Confession #43: Acura and Buick's new small cars are Millennial-chasers, but Baby Boomers will be doing the driving

2013 Acura ILX (Photo: Wikimedia/IFCAR)

A day doesn't go by when I don't come across some story about automakers dying to appeal to so-called Millennials, or the twentysomething crowd infatuated with Facebook and iPhones.

That's fine and whatever, but designers and product planners think it's a good idea to incorporate elements of these things into new cars, especially those they want to sell to people of my demographic (well, those of us who are gainfully employed). I like the ability to connect my iPhone through Bluetooth and Internet radio steaming through the speakers is cool. But I do not want to update my Facebook status while driving, or post something witty to Twitter. Product planners of the auto industry, listen up: that's not going to get more Millennials to buy your cars.

What might work is if these entry-level "premium" cars they're pitching didn't look like they're made for our parents. The latest case comes from Acura, in the form of the totally shrug-inducing ILX sedan.

Confession #35: Whose Car of the Year is it, anyway?

I remember the holiday season for some notable things. Among them are consuming far too much food that your pants no longer fit, broken Christmas presents littering your living room floor and car commercials that are sillier than normal. Lexus has become synonymous for its “December to Remember” sales event advertisements that prominently showcase a car wrapped in a bow in the driveway as the surprised couple moves in slow motion towards their new RX-GS-IS-or whatever. Corny, I know.

Confession #28: It's all about the touch

People like to touch things, that's just a fact. So when automakers design an interior, it had better be made of some satisfying materials that give off positive feelings when used. We spend a lot of time touching a knob to adjust the air conditioning, a button to open or close a window and a lever to change gears. 

Nothing gets a car reviewer (often ones from Consumer Reports) giddier than a soft-touch dashboard, the ones where your finger leaves a dimple in the dash when pressure is applied. That's in comparison to old plastic dashboards that sometimes resembled the plastic holding your See's chocolate in place in the box. 

2012 Volkswagen Passat SEL (VW of America photo)

I was wandering by the local Volkswagen dealer the other day and walked up to the new Passat. Now the exterior is one thing. It's a sharp-suited sedan, very Teutonic in comparison to the artsy Hyundai Sonata and conservative-but-somehow-not-right Japanese competition. Even though the much-ballyhooed, American-made Passat is a lot cheaper than the old car, it looks expensive on the outside.