A6 3.2 : Interior was beautiful, totally unlike my B5 A4. Birds eye maple trim was a nice touch and a welcome change from all the racer boy titanium that is out there in luxury cars, steering was a bit soft on the non-sport that I drove but the car was very balanced and brakes were just as good as my A4. It drove like a smallish car but felt solid.

Score : Interior : 9/10, Handling : 7/10, Acceleration : 7/10 -> this car needs the 4.2

Infiniti M35X : Acceleration was much more intense than the A6, engine growl was much nicer but that's where the superiority ended. Interior was not as nice and suspension seemed to not know what it wanted to do - that's the best way I can describe it, the whole car didn't seem to move as a whole.

Interior : 7/10, Handling : 6/10, Acceleration : 8/10

Infiniti M45 : Wow, what a difference, totally different beast. The M35X badly needs this cars suspension and wheels - night and day difference

Interior : 8/10 (in this case, I actually prefer the titanium), Handling : 9/10, Acceleration : 9/10

Acura RL - seemed to me a great compromise and easily "the best of the sixes". Interior was more to my liking, not quite as good as A6 but much more refined than the M. Handling was better than the A6 non-sport, the car was noticeably faster than the 3.2 but my butt dyno says slightly slower than the M35X. Steering was nice and firm which I liked. Guages were hypnotically beautiful. If this had the exterior of a TL/TSX, it would be a giant killer - even as it is, it's the best car to be driving and on the inside - I could learn to live with the exterior since I don't really love the A6 or M either.

Interior : 8/10, Handling : 8/10, Acceleration : 8/10

I really thought I would like the M35x the most after reading about it on paper. I guess that's why test drives are important!

I know what car I want - it just doesn't exist yet :

M45X sport or Lexus GS460h AWD or Acura RL V10 (from the new sports car!)

In the meantime, I have a feeling I'll enjoy the A6 4.2 - but probably not enough to pay the price of a CLS500....and it would still have German "reliability"

 

interesting way to rate acceleration. the 3.2 A6 and RL/M35x are probably pretty clsoe in acceleration yet the A6 rates 1 point less in your scale. On the other hand, the M45 is quite a bit faster than all of them yet it only rates a 1 over the RL/M35x. Basically, the whole scale is messed up.

I also do not get how the m35x and M45 interiors can rate differently. From what I know they are the same so how can one be rated diff than the other. Makes no logical sense.

 

The interiors of the M35x and M45 are very different. The M45 has metal trim where as the M35x has wood. The M35 has received a lot of criticism of its wood trim and I would count myself among those who don't like it.

 

Don't get too caught up in the scaling, they are just numbers.

The A6 3.2 was "adequate", the M35X and RL were "nice" and the M45 was "wow"
if you want to take it subjectively.

The dull wood trim didn't do it for me on the M35x, the aluminum in the m45 looked nice.

 

Interior of the M35X looks like plywood to me....

 

yeah ok. Talk about high maintenance and they still break. Maybe German performance or handling, but reliability........

 

i think your sarcasm meter is broken