We drive a thousand miles over three days in six premium luxury sedans...and live to tell about it
By Brandy A. Schaffels
It didn't sound like a difficult task: We drove six premium luxury sedans from Los Angeles to Phoenix, where we stayed at the posh Boulders Resort, spent a day flogging the cars over every highway and backroad between Phoenix and Sedona, and then retraced our route the next day, returning to L.A. just in time to enjoy rush-hour traffic.
Who wouldn't want to spend some seat time commanding such amazing cars as the 2004 Audi A8 L, BMW 745i, Jaguar Vanden Plas, Lexus LS 430, Mercedes-Benz S430, and Volkswagen Phaeton V8? Beyond the fun factor, the value of road tests like these is that it gives our editors the opportunity to compare the cars to each other over a variety of road conditions in real-world use that goes beyond the average test drive.
Test tracks are great for obtaining official performance numbers for 0-60-mph, slalom, and braking, but if you really want to know how a car feels, try steering it over bumpy asphalt as desert crosswinds buffet the vehicle around the lane. For added insight, see how it feels to a tired body that has already spent two days driving from dawn to dusk. On the second day, we found a wonderful stretch of backroads that offered uphill twisties and downhill turnies, as well as an assortment of chicanes and straights that allowed us to really wring the performance out of each vehicle. And finally, no braking test compares to the one our drivers performed when a big-rig -- going 50 miles per hour slower than our passing caravan -- pulled out in last-minute lane change.
(Top of page: Our posse of premium sedans looked great staged in front of The Boulders check-in desk -- and occupied nearly all their parking.)
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A ritual of every road test is the group car wash and detail upon arrival. The 400-mile trek from Los Angeles put a lot of road gunk and bugs on our sedans, but our next stop was the lead photo shoot, so we needed these cars to shine.
Pricey alloy wheels on the 7-Series looked great but were as soft as Philly cream cheese. We learned this the hard way after an unfortunate meeting with a lurking curb.
Photographer John Kiewicz will do whatever it takes to get the shot he wants, including climbing on top of the 4Runner in jogging shorts.
It paid off too, as this sunset shot in front of the Boulders' Golden Door Spa demonstrates. (Photo by John Kiewicz)
Arizona's bright sun was interfering with the photos, so we made some shade with an enormous floormat borrowed from the trunk of one of the cars.
Technical Editor Frank Markus commandeered a golf cart and managed to get some editing done, while staffers maneuvered cars for exterior beauty shots.
Our busy driving schedule did not allow for scenic photo stops, so we nabbed shots like these by sticking the camera out the Jag's sunroof. Tourist traffic through Sedona was heavier (and slower) than anticipated, so we bought a map and found other routes that were farther off the beaten track.
On our way home, we passed two fleets of Budget moving vans; each fleet had four or five vans, one of them towing a station wagon. While we're not completely sure of their destination, we can only bet their volume can be attributed to the number of Californians migrating to the Phoenix area.