Comparison Tests
We've been meaning to get these two squared off since the Lexus SC430 made its debut just over a year ago, and a quick scan of the stats will tell you why: Rarely do we encounter two combatants that seem so equally matched. In price, in power-to-weight ratio, in objective performance.
But why, you may ask, are we limiting ourselves to a mere pas de deux? Aren't there other sporty two-plus-two luxo-convertibles that would probably be on the same shopping list? The Jaguar XK8, for example? Or the Porsche 911 cabrio? The answer is yes—and no. Yes, if you're not too concerned about money. No, if you're trying to keep the prices within hailing distance of one another, which is something we try to do in all our comparos. Pricing for the fresh-air versions of the Jag and Porsche starts well north of our two testers—$76,024 for the former, $79,516 for the latter. The as-tested price for the SC430 was $61,661; the CLK430 cost $61,398. So the XK8 and the 911 sat on the sideline.
We had another problem. Although Mercedes was finally able to produce a proper test car—it turned out to be the only CLK430 cabrio in its U.S. fleet—the car was parked in Atlanta, rather than in California, where we'd hoped to have a livelier selection of roads. And as we were making our plans, including scheduling a suitable test track, Atlanta was being pelted with sleet, snow, and other wintry stuff—not the right sort of meteorology for testing or wind-in-the-hair motoring.
About the roads. Everyone knows Florida provides winter temperatures conducive to top-down cruising, but assessed as a place to drive, the roads are about as interesting as a first-hour introduction-to-statistics lecture class. Sort of like driving across Kansas, but without the elevation changes. As our man Bedard observes, "It's an excellent place to check out on-center steering feel." (To be fair, you also get to check steering feel just off-center, during lane changes and passing.)
To make it even more like work, our trek took place a few weeks ahead of the annual hormone festival known as Spring Break, a Florida beach tradition that would have lent much more entertaining elements to a convertible test. Skin. Hard bodies. Etc.
We compensated for the shortage of entertaining roads by covering lots of miles—1640 of them, from Atlanta to Panama City in the Florida panhandle, then to Ft. Myers, a perennial Spring Break magnet; onward to Moroso Motorsports Park near West Palm Beach; to St. Augustine, the oldest European city in the U.S.; then back to Atlanta. Essentially, it was One Lap of Florida—plus.
Moroso gave us a chance to see what both cars would do at their limits, and the rest of the schlepping left us thoroughly familiar with their cruising credentials. And even though both cars were very close in every measurable category, when we dropped them off at Atlanta's Hartsfield International Airport, we were unanimous on the top choice. In almost any contest of equals, one will emerge as more equal than the others, and so it proved here.
