I drove a loaded CXS- I am under 30. I would buy this car in a heartbeat. 3.6L is strong and the 19"s wheels make it look even better. Ride is whisper silent, comfortable yet well damped. Interior was faultless- Nav screen was beautiful and the head-up display was very handy. Autoblog, have you ever seen an ES350 without the nav option? The display is very basic and archaic. This car is easily superior to the ES350 in every way except all out WOT acceleration (due to the mass). Testing a CXL model and comparing it to the ES350 is just dumb.

This car is horrific. I saw one on the road the other day and it's just as bad in the flesh as it is in photos. I've had TWO first generation Mazda3s and will not own a new one. I cannot believe AutoBlog is trying to make excuses for this lame redesigned model. Mazda failed to rectify the two biggest concerns from the first generation model: the subpar (read: TERRIBLE) fuel economy and the tiny backseat. In fact, the manual only gets 21mph in the city which is laughable. Instead, they talk up the sporty driving feel but that wears off after a year and you'll be left with that terrible stying, low MPGs and a small backseat. Looks like I'll be holding on to my '07 for much longer than I originally thought. The only real improvement is dual zone climate control, bluetooth and heated mirrors (Canadians already had this). Memory seat is nice if you have multiple drivers (I don't) but the radio display is still too small for Sirius radio and the gauge cluster is worse.

Do you consider the Pilot's interior ergonomic? The faux iDrive toggle/dial/wheel/controller is ALL the way at the bottom of the center stack a good 1.5ft away from the displace. The control interface is a disaster, period.

When other brand new vehicles from domestic automakers were launched with "inferior" powertrains (read: 4 spd autos when everyone else used 5 spds) a big deal was made about it. Never mind the fact that those said cars achieved competitive performance and fuel economy, the press simply would not accept a "brand new" offereing with a low gear count. Fast forward to the present and here we have the almighty Honda introducing a slew of cars both mainstream and premium (Acura) with nothing but 5 spd trannies while the competition is at 6 (and some are at 7). Then, Honda insults us with this VCM nonsense that saps power from the 3.5L and does little to improve EPA mileage. Can someone tell me why the Pilot has a 3 mode cylinder deactivation scheme but only achieves 22mpg on the highway? A Traverse gets 23 mpg with 38 more horsepower 17 more lbs-ft of torque (at 1400 less rpm than the Honda) yet weighs hundreds of pounds more than the Pilot of more passenger and cargo space. Here folks, is the bottom line- Honda's 6 cylinder powertrains are behind the times. They still use a timing belt on the V6 for crying out loud and are down on power by a wide margin. Honda is resting on its laurels because they know the press will support every half ass product they release and people will buy their cars based on the falacious notion that only Honda makes reliable transportation.

Let's see- I could get the ugly Pilot which has a terrible interior design with an overflow of buttons and truly disgusting aesthetic or I could get a Mazda CX-9, Acadia/Outlook/Traverse or Ford Flex which all look infinitely better, have much nicer looking interiors AND deliver much more power with 6 spd transmissions and equal fuel economy without the complicated and power robbing VCM. Not to mention the fact that all have superior room and with the GM triplets able to move 3rd row and passengers AND luggage simultaneously (what a concept) while Honda uses tricks to get it's maximum cargo capacity (additional space can only be used when the third row isn't tucked away into its in floor recession). Only Honda could release a subpar offering with back of the class power, torque and efficiency and lack of room combined the worst styling inside and out and still get a pass with the press. It has tiny 17" wheels and subpar braking performance and is overweight for it's size. Once again, Honda delivers a dud and the press praises them. The Accord is nothing special yet people label it as best in class (when the Mazda6 is clearly superior) and the Pilot delivers nothing over the old one expect and boxier package. Also, $40 and no Xenon HIDs? I'll pass

According to a Road & Track comparo, the Z06 kills the GT-R above 120mph so even if they used that car instead of the ZR1, the GT-R still comes in last place.

Exactly. Try to find a receiver with a Reon chip for a reasonable amount of money. With this player, you get the best DVD scaling out there so you can 1080p straight into your TV with no addtional processing by a TV or Receiver. On the audio side, Toshiba's A35 has bitstream output but it's 1080p performance can't match Reon equipped hardware like the XA2, which is far from cheap. If you have a top notch HDTV and a huge standard def DVD collection, you'll want a Reon chip.

I'll wait for Q3 in '08 when this platform gets a faster bus. As far as I know, it's still stuck at 800 mhz

True, while 1.1-1.2a can pass along uncompressed LPCM, 1.3 will carry the bitstream from the player to be decoded by the receiver. LPCM requires the signal to be decoded in the player first while 1.3 will leave that to the receiver. When listening to DTSHD or DolbyHD, 1.3 would probably be better than HDMI 1.1 - 1.2a LPCM unless your player can handle the decoding.

No word if these babies feature HDMI 1.3 or not. Only version 1.3 can pass lossless audio through HDMI. Some of their newly announced Bravia TVs have "deep color" which means they support version 1.3 so keep your fingers crossed.