know, are gimmick crazy.  Two buttons for
every function, and not commonly located.  To turn on the cruise control,
the circuit has to be turned on using a switch on the right side of the
instrument panel...thins like that.

After thnking about it some, I realized that what I was driving was my
father's Audi 100, two wheel drive.  His car is a 1990, and now has past
115,000 miles on it.  If THAT car were a bit quieter in the engine
compartment and had to hunt for the right gear on our hilly/curvy Maine
coastal roads, THAT would be a Toyota Camry, especially if you added a bit
of torque steer to the feel in the steering wheel.

And I think that is summarizes why I don't drive a "nice car" like the
Camry.  The Audi is really MUCH more refined and well developed from an
engineering standpoint, and while it may not have the simple feeling,
"niceness" of the Camry type cars, it just seems to "fit" me better.

Roger