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Sold our MDX on Saturday. As many of you regulars know, I was always complimentary to the MDX, and I felt (and still do) that it represents one of the better values out there for a 7 passenger SUV. It's got a nice mix of luxury, styling, and the all wheel drive system was excellent.
However, after a lifetime of having sporty and fast cars, the Acura simply wasn't sporty or fast enough for me. It's handling was the worst part for me, with the lack of power being a close second. The driving feel didn't compete with our Cayenne S, nor did it have as much power, even though it was a generation ahead of the S.
All in all, I can see why it's a popular vehicle, but they really need to add a V8 option and a true sport package for people like me to be interested.
So for the past two months or so, I'd been looking at several cars this time around. Some non negotiable criteria was that it needed to have 4 doors to make getting our child in and out easier. It also needed to be fun to drive, and that means V8 or turbocharged power, or both.
I was open to several makes, the only one I had reservations about was BMW. Their iDrive system is annoying, even the new "updated" version, and of course, reliability has been spotty for over a decade now. I also refused to test drive any Audi makes. I simply do not like the styling, inside or out, so they were never in the running.
But I drove a 2012 550i and put it through its paces. Ultimately, it was a big disappointment, because I've had a 5 series before (with less power) but the handling felt so much better in my old 528. The new cars have electric assist steering, and it really ruins the BMW driving feel. iDrive was as annoying as expected. Most buttons have been moved to the console, but if they're on the center console, I don't want them cluttering up the menu screens too. Pass.
Next up was our local Hyundai dealership. They had a 2013 Equus (a bit bigger car than I was looking for but I'd never driven one so I decided to check it out. It's configured to compete more with the S class Mercedes vs a 5 series or E class, so I wasn't really excited about it. Felt slow and cumbersome, even compared to an S class. Did give a smooth, quiet ride though.
Next I drove the new (2015) Hyundai Genesis 5.0. This was a wild card, because I absolutely hated the exterior. The front end looks terrible IMO, and the rear is simply bland. From the side though, it looks good. The interior looks far better. The engine would have been competitive about 5-6 years ago, but now that the Germans are turbocharging their engines, you can really feel the lack of power in the NA engines in this segment now.
The next car was a 2011 Maserati Quattroporte S. (I wonder how many of you are reading this and just said WTF to yourselves.) Yeah, I know. This was an outlier. It was within budget ($40k) and still had the older, large 4.7 liter Ferrari engine that sounds absolutely awesome. The new ones are turbo V6's. Anyway, it was black on black leather, with white piping. It was obviously a sports car that just happened to have 4 doors. It had just under 50k miles on it, which was over the mileage limit I had set for myself, but I made an exception for this car. Drove it.
OMG.
Loved it. I've owned and driven many Porsches, Panameras, Lotus, etc... But none of those gave me the feeling I was really driving an exotic. This did. Sounded the best out of all the cars I test drove, and the interior styling was fantastic. Italians really do know how to make beautiful cars.
But on the way back to the dealership, two things simultaneously went wrong... The TPS sensor started going off, and then the system told me the rear door was not closed. I parked the car and walked around to the door, they were closed. Opened and shut it tight, nothing. Salesperson told me to turn it off and turn it back on. I did. Everything magically fixed itself, somehow.
I really wanted this car, but I was hesitant from the start due to the reliability concerns. I also worried about how the interior would hold up to carting around a two year old. I talked myself out of it. I'm still wondering if I made the right move on this one, but the car I chose goes a long way towards negating any doubts I had.
The benchmark for what I was looking for was the Mercedes E-class, or possibly the CLS. Both come in 550 flavor, and although I prefer the styling of the CLS, ultimately I decided that having 5 seats is more practical than simply looking better. So, I settled on the E550, and found one locally, a 2013, with the turbocharged 4.7 liter engine, 4Matic all wheel drive, AMG package, etc. Crappy weather today and cold, so just snapped a few pics.
This thing is eerily fast and smooth on the highway, I love it.
Sweet! Great car for the autobahn, and the 80 mph Texas highways. Real nice interior and I'm sure the driving dynamics are first rate. I'm not that familiar with the 4.7 turbo engine. I'm sure it's very powerful, and complex.
When it all comes down to it, sport sedans are almost always going to better than their SUV/Crossover counterparts, even as Mercedes and BMW manage to extract great track times from their 5000+ lb, monster powerful crossovers (and the MDX to a lesser extent; the SH-AWD functionality available only at cornering levels and at speeds where your wife would punch you and scream "slow down!", because it just doesn't feel right in a heavy, high riding vehicle), they simply don't feel as planted and engaging as a great, mid-sized sport sedan.
If I had to rate the interiors of the cars, this would be a 10, the BMW and Benz an 8 or 8.5, and the Hyundai's a 7 to 7.5. (I got a PM asking why I didn't test drive a CTS-V. A buddy of mine had one, and I would rate that interior a 6-6.5. Not luxurious enough, and I don't need a hard edged sedan, the 911 I have is my real fun car.) They are also a bit smaller than the 5 series and E class.
About the only negative I have at this point for the E550 is the relative lack of steering feel at slower speeds. Going below 60mph, there's just not much feedback at all. It tracks fine, steers straight, etc, but you never get a sense of how much front grip the tires have.
I suppose that is to be expected for a luxury car these days though, and not being the AMG version.
If I had to rate the interiors of the cars, this would be a 10, the BMW and Benz an 8 or 8.5, and the Hyundai's a 7 to 7.5. (I got a PM asking why I didn't test drive a CTS-V. A buddy of mine had one, and I would rate that interior a 6-6.5. Not luxurious enough, and I don't need a hard edged sedan, the 911 I have is my real fun car.) They are also a bit smaller than the 5 series and E class.
About the only negative I have at this point for the E550 is the relative lack of steering feel at slower speeds. Going below 60mph, there's just not much feedback at all. It tracks fine, steers straight, etc, but you never get a sense of how much front grip the tires have.
I suppose that is to be expected for a luxury car these days though, and not being the AMG version.
Beautiful car!!!!
I completely agree with your write up about the newer BMW's. The electric steering sucks lol
Congrats man. You don't have the adjustable suspension do you?
Nope. My previous experiences with Airmatic in my SL600 really soured me on the system. It works great when working, but they inevitably fail. It was actually kinda hard to find an E550 that didn't have it. On the plus side, if I ever decide I want a firmer suspension, I can move to a complete aftermarket coilover setup, but so far, it seems to have a good balance of firmness/dampening.
Quote:
Originally Posted by SVTLightning
Beautiful car!!!!
I completely agree with your write up about the newer BMW's. The electric steering sucks lol
That Maserati looks fast!
Thanks! Seat of the pants feeling was that the Maserati was faster but with 4Matic (and backed up by mag tests) the E550 is the faster car all around, but yeah... the Maserati looks fast even standing still! Redline was over 7k! The E550 is really deceptive in how fast you are going and how fast it accelerates, it's just so smooth. The Maserati is more visceral, you KNOW you're going fast.
I love it when people get new cars and talk about their experiences with all their test drives.
Kind of like vicarious enjoyment.
Haha, I do too, so I wanted to give back to the community LOL
Quote:
Originally Posted by stan4
Congrats!
Is that black?
No. Black or silver were my first choices for color, this color is called "Tenorite Grey" which they call "Metallic Steel Grey" here in the States. They had a black one with very similar options as mine locally, but it had more miles and they were asking $4k more... I couldn't justify it. So Grey it is.
Nice find and write up! I was gonna say dark green? But hey, I'm color blind How are you liking the column shifter thingy?
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How are you liking the column shifter thingy?
