I've owned my '11 3.8 Track for about 16 months now, and here's my take.
There are valid complaints:
The interior isn't amazing - hard (and fairly ugly) plastics on the dash and other surfaces where you don't touch it a lot and decent soft-touch stuff on the contact points. Despite that, the '11 interior got decent upgrades from the '10 and earlier models - they replaced the godawful silver painted stuff with gunmetal colored faux-brushed metal that looks and wears pretty well and made a very nice nav system standard, which also includes automatic climate and a fairly decent audio package. All that said, the seats are fucking godly - just about perfect for a car with sporting intent and drive all day comfortable, and the leather actually feels like it came from cows. One other note: old-school gooseneck hinges for the trunk are a complete pain in the ass.
The suspension is
very harsh for something that's supposed to be a budget Grand Touring car, but will definitely facilitate some good times on back roads
if you defeat the traction control - the first time the TCS kicked in on mine, it cut in so aggressively that it literally felt like something had broken. You can add the $30 front camber bolts if you want to sharpen turn in - my dealer popped them in and adjusted them for free since I was there for an oil change/routine service. If you're concerned about ride harshness, you may want to consider the 'Grand Touring' trim level, but I think that may be A/T only and you lose the Brembos.
The shifter is notchy as hell, but works well enough. You sure as hell won't mistake it for a Miata lever. There have been fairly numerous complaints on GC-specific forums of a grinding in the higher gears, but I haven't experienced it yet. The clutch isn't heavy, but has something of an on/off quality to it.
That said, I really dig this car - it's absolutely willing to play with you if you're in the mood, and the engine makes all the right sounds and pulls pretty damned hard once you get it to about 3000-3500 RPM. The brakes are outstanding once you swap to good aftermarket pads. It's also a pretty decent head turner, especially in yellow.
Mileage is okay at about 20-22 in-town and 28-29 on the highway during an eight-hour interstate slog to NC.
I drove this against a '11 V6 Mustang Premium, heavily optioned (Track package, nav, etc) to get to feature parity with the GC and the '11 Camaro similarly equipped, and for me, the GC was the easy pick - it's lower and feels more sporty than either of the V6 ponycars, plus there aren't a bajillion of them cruising around. I also considered a Mustang GT stripped to get to the same price point, but nobody actually had one of those at the time - I think that sort of package only exists in magazine comparisons.
All told, the Gen Coupe feels like something between the raw/unrefined nature of a ponycar and something like a 370Z or G37, and may suffer in comparisons by trying to straddle all those segments - people looking for a GT or sports car won't like the unrefined parts of it, while the ponycar types will ask where the V8 is. It works very well for me and my needs/desires.
