I used to temp for CR in Yonkers, NY. CR is not biased by advertising revenue, and they do not allow other comnpanies to use CR ratings in ads. Therefore they are more objective than say Road&Track or Car&Driver. The statistics do not lie. Toyota and Honda have long kicked ass and will continue to kick ass in the area of reliability and time outside of the shop.

But their best has not matched BMW's best in terms of performance and handling. My entire family drives Camrys and 4Runners. These things will take a licking and keep on ticking. But I still love my X5 for the fun factor.

Incidentally, I was watching a Lexus demo on one of the car channels on TV, and they were bragging how their latest IS model outperforms the BMW 3-series in all categories. Of course they didn't mention WHICH 3-series model they used for the comparison. There were some quick videos of the slalom, and it looked like they were running against a 330i. I'd like to see them try that against the 335i with the twin-turbo, or better yet an M3! They'd get their asses handed to them on a silver platter.