For years I’ve worked closely with multiple large Asian automakers. Years ago one of them was visiting me, and we got to talking about their design of an entry-premium mid-size SUV in development. They claimed it would be as good as the Germans. I shuttled them around all day in my new E70 X5d (LCI), and at the end of the day they admitted that the Germans were still better on fuel economy, handling, acceleration and payload/utility. But they said they would be cheaper, have better reliability, and that 4/5th of buyers would never notice the gaps. IOW, they were making a better Ford Explorer, not a better X5/M-class/Cayenne.
If performance and utility are high priorities, the German SUV’s are still the best. It cost and reliability were most important, we’d all be collecting old Acura Legends and NA Miata’s.
john