comfort index
Comfort/Involvement Index: 2012 Toyota Yaris SE Five-Door
An endearing, tossable nature that is slightly muted by mediocre steering feel and uncomfortable driving position. The new Yaris is a pleasing improvement over the previous generation. Still, issues from the last-gen Yaris remain. In particular, its 1.5-liter, four-cylinder is a noisy, underpowered engine that doesn’t match the nippy handling characteristics of the chassis. We also aren’t particularly fond of the manual transmission. It feels overly notchy, and the clutch functions like an on-off switch, with very little modulation.
Comfort/Involvement Index: 2012 Hyundai Genesis 3.8 Sedan
The 3.8-liter engine gets you moving quickly once the eight-speed trans finds the right gear. Soft suspension and numb, lightweight steering compromise sporting intentions. Decidedly more luxury sedan than sports sedan. There’s more “rear-wheel-drive” feeling here than is allowed to come through in most large luxury sedans though. You’ve got to push harder in the 3.8 than you would in the beastly 5.0-liter V-8 car to find it, but that rear end is willing to play if you’re willing to keep your foot down.
Comfort/Involvement Index: 2012 Volkswagen Touareg Hybrid
Due to its size, it’s obviously not meant to provide much in terms of sportiness. That doesn’t mean it is totally boring. A blown V-6 and torquey electric motor make the Touareg Hybrid shockingly quick for a large SUV, especially off the line. Still, the drivetrain doesn’t offer much sonically, particularly in low-rev cruising. This might be a valuable trait for its potential customers, but it doesn’t help the involvement score at all.
Comfort/Involvement Index: 2012 Land Rover Range Rover Supercharged
Involvement Notes: All the on- and off-road prowess of the standard Range Rover, but with a forced-induction punch that makes it feel nicely quick. Despite the overall size, it’s still quite agile. Feedback through the suspension is limited, but a talkative steering rack makes up for that. One of our favorite big SUVs.
Comfort/Involvement Index: 2012 GMC Sierra Denali 2500HD
Actually has a touch more steering feel and athleticism than we expected. Still, it’s difficult for a three-quarter-ton pickup to be truly involving.
Comfort/Involvement Index: 2013 Acura RDX FWD
Goodbye, fun-to-drive RDX. The new model is here and Acura has removed all of the punchy, turbo’d, quick-handling fun in favor of bland competence. Yawn.
Winding Road Issue 75 Is Now Available!
In the newest issue, we take the new Range Rover Evoque Coupe up mountains, on- and off-road. This new crossover has a lot to offer. Plus, we test and rate a host of other cars in Winding Road Issue 74.
List: Top Ten American Cars On The Comfort Index
In case you haven’t heard, we are in the process of ramping up for our inaugural Comfort Index Awards. These awards will highlight the most comfortable vehicles in a variety of categories. So to whet your appetite for the awards, here’s a list of the most comfortable American cars on the Winding Road Comfort Index.
List: The Top 12 European Cars From The Winding Road Comfort Index
Now that our Comfort Index has been around for a while, we felt it was about time we started going through and dissecting it. Our first subjects are the European cars on the list. Here, we have put together the current top 12 (there was a three-way tie for 10th place) most comfortable cars on our Index.
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