If you're set on GGD cars, you can disregard my post, as I was going to point out pros/cons.
I bought the GGD El Capitan set new and Niagara silver cars set used at the Amherst show a few years back. They are high quality, externally beautiful, and I think both have flicker free lighting. But, the interior lighting only really hits the middle 50% of the cars, which looks very odd when operated in low lighting. The few passengers included also look like blow up dolls, which to me is contrary to the realism of the car's exterior. And, the price is extreme in comparison to what's available from MTH and Lionel - for someone like me who isn't a rivet counter or cares about prototypical seating and just wants a quality car at a decent price. And, while I love scale, to me, scale looks toyish, even on my 090 curves. This last comment obviously also applies to the recent Lionel 21" cars and the Atlas scale cars. Which is a perfect segue:
I have several MTH and Lionel passenger car sets and the Atlas CZ set. I think the MTH 18" cars are the best value in the entire O gauge passenger car segment, hands down. For the money, they have top of the line craftsmanship and quality, are very well detailed, 10 passengers that don't look like blow up dolls, and the hardware is state of the art. True, they might not be scale, but close enough to me with my 072 - 0108 curves and basement that doesn't have 150' in length for a layout.
I also like the Lionel cars and, while this is a personal thing, I prefer their cars to all others in cases where they have Railsounds. Yes, these RS cars rival the price of the GGD cars, but I value the additional play value for the money. Plus the interior lighting doesn't look hokey as it covers the entire interior. Just a step forward to me in terms of advancing the art.
