Serious Sport Sedans

What accelerates like a '60s American musclecar, corners like a sports car, and packs the feature content you'd expect to find only in pure luxury transport? Any one of a dozen of today's best sport sedans. In spite of the plethora of SUVs that surround you, there's a lot to be said for the conventional four-door car as transportation. When carmakers build in the kind of performance, chassis dynamics, comfort, and technology found in a good sport sedan, you have to askif it isn't really the best interpretation of "sport/utility vehicle."

Because with room for five and good-size trunks, they offer reasonable utility. And judging by 0-60 and slalom times, they certainly are sporty.

There are many ways to slice up this ultra-competitive market segment. For this comparo, we chose to focus on V-8-powered midsizers packing a base price of around $50K. BMW's 5 Series and the Mercedes E-Class define this portion of the market and are the targets others generally aim for. Audi has been meeting its cross-country rivals toe-to-toe productwise lately, so we included its V-8-equipped A6. As Lexus has emerged as genuine competition for such German-produced finery, its edgy GS 430 earned the fourth berth in this test.

After our usual round of test-track numbers-hunting, we packed up and put 'em on the road for 1000 miles of real-world use. All are great-but which would snag our hard-earned sport-sedan-purchase bucks?

We've tested Audi's ever-elegant A6 in several different forms (most recently the twin-turbocharged V-6-powered 2.7t) and have always been impressed. The V-8-motivated 4.2 quattro sits atop the A6 lineup and is the only car among this group to offer all-wheel drive. Setting this model apart from the rest of the A6 lineup is its 4.2L/300-hp five-valves/cylinder V-8 engine, which is backed by a five-speed automatic transmission controlled via a Tiptronic sequential shift system. The 4.2 is easy to spot: Just look for the bulging wheel flares and bladelike aero-spoilers just above the rocker panels; they really pump some muscle into the Audi's otherwise smooth, unadorned shape.

With a $48,900 base price (just $1000 more than the base MSRP for a six-cylinder Mercedes-Benz E320), the 4.2 is comprehensively loaded, including premium wood and leather interior trim, moonroof, single-disc CD, metallic paint, and standard AWD. Our Ming Blue Pearl example carried the $1750 sport package (front sport seats, 17-in. wheels, uprated suspension), the Warm Weather Package at $1000 (solar-panel sunroof, power rear-window shade, manual side-window shades), Xenon headlights, and a CD changer; add in the $525 delivery charge for a total of $53,225-the least expensive player in this test.

Lexus' midsize GS has been around in six- and eight-cylinder forms since '98 and received a substantial equipment update for '01. Included is the new 4.3L V-8 that so impressed us in the full-size LS 430; like the Audi powerplant, it's rated at 300 hp and comes only with a five-speed automatic transmission. Lexus offers a sequential transmission-control system called E-Shift, though it wasn't on our particular tester. Additional improvements this year include more wood trim and a complete upgrading of audio and nav system offerings. On top of its $47,355 MSRP, our Millennium Silver GS 430 carried the premium Mark Levinson Audio/Nav system package at-no lie-$5790, a rear spoiler costing $440, a trunk mat at $66, and what must be the bargain of all 17-in. wheel and tire options: $215. Add delivery, and this Lexus runs $54,411.