Edmunds.com | Inside Line | Auto Observer Your Account | Help | Directory
You are here:
![[F]](http://a332.g.akamai.net/f/332/936/12h/www.edmunds.com/media/townhall/webxicons/site.gif){kind=small}
Forums
Sedans High End Luxury Cars
24700 messages, Last post on Dec 01, 2009 at 12:24 PM
You are in the Sedans Forum. Your Hosts are pat & karens
Let's try to define this forum as being limited to luxury performance vehicles where the mainstream version in a typical configuration has an MSRP of at least $60k.
A luxury vehicle with a base price of $59k qualifies because it would typically be bought with some additional equipment, bringing the MSRP over $60k.
Vehicles like the E, 5, A6, M, or GS, even if available in certain versions over $60k, don't qualify because they are cars from companies that have higher end cars in their lineups.
|
Replying to: brightness04 (Aug 20, 2006 9:20 pm) Wow, a car that semi-parks itself is better than a car that follows a cars path AND come to complete stop, fully. Maybe the "pursuit of perfection" has fallen off of MB's cruise radar... BTW: Which electronics that MB has had over the last decade that had an "atrocious" record in which you may be referring? Up until the '07 S550, I've had every gadget MB has put out since 2000, and besides the COMAND problems(similar to the Nav and early Mark Levinson failures of the LS and other Lexus/Toyota models), NOTHING has ever went wrong with the electronics.
|
|
|
Replying to: merc1 (Aug 20, 2006 9:28 pm) The S600 stats: 0-60 in 4.4 secs?( a scant 0.03 behind the pavement scorching S65 and you save 35-40k) 60-0 in 117 feet(better than the current LS by 18 feet, one car length)? 1/4 mile in 12.9 secs(Vette Z51 and Porsche 911 4S matching with almost double their weight)? The feel of being rode around in the absolute finest HELM on the road today by quite a margin(only the Bentley FS truely compares): Priceless.
|
|
|
Replying to: blkhemi (Aug 21, 2006 12:41 pm) Are you saying that with the MB system, the driver need not steer?
|
|
|
Replying to: syswei (Aug 21, 2006 1:22 pm) A bit of sarcasm in that statement, uh syswei? Of course he/she has to steer, but their legs can be comfortable without the strenuous workout of mashing an accelerator.
|
|
|
Replying to: blkhemi (Aug 21, 2006 2:20 pm) Anyway if you look at the Lexus system for the LS460, it can as I understand it brake the car, but not to a stop like MB. I have to assume that if it can brake the car, Lexus made a conscious decision to NOT go as far as braking to a full stop. Or do you think the engineers there are incapable of designing that in? Maybe they felt that if a driver relied on the system to do brake to a full stop, it might help put the driver to sleep. Solve one safety issue and create another. Anyway it is interesting how Team Europe thinks Lexus needs to be more involving, more of a driver's car. But when it comes to cruise control, the less driver input the better. Personally, every car I have owned has had cruise control. But I NEVER use it, because I think it will lead to driver inattention.
|
|
|
Replying to: syswei (Aug 21, 2006 2:31 pm) In the same vein, Lexus' claim of the quietest car in class would have the same effect. Or the super-plush air ride that Lexus loves to boast about can rock one sound asleep before the nursery rhyme is over. Or it could be the yawn-inducing ho-hum styling. A driver using cruise control would fair much better than being in a car so quiet that you can't even hear an ambulance or fire engine coming. We all want Lexus to dump the "Japanese Buick" derivative. Yes we strive for more involvement. Will the car ever be as good a performer as the Euro's? Never, and Lexus will make sure of that. And when you have a 1800 mile jaunt in front of you, you'll become best friends with cruise control....... |
|
|
Replying to: blkhemi (Aug 21, 2006 2:46 pm) Probably so. However, the LS460 is according to early reviews not as quiet as the outgoing LS. I think due to the dual-injection, but it could also be to come closer to pleasing Team Europe tastes. And when you have a 1800 mile jaunt in front of you, you'll become best friends with cruise control....... In my book, those sorts of distances are for flying. |
|
|
Some interesting information from Automotive news, particularly in regards to the SUVs: IS: "A convertible was expected to debut when the coupe arrived. But Lexus is worried that its planned convertible may not succeed in a world of hard-top convertibles. The model may be sent back to the drawing board, forcing a delay. Lexus executives downplay reports of a V-8, saying the big engine would kill the car's handling - not to mention that a 300-hp V-6 is plenty for a car this size. Don't rule out a hybrid as a midcycle addition." GS: "The GS sedans get engine upgrades for the 2007 model year: a 3.5-liter V-6 and a 4.6-liter V-8. The V-6 may arrive this fall, while the V-8 may have to wait for the LS 460 to show up first." SC: "The retractable-hardtop coupe gets a redesign in summer 2007, sharing the IS/GS platform. The 2008 model also will share the 4.6-liter V-8. Lexus is looking at proportions and stance similar to those of a BMW 6 series." LFA: "Lexus' two-passenger, high-performance sports car will be unveiled at the same time as the Japan Formula One race moves to Toyota's home, Fuji Speedway, in the fall of 2007. It is likely that a big 500-hp V-8 will be the powerplant, as a V-8 has weight and packaging advantages over the all-but-dead V-10 program. It would arrive in the United States in spring 2008." Small crossover: "Lexus once thought about using the RAV4 as the basis for a luxury vehicle. Executives concluded that the platform was too downmarket. But the success of the BMW X3 and the arrival of the Acura RDX and Volvo XC50 have them rethinking. If a thumbs up is given, it could arrive for the 2009 model year." RX: "The V-6 engine gets bumped to 3.5 liters and adds a six-speed automatic transmission for the 2007 model year. A redesign comes in spring 2008. It will be slightly larger but not as large as the Toyota Highlander. The new target width is the same as that of the Acura MDX." JX: "The big brother to the RX 330 crossover comes off the new GS sedan platform in mid-2007. For styling hints and dimensions, look to the Lexus LF-X (nee HPX) concept car, which had a 116-inch wheelbase, 194-inch overall length and room for three rows of seats. Power would come from a 4.3-liter V-8, although a 3.5-liter V-6 also might be offered. Competitors include the Infiniti FX35 and FX45." LX: "A proposed large, Sequoia-based SUV has been killed from the product plan. That means the LX 470 lives on in its current form when the Toyota Land Cruiser gets redesigned." By the way, autonews.com is free this week. |
|
|
|
|
Replying to: blkhemi (Aug 21, 2006 12:41 pm)
|
|
|
|
|
Replying to: blkhemi (Aug 21, 2006 2:46 pm) Some basic engineering knowledge would have informed us that automotive sound insulation is tuned to screened out certain frequencies and letting in others . . . for example, even in a "quiet as vault" car, the sirens of ambulances and fire engines can easily be heard . . . it's the cars with loud wind, road and drive train noises that block out ambulances and fire engine sirens.
|
|
New? Join Now!
Forum Tools
Search Forums
Browse by Vehicle
2011 Audi A8
2010 BMW 7 Series
2008 Jaguar XJ-Series
2010 Lexus LS 460
2010 Mercedes-Benz S-Class
2006 Volkswagen Phaeton
2009 Maserati Quattroporte
2010 Mercedes-Benz CL-Class
Browse by Board
Browse by Topic
Today's Chats
