Cost Car Insurance: Compelling

5 Eylül 2014 Cuma

2015 Lexus RC350 Coupe Driven: Born of Three Cars, This Is A single Compelling Coupe

First Drive Review

arrow

Born of 3 cars, the RC is one compelling coupe.

Whenever an automaker decides to fire a coupe into the market, it most often plucks a sedan from its quiver of cars, cuts a few inches out of the wheelbase, excises 2 doors, and wraps it in a swoopy body aimed to seduce the emotional hearts—not the practical minds—of buyers. Not Lexus. Not this time around. The all-new RC350 is built on the bones of 3 different cars, as the IS C convertible and the latest IS and GS sedans all make osteal contributions. The IS C donates its floor pan (with reinforced sills), the GS its structure forward of the A-pillar, and the IS its rear architecture.

In the RC lineup, the low-volume RC F is aimed at the power junkies, but this RC350 will find the most garages. Lexus hopes some 25,000 people will adopt one over the next year, half of whom, Lexus executives predict, will be new conquests to the brand. After all, there hasn’t been a truly affordable fixed-roof Lexus coupe since the SC400 went out of production nearly 15 years ago.

Whether you love or hate the styling, even the base $ 43,715 RC350 will draw stares from the sidewalk. The driver, meanwhile, sits wrapped in a cockpit that makes them feel as if they’re wearing the car, not riding in it. Those who bother to peek behind the front seats will notice that they very nearly rest against the leading edge of the bottom rear cushion. Small children won’t complain if you stuff them back there—especially those who haven’t learned to talk yet—but we wouldn’t want to stretch around the B-pillar to either get in ourselves or secure a kid in a child seat.

Every RC350 is powered by the same V-6 found in the IS350, which is good for 306 horsepower and 277 lb-ft of torque. Rear-wheel-drive models have an 8-speed automatic. All-wheel drive is a $ 2235 upcharge, but you part with more than your bucks: AWD cars must make do with a 6-speed automatic transmission. No manual is available. Opt for the F Sport trim, and the interior goes sporty, including an LFA-inspired gauge pod that features a power-actuated sliding bezel like the one available in the IS.

While the trick gauge cluster is neat, the F Sport also upgrades key hardware in the name of performance, and the package is a must for any enthusiast. It includes adaptive dampers and 4-wheel steering, high-friction brake pads, 19-inch wheels, and a front fascia that might as well be the RC F’s, among other bits.

Pricing for the F Sport trim starts at $ 48,800 for the rear-drive version—including the required power sunroof option—which undercuts a BMW 435i with the M Sport package by a few grand. Adding insult to injury, at least as far as the Bavarians are concerned, the F Sport also includes a few features, such as adaptive dampers, that cost even more money on the BMW.

The 435i, though, will win any drag race. Because the RC’s beefy structure makes it heavier, we’re predicting that the coupe will hit 60 mph behind a comparable IS350 sedan. Using the numbers from our last sports sedan comparison test as a guide, the RC should be about a second slower to 60 mph, or somewhere in the mid- to high-5s. Our estimated quarter-mile times would also place the RC about a second behind the Bimmer.

Cruising along the highway in an RC is as tranquil and comfortable an experience as it is in a Lexus ES, with the main difference being far firmer seats. There is no flat spot in the V-6’s power delivery, but the engine lacks character when compared with the inline-sixes available at the BMW shop. All of that said, this car is engaging to drive hard, with good body control and a well-damped suspension. Even with variable-ratio steering—a $ 1900 option exclusive to rear-drive F Sports—the feel and feedback available to the driver are near the top of the class.

Fully loaded, an RC tops out around $ 60,000. At that price, the RC F, which packs a 467-hp V-8 to back up its aggressive maw, becomes a reasonable alternative. But since the RC350 and the RC F are brothers from the same 3 mothers—or uncles, or whatever—there’s no bad option.

View Photo Gallery

2015 Cadillac Escalade AWD Tested: Far more Money and Far more Compelling

Instrumented Test

arrow

More power, more mass, more money, and more compelling.

Cadillac has never shied away from size and mass. As early as 1930, there were Cadillacs that weighed more than 3 tons—and those were cars. Cadillac trucks wouldn’t be along for another 6 decades. In the ’30s, Cadillac propelled its biggest classics-to-be with V-12 and even V-16 engines. You could time a zero-to-60-mph run with an alarm clock, but that was about as good as it got unless you wanted to pop for a Duesenberg.

Now Cadillac’s biggies are the Escalade and the long-wheelbase Escalade ESV. These body-on-frame trucks have entered their 4th generation of production since 1999. They share their foundations with the redesigned Chevrolet Tahoe, Chevrolet Suburban, GMC Yukon, and GMC Yukon XL. The new standard Escalade is 1.4 inches longer, 1.5 inches wider, and about 100 pounds heavier than last year’s example.

GM’s antidote for the increased dimensions and mass (5870 pounds total in our 4WD test unit) is a re-engineered version of its 6.2-liter pushrod small-block V-8. With refinements that include direct fuel injection, output improves from 403 to 420 horsepower and torque increases from 417 to 460 lb-ft. Performance in the EPA test cycle is also improved, yielding a rating of 14 mpg city and 21 highway. But as the feds love to say, your mileage may vary. We logged 14 mpg in our mostly suburban and country travels. To be fair, this included some miles towing a trailer, but the bottom line is that fuel economy should be viewed only in reference to other big SUVs in this class.

Inertial Issues

While thirst will always be an issue with such models, the Escalade’s hustle is not. Overcoming inertia in a 5870-pound wagon (not including passengers and cargo) is a big job, but the new 6.2-liter won’t be left behind when the light turns green. The big Caddy sprinted from zero to 60 in 6.1 seconds, pretty brisk for nearly 3 tons, and it’s also a small improvement over the previous generation’s 6.3-second 0–60 time.

The 6-speed automatic smoothly optimizes the 6.2’s robust output. Would it be better with the impending GM 8-speed auto? Probably. But it’s hard to imagine anyone perceiving the current 6-speed as unsatisfactory, although its manual-gear-selection button on the column shifter is awkward to use.

The engine technology made steady gains, but the same can’t be said for braking—mass at speed has plenty of inertia. The Escalade’s braking system is robust—not a hint of fade—but stopping from 70 mph takes almost 2-thirds of a football field. We think a vehicle that’s likely to include kids on its cargo manifest should do better.

Inertia asserts itself in handling dynamics, of course. There’s substantial roll stiffness in the suspension tuning—perhaps at some small cost to ride quality (the Yukon Denali may be a smidge smoother)—so the big Caddy rolls less than you might expect in hard cornering. But transient responses are deliberate, and those 22-inch wheels ($ 500 extra) don’t help, as the suspension must control lots of mass moving up and down. There are also occasional quivers in this chassis on rough stuff. The electric power steering is nicely weighted but numb on-center, and it’s slow at 3.4 turns lock-to-lock. Altogether, the Escalade’s dynamic scorecard adds up to competent.

Eye Candy

Other than its acceleration performance and towing ability (8100 pounds), the Escalade’s strongest suits are styling and interior design. The sheetmetal is all-new for 2015 but retains those Art and Science creases and sharp edges that put Cadillac on the road to recovery more than a decade ago, amplified by stacks of LEDs front and rear. Exterior design chief Bob Boniface says the redesign is “undeniably and unmistakably a Cadillac.” No argument there.

The interior in our Premium model was handsome indeed, black set off by dark saddle-tan leather ($ 2000). The seats were heated and ventilated, of course. Other features in the inventory included a power rear liftgate, power-folding third-row seatbacks, orchestral-quality audio, a second-row DVD entertainment system, a color head-up display, and a big (12.3-inch) center dash screen that’s home to an excellent navigation system. Unfortunately, in addition to navigation, that screen shares space with the CUE system (Cadillac User Experience), a secondary infotainment control matrix that’s initially frustrating, diminishing to annoying once the operator acquires experience.

With a base price of $ 72,690 for a “standard” 2-wheel-drive model, the Escalade is the most expensive vehicle in the current Cadillac lineup, and our not-quite-range-topping $ 87,985 Premium-trim AWD tester is even more so. A Yukon Denali offers many of the same features, as well as the same powertrain, for far less money.

But there’s no denying the Escalade’s edge at the curb. Attitude matters in this game, and this Cadillac has an imposing presence.