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BMW, Hyundai score big in JD Power's first Tech Experience Index

While automakers are quick to brag about winning a JD Power Initial Quality Study award, the reality, as we've pointed out before, is that these ratings are somewhat misleading, since IQS doesn't necessarily distinguish genuine quality issues. JD Power's new Tech Experience Index aims to solve that problem. The new metric takes the same 90-day approach as IQS but focuses exclusively on technology – collision protection, comfort and convenience, driving assistance, entertainment and connectivity, navigation, and smartphone mirroring. It splits the industry up into just seven segments, based loosely on size, which is why the Chevrolet Camaro is in the same division (mid-size) as Kia Sorento and the Mercedes-Benz GLE-Class is in the same segment as the Hyundai Genesis (mid-size premium). It makes for some screwy bedfellows, to be sure. Still, splitting tech experience away from initial quality should allow customers to make more informed and intelligent decisions when buying new vehicles. In the inaugural study, respondents listed BMW and Hyundai as the big winners, with two segment awards – the 2 Series for small premium and the 4 Series for compact premium, and the Genesis for mid-size premium and Tucson for small segment. The Chevrolet Camaro (midsize), Kia Forte (compact), and Nissan Maxima (large) scored individual wins. Ford also had a surprising hit with the Lincoln MKC, which ranked third in the compact premium segment behind the 4 Series and Lexus IS. This is a coup for the Blue Oval, whose woeful MyFord Touch systems made the brand a victim of the IQS' flaws in the early 2010s. But Ford and other automakers might not want to celebrate just yet. According to JD Power, there's still a lot of room for improvement – navigation systems were the lowest-rated piece of tech in the study. Instead, customers repeatedly saluted collision-avoidance and safety systems, giving the category the best marks of the study and listing blind-spot monitoring and backup cameras as two must-have features – 96 percent of respondents said they wanted those two systems in their next vehicle. But this isn't really a surprise. Implementation of safety systems from brand to brand is similar, and they don't require any input from users, unlike navigation and infotainment systems which are frustratingly deep.

These 'blind' automotive world record stunts have to stop

Drivers setting world records "blind" – wearing a blindfold or with something obscuring the windshield – is the new thing for some reason. First it was an Alfa Romeo Giulia setting a blind lap at Silverstone with help from a spotter trailing behind, and now this: a stunt man doing a J-turn within a narrow path with nothing but a Nissan Juke's cameras guiding him. He matched the "sighted" J-turn record, flipping the car around in a space about 7 inches longer than the car. I have two issues with these stunts. First, there are just too many world records. Yeah, I said it. Are these meaningful? Is someone else likely to ever attempt this feat? No, because it's just marketing, both for the manufacturer and whoever's still trying to sell those annual books. Stuff like the fastest production car is fine with me. Heck, I'll even take unofficial Nurburgring times – the kind where the drivers can actually see. Second, I'm all for stunts, but do something cool! And preferably something that could only be performed with that particular car, if you're going to make an ad out of it. Yes, the Juke has an Around View Monitor system, which stitches together feeds from four cameras to make it look like the car is being filmed by a drone hovering overhead. I happen to love 360-degree cameras – they let you see things that are just not visible from the driver's seat and make parking and low-speed maneuvering really easy. But the Juke isn't the first car to offer one, and the feature isn't even new to the car. Nissan was at least forthright enough to admit that this professional driver (on a closed course!) had a bunch of practice. But this really says more about his precision driving skills than about the car, or the camera. And just so we're clear, you really shouldn't try to park a car without looking out the windows, even if you have fancy cameras. So what's next? Pretty soon there will be a record for blindest blind stunt. Let me know when someone actually does something interesting. Related Video:

2013 Nissan GT-R and 2013 Alpina B6 mix it up on track and street

Here we have Autocar making an unforeseen comparison: the Nissan GT-R against the Alpina B6 at Brands Hatch and on public roads. Steve Sutcliffe clobbers the circuit in the 3,828-pound, all-wheel-drive sports car, then sees how well the 4,114-pound, rear-wheel drive grand tourer does against it.
Sutcliffe says there are quite a few similarities between the two cars, but that's really only on the spec sheet. The Nissan's got two turbos attached to its 3.8-liter V6, 542 horsepower and 465 pound-feet of torque. The Alpina's got two turbos attached to its 4.4-liter V8, 532 hp and 528 lb-ft. But one's brief is to be a monster on the track, the other on the boulevard, and if there's anything the video demonstrates, it's each car's focus.