Comparison Tests
When getting there is assumed and what counts is your arrival, you need a ride with Coach cachet, Ferragamo flair, Saks snobbery, Vuitton verve.
In the travertine halls of the Somerset Collection, a ritzy shopping enclave in the Detroit suburb of Troy, Michigan, our quintet of all-weather Arrival Vehicles—let’s call them AVs—basked in admiring glances. Burberry and Ralph Lauren behind showroom glass, Lexus and Mercedes out front, the coveting begins at 10 a.m.
Of course, an AV will get you to most any terrestrial destination; all-wheel drive, traction control, stability control, and onboard navigation see to that. But it’s the designer details and gilt-edge labels that mark an arrival.
Arrival—as opposed to just plain ol’ arrival—naturally costs a little more, the price of moving up the status pyramid far enough to be where everybody isn’t. Unrolling 45 or 50 thou won’t put you up in the thin oxygen, but the manners are more polite and the leather is softer.
This comparison test is prompted by four new entries in this so-called “compact-luxury sport-utility” class. We’re facing them off against the veteran BMW X3, first introduced in 2004, the winner of our last roundup [July 2007]. For the record, these crossover vehicles are all based on passenger-car platforms.
The Audi Q5, newborn for 2009 and Audi’s first entry in the segment, is based on the similarly new A4 sedan. A 3.2-liter V-6 and Quattro all-wheel drive are standard equipment.
The new-for-2010 Lexus RX350 follows the formula that made its predecessor the bestseller in the segment, a sumptuous leather cabin riding on a creamy suspension. Choose front- or all-wheel drive.
Mercedes-Benz, long a lofty presence in heavyweight SUVs, for the first time lowers its sights to the compact segment with the 2010 GLK350, which is based on C-class architecture. A 3.5-liter V-6 is standard equipment, backed by a seven-speed automatic, with your choice of rear- or all-wheel drive.
Volvo’s swoopy XC60 debuts as a 2010 model, a shortened and much resculpted take on a platform shared by the V70/XC70/S80 models. The 3.0-liter, turbocharged inline-six spools up to 281 peak horsepower, making it the top performer of this group, on paper at least.
Golf clap, please, for these five AVs.
