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    CultureMap Auto Awards

    Luxury Car of the Year: Mercedes-Benz S-Class Sedan shakes up luxury cars, declares the recession long gone

    Nic Phillips
    Feb 16, 2014 | 5:45 pm

    Editor's Note: In the second annual CultureMap Auto Awards, our automotive correspondents Nic Phillips and Kevin McCauley bestow honors in 10 categories for the top cars and trucks of 2013/2014 and explain why they're deserving of a good hard look. For our sixth award of the year:

    Luxury Car of the Year: 2014 Mercedes-Benz S-Class Sedan

    For several years the very top of the luxury car segment has remained fairly static — with only minor improvements to long time models, just enough to be dubbed "new" each year. Blame the recession for Mercedes-Benz's last overhaul of its flagship sedan coming way back in 2005 and the demise of the exotic Maybach brand in 2013, whose exclusive models were basically modified S-Classes that couldn't match superb competitors from Rolls Royce and Bentley.

    Now, if the 2014 S-Class Sedan is any sort of economic barometer, Mercedes-Benz has declared the recession over in a thoroughly modern way. The exterior is sleeker and decidedly more distinct with a larger, more characteristic front grille and that svelte body that now uses aluminum saving weight while adding strength.

    It's the interior though that really blows us away, setting a new high bar for the class with an execution beyond that of even the old $450,000-plus Maybachs. The design is clean if not modern successfully blending the old world luxury of Bentley with leathers in three styles bearing names like "Deep Sea Blue", "Silk Beige" and "Sea Shell Gray" matched to expansive wrapped Burl Walnut, Sunburst Myrtle, Black Poplar or even Metalized Ash Wood trim.

    Unlike the Bentley though, the big Benz has a more technologically advanced esthetic most apparent in the new enhanced COMAND system's two 12.3-inch HD screens covering nearly two-thirds of the dashboard, and at night, some 300 LEDs illuminate the interior with color options to match customer preference.

    Technology is more than skin deep for the S-Class with innovations like Intelligent Drive making use of a new stereoscopic camera and radar sensors around the vehicle constantly looking 360-degrees to warn or even take autonomous evasive actions to improve safety and accident avoidance. That same multi-camera system is also used in S-Class' MAGIC BODY CONTROL — the first ever air suspension system that can actually see the road ahead, identifying bumps and potholes before the reach the vehicle and preemptively responding to provide a luxe ride. No Bentley of Rolls Royce has that.

    Which makes admission to this VIP experience quite the value indeed, at just $92,900 the S-Class is a super-luxury game changer and should the "base" 449-horsepower biturbo V8 not have the thrust you desire, a $140,000 AMG sport version is available with a handcrafted 5.5-liter 577-horsepower V8 getting you to 60 (and the fuel pump) in under four seconds.

    Luxury Car of the Year Runner-up: 2014 Hyundai Equus

    Selling fewer than 12,000 Equus since coming Stateside in 2009 as a 2010 model, believe it or not, Hyundai's flagship luxury sedan is more of an exotic than the $100,000 S-Class (in 2013 alone Mercedes sold more than 13,000 S-Class in the United States). It's not just the small number of them making it unlikely you've never noticed the Equus.

    Its understated styling is easily mistaken for the Lexus LS which the Hyundai is directly targeting.

    Despite low sales numbers, Equus has been a surprise hit amongst low-profile luxury sedan seekers, so much so that Hyundai has significantly upgraded the 2014 model with some similarities to our top ranked S-Class. A newly improved interior and the refinement of driving dynamics all while keeping the price well below the $70,000 mark that ordinarily defines this segment places the model on our picks list.

    Throw in "White Glove Service" where you never see a dealership — the car is picked up and dropped off at your direction — and it becomes easy to see why smart luxury buyers have chosen Equus.

    Hyundai has done a bang up job of comparing the Equus to other luxury offerings, and it's well worth a look.

    Rear-row business-class seating makes the S-Class the true luxury sedan leader — for now.

      
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    CultureMap Auto Awards

    Sport Sedan of the Year: 2014 Lexus IS F-Sport finally breaks the BMW stranglehold — and lives up to the wow

    Nic Phillips
    Feb 9, 2014 | 11:28 am

    Editor's Note: In the second annual CultureMap Auto Awards, our automotive correspondents Nic Phillips and Kevin McCauley bestow honors in 10 categories for the top cars and trucks of 2013/2014 and explain why they're deserving of a good hard look. For our fifth award of the year:

    Sport Sedan of the Year: 2014 Lexus IS 350 F-Sport

    The hotly contested sports sedan segment was invented by the venerable BMW 3-series which dominates the segment with its balance of performance, driving dynamics, efficiency and entry-level luxury young professionals and enthusiasts alike flock to. Most recently challenged by the Cadillac ATS, last year's pick for outright CultureMap Car of the Year, now Lexus is a legitimate alternative with its all new 2014 IS 350 F-Sport.

    We say legitimate in that the IS isn't new to the market — it's been boring us since 1998 with unremarkable dynamics, forgettable styling and the signature numbness that made the Lexus brand most known for having been no match for the BMW.

    Well, forget all that.

    This new IS is the first of Lexus' self proclaimed "car guy" and boss Akio Toyoda's "Wow! I want that!" plan and it drives like no other sports sedan in its class. With a hefty feeling inspiring confidence, one gets the notion this car is buttoned up nose to tail. Interior fit and finish is on par with the flagship LS sedan, last year's CultureMap Luxury Car of the Year, with an industrial robustness more akin to a 1990s era Mercedes Benz than the overly plastic finishes of the BMW 3-series.

    The IS 350 F-Sport's exclusive Adaptive Variable Suspension and Variable Gear-Ratio Steering paired with a 306-horsepower V6 and smooth shifting eight-speed automatic makes a unique match for the otherwise predictable 3-series.

    The IS range starts in mid $30s and the IS350 F-Sport the mid $40s — comparable to the Cadillac ATS and BMW 3-series.

    Sport Sedan of the Year Runner-up: 2014 Audi A7 TDI

    While the Audi A7 couple-like sedan isn't all that new, it's now available with a fuel-saving TDI clean diesel engine making it the best looking, most fun to drive "eco-friendly" sports sedan out. The 3-liter V6 diesel is rated at 240-horsepower and a whopping 428 lb-ft of torque — more torque than even the V10 gas engined Audi R8 supercar.

    That monster torque, channeled through an industry-best eight-speed automatic transmission, driving all four wheels with Audi's legendary Quattro all-wheel-drive gets the full-size beauty to 60 in just 5.5 seconds — about the same as the Lexus IS 350 F-Sport.

    The difference? The A7 delivers that acceleration along with a real world 38 miles-per-gallon highway compared to Lexus' at best 28 mpg.

    Equipped with our recommended options, the eco-motive Audi is a $70,000 luxury sports sedan proposition.

    CultureMap Sport Sedan of the Year: 2014 Lexus IS 350 F-Sport.

     
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