We live in an era where a large family-focused SUV will toast a Lamborghini Diablo in a drag race. Where even the cheapest new cars on the road handle like a dream. Where everyday automatic transmissions outshift pros. In other words, performance is dead, and automakers will have to win customers over elsewhere.
You could argue that fuel economy is still a major selling point, especially with gas prices blasting off faster than NASA’s Artemis missions. But I’d argue that’s all secondary. It’s nice to have, but if someone is prepared to splash out an extra $10,000- $20,000 on a large SUV or truck, then using an extra few gallons of gas a week won’t phase them. If it did, America would be the land of the Mitsubishi Mirage, not the F-150. In reality, the former is discontinued, and the latter is the best-selling vehicle in American history.
So, with performance becoming irrelevant and gas prices mainly sensationalist headline fodder, where can a manufacturer really make a difference? It’s in the “user experience” as a whole. It’s a battle we used to see at the ultra-high end (think Rolls-Royce V Bentley), but that’s now trickled down to entry-level vehicles as well.
Forget about horsepower, handling, fuel economy, and reliability. This is what you really need to look for when shopping for your next daily driver. You’re spending hundreds of hours sitting in this metal box, you may as well make sure it’s comfortable.
Infotainment is king in modern luxury vehicles
If there’s one area the big boys are duking it out these days, it’s in infotainment. Dash-length displays are pretty common now. The first I can remember was on the Lincoln Nautilus a few years back, but they’ve since rolled out to Lincoln’s entire lineup (bar the Aviator), along with the likes of Mercedes, BMW, and Cadillac, all of which are developing their own similar displays.
The dash-length format allows for heavy customization via widgets, better ambiance, and even a passenger section to keep them entertained. Whether they can use this section while you’re driving is a different matter. Some manufacturers make it so drivers can’t see the passenger part of the screen from their seat, some switch the screen off if a sensor detects the driver looking in that direction, and some just have it off by default when the car is in motion.
Couple infotainment with a decent speaker system, and watching a movie in your car becomes a very pleasant experience. You can even play video games on many of the systems. Ford has some in-built racing games on its infotainment systems that pair well with a Bluetooth game controller. The now canceled Sony Afeela EV even had a built-in PlayStation 5.
So infotainment is pretty important. Especially in an EV where you can get stuck at a charging station for over half an hour and need something to help you kill a little time.
Your new car may have premium features you can’t access
Love it or hate it, AI is everywhere. And it’s probably going to feature quite heavily in your next ride. BMW spent a small fortune on its own AI, which was pretty bad until the recent partnership with Amazon took effect. Now the Alexa-infused version is absolutely brilliant. Mercedes and Lucid both have similar products in the pipeline, while other manufacturers are also dabbling with the emerging tech.
As I was writing this, Nissan just announced it is shifting focus (again), focusing on AI and electrification going forward. It’s Nissan, so this could be yet another confusing twist in that company’s years-long downward spiral. But at least they’re doing something fairly obvious this time, and not inexplicably pushing a $35,000 SUV into the premium segment while jacking up the price to match.
Any AI component is likely to be part of the shift to “software as a service” that many manufacturers seem to be toying with. Remember those BMW seat subscriptions that caused controversy a few years back? That’s arguably the new normal. Remember those “you wouldn’t download a car” software piracy memes from the early 2000s? That may also become a warranty-voiding reality.
Some new cars are nicer than my living room
Manufacturers like Mercedes are going all out with their interiors. Back at CES, I sat in one of the upcoming Mercedes-Benz GLCs, and it was an experience I could only describe as “nicer than my living room.” Seriously, never mind the daily commute. I’d sit in that thing, slap a movie on the MBUX infotainment system, crank up the massage seats, and have a very confused DoorDash driver hand me something greasy through my driver’s window as I indulge.
At the lower end of the scale, things can vary quite a lot. You’re better off being authentically entry-level than faking luxury. For example, I love Subaru, but the interiors are hell on earth. I actually pointed this out after poking my head inside one of the upcoming Forester Wilderness Hybrids at the 2026 New York Auto Show. The pleather feels, looks, and smells wrong.
Don’t get me wrong, I understand what manufacturers are going for with the whole fake leather thing. It appeases vegans and gives an idea of luxury. But that idea is naught but a thin veneer. It’s hard to buy into the lie. It’s like sitting down to breakfast with a bald, middle-aged trucker in a Hello Kitty t-shirt and pretending he’s your ex-wife. We can all play along, but if you look at it objectively, it’s all a bit ridiculous.
There is a cheap option that isn’t disgusting, though. Fabric interiors did a perfectly fine job for decades. What’s more, you have tons of options with fabric when you want to cut costs and tick a few sustainability boxes. BMW actually nailed this with their Neue Klasse concept a few years back. The concept vehicle was a weird mish-mash of futuristic and retro styling, which resulted in yellow corduroy-clad seats up front. It looked like Grandma’s living room circa 2060. But BMW ditched the idea for the production models like a bunch of cowards. I maintain there’s a market for vehicle interiors that look like they should stink of lavender and stale cigarettes.
And it’s an area OEMs should be comfortable stepping into as well.
Touch is an important sense, and something you should be aware of
Then there’s tactile sensation. There’s nothing worse than cheap plastic, but any button is preferable to a touch screen. There’s a reason the likes of Jeep will have a selector knob hand-milled from a chunk of metal in vehicles like the Wagoneer S. We’re tactile creatures, touch is one of our main senses, and how a piece of your car you handle every day feels could be the difference between loving or hating that vehicle.
It’s where the likes of Mazda have done really well with materials like suede. The CX-70’s brown leather interior is one of the best I’ve encountered in recent years, despite it being one of the more affordable SUVs. Mind, Mazda also has the worst infotainment, traditionally (though they’ve remedied that somewhat with the new CX-5).
Obviously, small touches like this are where OEMs love to cut corners. So getting into a vehicle and getting your grubby little hands on everything you’re likely to interact with is as important as a test drive these days. You’re going to be interacting with this thing several times a day for the next few years, so make sure prodding the piano key gear selector doesn’t erase a bit of your soul, and the feel of the seat adjuster doesn’t make you want to vomit.
The bottom line is, mechanically “bad” cars are rare these days. It’s not 1984, whatever you buy is going to start first time on a winter’s morning, go quite fast, and handle very well. It’s going to ride pretty comfortably, and reliability probably isn’t too much of an issue. So you really have to start judging vehicles on their comfort and quality-of-life factors.
If you’re spending an hour or two a day somewhere, why not make it somewhere pleasant?
