AJT, do you want me to go look at this R129 hardtop?

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace...ref=browse_tab

 

I briefly owned a 1990 Continental in the late '90s. It, like an earlier Lincoln I owned, was a POS.

 

I think the Lincoln's interior might look a little nicer.

 

Way more modern for the time.

 

Neither one could compare to the next-generation Cadillac Seville SLS/STS interior that followed them....which, IMO, were arguably the best GM interiors of the mid-to-late 1990s.

 

they were better than this Cadillac garbage

 

We had this car, and the interior was much better than the old Seville that AJT posted but it was nothing like a Lexus or a Mercedes etc. Lots of cheap plastic, solid formed padded vinyl door panels, misligned panels. My dad shut the door one time and the wood trim panel fell off lol.

Did have beautiful wood, and I especially liked the metal Cadillac script hammered into it

 

I liked those STSs, and they were probably the first Cadillac I really liked.

On a side note, today on Car and Driver, they posted their archive review of the STS.

https://www.caranddriver.com/reviews...-archive-test/

While I did like them, I remember reading this article thinking "can they not line up door trim correctly?"

 

My dads was black with chrome wheels, it was sharp. Thats what I took my drivers test in!



It was not a particularly good riding car, he missed the ride of his Continental and the LS400 was a huge upgrade, but it was a great looking car

Another thing about the Continental he had, he put an aftermarket sunroof in it. That was a ......mistake....

 

Did he have the STS version? It did not ride quite as smooth as the SLS, primarily because the suspension and tires were slightly more sport-oriented. The SLS was more for the traditional Caddy enthusiasts...tuned for a softer ride.

 

It was the STS, exactly as pictured there.

 

So this is pretty cool.

A few months ago I had my S580 coded and the coder activated "Maybach Mode" which is a drive mode that is exclusive to Maybach models. Originally I never used it much because the screen said the suspension stayed in Comfort mode:



But on MBWorld somebody with a GLS said that in their car after the coding there was a suspension difference, so I drove around in Maybach mode today, and there is a considerable suspension difference! For one it adjusts the ride height a lot more. Below 50 MPH it puts it in +1 suspension mode, I suppose for suspension travel. Above 50 it goes to 0 which is normal height, and above 65 it goes to -1. The car is a lot flatter and just seems more unperturbed by road irregularities. Its hard to describe. but its very positive. It also leaves it in +1 suspension when stopped and turned off which makes getting in and out of it much easier.

On the throttle side, it starts in 2nd gear like my S560 did, the S580 starts in 1st even in Comfort. The throttle is much heavier and the transmission wants to shift gears much less.

My only negative is I think the car looks kind of goofy in +1 ride height, and it spends a lot of time in that height in this mode...but all in all the ride quality difference is impressive...

 

The reduction in shifting helps the smoothness out considerably, the V8TT cars tend to be a bit jerky/gear hunt a lot more than 12s do but the adaptive modes like that solve with it little trade off.

Long travel is always good for smoothness, Audi has a nice trick on the full active suspension cars that raises them up 2-3 inches instantly when you open the door and leaves them low when locked.

 

that is cool! does riding higher actually make it feel smoother? that part does sound like it's for convenience more than anything, and also your car already lowers itself automatically when driving fast

agreed on not looking as sleek in the high ride mode lol

 

It certainly does on anything I've ever driven that has air ride, more stroke is more stoke so peak impulse is always lower.