Okay, I looked at the IS250 and the TSX.
All cars are with leather and sunroof, except for the BMW which does leatherette instead of genuine leather, and the G37 which lacks a sunroof because I didn't want to get the touring pack. All prices are 48 month leases, including tax with 0 down, freight & pdi rolled into the lease. Canucklehead funds obviously.
So far, pricing and impressions:
G37 7AT - $647 - Huge compared to the other cars, horsepower is huge too, but alas, so is fuel consumption. Really nice to look at, nice interior too, but no sunroof on base model.
BMW 323i - $565 - Looks really sharp since the redesign, price is best of all the cars compared. Interior is really bad though, and not genuine leather, and it does not come equipped with HID's.
Lexus IS250 - $622 - The best looking car in this comparo, tie for best interior with the G37. The Lexus interior feels more high quality, but the G37's feels more high tech, and has a lot of cool things the Lex lacks. Downsides are... the back seat is freakishly small, we're talking smaller than my EG Civic small. I'd say there's about the same amount of room back there as my coupe, and it's a sedan. Also, it's a mere $25 a month more to get the G37.
Acura TSX - $568 - The most well rounded car of the bunch. Excels at nothing, but fails at nothing either. The exterior and interior are nice, not great, but not objectionable in any way. It's a FWD, which is actually a plus, due to winter and the fact that this car will not be used by me for various acts of vehicular mischief. The short fall however, is in the fact that this car does not carry as much "weight" as the others. An Acura TSX just doesn't really "fit" in the same group as the rest of the cars in the comparo, it's somehow lower class. It has all the requirements to play with the big boys, but isn't taken seriously by anyone.
This Saturday, I'll drive all of them and decide, and then we'll probably get my mom to test drive it before we get it, rather than it being a complete surprise, so it doesn't end up being a complete flop. Doing this comparo is really difficult for me, due to drastically different priorities. If I were to rank the cars by how much I like them, they would be G37 > IS250 > 323i > TSX. If I were to re-rank them, by taking price into consideration, it would be G37 > 323i > TSX > IS250.
My mom on the other hand, doesn't value performance anywhere nearly as much as I do, and she likes the IS250 the most out of all of them. However, she has never even SAT in any of these cars, much less driven them. So her opinion is entirely based on seeing them while driving around. For all I know, she may completely hate it when she drives it.
But yea.. how do you choose a car for someone as a surprise gift? It's too damn hard
