In response to Kaidao:
First... let me qualify everything I say with... my hearing is not what you might call 'optimal' -- I've lost some significant hearing in the higher frequencies. That said, my previous car, an '03 SE-R SpecV with the Audio package, had a hell of a lot more 'umph' to the Bass than the MS3's Bose which initially was very disappointing to me since it was a 'Bose' system. My wife's '07 RAV4 Base model has a ton more bass... but admittedly it's extremely distorted.
A friend of mine was recently visiting and obviously agreed that my MS3's Bose system lacks the low end bass my SpecV had, but noted that the SpecV wasn't as clear and the MS3's Bose system definitely wins overall versus my old system.
I've read a lot of forum posts of people complaining about the Bose system -- overall, I am happy with the system but I admittedly do NOT have the finely tuned ears and hearing that others may have.