Car guys, and I am one, have some blind spots. We want more car than we really need or can use, and we think we’re better drivers than we really are. Those blind spots make us poor judges of what most people want or need and of the cars that the automotive industry should be building in the future.
The car magazines lead us astray. Their road tests feature exotic cars: Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Lotuses and the like. Those cars are desirable, but they are fantasies. Their production is only a tiny fraction of total worldwide automobile production. They are far beyond the means of all but a few of the magazines’ readers. Their performance is beyond any reasonable requirement for driving on the road.
The implied standard of comparison in the car magazines is a racing car. Cars are often rated based on their performance on a race track. The assumption is that a car that performs well on a race track will be a desirable street car.
