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      05-03-2009, 12:15 AM   #1
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Thumbs up Car and Driver: 2009 BMW 750Li vs. 2009 Mercedes-Benz S550

review: http://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/...omparison_test


Executive sweets: We compare two high-end sedans that just might fly below the corporate austerity radar.


BY TONY SWAN, PHOTOGRAPHY BY JEFF ALLEN
May 2009


So you had to say goodbye to the Gulfstream, the corporate retreat in the Napa Valley, and your custom wastebasket—the decoupage job trimmed with pages from a Gutenberg Bible. Times are hard, and it just won’t do to be perceived as excessively self-indulgent—especially if you’re high up in the echelons of a publicly held corporation.

The new corporate Puritanism extends to automobiles, too, but in this area you have a little more latitude. Consider these two execucruisers. Yes, they’re flagship sedans with prestige brand names. But even in an age of austerity, top execs are still allowed some personal-transportation indulgence. You don’t want to be flaunting it with a Bentley, of course. But they don’t expect you to drive an econocube, either. We admit that greenies won’t approve. Both cars carry gas-guzzler taxes, and their mpg during our test—17 for the Mercedes, 16 for the BMW—is pickup-truck poor. And yes, pricing for both cars is a little high for public approval—more than $88,000 base, well over 100 large as tested—but who knows that?

See, that’s the good part. To casual observers—not you or us, of course—one BMW sedan looks pretty much like another. That goes for Mercedes sedans, too, with the added benefit of looking like a Hyundai—though we’re pretty sure no one in Stuttgart perceives any advantage in this.

So, elegantly subliminal and not too likely to attract a lot of invidious attention. With cars bearing price tags like these, you expect more than understated grandeur. You expect power. Comfort. Upscale interior appointments. Technical sophistication. Dynamic competence. Even night vision.

Check. Both cars deliver on these expectations, and neither is likely to disappoint its owner. But of course there are distinctions, and in at least one category, the distinction isn’t particularly subtle.

There are other high-end sedans that meet our (relatively) low-profile criteria—the Audi A8L, the Maserati Quattroporte, the Jaguar XJ Super V-8, and the Lexus LS460L, or even the LS600hL hybrid, which adds a greenish tint to your comings and goings. But we confine ourselves here to the Bimmer and the Benz, the former because it’s new, the latter because it prevailed in our most recent comparison of long-wheelbase luxosedans . Here’s how the games played out.

2009 BMW 750Li
First place: Executive sweets.


In its last comparo appearance, the 750Li not only missed the winner’s circle—in itself a rarity for a BMW in C/D showdowns—it finished short of runner-up honors, too, placing third behind an Audi A8L and barely ahead of a Jaguar. Wow. What’s up with that?

In order of scoring magnitude, the offending elements were ergonomics (read: iDrive), exterior styling, interior styling, and, shockingly, fit and finish.

That was generation four in a family that dates to 1978. Here’s generation five, which not only addresses our gen-four demerits but adds some techno goodies that actually enhance the car’s safety index, as well as its basic BMW virtues—athletic reflexes in particular. The dreaded iDrive secondary-control collective has been overhauled and augmented with some auxiliary buttons that make it far more navigable, even to the staff’s card-carrying Luddite. The slab sides and “Bangle butt” that made the previous 7 hard to love have been replaced by strong horizontal character lines and a going-away view that’s still BMW but more cohesive—enhanced by clusters of LED turn signals, front and rear.

Inside, the BMW’s front seats get the edge for comfort and support, the optional head-up display ($1300) is a plus, and the
night-vision system with pedestrian detection ($2600) is remarkable. There were a couple of other extras in our loaded test car—a ceramic shifter ($650) and the $2500 Luxury Seating package (heated wheel, power rear sunshade, rear side-window sunshades, ventilated front-seat upholstery, driver-seat massage, heated rear seats)—that wouldn’t be missed if omitted.

But having experienced the Sport package—it includes active roll stabilization, 19-inch wheels wearing Goodyear Excellence run-flats (245/45 front, 275/40 rear), and BMW’s latest variable-ratio Integral Active Steering system that now includes speed-sensitive rear steering—we’d hate to leave home without it, even though it’s the priciest option ticket on the list at $4900. More on this in a minute.

This is a bigger car than the fourth-generation 750Li, which was far from petite. The wheelbase has grown from 123.2 to 126.4 inches, the track is wider, and overall length is up 1.4 inches, to 205.3. That’s a little bigger than the Benz. The only bigger car in this segment is Jaguar’s Super V-8, but the aluminum-intensive Jag scales in much lighter. The new 750Li is heavier than its 2007 predecessor—4760 pounds versus 4600. Heavier than the Benz, too.

Getting all that mass moving requires carrier-takeoff thrust, supplied by a twin-turbo, 4.4-liter V-8—a little more horsepower than the previous naturally aspirated 4.8-liter V-8 (400 versus 360) and a lot more torque (450 pound-feet versus 360). That’s enough to produce 0-to-60 sprints in 5.2 seconds, and if there’s a hint of turbo lag, it’s only in contrast to the immediacy of the Benz V-8.

More impressive, though, is what this big Bimmer can do on a fast back road. The combination of a new multilink front suspension (replacing the previous struts), a redesigned rear suspension, electronically controlled damping with four driver presets (comfort, normal, sport, and sport plus), active roll stabilization, and rear-wheel steering gives this car a level of cornering power and transient response that’s nothing short of phenomenal.

Though grip is modest at 0.82 g, the steering system, which turns the rear wheels in the same direction as the fronts (up to three degrees) at speeds over 37 mph, enhances turn-in. This is reflected in the lane-change test, where the Bimmer had a decided edge, and was even more dramatic on mountain roads. The faster we went, the better the BMW performed and the more confidence it inspired.

Is this sort of driving important to many of the execs who shop the cars in this price realm? Probably not. But it should be.



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