From the November 1990 issue of Car and Driver.
What we’re about to do here is tell you about the Best Sedan in the World Regardless of Price. What we’re not going to do is bore you with disclaimers that say choosing the winner took so much effort that it wasn’t any fun. After all, how could spending a week with four cars worth nearly $350,000 not be any fun?
The answer is that it can’t and it was. Mind you, when you’re driving something that costs more than some condominiums, there’s a compulsion to look both ways with greater care than you would with lesser cars. It’s one thing to explain how you got shopping-mall acne on the door of a Dodge Colt and quite another to explain away dings on a Bentley that weren’t there when you borrowed it.
Lexus LS500h Struggles to Make Its Case
But we overcame these problems—and a few others you’re going to hear about—in an effort to name what we believe to be the best four-door luxury transportation you’d ever be able to find. You should note that the “value” category you normally see in our comparison tests is absent. Price, in other words, doesn’t matter. Only excellence.
DICK KELLEY
The BMW 750iL won, so you can stop right here if you aren’t interested in what it’s like to drive cars that really rich people get to drive and if you don’t care how we reached that conclusion. But, on the assumption that you’re as curious as we were when we started this project, we’ll continue to elaborate on what we learned and how we learned it.
The first thing we found out when we tried to assemble a Bentley Turbo R, a BMW 750iL, and a Mercedes-Benz 560SEL is that the Bentley people don’t want to part with their cars. Well, they do want to part with their cars, but so many wealthy Americans are hammering on their dealers that they sell them all. They told us to hang on—there’d be a car for us to test soon.
When the day finally came, nine months after we’d started asking, the Bentley man got run into by a truck as he was on his way here with the car. By then, of course, we were too far into this exercise to quit. Our friend Rick Mancuso, proprietor of Lake Forest Sports Cars near Chicago, saved the day by arranging for us to borrow a valued customer’s Turbo R. Richard Templer’s Bentley was, however, a 1989 model and did not have the new electronic suspension. Right there, we were in trouble.
We next decided to include a $44,700 Lexus LS400 in the test. The inclusion of a car with a base price half that of the Mercedes-Benz may look dumb, but it wasn’t. The Lexus went into the mix as a control car because it won our “Showdown” luxury-sedan comparison test last December, besting six worthy competitors.
We felt, therefore, that the Lexus could help us find out how good is good. Much as you would send a Triple-A shortstop up to the majors to see if he’s got the stuff to play with the big guys. The Lexus has the right stuff, so now you know that. But if you want to know about the Bentley and the Mercedes-Benz and how they compared with the Maximum Bimmer and the light-on-the-wallet Lexus, keep reading.
4th Place: 1989 Bentley Turbo R
If you are a person to whom status means everything and to whom the making of an automotive statement means more than your mother or your firstborn, write out your check for $170,852 (our 1989 Bentley cost $149,500), take the Bentley home, and forget about reading beyond this sentence.
You could be seen sneaking Kim Basinger into your home, or you could be seen parking a gloss-black Bentley Turbo R in your driveway. Either act will gain you all the respect and slavering envy you’ve ever coveted from your neighbors:
We immediately noticed that the Bentley had, without question, the best paint job most of us had ever seen on a production car. You rarely see an automotive finish that makes you look at BMWs and Mercedes and wonder if their paint got put on with a towel.
That’s how good our Bentley’s exterior finish was. Open the big door and climb into the Bentley and we’ll guarantee that the cabin will remind you of the bar at Claridge’s in London. The difference, of course, is that more care and money have been lavished on the Bentley. The seats are big and sofalike, though not overly spacious in front, and you feel as if you were sitting at one end of a dining table, gazing through glass at the far end, about twenty yards distant.
In your hand, the leathered wheel feels a bit thin in diameter but not off-putting. The instruments, which you can easily see, have about them that air of efficiency from another time—think of those great brass instruments you see in movie scenes set in a ship’s engine room—but they are thoroughly modern and complete. In the rear, that hidebound haven for hedonists, there’s a ton of space, including ample legroom but not-so-ample headroom.
DICK KELLEY
The carpets are of good wool, clipped short but not too short, and over the entire compartment wafts the good-leather smell that only the English seem able to create. (This is true, actually, and it has to do with the tanning process and the chemicals employed therein; the Lexus development team duplicated this, which is why the Lexus smells like a Jaguar inside.) Getting into the rear compartment is so easy that it will remind you of entering a minivan.
Under way, the 5124-pound Bentley will astound you with its responsiveness. It is so unexpectedly quick for such a heavyweight that, as you drive by the peasants trying to look like you’re a Bentley owner, a grin of surprise repeatedly crinkles the face that you’re trying to keep straight. Zero to 60 mph in 7.7 seconds and a standing quarter-mile of 16.0 seconds at 87 mph are impressive numbers for this mastodon.
Astonishingly, the Bentley turned in the shortest braking distance from 70 mph, a surprising 179 feet. Not only does the big, 325-hp turbo V-8, with its 450 pound-feet of torque at 3200 rpm, move things along with strength and dispatch, but the three-speed automatic’s electric shifter is as silky as any we’ve ever experienced, and the turbo boost comes on so smoothly as to go almost unnoticed.
The Bentley—and this is the 1989 model, remember—did not absorb the sharp, annoying bumps that characterize many of our roads here in the Midwest. We experienced severe pothole feedback through the steering wheel and an overall shudder in the chassis over small bumps.
Larger imperfections were handled quite nicely, however. We also witnessed visible hood shake—surprising in such a car, even after accounting for the length of the Bentley’s hood. At freeway speeds, the Turbo was stable and had more immediate throttle response above 70 mph than the others, but it also had far more wind noise, leaving us with mixed feelings about its worth as a long-distance freeway cruiser.
As a statement, however, it excels.
3rd Place: 1990 Lexus LS400
You’ve heard a lot about the Lexus, and we’ve written a lot about it. What you’ve heard and what we’ve written have been, preponderantly, favorable comments. This unfair matchup only serves to requalify the Lexus LS400 as a true automotive achievement. In refinement, the Lexus LS400 takes a back seat to none of our gang of four. In back-seat room, it takes . . . well, a seat.
But keep in mind that the Lexus marketers never intended to position the car as a top-of-the-line luxury machine. Remembering that, and remembering that the Lexus folks definitely consider it a workable alternative to expensive luxury cars, the LS400 emerges as a fox in the henhouse.
“I can’t believe that this car compares so well to the expensive cars,” was a comment heard more than a few times during our testing days.
There were, of course, indications that the Lexus was a bit of a social climber. For one thing, its 7.9-second 0-to-60-mph time was the slowest of this bunch. For another, there’s too much plastic in the interior.
DICK KELLEY
“But it’s good plastic,” said one of the testers, and he was right. Still, there’s an undeniable lack of presence—heritage, if you will—to the interior. It’s like some other experiences in life, sensational in the dark but not so memorable in the cold light of day. We may never utter these words again, but just a touch more wood inside might help the ambience.
The four-speed automatic transmission we considered the best of our bunch, though one of us thought it might have downshifted more readily. Otherwise, it contributed to a driveline so quiet that the tire thump constituted the only intrusive noise, and there was precious little of that.
The ride is the consistency of a firm marshmallow, but with some bump-thump and a touch of vertical body motion. The handling, even under pressure, is capable and controlled, despite the modest 0.73 g of grip provided by its all-season tires. And the Lexus is the most placid of the four on the freeway, for which it seems heaven-sent.
The combination of a comfortable interior, a silky 250-hp double-overhead-cam V-8, and an almost supernatural attention to detail makes the LS400 at home in any company, including this aggregation. What can we say? We were surprised, and then again, not so surprised. The Lexus may not be the car you want to arrive in, but it may be the car you’d like to drive there in.
2nd Place: 1990 Mercedes-Benz 560SEL
In our three editors’ overall ratings, the Mercedes-Benz finished four points behind the 750iL. We’d say that most of the difference is attributable to age: the Simmer is a younger design and benefits from newer technology and construction. (The new S-class Mercedes will be in U.S. showrooms in late 1991.) Of our four luxury sedans, the Mercedes wins the rear-seat award.
That’s no small matter, because a true luxury car must have a large rear compartment in order to merit the designation. The 560SEL is unquestionably the car that we’d like to be driven in, assuming a competent and aggressive chauffeur is at the wheel.
Not that this car is unpleasant to drive yourself. We’ve always believed that the S-class Benzes are among the best long-legged cruisers ever, and our test car upheld the tradition. Its 238-hp aluminum V-8 launches the Mercedes to 60 mph in seven seconds flat. The car will cruise forever at 125 mph—if only we had the roads, and the permission, to do it—and its every act sends a clear message that, with a big Mercedes, performance never takes a back seat to luxury.
“This car doesn’t get fazed by much of anything,” one of us wrote in the 560SEL’s notebook. And that’s a good way to look at the S-class flagship. The minute you’re seated in the big, comfortable seat, the car surrounds you with an aura of all-enveloping mass, a kind of battering-ram-solid sense of security. The combination of security, safety, and speed is, of course, a Mercedes hallmark, and it’s a mighty comforting piece of baggage to have along.
DICK KELLEY
The fit and finish inside leave no doubt that the absolute best of every material went into the car’s construction. The interior is stark compared with the Bentley’s, but it treats its occupants with respect from the twin standpoints of visual satisfaction and tactile comfort. In town, the Mercedes feels generally docile, if not downright dull. But a vigorously applied right foot sends it into level-one aggressiveness. The engine is noisier and more perceptible to the foot than the Lexus’s or the BMW’s, but there’s enough satisfaction in the smooth application of power to overcome that.
On highways, there’s always enough power in reserve to ensure passing without panic, but the traditional Mercedes bump-thump now makes the car seem older than its other qualities would suggest. This is more sound than feel, but it nonetheless seems out of place in the stratospheric layer of luxury in which this car competes.
The driving position fit every size editor, though some wished for a lumbar support. The steering felt unnecessarily heavy but wasn’t uncomfortable. Directional stability was very good, and the prospect of expending a full tank of fuel at one sitting seemed more attractive than not.
“The Mercedes,” wrote one editor, “hauls itself around like an All-Pro defensive end—a little ponderous but able to cover an amazing amount of real estate.” As it’s covering this ground, the car’s ride is absorbent to the point of convincing you that it’s mushy—yet it never gets wobbly. The car does just about anything you ask of it with surprising agility.
In sum, for a car that’s in the final years of a distinguished career, the big S-class Mercedes is little short of amazing. That the word “class” is a part of its name seems altogether right.
1st Place: 1990 BMW 750iL
If you can grasp that any number of auto writers, including ours, called the 750iL “the best car in the world” and nobody laughed, then you have an inkling of the level of automotive excellence present in history’s finest BMW sedan. What Dom Perignon is to champagne, the 750iL is to luxury sedans.
It is not a showy car. Yet the 750iL commands attention and respect in equal quantities wherever it appears. It’s close enough to its 7-series relatives not to appear terribly radical, and it isn’t as traditional as the Bentley. But it leaves no doubt in the minds of onlookers that they’re in the presence of an automotive heavyweight. The 296-hp 5.0-liter V-12 leads our field in the number of cylinders and is second in horsepower only to the Bentley (which outweighs the Birnmer by a mere 877 pounds). In that all but indefinable area of integration—the feel of a car’s thousands of parts working in concert—there may never have been a better car than the BMW 750iL.
The wonder of all this excellence is that the car is enormous fun to drive. It’s fast, it’s responsive, it’s comfortable every piece of it works with every other piece to redefine the concept of a “precision instrument.” The 750iL doesn’t redefine taste and restraint and quality, but it demonstrates why writers need those words to describe automobile interiors.
DICK KELLEY
Sitting behind the wheel, you look around at finely stitched leather that covers just about everything in sight but the floor—which is covered in carpeting that probably costs almost as much as the hides. The seats, front and rear, are comfortable, supportive, heated, and electrically adjustable. The rear-seat headrests position themselves automatically once the seatbelt is engaged.
Over your head, more work has gone into seeing that the headliner is properly fitted and finished than some companies invest in whole cars. Throughout, you’re willing to believe that nothing’s been left undone and that even less has been left to chance. Under way, the car exudes smoothness in every mode, from hard acceleration (0 to 60 mph in 6.5 seconds) to hard braking (70 to 0 mph in 182 feet). We attained a governor-limited top speed of 158 mph—fastest of the group—and did so with ease. At all speeds within reason, the BMW is silent, stable, and satisfying.
Our quibbles were, as you might guess, few: the steering wheel is not adjustable, the climate controls are not as “automatic” as they ought to be, the transmission occasionally downshifts abruptly; and there seems to be less interior space than in the Mercedes. We liked the supple, well-controlled suspension and the resulting ride, which was the firmest in our foursome.
The proper amount of firmness, in our book, goes with high performance, and in BMW’s book, high performance is deemed synonymous with luxury. This makes the 750iL, as if it didn’t have enough going for it, the best driver’s car of the four. We call that an unbeatable combination . . . so there you are: a winner of a Bimmer.
It must be godawful nice to be rich.
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Source: Reviews - aranddriver.com
