[Blue Angel]

I don't look at rankings or scores in comparison tests like this any more... it just seems like a waste of time as there's no consistency to the way things are done and everyone's perception and opinion on a car's features and faults are always going to be different.

I hate to use the word "conspiracy", but it seems some magazines are all about pushing a particular car for little to no apparent reason... OK, so they rated the ford the best, but they didn't really say why? They spent as much time criticising the Focus as they did anything else.

If they're going to rate things then they should at least explain their ratings. On that topic, their ratings for the cars were fairly close but there's no mention of that in the article, just a finishing order. Is the new Jetta really that bad? I don't think so... I drove one and sure the interior is a step or two down from some of the others. Does the Cruze handle THAT poorly? I don't think so, and just how much "weight" can you put on steering feel? (pun intended).

I think there's been a bit of a "Top Gear" effect on auto rags lately where they're all trying to be entertaining... Quantifying their results by saying that they're all "good" cars doesn't make for punchy/witty journalism.

 

[Blue Angel]

From what I've read, it seems that higher ambient temperatures tend to affect the power output of intercooled forced induction cars more than naturally aspirated cars... this could be the real world physics of the intercooler operation, overly cautious OEM tuning, a combination of the two... ?