Cadillac wins easily on ride quality and comfort
As usual, the “Prestige/Performance over $75,000” category is something of a mixed bag.
Essentially this year, we have two blood-and-guts pure sports cars, one luxury performance sedan and one luxury performance coupe.
Each one offers a wide range of delectable attributes, but my task is to rank them, and to predict which will win this category. Cadillac CTS-V ($105,035) Cadillac is regaining the prestige it held for most of the 20th century. It has done this by building good cars. The mid-size CTS, now in its third generation, is a very good car.
Toss in a supercharged Corvette engine, rework just about every part of the car, including suspension, brakes, tires and aerodynamics, and you also have a very fast car that handles and stops with the very best the world has to offer.
Not that the CTS-V needs a lot of help to do well, even in the face of this very tough field, but the AJAC evaluation process tends to reward overall goodness, not excellence based on a handful of criteria.
So this roomy four-door sedan easily wins on things like ride quality (you simply can’t beat Magnetic Ride Control), passenger space (four can fit in easily, five in a pinch, and trunk space.
So, to me and probably to this group, the CTS-V is a clear winner. Porsche Cayman GT4 ($105,290) For pure driving pleasure, the midengined Porsche Boxster/Cayman family has always been hard to beat.
Apply the GT4 treatment — more power, better suspension, better brakes, etc. — for the first time to the Cayman and you have that in spades.
The racing-style bucket seats make it tough to get in and out. But once you’re in, you won’t want to get out.
The 3.8-litre flat six delivers strong power and that characteristic Porsche exhaust warble.
The transmission redefines slickness, and clutch take-up is simply marvellous. If you can’t shift this car smoothly, you should not be driving a manual. And you can’t get any other transmission in this model.
You pay a ride penalty for the brilliant handling and knife-edge steering. But if this is the sort of thing that turns your crank, no other car in this field will do. Mercedes-AMG GT S ($161,300) Want subtlety? Look elsewhere. This car demands your attention even when standing still.
And when you switch on the 4.0litre twin-turbo V8, everyone else just shuts up.
The car is scary fast. You get the feeling you’re riding a curling stone tossed by Superman. It is big, it is heavy (or at least it feels heavy, especially compared to the Porsche) and you must treat it with respect.
Mercedes’ control system, which requires considerable attention to figure out which screen you’re in and which way to shove the central knob to make it do your bidding, is much easier to deal with in a slower-moving sedan than in a rocket ship like this one.
The suspension is definitely on the hard side too.
But, want to make an entrance? Here’s your ride. Lexus RC F ($89,050) Lexus is all about refinement. Which is fine. But in a field like this, the RC F feels just a trifle disconnected, a bit detached.
It is comfortable enough, and even though the 5.0-litre V8 is outgunned in pure horsepower by all but the Porsche in this group, performance is nothing to be ashamed of. It even sounds good. Handling is also well-sorted, and the ride perhaps no worse than second in this group, after the Caddy.
I found the matte black plastic centre stack trim extremely economical-looking. And the Lexus central controller that allows finger motion on a touch pad to move the cursor around the screen was hard to learn to use. On bumpy roads, in particular, it is almost impossible to direct the cursor to where you want it to go.
Sorry, folks. There is no substitute for proper knobs and levers in an automobile, at least when it is moving. And that’s what the “mobile” part of that word means. Freelance writer Jim Kenzie is Wheels’ chief auto reviewer. To reach him, write to wheels@thestar.ca and put his name in the subject line.