Apparently there is a recession going on…there’s precious little positive sentiment beaming out from our tele channels and newspapers which in turn is driving you and us deeper into depression and a general belt tightening. But then that’s us.
Way up in the clouds teeming with private jets and smart helicopters news of the depression or even the general slowdown is yet to filter in. Money continues to be lavished on frightfully expensive playthings and luxury cars continue to be sold – sold with a vengeance. Recent sales data shows Mercedes Benz with a registered 50 per cent growth in sales and BMW clocking 110 per cent growth in sales. And if you thought that was too much to take in, Audi has posted a 200 per cent growth (though admittedly it’s starting out for a very small base)

Heads of state, industrialists and the generally super rich have never had it so good…in this extravaganza of a test the BMW’s all-new 7 series meets the top of the class Mercedes-Benz S350 and the decadent Audi A8 W12…OverDrive (March ’09) gives you an assessment…

Design & Style

The new 7 in one word has become more subtle. Gone is the aggression, the raw energy and at times the conflicting design elements that one recognizes as the BMW signature. Now its all about elegance, projecting a graceful air and a deft play of ‘light and shadows’ that require seeing the car in the metal to truly appreciate. And lots of subtle details.

It’s so clean that in profile there are only two lines – one dramatically pinched shoulder line that stretches the car and brings tension to the flanks and the other that twists gently from the chromed side marker at the front and free-flows to the rear. The proportions – long wheelbase, long hood and cabin set back over the rear wheels emphasize dynamism while the larger and more upright kidney grille flanked by the corona ring xenon lamps conveys presence. Gone is the controversial Bangle butt and in comes a more conventional bootlid with an integrated spoiler. Overall the styling is sweet – but BMW’s aren’t supposed to be sweet. They’re supposed to violently assault you with eye-watering details. That’s what works for BMW!

Mercedes, like you know, never did (and I guess it never will do) radical. The three-pointed star has always graced conventionally proportioned and elegant automobiles that will offend none, perfectly epitomized by the S Class. Judge it for yourself – it’s been quite a few years on the market and you’ve probably seen it umpteen times. But tomorrow if you see an S, particularly in white or black, you will still crane your neck and subconsciously hope you recognize the famous face at the back, says OverDrive (March ’09). That’s the charm, the appeal, of Mercedes cars in general and the S Class in particular.

Coming to India’s latest luxury car entrant – the Audi. People spending eight digit sums on their cars, in India, tend to be conservative and particularly mindful of the brand (and the brand values) they associate themselves with. Mercedes brand values we all know. BMW is dynamic and sporty. What’s Audi? ‘Vorsprung durch Technik’? The Germans love being on the technological cutting edge which is why Audi is growing faster than either BMW or Mercedes. However ‘ Vorsprung durch Technik’ will take a lot of time to mean something to us Indians.

But Audi’s car’s are truly fantastic and the A8, particularly with all the visual addenda that the W12 engined cars benefit from is awe inspiring. The machined-from-solid look is incredibly erotic feels OverDrive (March ’09). It’s all heft and muscle like a billet of aluminum was put into a six-axis CNC machine and milled into the A8. And those wheels – they are a rolling showcase of decadence and probably the limit after which decadence acquires tones of the obscene.

The sense of occasion carries over to the inside – you sit on the beautifully stitched brown leather seats and when you turn on the ignition two Bang&Olufsen tweeter towers slide up from the extremities of the dash and as you would expect – the sound quality is ear-bleeding good (good being a relative term here since both the 7 and the S have sound systems that will put hard rock cafes to shame). The drama is only heightened by the display screen that slides out from the dash and you even discover a fridge and an electrically folding table. Some aspects are quite dated though like the dark brown wood finish instead of the newer far rich piano black used by most cars in the same segment today. Also the key you actually use to insert into the ignition is, gasp, similar to the Skoda Fabia’s says OverDrive (March ’09).

In the BMW you don’t insert a key. Keep the key in your pocket, walk up to the car and it unlocks itself. Thumb the starter button and the car fires up. Conventional dials make way for a black TFT panel and light up with the info you need. There’s second generation iDrive which gets better and better so you don’t have to trawl in the variety of menus. The air con controls are separate from iDrive so operation is no longer a headache. There’s not just full iPod compatibility and Bluetooth connectivity but there’s even an 80GB hard drive so you can copy music, videos and other stuff onto.

At the rear the screens aren’t in the headrests but in the seat backs so it’s larger, flatter and clearer. There’s head up display that projects speed on to the windscreen in the driver’s line of sight. There’s a rear parking camera which can be specified at the extremities of the front bumper as well.

In contrast to the tech fest of the 7, the cabin of the S-Class is restrained. There’s less clutter, more elegance. The mood lighting oozing from the dash seams is beautiful, there’s better separation between the front and rear seats and the seats by far are the most comfortable from all three.

In terms of fitness of purpose the recedes has got the formula down perfectly – and in a word, this cabin is perfect, beyond reproach or criticism.

Performance

The Merc is a familiar machine for the OverDrive team (March ’09) and they love everything about it including its performance – 0-100kmph in 9 seconds flat from its naturally aspirated 3.5-litre 275PS V6 petrol. But as hard it might be to fathom, in this company the Merc feels underpowered. That’s because there’s a colossal six-litre direct-injection 12-cylinder engine in the Audi.

Step into the Audi after the Merc and it feels like you’ve jumped into a Lamborghini (sans the noise). There’s so much power under your right foot – 450PS and 580nm of torque – that the 100kmph sprint just took 6.7 seconds. Moreover she took 24.18seconds for 200kmph and 46.33 seconds for 250kmph. And to truly blow your mind she did zero to flat-out top speed in just 53 seconds. Shattering exclaims OverDrive (March ’09).

With the 7 series the BMW has retired the V12 petrol engine and adopted a twin-turbo V8 which still makes a smoking 407PS of power. But V8 versus W12? 407PS versus 450PS? Quattro versus rear wheel drive? It’s like David versus Goliath, except  you do know that David did win. And so does the Beemer.

On our very first drive, says OverDrive (March ’09), the Beemer posted a new acceleration record – 100kmph in 6.4 seconds. Shocking. A little experimenting with electronics and fiddling with switches brought the 100kmph sprint down to 6.2 seconds and then the OverDrive team decided to switch everything completely off – and we had had an astonishing time – 100kmpg in 5.98 seconds – the first car in India to breach the 6-second barrier!

Fuel Efficiency

The Beemer returned an overall efficiency of 6.14kmpl, the Audi was better with 6.85kmpl and the Merc better with 7.4kmpl. Not that if you can afford any of these cars these figures are going to bother you much…

Dynamics

All three are rolling showcases of their respective manufacturer’s technological prowess and the 7 Series continues the theme showcasing advancements that over time will filter down the range.

Headlining it all is four wheel steer in which, at low or parking speeds, the rear wheels turn in opposite direction to the front wheels to reduce the turning circle and increase agility while at speed the rears turn in the same direction as the fronts to aid handling stability. The surprising bit is it feels perfectly natural and gives the 7 an agility and dynamic ability that you never expect from a large luxo barge…as standard the 7 also gets three-stage electronic suspension adjustments – Comfort, Sport and Sport +.

Judging by the way it looks you’d think the Audi would be in the same league. But it’s not. The signs of promise are all there – crank it and it sounds unlike any engine we’re used to – a metallic fire-up that conveys serious intent. It also has the Quattro badge on the grille, which means four wheel drive, which means enormous grip though corners. And it goes enormously quick too. But it lacks that crucial feel that the 7 seems to have so much of, the feedback, the driver engagement. The Audi also gets adjustable dampers but even in Comfort mode it doesn’t have the suppleness or in Sport it doesn’t have the body control that the Beemer possesses.

Which brings us back to fitness of purpose. The Merc doesn’t encourage tyre-shredding antics. It’s half wood steering wheel doesn’t encourage back road trashing. So does that make it unimpressive? Quite the contrary, it makes it wholly suited to the task at hand which is rushing from the private jet to the share holder meet. What is required is the supplest, magic-est carpet ride quality in the world and the Merc delivers. The BMW and Audi when you analyze it critically don’t have the same plushness to their ride as the Merc. The Merc is a passenger car and it goes about its task of isolating occupants from the rest of the world, in a manner the other two really should learn from. In the Merc you don’t imagine being at home; the Merc is home!

Verdict

What does one take home? What an unimaginably difficult question to answer! Fact is all three are so accomplished they’re operating on another plane. Mercifully all three are possessed of different repertoires of talent which will appeal to differing needs of different clientele.

The Audi for instance is just excessive; it’s as big as big can get. The hulking great six-litre W12 engine is there for the sole purpose of being able to tell the world you’ve gor more money than them, to brag about mine being bigger than yours….

If technology rocks your boat the new 7 will have you rocking. Als if you enjoy driving the 7 is as good as it gets.

But don’t you think there’s something wrong in buying a luxury limo for the joy of driving it? Are we wrong in assuming that luxury is the overriding reason why people buy luxury limos?

So, when you look at it dispassionately, the verdict becomes bleedingly obvious – that the Mercedes still makes the best luxury limo in the world. That three-pointed star on the nose firmly but subtly tells the whole world you have money. The interiors are masterfully restrained. You couldn’t possibly have any reason in the world to get to 100kmph quicker than the nine seconds the S-Class takes you want the best and most comfortable seats in the world. You wouldn’t even mind saving ten lakh rupees over the 7. In short what you want is a Mercedes Benz S-Class, the best luxury car in the world.