Originally Posted by vinuneuro

As for the CTS-V debate, there's no point. Lap times are the bottom-line for race teams; but what ellicits the best driving experience? It's the visceral qualities that most stimulate the driver's senses: the precision of the gas pedal, the feedback and accuracy of steering wheel, the linearity of the brakes, the engine response from BMW using individual tbodies, the crispness of the shifter, the perfect weight of clutch pedal, the perfect deflection of the bushings from the steering rack to the shifter to differential, the absolutely perfect valving of the shocks, etc.

Those are qualities no (at least, street) American vehicle has had up till now. No, not even the Corvette. Fortunately, GM is using more of it's European resources these days. I hear that the new CTS is a big step forward for the company in those areas.

It's strange because those qualities mentioned above are what the rest of the world go for, but American automakers are perfectly happy with a little more power when they fail at accomplishing those. And when they fail to develop adequate technology to effciently gain more power, they just make the engine bigger to just somehow get there. The result if reflective.

So in the end, there will be two entirely different driver's that will look at these two vehicles. That much greater tactility is where your extra money is going with BMW, Audi, Porsche and The Italians (not MB though). All those minute qualities are what bring a smile to my face, and the grin would be just as wide with fifty less hp. :D