We’re not exactly sending lambs off to the slaughter, but putting various competitors of the BMW 3-series into the ring with that brilliant German car can occasionally feel like cruelty. A perennial 10Best Cars winner, the 3-series—and especially the current generation—is so good at doing so many things that these contests turn out to be battles for second place.
Nonetheless, every car, without regard for past praise and accolades, goes into a comparison test with a tabula rasa. We approach each car as if to say, “What have you done for me lately?” and each is driven with an open mind. The first day of a comparison test is much like the first day of school: Optimism abounds, everyone is granted a virtual A plus on that first day, and everyone, for a while anyway, is perfect. And then, long before the day is out, the harshness of reality sets in. So much for ephemeral perfection.
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