Alot of the car magazines that I read (and I subscribe to a bunch ;-)) are admittedly Euro or JDM fan-bois.

So unless you want the USDM car makers to start emulating those buzzy / low torque motors, better get used to the crappy reviews in car magazines.

You may have noticed that JDM car manufacturers are quietly / slowly bumping up torque numbers in the latest production cars, even VW now mentions it in their new TV commercial.

I think the JDMers are beginning to realize that people actually live in cities and towns where downlow performance is more important than Autobahn / Autostrada capabilities :-)