Hi folks, I came to the conclusion that in fact I love the sound that is emanating from car audio
What is your car audio system - some are extremely good. I had a high end Clarion system installed in one vehicle and it was excellent.
Cars tend to have lower distortion and greater loudness than many Hi-Fi systems. Since you are in a very small space it requires much less power - so you get more "slam" as you easily get that realistic compression/dynamics feeling which takes a hell of a lot more woofer power to achieve in a large room.
As far as I am concerned I never heard a great image or soundstage from inside a car - kind of a halfway house between headphones and a home system - although in opera with sustained notes and a large chorus on a big stage - imaging is rather a non issue as there so much reverberation.
Louder often sounds better - could it be as simple as this?