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Road Test: Comparison Test
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Luxury Coupe Comparison Test
Introduction
By
Ed Hellwig, Lead Senior Editor
Date posted: 05-17-2001
Luxury coupes could be considered the snobs of the automotive world. Grocery capacity?
Who cares? Kid friendliness? Doesn't matter. Sure, they have backseats, but their
cramped accommodations are all the more reason to make it a twosome. Driving one
says that you're kidless and rich, or you finally managed to get the kids you
do have out of the house and into minivans of their own, leaving all those tuition
checks and allowance payoffs to yourself.
So for those who need not consider anybody but themselves, and maybe a significant
other, in the car buying equation, we present our look at the latest in luxury
two-doors. The lineup includes the usual German suspects, an upstart Japanese
contender and a quirky Swede thrown in for good measure.
A few minor last-minute glitches left us with a more diverse, and sparse, selection
of participants. First, we had intended to include a second Swede, the Saab 9-3
Viggen, but when we called to confirm our weeklong loan they had somehow forgotten
about it. We promptly forgot that we wanted one in the test and that was that.
Second, the obvious choice from Mercedes in this test would have been the CLK
320 with its roughly $40K price tag and V6 engine. Unfortunately, Mercedes had
none of these lesser versions of the CLK available so we were forced to make do
with the more powerful, and much more expensive, V8-powered CLK 430. Poor us.
So if you couldn't care less how many kids you can haul to soccer practice, or
four doors just seems like more utility than you'll ever need, read on and discover
the joys of driving cars that cater to just one thing — you.
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