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Comparison Tests
Luxury Coupe Comparison Test
Top 5 Features
By Ed Hellwig
Date Posted 05-17-2001
Our list of possible candidates only included features not already standard
on all four cars, so things like air conditioning and remote key fobs
aren't represented. Each car was awarded points based on the availability
of these features and whether or not they came standard, could be ordered
as options or were completely unavailable.
Just to clarify, in the tilt/telescoping steering wheel category, the
car needed to have both tilt and telescope adjustment to earn points.
Regarding auto up and down windows, again, the car needed to have both
auto up and down to score. Also, an on-board computer is
more than just a trip odometer and a temperature gauge. They typically
include features like miles to empty and instant mileage among other things.
Top 5 Features
| |
Acura CL Type S |
BMW 330Ci |
Mercedes Benz CLK 430 |
Volvo C70 |
| In dash CD changer |
S |
N/A |
N/A |
O |
| Tilt/telescoping steering wheel |
N/A |
S |
N/A |
S |
| Satellite steering wheel controls |
S |
S |
S |
N/A |
| Auto up/down windows |
N/A |
S |
S |
N/A |
| On board computer |
N/A |
S |
S |
O |
In-dash CD changer:
Seems like just yesterday that we were impressed by the inclusion of
any type of CD changer in a vehicle. These days, annoying trips to the trunk
have been eliminated with the advent of the in-dash changer that mysteriously
swallows multiple discs into a single slot. The Acura's unit proved to be
the easiest to use in addition to swallowing the most discs (six), while
the Volvo's protruding three-disc magazine was deemed slow and almost unnecessary
with its minimal capacity.
Tilt/Telescoping Steering Wheel:
You would think that cars of this stature would include these basic
adjustments, but it was a split decision when it came to our four featured
coupes. Bear in mind that the Acura's wheel tilted and the Mercedes' telescoped,
but we don't give points for trying around here, so they lost out against
the full-featured BMW and Volvo setups.
Satellite Steering Wheel Controls:
A luxury perk that has trickled down to the masses in everything from
minivans to SUVs, satellite steering wheel controls allow drivers to manipulate
frequently used stereo, climate and cruise control functions without taking
their hands off the wheel. They take a little getting used to, but quickly
become second nature. In this day and age of cell phones, palm pilots and
TV-like navigation systems, we can't help but applaud features that keep
drivers focused on the road.
Auto Up/Down Windows:
This is one of those features that leaves us scratching our heads. We
don't claim to be engineers around here or anything, but we can't imagine
that there's a real big difference in price or complexity between a window
switch that provides auto up only and one that provides both auto up and
down. Yet for some reason, only a handful of cars on the market, the
BMW and Mercedes in this test included, provide this handy feature. Much
like in-dash CD changers, we hope that this feature soon becomes as mainstream
as the windows themselves.
On-Board Computer:
To some, this may fall into the gimmick category, but after logging
hundreds of miles on these two-door cruisers, we found on-board computers
to be a useful feature that we think every luxury coupe should have. Distance-to-empty
is probably the most useable piece of information they provide, but multiple
trip meters, average fuel economy and elapsed time readouts also proved
worthwhile functions.
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