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I realised this while finalising the judging of this year's Carsguide Car of the Year contest, which you can read about in today's liftout. Yes, there are still bad things in cars. I think the damping of the Maserati Quattroporte is awful, cannot stand the seats in the Fiat 500, find a lot of Japanese headlamps lacklustre, and worry about the long-term quality of Alfa Romeo.
But these are little things compared to some of the howlers I have driven in the past. The Fiat Argento was supposed to be an executive express but it was so bad that it was canned after the first press preview drive. The evaluation cars were dropped onto executives and the plan died.
The Holden Piazza was, for me, nasty and dangerous. I only drove it once and was glad when the over-powered Gemini coupe was binned. On the Holden front, the Gemini diesel was also awful. Ahead of its time in efficiency but behind the times in every other way.
And I could go on. And on. But the cars of 2009 are brilliant. It truly is a golden age in motoring. We had a lot of trouble culling the COTY field to just 10 cars and the finalists are so, so close in so many ways. Great value, too.
Things will only get better in coming years and I am expecting better efficiency, better performance, more safety and so much more before the day when environmental pressures and a lack of oil turns cars into transport modules and nothing more.
We should all enjoy things today because it, truly, has never been better.
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