jrock65

Car and Driver $55K sedan comparo:

1. M45 (219 points)
2. RL (215 points)
3. GS430 (208 points)
4. E350 (202 points)
5. A6 (199 points)
6. 530i (198 points
7. STS (191 points)
8. S-type (181 points)

"The M45 rocks. Game over."

http://secure.grubbs.com/cardriver.pdf

LexFather

Thanks for the review, saw this coming. Congrats to the M45. RL as 2nd= but overall for the money, the Japanese DESTROYED the Germans. Its not even funny or close.

flipside909

Haha not really. We already know C/D is biased. We'll have to see what the other comparisons will say. Too early to tell at this point. I have no doubt in my mind who would be the sales king of the GS, RL and M. The M45 is definitely the performance oriented vehicle of the bunch. It did so well, it put the 5 series to shame.

Ultrasonic

It's a good article. I guess it just depends on your priorities.

jrock65

That's the thing I immediately noticed. That the top 3 were Japanese, and the next 3 were German. Just a year ago, the Japanese weren't even on the radar in this segment.

But no doubt, the E and the 5 will continue to be sales leaders, followed by the GS. I doubt that the M will sell more than the GS. Image and prestige counts for a lot in this segment.

STIG

C/D is biased? please explain how so...

i thought you guys said C/D always bimmer biased? but it ranked 6th ?

LexFather

If this thread turns into a pissing contest, it will be closed faster than the GS 430 or M45 goes 0-60....

Gojirra99

I think he meant C/D always heavily biased towards performance/handling, which is true.They can acknowledge the strengths of the other cars in their comparisons, but when they rank at the end, they base it on performance.
As for the bimmer placing 6th, it's not surprising(it's ugly too ), it's only the I6 530i, I think they should have tested the 545i & E500 in this comparison & adjust for price in their rankings instead.

flipside909

I never said that. I've said in the past that C/D has mostly been biased against Toyota and it shows in many comparisons where other publications say on the contrary. It's pretty obvious and it's not just this article.

DrewSRX

I don't think anyone is surprised that the M45 came in first, it is the most driver oriented and C&D loves drivers cars.

I think that Lexus, Acura, and Infiniti owners/fans should all rejoice. They were the TOP 3 cars!

Personally, I would like to see everyone get along, Japan has cars to be very proud of.

A few year ago, this would be unheard of!

Guy Legend

Funny, I was predicting this exact finish, with possible exception of the Audi and BMW. But they were only seperated by one point.

I'm glad to see the overpriced, unreliable German machines get trounced by the new Japanese luxury cars.

The M, RL, and GS each deserved their respective finishes.

chicagoblknazn

let's behave bois......

LexFather

I agree with the 2nd paragraph, disagree with the first. The GS welcomes the M and RL to the party. The GS has been around since 1993 and did impact this segment with the 2GS starting in 1998. The GS opened the doors for the M and RL.

LexFather

Yes, please. I know I said it, the M will win mag comparos b/c they pick the sportiest cars. The M is clearly the sportiest. Lets hope this can translate into some sales for Infiniti.

Also, looking at the first couple paragraphs, the cars were based on price. a 55k price cap. They wanted to base the comparo on engines (looks like V-8) but b/c the Acura RL is V-6 only , the comparo was changed to price, which they admit, hurt the Germans. Other things I noticed

Sad but the STS is also BRAND NEW and finished 2nd to last.
The V-8 Audi 4.2 A6 finished 5th. So not sure if V-8s in the E or 5 would have helped.
The S-type has finished last in every comparison in every magazine the past few years. Pathetic.
The 5 has gone from magazine darling "always #1" to just another car. Sad, and I think the styling has more to do with it than they say.

jrock65

Yep, the '98 GS came out and did pretty well, selling about 30,000 per year for the first few years, which is basically the sales target of the 2006 GS. But Toyota let the model run too long (8 years), so in the past couple years, the GS was an afterthought in this segment.