From the March 1993 issue of Car and Driver.

Part of a luxury car's mission is to engender respect and envy, with perhaps just a little ugly resentment. After all, people who can entertain the idea of spending big wads of cash on four-wheeled transport are not your average tire kickers. Consequently, these are not just vehicles for traveling in. They're also status symbols for arriving at important functions. Such as at court for that well-publicized insider-trading arraignment.

And it just isn't good enough anymore to drive ostenta­tious expressions of wealth. Anyone can win the lottery, you know. Discriminating good taste is much harder to come by. That's why the manufacturers of upscale cars are vying for your attention with a number of cars boasting long pedigrees, tasteful design, and thoughtful details. And because wealthy people hate to be thought gullible, these wonderful rolling tributes to deep pockets have to be convincing exercises in engineering excellence.

To find out if they are, we've volunteered our services. As thoroughly cosseted automotive journalists, we've become accustomed to the trappings of a wealthy life in our globe-trotting quest to bring you news of the new. We like to think we've developed the sensibilities of the well­-heeled, if not the bank balances.

So we decided on a typically upscale junket: a drive to Chicago's classy Raphael Hotel, then to historical Galena (once home to Ulysses S. Grant), with as many expense-account meals at classy restaurants as the spirit of investigation required. The cars? Well, we thought a Cadillac STS would be nice, particularly as it now comes with the four-cam Northstar engine providing necessary motivation.

Jaguar is a name with the solid ring of coin to it, so we brought an XJ6 along. Of course, that brought three German luxury marques to mind, particularly as each of them now has something new to tempt the very well-heeled. BMW has a neat new 4.0-liter V-8 engine for its 7-series and, as you would expect, it has named the resulting product the 740i. Meanwhile, Mercedes has dropped its 4.2-liter V-8 (an engine we fondly recall from the 400SE) into the 300-series body to create the awesome 400E. Not to be outdone, Audi engineers have enlarged their V-8 engine to 4.2 liters, and now offer it in the latest iteration of the all-wheel-drive Audi V8.

We included the winner of our last luxury-car com­parison test: the Lexus LS400. Obviously, we could not leave the reigning champion out of the rematch, espe­cially now that the 1993 models have passenger airbags and bigger brakes. So the Lexus came along too, and it spotlighted just how tough the competition is in this lofty price bracket. Boy, these rich people drive some good cars. Picking a winner was not at all easy, but someone had to do it.

6th Place: Jaguar XJ6

It may seem like heresy to consign this pedigreed car to the bottom of the rankings, but the Jag was plain outgunned in the engine department, outsmarted in ergonomics, and outpaced by the technol­ogy of its rivals. Clearly, this is murder­ously tough company for the Jaguar to be keeping, but with its sticker on the wrong side of 56 grand, there's no excuse for the car to run and hide.

With the only six-cylinder engine in the pack, the Jaguar suffered a performance disadvantage. For the same reason, it also lost out in the subjective assessment of drivetrain quality. The V-8s in all the other cars simply feel and sound better than the engine in the Jaguar. As our associate art director Jeff Dworin remarked: "The sound of this car reminds me of our long­-term Jeep Grand Cherokee." In this league, that is not much of a compliment.

Still, the Jaguar is a long way from being a bad car. Indeed, it has many desir­able attributes. The steering is smooth, quick, and reasonably communicative. The ride is appropriately plush, yet it's fairly well controlled. In fact, the Jaguar, with its soft springs, does a better job of smother­ing certain high-frequency surface ripples than the other cars in our test, and its tires were generally less prone to the bump­-thump that typically characterizes these performance sedans. The problem with the XJ6 is that the bandwidth in which it excels is narrow. The car's comfy ride can become floaty at speed on long undulations, and it allows a generous amount of body roll in fast bends. There is even occa­sional diagonal pitching. Also, the light steering is a tad too quick off center on the freeway, although its behavior thereafter is decently linear.

Inside, the traditional British luxury-car decor lends plenty of atmosphere and character, and that helps offset the lack of interior space and some unfortunate ergonomic blunders. Probably the worst among these are the power seat controls set at knee level in the transmission tunnel, at an angle that renders them almost illegi­ble. But if you can overlook the peculiari­ties of its layout, the XJ6 is comfortable and pleasant to drive.

HIGHS: Good ride/handling compromise. Strong traditional character.
LOWS: Space, ergonomics, power.
VERDICT: Classy image, but technically outclassed.

Even with the lowest engine output and heaviest curb weight in the group, the Jaguar was not sluggish. It ran to 60 mph quicker than the Lexus. But in every other quantifiable aspect involving luxury cars, the Jag scored at or near the bottom of the pack.

5th Place: Audi V8 Quattro

The Audi's credentials are fairly impressive on paper. It has a new 4.2-liter V-8 engine, all-wheel drive, an electroni­cally controlled four-speed automatic transmission, a full wood-and-leather interior, and an extensive complement of standard equipment. These features give the car some solid road-going virtues, yet the Audi somehow still fell short of satis­fying all of our expectations.

Complaints about the steering wheel being slung at a low height and cocked at a strange offset angle may seem trifling, but they compromise one's first impressions of an otherwise promising car. There are other contradictions, too. The V-8 engine makes lusty noises and provides exhilarat­ing thrust once it has hurdled the 3000-rpm mark, but the torque converter stalls a long way short of that engine speed in first gear, so you get leisurely acceleration along the way.

The Audi's ride is distinctly sporting in feel and sound, being firmly restrained and fairly gruff over coarse pavement, yet its Servotronic steering feels artificially light and remote. The brake pedal moves with deliberate heft and calls for firm pressure, yet there's little initial bite, and (as you can see from the test results) the braking per­formance is unexceptional. The transmis­sion has multi-mode shift programs with a selector knob, but it returns to the economy setting with every restart—and you usually only remember that after you've pulled out in front of an oncoming semi-trailer and the car dithers underfoot.

Although the Audi is packaged in a body shell directly descended from the first aero 100s and therefore has a low­-drag, low-wind-noise shape, it is sensitive to crosswinds and demands constant guid­ance in gusty going. In its favor, though, the Audi is a rewarding sports sedan when put to the task by an enthusiastic driver.

HIGHS: Strong engine, good traction, sporty character.
LOWS: High price, weird steering-wheel position, contradictory dynamics.
VERDICT: More sporting than luxury. Great for snowy climes.

The engine makes stirring sounds and pulls strongly to its 126-mph cutoff—a limit that Audi electronically imposes to match the V-rated tires it fits to U.S. cars—and is teamed with an automatic transmission that seems eager to please and a suspension that is tautly disciplined. Finally, we must not forget Audi's trump card, at least for those of us living in the frozen north: an all-wheel-drive system with torque-apportioning center differen­tial. In the right weather conditions, this car might have enjoyed a better finish than fifth place.

4th Place: Cadillac STS

When you climb out of a Lexus LS400 and slide behind the wheel of the Seville Touring Sedan, the Cadillac suddenly seems a lot more sporting than luxurious. A vociferous four-cam V-8 engine, an aerodynamically noisy greenhouse, a taut suspension, and big boomy tires make for a distinctly aggressive environment. Yet the car is slicker than the previous Seville—and good enough to edge out two of our European competitors.

Admittedly, the STS's pricing con­tributed to its standing in this test. At just under $46,000, fully optioned, the Cadillac undercuts the next-most-affordable car in this collection by more than ten grand. And you're not shortchanged on the deal, either. The Northstar engine—the biggest and most powerful in this group—is an urgent and exciting performer, strong at low engine speeds and ferocious as the redline looms. Ask it to pass the car ahead, and it sets about the task with furious energy.

The Seville is also quite roomy, although its seats can't match the best in this group for support and comfort. This is possibly the least refined vehicle here, with big tires that roar across rough textures, then clop and patter over surface breaks. Also, the front-wheel drivetrain can't quite contain the feedback impulses of nearly 300 horsepower, so there is some wheel fight as the front tires torque off course, as well as other reminders about which end puts down the power.

HIGHS: Superb engine, good looks, reasonable price.
LOWS: Aggressive chassis, torque steer, crude touches.
VERDICT: More performance than luxury.

At the same time, steering feel is mostly numb and inert. Combine that with a suspension that suffers juddering over corrugations, some rear-end hopping on mid-bend bumps, and a certain edginess of ride on troubled surfaces, and you quickly realize that the STS lacks ultimate poise. Still, it's a fast, good-looking, well-equipped, comfortable tourer with an appealing price. And that's nothing to sneeze at.

3rd Place: Lexus LS400

In December 1989, we fielded Toyota's new luxury flagship in a contest very similar to the one you're now read­ing, and it scored a decisive victory. So, what's changed so much that the LS400 now finishes third? Mainly the price. Back then, the car stickered at $42,650 with a whole grab bag of options. Also, com­pared with the cars featured in that story (a Jaguar XJ6, a 3.6-liter Audi V8, a Mercedes 420SEL, an Infiniti Q45, a BMW 735i, and the previous Cadillac STS), the Lexus outperformed everything but the Q45.

That picture has now changed. The yen has been growing like kudzu, and at $56,524 as tested, our LS400 is more than 32 percent costlier than our 1989 test car. The BMW, on the other hand, has jumped less than 10 percent during its transforma­tion from 735i to 740i. As a result, the LS400, which was 23 percent less expen­sive than a 7-series in 1989, is now only 6 percent less. Meanwhile, the BMW, the Audi, the Cadillac, and the Mercedes all have new high-output V-8s, while the LS400 has gained a few pounds and lost some of its sparkling performance. Still, the Lexus is a fantastic piece of engineer­ing, with interior noise levels that are tomblike in comparison with other cars in this group and levels of refinement beyond the reach of any car on the road.

No traces of mechanical nastiness can be detected through either the wheel or the pedals. Shifts slur from gear to gear so unobtrusively that the tach needle sometimes provides the only clue anything's happened. The engine emits a distant mel­low tone devoid of the hard-edged ham­mering you find in the German eights. And the interior is arranged and assembled with precise elegance, the controls laid out with thoughtful simplicity.

The unusual aubergine-colored mold­ings in our car were flawless, the leather unblemished and stitched with perfect symmetry. The supportive, upright seating offers a commanding view of the road and of the bright and clear instrumentation, while an efficient ventilation system moves copious quantities of air through the cabin. Our testers were very taken by the space and comfort of the LS400. In rear-seat accommodation, we voted it the most comfortable car in the group by a healthy margin. All in all, it's a veritable sanctuary from the outside world.

But you can't please all of the people all of the time. Some of us thought the car's optional air suspension was discon­certingly bubbly on its Touring setting, making the car feel a bit tippy on the open road. A panel in the seat, intended to spread the driver's weight evenly across the cushion, doesn't help, as it enhances the teetering motion characteristics. Because of rather gentle roll control at the front end, most steering inputs produce a soft banking attitude, even though the wheels go obediently where they're pointed. (The Sport setting improves mat­ters considerably.)

HIGHS: Velvet driveline, unequaled refinement.
LOWS: Not much driver involvement, for those who care.
VERDICT: Not the bargain it was, but still a paragon of engineering excellence.

The car's extraordinary isolation from noise and bother makes the slap of its new 225/60 tires (on larger, sixteen-inch wheels, adopted so that bigger brakes could be fitted) seem louder than we remember in the old car. Other than that, the Lexus is isolated to the point of stimu­lus deprivation, reading only 67 dBA at full throttle on our sound meter. And the LS400 has one of the best original-equip­ment sound systems around. With its pri­orities firmly established in the attainment of refinement, the Lexus inevitably loses out to the BMW and the Benz in the little matter of driver involvement.

2nd Place: Mercedes-Benz 400E

The image of Mercedes-Benz's tall and almost-delicate W124 body does not fit into the mental picture you have of the 400E when driving it. When you're behind the wheel, this car feels taut, damped, deliberate, and very powerful. From the outside, it looks improbably spare and not much different from a 300E.

Nor is the inside layout anything but familiarly Benz, with the usual flat and severe moldings, tidy furnishings, and generic Untertürkheim instrumentation. There's space for four passengers to travel in reasonable comfort, and the generous use of wood and leather has helped warm the general ambiance. Under the rich trap­pings, however, are controls that embody the Mercedes approach to high perfor­mance.

As in every Mercedes, the throttle link­age is very gradual, so you can move smoothly away from rest, and you can control low-speed maneuvers with ease. (It's also good for making starts in slippery going, although full-time traction control now takes care of that.) The steering wheel has a damped and weighty feel, barely requiring supervision when holding the car on a straight course, then loading up appreciably as you bend it into a turn. The ride is more vigorous than in a Jaguar or a Lexus, with some boomy drumming audible on ripples, yet it lacks the jitteri­ness of the STS, and it always feels unshakably poised.

Although the 4.2-liter V-8 has adequate torque for tooling around town, the real excitement is packed higher up the dial. As the engine spins nearer its 5700-rpm power peak, it takes on a harder, more exciting edge, and the power swells in a way that you won't soon forget. Although its torque and horsepower figures are almost identical to the Audi V8's, the Mercedes is unencumbered by the weight of a four-wheel drivetrain and thus man­ages better performance figures. It feels more urgent in action, too.

HIGHS: Sparkling performance, all-around integrity.
LOWS: Radio and window switches are hard to put a finger on.
VERDICT: A solid investment.

There is something embedded in the 400E's meticulous engineering that gives it a feel of stability and confidence. The suspension remains remarkably neutral, even when the car is being braked hard in mid-bend, and there is a sense of essential communication that makes its way through the syrupy, slow-motion character of the controls. At $63,022, the 400E is 25 grand cheaper than the 500E, which makes it the best reason not to buy its superhero sibling.

1st Place: BMW 740i

If you ever need a reminder that the "M" in BMW stands for "Motoren," the German word for "engines," this car will bring the realization flooding back. Along with it will come an admiration for what the Bavarians have done with this aging platform and its commonplace suspension principles.

As a combination of luxury, comfort, performance, and style, this car takes a lot of beating. And now that Mercedes has moved its S-class cars out of this price class, the 740i's interior space gives it an advantage over all the cars in this test except the Lexus. That's before we even take BMW's remarkable drivetrain tech­nology into consideration. Believe it—this new four-cam, 32-valve, all-aluminum 4.0-liter V-8 is a jewel. It is as smooth and subdued at urban velocities as any of the company's sixes, with just a slight warble in the exhaust note hinting at its bent cylinder configuration.

Stand on it hard, however, and it rewards you with instant response and relentless acceleration that is only fraction­ally slower than the Cadillac to 60 mph and through the quarter-mile. And all the while it treats you to some of the automo­tive world's most mellifluous noises. The 740i is the only car in its class with a five­-speed automatic transmission, and the extra ratio has allowed BMW engineers to stage the gears so that the engine seems always to be pulling with maximum thrust. As is common practice these days, shifts have been smoothed by momentary torque reduction, and the brief fluctuation in the exhaust note makes gear swaps sound as if they were being handled by a little man in the engine bay.

Inside the car is a roomy passenger compartment liberally swathed in leather, wood, and expensive-looking plastic moldings and studded with BMW's usual intelligent switches and controls. In typical German fashion, the surfaces tend to be severe and functional, yet there is an inti­macy about BMW cockpits that quickly endears itself to the occupants, and an admirable efficiency in the way controls for so many devices are packaged. In true BMW style, too, is the conduct of the car, where absolute isolation takes second place to integrity of feedback. The car's underpinnings are tautly laced, and body motions are firmly restrained.

And yet the 740i is not overly macho. In fact, it has a slightly more plush and fluid ride than the Mercedes, with lighter steering, a more compliant suspension, and a more muted engine. It takes spirited driving to bring the 740i alive in your hands. The car steers and corners in a way that seems to shrink its considerable mass, making it feel lighter on its feet than the STS, although, in truth, it isn't.

HIGHS: Extraordinary driveline, sophisticated driving experience.
LOWS: Old shape.
VERDICT: A car to fall in love with.

We won't deny that the 7-series plat­form shows signs of being well into its life cycle, with wind noise at the door tops highlighting its tall, vertical glasshouse and noticeable road roar (along with sundry struc­tural creaks) reminding us how far the refinement goalposts have been moved by Lexus of late. But this BMW's vivid per­formance, sybaritic comfort, responsive handling, and sheer driving pleasure proved enough of an argument to head off the Mercedes-Benz by one point and make the 740i a deserving winner.