Cogs can think.

Marco and I generally tend to talk a lot of nonsense, and among that nonsense, our favourite topic is cars. For 99% of the time, we disagree; you could call me the Italian, and Marco the German. Marco loves Porsche, I’m an Aston Martin and Ferrari guy. He hates alfa Romeo, I adore the brand. And so on.

One of the interesting questions in automotive is which of the Big Three is my favourite? BMW, Mercedes, or Audi? If we were living in the ’90s, the choice would have been easy for me: BMW. During the previous decade, BMW had such a stunning house style; clear lines, straight angles, sharp edges. This style was best represented by the BMW 3 series Coupe and the convertible. During the ’90s, BMW kicked Mercedes’ and Audi’s butt in the design department (save for the butt-ugly 3 series Compact).

These days, things are much more different. BMW adopted a new design style, which resulted in hidious creatures as the new 3 and 5 series. Instead of the sharp lines of the ’90s, they now resort to some weird mish-mash of lines which seem to go everywhere, without any logic in the whole package. Even worse than the 3 and 5 series is the 1 series, who’s design makes little kids cry. Of course it’s not all bad; the 6 series, especially the convertible, are stunning.

Luckily, the coupe and convertible version of the new 3 series are actually quite nice; it’s impossible for me to understand how the ugly sedan version is related to these two beauties.

As for Audi… Well, for some odd reason, I’ve never been a fan of Audi. I don’t ‘feel’ anything when I see the A4, A6, or A8. I know they belong to the best cars money can buy; well-built, extremely reliable, all that jazz. There’s a reason their ads read “Nothing to prove”. But, I just feel nothing when I see them. No connection. No faster heartbeat. Nothing.

It’s not all bad at Audi, though. For some weird reason, as soon as Audi cuts off the roof of an A4, everything falls into place: sheer introvert beauty. Other than that, Audi makes the very sexy R8, and, of course, the stunning new A5 (seriously, so clean, so beautiful… Love at first sight, for me). Also nice: the new A3. Oh, and please forget the TT (gay hairdresser’s car).

This leaves me with Mercedes. As I have said in the past, Mercedes is on a roll, and not too long ago they revised the C class. Not bad.

Which one to pick? I just don’t know. My heart wants to answer ‘Mercedes’, but I just can’t get over the drug dealer’s image of it all. My mind says Audi, because of the quality, but they need to spice up their ordinary sedans before I can choose Audi. BMW has ruined it for me, until they seriously revise their sedan lines.

I just don’t know. I just don’t.