1995 Luxury Car Comparison Test: Hedonistic Hustle

From the February 1995 issue of Car and Driver.

Could it be? The in-depth selec­tion of four-doors newly avail­able and popularly priced at 60 large has escaped your attention?

Tsk, tsk.

While you weren’t looking, automakers have been particularly energetic in this rarefied stratum­—three new entries within the last few months. Comparison test, anyone?

For the record, placing the seats of our trou against this much leather for the better part of a thousand miles—through metro congestion, over interstates, and into the mountain twisties—is not a job we dread.

Still, such exquisite choices have agonies of their own. Dom Perignon or Perrier-Jouet? That only begins to suggest the dueling delights of this 60-grand class.

From Lexus, a brand that’s zoomed from skepticism (“Sure, the Japanese are great at little cars, but . . . “) to worldwide admi­ration in about two weeks, we have a reengineered LS400. Not, mind you, that the old one had grown tiresome in the five years since its debut.

Also from Japan, and modestly reworked last year, is the Infiniti Q45. We always look forward to the 278-horsepower rush of the Q’s four-cam 4.5-liter V-8.

From Jaguar of Coventry we have a refreshed XJ6, now look­ing very much like Jaguar’s previous classic, the XJ6 introduced in the late Sixties. Merely parking one of those aging beauties in a driveway has been known to lift property values for blocks around.

Still warm from its Munich bakery is an all-new BMW 7-series, the V-8-powered 740i. BMW kneaded and stretched the sheetmetal into a muscular, wide-stance shape that looks the same as before, only better. If this company has any doubts about what BMWs should look like, they never show.

Facing these newcomers is a car that’s constant as Gibraltar and just about as old: the Mercedes-Benz E420. Oh, sure, the model number has been uplifted—it was 400E when we last tested it as a 1993 model—and the price has been chopped nearly $4500. (Mercedes discovered that price sensitivity extends all the way up to the automotive stratosphere.) Are these minor tweaks enough to keep this veteran, with its new-in-1985 body, alive and vital against the best efforts of four other world-class makers?

Comparison tests were invented to answer tougher questions than that. So let’s move into the ratings section, where answers abound.

5th Place: Infiniti Q45

The Q45 that debuted in the 1990 model year was a heroic nonconformist. It hustled down the road with muscular grace that stood out in this comfort class, and it showed a smooth face to a world that expects luxury cars to present their cre­dentials in the form of a recognizable grille. It also refused to decorate the interior with wood.

Although we were charmed by that car, affluent buyers contained their enthusiasm, and Nissan has been backing away from the original definition ever since. A chrome grille appeared in 1993, there’s wood now, and the suspension keeps getting softer.

HIGHS: Silken V-8 sings to 6900, good visibility all around.
LOWS: Indecisive steering, illogical small controls, slippery leather seats.
VERDICT: A powerful player that’s a little unsure of its mission.

This current Q finishes in fifth place largely because the muscle tone of its sus­pension doesn’t meet the needs of enthusi­astic driving. When spending this much, we expect a car to do it all. This one’s sus­pension reaches the end of its travel too eas­ily, a severe impairment to handling, and the steering is uncommunicative. As it’s turned off-center, the steering effort tapers up too gradually to give a sense of what the front wheels are doing. So hurrying into turns is less secure than it needs to be.

Perhaps a footnote is in order here. On the fast California mountain roads where we conducted this test, the Q45 would likely have benefited from one of the two handling options lnfiniti offers: the Tour­ing Package ($3795) with a stiffer sus­pension and performance wheels and tires, or the Full-Active Suspension ($7645), which interacts with the road in a way that keeps the car within the suspension’s sweet spot. In past tests, both of these ver­sions behaved impressively. Unfortu­nately, neither option was available to us. Still, we need to be careful in extrapolat­ing the past, because the rear-steering fea­ture is deleted from the Touring option as of this model year. The Q’s muscle loss is clearly intentional.

In this base version, the slippery leather on the seats always worked against our sense of control. The bucket’s contour is properly shaped for cruising, but even there the slick surface is off-putting.

The Q45 is the big guy of this group, two inches longer than the second-longest (Jaguar) and a foot beyond the compact Mercedes. Trunk room and rear-seat room are about average for the class. Rear pas­sengers will find the bottoms of the front seats tight on their toes.

The big V-8 remains as satisfy­ing as it always has been. While it didn’t top the charts in any tests other than street start, its sound and midrange thrust are partic­ularly fine, and the 146-mph top speed will keep you ahead of any carjacker that doesn’t catch you at a traffic light.

This Q45’s small controls are not handy. The seats move with a series of door-mounted rocker switches that require full attention to operate. Controls for the front windows are neatly placed high on the door armrests, a long way from the rear-window controls on the center console.

For now, this standard-suspension Q45 finds itself in an awkward position: no longer the intriguing nonconformist, yet not quite effortlessly mainstream either. For now we say, “Drive the optional sus­pensions and call us in the morning.”

1995 Infiniti Q45
278-hp V-8, 4-speed automatic, 4080 lb
Base/as-tested price: $54,880/$57,025
C/D TEST RESULTS
60 mph: 7.8 sec
1/4 mile: 16.1 sec @ 91 mph
100 mph: 20.0 sec
Braking, 70­–0 mph: 187 ft
Roadholding, 300-ft-dia skidpad: 0.69 g
C/D observed fuel economy: 16 mpg

4th Place: Jaguar XJ6

When you unroll 60 large for an auto­mobile, it ought to haul your temporal self down the road like precious cargo and lift your spirits above the moon. All of the candidates here score high marks on the former, but the way this Jaguar frames your view of the distance, then delivers it to you on a tray formed by its artfully sculptured hood, is an aesthetic treat the others can’t match. The shiny mascot leads, crouched beyond the sheetmetal horizon, so low and purposeful you see hardly more than its head and powerful shoulders. Off to the sides, the brows curv­ing over each headlight remind that a Jaguar is not another sterile exercise in aerodynamic efficiency. This is a motor­car, and its arrival should gladden hearts and vanquish gloom.

HIGHS: High style, worth the price just for the driver’s-eye view out over the artfully sculptured hood.
LOWS: Tight cockpit, limited rear-seat space, engine no match for the V-8s.
VERDICT: There’ll always be an England.

Jaguar’s newly reshaped XJ6 is, first and last, about style. And no one can deny its success. It’s not, however, about inte­rior space. Its roofline is 2.6 to 3.4 inches lower than the others, and it’s narrower than all but the Mercedes. The front is snugly compartmented—one person on each side of the prominent tun­nel. In back, knee and head room are ungenerous. The car’s taper­ing tail makes the trunk small, too. The luxury of this car is in the wood and leather appoint­ments, not in the available space.

This four-door is not about performance either, although it does surprisingly well, given that its 3980 cc in-line six has the low­est output of the group (245 hp at 4700 rpm). Credit the happy part­nership with its four-speed auto­matic, which seems always ready with just-in-time downshifts whenever a burst of acceleration is needed. Working together, this power team kept the Jag ahead of the much more powerful BMW to 60 mph (8.1 seconds vs. 8.4) and pulled to a top speed of 139 mph—12 mph above the two German cars, which were held back by governors.

Unlike the V-8s of the other cars, which seem to make no sound until called upon for full or nearly full power, the Jaguar’s six hums a low and soothing note on the interstate.

Jaguar partisans watch anxiously these days, wondering if Ford, owner since 1990, will fumble away the Jaguarness that makes this brand so unlike all others. Not so far, we say. We do notice a Detroit-style sunglasses compartment overhead now, and in a compulsive quest to organize, the central-locking but­ton has been grouped with, and therefore lost in, an array of similarly shaped but­tons in the center of the dash. But the wood and leather are at least as fine as before. Some small controls, such as those for the power seats, are vastly more logical and convenient. Ford stepped up to the tooling bill necessary to restyle the exterior skin, to bring back the headlight brows that had been discontinued and to add a seductive curve to the trunk lid.

The XJ6 has gained neatly crafted sub­tleties, too. To open the trunk from out­side, a press of the cat face above the license plate triggers an electric release. And as the lid rises, hidden gas struts slow its upward swing to a stately halt as it reaches the top of its travel. And we’re happy not to report any electrical problems of the sort that plagued last month’s proto­type XJR.

Work remains to be done, however.

This car has a nervousness as speeds approach 100 mph, in crosswinds or on uneven blacktops, that makes its path less straight than the others. It feels like deflec­tion steer, perhaps the unintended by­product of suspension-isolation rubber.

Still, this is easily the best Jaguar ever, with stylistic refinements that can only draw more admirers to the fold.

1995 Jaguar XJ6
245-hp inline-6, 4-speed automatic, 4020 lb
Base/as-tested price: $56,178/$61,788
C/D TEST RESULTS
60 mph: 8.1 sec
1/4 mile: 16.3 sec @ 88 mph
100 mph: 21.3 sec
Braking, 70­–0 mph: 189 ft
Roadholding, 300-ft-dia skidpad: 0.74 g
C/D observed fuel economy: 17 mpg

3rd Place: BMW 740i

This all-new sedan elicited wholly unexpected responses from the testing jury. The BMW partisans among us liked it less than they had expected—less, even, than the car it replaces in some respects (steering feel, for one), while those who take a show-me approach to BMWs became smiling converts by the second day of driving.

The difference between these two polar­ized opinions has to do with what we expect of a $60,000 four-door and what we expect of a BMW. This car is overtly lux­urious in its poshly appointed interior, silent and slinky ride, and Sharper Image presentation of electrickery. Some of us think those are the essential pleasures that separate 60-grand cars from 30-grand cars. The other opinion holds that BMWs are for blurring the fence posts, and any softening of that purpose is tanta­mount to decadence.

HIGHS: Plush interior, lush freeway ride, and hushed V-8 add up to lavish transit.
LOWS: Heavy on gimmicks, particularly in the electronic manipulation of the five-speed automatic.
VERDICT: BMW veers off in the Lexus direction with mixed results.

As a device for speed and g-forces, this 740i does not excel. It’s too heavy, weighing 190 pounds more than the Infiniti (second heaviest) and 510 pounds more than the similarly luxurious Lexus. That weight impairs performance. All of the other V-8s generally outrun this BMW (in top speed, the Mercedes’ governor holds to the same 127 mph). The BMW’s cornering grip tops the charts at 0.79 g, but the dynamic capabil­ity of the suspension loses that advantage to the degree that in the emergency lane­-change test, this car barely stays ahead of the last-place Jaguar. Our ratings scatter when it comes to the subjective details of steering response and high-speed confidence. The BMW partisans want more steering effort, more athletic feel. The lux­ury advocates think it’s just fine the way it is. (For those who expect unanimity on these ratings, let us remind that Olympic judges rarely agree either.)

Comfort seekers will rank this car very close to the new Lexus. In rear-seat room and comfort, they are closely matched and clearly better than the others. For the driver, the BMW offers a seat with true have-it-your-way hospitality. It has all the normal adjustments plus a lumbar support that can be tailored for both firmness and height. The front seatback has power artic­ulation so that the angle of its upper por­tion can be set independently of its lower half, a nice trick that aids shoulder sup­port. When you get all of these shapes just right, your personal setting can be saved in one of three memory positions.

This willingness to conform to your anatomy is just one aspect of a wonderfully hedonistic interior. The contrasting doeskin and fawn­-colored leathers, trimmed in furni­ture-grade wood-grain, suggest the opulence of a private train car. All of the contours on the dash and wheel are familiar BMW, but the execution is far warmer and more inviting than BMW (or Mercedes) have done in the past.

Both the performance and the luxury partisans do agree about many aspects of this new 740i. For example, there’s too lit­tle automation in the climate-control sys­tem—the driver must manually turn on the compressor and regulate fan speed.

And in the powertrain operation, where there should be simple mechanical har­monies, we get instead blatant electronic intervention. Microswitches in the accel­erator linkage trigger downshifts in the five-speed automatic—they feel unnatural. A quick dip of the accelerator cause the power to fade up like some fancy stereo. Automatic upshifts at full power are so heavily manipulated that the engine note sounds as if a real driver is lifting off the gas to shift a five-speed. All of this pro­cessing gets in the way of the real-car fla­vor that’s made BMW famous. Yet when we want intervention enough to tug the gear selector (which initiates the sporty shift program), the difference is hardly noticeable.

For now, we think the hedonists will like this 740i better than the hot-blooded types will, and the hedonists will like it a lot.

1995 BMW 740i
282-hp V-8, 5-speed automatic, 4270 lb
Base/as-tested price: $60,952/$66,837
C/D TEST RESULTS
60 mph: 8.4 sec
1/4 mile: 16.6 sec @ 90 mph
100 mph: 20.6 sec
Braking, 70­–0 mph: 181 ft
Roadholding, 300-ft-dia skidpad: 0.79 g
C/D observed fuel economy: 17 mpg

2nd Place: Mercedes-Benz E420

Every quality our more aggressive drivers missed in the BMW they found in this car. It’s tremendously, extravagantly, lustily power­ful—0 to 60 mph in 7.3 sec­onds, 15.7 seconds and 93 mph in the quarter-mile. On the highway, a step on the pedal causes the automatic transmission to instantly bang down a gear, then the 4.2-liter V-8 engine takes it from there, heading for the horizon with an impatience that surely raises eyebrows among the cultured classes. Naturally, we all like this part a lot.

HIGHS: Raw power, lots of raw power, and a sinewy chassis.
LOWS: Five years behind the others in conveniences—to unlock the doors, you still need a key.
VERDICT: Potent, but with all the luxury you’d expect of Nordic Track.

Mercedes cars typically have a trusty feel in the twisties, and here it’s height­ened by compact dimensions and light weight—far less weight than all but the almost equally tight Lexus.

The hedonists, though, were thor­oughly unimpressed. This is a little car, close to ten inches shorter than the aver­age of the others, more than two inches narrower than the Jaguar (second slimmest), and almost five inches narrower than the BMW. Except for power and price, it’s just not in the same class. The interior is solemn, with thin padding over its structural bones. Luxurious little details—locking and unlocking by key-fob magic, adjustable lumbar support, sunroof, auto-dimming mirror—are simply not included for $55,130. This is the only car in the group without cupholders.

The interior space is narrow and tall. Headroom is plentiful. The seats are well shaped and rather upright, which yields adequate, though by no means luxurious, kneeroom in back. Three-across seating in back is marginally more comfortable than in the Jaguar but, again, not luxuri­ous. The trunk is large, thanks in part to the high tail.

The no-frills starkness of this car has a certain charm if only because it lets the raw power and connected-to-the-road handling stand out. The brakes, too, are firm, like well-conditioned muscles. There’s a machine here, a well-oiled machine, though it’s not notably eager to please. In metro traffic, the steering is lethargic, and the dated transmission resists downshift­ing until you press deep into the power, at which time it bangs a down shift and gives a hearty lunge forward. There’s not a trace of flab in this definition of exclusive motoring, nothing but a sinewy stride over the road, surefooted on any surface.

What we’re describing here is not the usual flavor of luxury, but driving is not the same as meekly easing down the high­way, either.

1995 Mercedes-Benz E420
275-hp V-8, 4-speed automatic, 3740 lb
Base/as-tested price: $55,018/$55,130
C/D TEST RESULTS
60 mph: 7.3 sec
1/4 mile: 15.7 sec @ 93 mph
100 mph: 18.2 sec
Braking, 70­–0 mph: 185 ft
Roadholding, 300-ft-dia skidpad: 0.73 g
C/D observed fuel economy: 19 mpg

1st Place: Lexus LS400

This newly redone Lexus earns respect more than affection, but the respect flows in such torrents that placing it anywhere but atop the heap is out of the question. The superb engineering that brought instant prestige to the original LS400 is completely surpassed here. Considering its fine accommodations, this car is very light—only 3760 pounds, a mere 20 pounds heavier than the ten-inches-shorter Mercedes. Yet the interior space is tremendous. Lengthening the wheelbase by 1.4 inches (with no change in overall length) has brought real stretch-out room to the rear seat. Headroom is generous, too. Five of almost any size will be happy passen­gers in this car.

HIGHS: Amazing performance, amazing fuel economy, amazing back seat, amazing list of amazements.
LOWS: Amazing lack of soul.
VERDICT: Good, really amazingly good, but we keep reaching for the ketchup.

Keeping the weight low has brought excellent performance. This car runs just a tick behind the Mercedes in every test but top speed, where it easily outruns all the others (156 mph). Again, the engi­neers’ attention to details—aerodynamics this time—tells the story: the Cd is just 0.28, best in the class. That attention results in performance and fuel economy. The LS400 tops the EPA ratings for this group, at 19 mpg city, 25 highway. In our driving, the Mercedes squeaked out 1 mpg more, 19 vs. 18 for the Lexus.

We find driving this car to be unin­volving, but in a way that is a compliment. It means there are no idiosyncrasies or intrusions to be noticed. Steering response is quick and correct, the brakes take up intuitively, the throttle is not jumpy, the suspension is taut rather than floaty, and the path is maintained down the interstate with little tending required of the driver. There’s simply nothing to get in the way of untroubled motoring. The wind passes over the exterior shape with only a whis­per. The engine, even at full power, makes just a sweetly textured purr. Small-bump harshness is surprisingly apparent if you look for it, but the impacts are so silent you may not notice. Silence envelopes this car like a blanket.

The small details inside the LS400 work beautifully too. There’s a center visor over the mirror, mounted so that it swivels in any direction you choose. The seat’s pneumatic lumbar support adjusts quickly—there’s none of the tedious wait­ing for undersize compressors and orifices to do their jobs. The remote-lock fob is powerful yet tiny in your pocket. The transmission pattern is perfect for gear changes on the fly, with solid stops at both ends of the 2-3 and 3-4 shifts.

Still, we keep wondering, does perfec­tion have to be so antiseptic? The dash is so perfectly organized that it seems too simple. There are no intrusions into the driver’s space, which after a time makes the car seem standoffish and distant. The contours everywhere are so smoothly formed that they hardly catch the eye and are quickly forgotten once we leave the car. The same is true of the exterior: the impressively low Cd says it’s more pleas­ing to the wind, but to the eye it lacks the shapely flair of the old, less perfect model. Now you understand the testers’ agony, and why days in the seats of the very best four-doors that man has ever created never quite draw to a blissful conclusion. This new Lexus is a high-water mark of auto­motive engineering. But, doggone it, if they were doing it this well, why did they stop short of compelling?

1995 Lexus LS400
260-hp V-8, 4-speed automatic, 3760 lb
Base/as-tested price: $53,593/$57,828
C/D TEST RESULTS
60 mph: 7.8 sec
1/4 mile: 15.8 sec @ 92 mph
100 mph: 18.9 sec
Braking, 70–0 mph: 182 ft
Roadholding, 300-ft-dia skidpad: 0.74 g
C/D observed fuel economy: 18 mpg

Source: www.caranddriver.com