“best ever interior for a vette” is a VERY low bar to clear. They’ve been in competition woth Playskool and Fisher-Price for the last few decades, and also competing within with the C7, which without the corvette logo on the screen and wheel could have been confused for a cruze coupe.

So a line of not-easily-found buttons, a large swathe of leather that you know will be peeling and bubbling in a few years, a Mercedes-like infotainment controller, and ho-hum GM plastics. The overall design is a nice departure, but the execution is underwhelming at best, and that’s just in photos.

Hopefully Toyota figured out how to resolve the seive-like designs of BMW’s recent engine gaskets.

No, it’s exactly what we were expecting. Which is why it’s so disappointing. It’s a new car, except it’s not. Just like the current NSX.

5-door versus a 2-coupe isn’t exactly apples-to-apples. But to answer your question, an F-Type or a Mustang. Though that’s still an unbalanced comparison because F-Types are AWD now (although rear-biased) and the base Mustang is down on power a bit compared to this, but a GT and higher have more power (and stick…

Yes, and probably if you turn off traction control. 

Freestyle wasn’t RWD, had the theater-style roofline, and was/is very obviously mid-’00s. This is thoroughly modern (except the shape of the headlamps) and RWD-based. 

...why? The Aviator is supposed to feel like the more premium vehicle. You won’t sell many for the price difference if all that’s different is the badge, grille, and exterior lights. They tried that once already.

You haven’t been inside an 2018+ Expedition or Navigator lately, have you? Or one of the new Rams? VW’s interiors may feel more premium (debateable, but they’ve been improving, as has most of the rest of the industry) but given the choice between a car that has money put towards the interior and not towards the rest…

Yes, they’re long, but they actually fit in a parking space, and the body shape allows for most of the length to be used for the interior. Contrast that to a traverse or enclave where the bumper covers are pointed and longer in the center, which means they’re longer but not actually using the space. Kind of hard to…

Interior volume is actually up, mostly for the rear, oddly enough. Longer wheelbase plus improved packaging over the old FWD-based architecture, I believe.

You’d think the industry would have learned from the derpy-looking forester that headlights should never have longer upper borders than lower. The Edge barely pulled it off because of the grille treatment, but Ford even made the Taurus look worse with the refresh a few years ago, when it looked like theu turned the…

You mean Bronco?

There were other “big”-screen touchscreen phones before iphony. If anything, this trend traces back to Volvo and Aston Martin’s GPS navigation screen that motored up out of the top of the dash which was introduced about a decade ago.

Screens have been protruding from the top of the dash for over a decade now. One of the earliest examples that comes to mind is the unit that (then Ford-owned) Volvo had that motored up and out, which (also then Ford-owned) Aston Martin also used. Mazda and Audi also use protruding screens (quite well, really), and…

I agree that the E-Type is gorgeous. However, my lovely wife would candidly declare it - in her words - an “ugly penis car”, that is to say, deliberately phallic and unappealing by default. Yet a ‘67 GT500 is her dream car. So not universal. 

So, what, then, an AMC? Like the Javelin I mean, not the Pacer or Gremlin, which are polarizing.

If he used “earnest” instead, would that be better and even acceptable?

I barely acknowledge that VW/Audi exist. It’s a pity that other brands are lumped into the same company (admittedly largely to those companies’ benefits, like Lamborghini, Skoda, Seat, and Porsche to a degree) since I’d be more interested in them if they weren’t part of the VAG conglomerate. 

Vinyl print applique. Also thinly-sliced tile.