My Hooptie Does What? Luxury at the Lower End
CARS.COM — All right, all right, just because your car doesn’t have a BMW, Lexus or Jaguar emblem on its grille doesn’t make your car a hooptie like the one Sir Mix-A-Lot rapped about back in ’89. In fact, the line has gotten so blurred in recent years between lower-end and luxury that highfalutin automakers have had to get creative in distinguishing their vehicles from the increasingly stylish and well-equipped pack. Heck, Hyundai’s Genesis and Equus had gotten so nice the automaker spun them off into their own luxury brand to catch the cachet they merited.
Related: My Car Does What? Safety Tech Explained
Our editors reflected on some of the cars we’ve driven recently and came up with some examples of too-nice-for-this-car features, standard or optional, that made us ask ourselves … “My hooptie does whaaat?”
Joe Bruzek, road test editor, had to stop on the fact that the 2017 Toyota Yaris iA — formerly the Scion iA — has a standard pre-collision system with automatic emergency braking.
Jennifer Geiger, assistant managing editor for news, noted the 2017 Nissan Versa Note for the compact hatchback’s available Around View Monitor with a 360-degree camera, despite a starting price of just $16,345, including a destination charge.
Geiger also noted that the 2017 Dodge Journey, an SUV starting at just more than $22,000 with destination, had a heated steering wheel — a pleasant surprise as bitterly cold winter weather has quickly swept across much of the nation of late, but a surprise just the same.
Bill Jackson, assistant managing editor for data, noted that dozens of non-luxury vehicles offer the Android Auto and Apple CarPlay smartphone integration platforms, both so newfangled that many people buying cars for the first time in several years likely won’t even know what they are.
Fred Meier, Washington, D.C., bureau chief, thought it was cool that the 2017 Hyundai Elantra GT hatchback he drove had an air-conditioning-vent-cooled glove compartment but noted, “It doesn’t keep things cold, just cooler, and it requires you to empty your stuff from the glove box onto the seat to put the water bottles, or whatever, in.”
Matt Schmitz, news editor: When one of our long-term testers caught a dead battery on a frickin’ freezing day here in Chicago, it was a relief to be saved by the Soul. Kia’s 2017 hatchback offers heated and ventilated front seats — power-adjustable 10 ways for the driver and eight ways for the passenger — and a heated steering wheel. Not bad for right at 20 grand.
