Bones

Car and Driver performance shootout between the W211 E55, Audi RS6, and the E39 M5. I have not seen the article myself(found post on www.bmwm5.com regarding the shootout), but the Audi RS6 was picked the winner. The E55 posted a 0-60 time of 4.3 seconds(fastest I have seen yet!), the Audi Rs6 of 4.4 seconds, and the M5 of 4.9 seconds. Sorry no more performance stats were given in the post. Just wanted to give a heads up to all the board members, should be a good read.

amg55

Very interesting to compare the widely discrepant times that are recorded by the various car mags.
4.3 is as fast as I expect to ever see for the E55.
That's gotta be close to a perfect run for a stock unit.

Who knows what in the world the guys were doing who reported the 5.0 for the 211E55 late last year. What a joke that was.
Rain? ESP activated? Uphill course? One too many rounds at the 19th hole prior to testing?

Bones

I still have not seen the actual article yet, but here are some more performance numbers from the article: E55 0-60 4.3 secs, 0-100 9.9 secs, 0-150 24.5 secs, 1/4 mile 12.5/116mph. RS6 0-60 4.4 secs, 0-100 10.7 secs, 0-150 30.9 secs, 1/4 mile 12.8/108mph. M5 0-60 4.9 secs, 0-100 11.5 secs, 0-150 29.2 secs, 1/4 mile 13.4/108mph.

ajoe

This article was posted on the audiworld a6 forum. The criteria for scoring included everything but the size of the drivers ****. In the criteria that was most important to me, the E55 was the clear winner. Easily the fastest car in the group! I don't have any "twisties" I can drive at the "limit" so I really don't care if the E55 isn't quite as tossable. Also the fact that is has slightly less leg room in the rear than the others, who cares? I'm no. 1 at the audi dealer for the rs6, but after this article, I'm definitely keeping my no. 2 position for the E55. The times the E55 are producing are amazing. Almost like having the ultimate stealthy viper.

hmrdwn

I would only buy an issue of Car and Driver if the store is out of toilet paper. Those morons are abitrary douche-bags when it comes to testing cars.

Pbglas

The French Magazine named something like Club Affaire Renault
http://turbo.m6.fr/Turbo_statique/essais/auto/229/#
gives a more balanced review. Its summary is that the RS5 is for grown-up children while the E55 will appeal to a mature person. The general idea seems to be that an RS6 is a sports car made big, while hte E55 is a luxury car made fast. Everythng else being equal I think I like the E55 a fast luxury car.

absent

E55 scores higher total points then M5,then is rated below both M5 and RS6!!!!????
The small print explains they rated cars not on total points but their subjective "feelings".
Enthusiast sport sedans and I should care about 1" difference in rear passenger legroom more then much better performance????
They should limit themselves to testing Civics and Priuses only!

Pbglas

Where is the article. Anyone with the URL?

Marky

http://www.rs6.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&postid=5935

Regime|Life

If I had the money... I would still buy the E55 AMG for the sole reason it looks better then all those cars! haha

Pbglas

Marky, thanks for sending the URL.

It was an interesting perspective. The good points of the E55 stood out. It seemed that it lost rank because of its `quirky' brakes and steering. I am guessing the technologies they are knocking are also in the E500 and E320

Anyone care to comment. Are they quirky? Or are the reviewerejust knocking something they are not familiar with?

E55AMG99

I had a "spirited" drive in an E500 Sport with 18" Conti Sports on the new AMG wheels. The only other mod was a half inch lower ride height. Compared to the E430 Sport (stock 17" and Pilot AVS) I drive on occasion I would tend to agree with the reviews. The E500 feels heavier and twitchy. The brakes have almost zero pedal feedback and are difficult to engage smoothly. It's even worse for left foot brakers like me (I grew up racing go-karts) who are on both pedals simultaneously. The transitions from accelleration to decelleration are more abrupt than I'd prefer. It is not a fun ride for the passengers or so I'm told.

The ride is much smoother under normal conditions which is where most of the driving occurs. I hope the new W211 E55 inherits this trait as well because the W210 ride is not as comfortable as I'd like. However, the "disconnected" feeling of the brakes and mushy steering must go.

AMGLAB

MB used to be rated as having the best stopping distances in their sedans. I hope they either improve the "brake by wire" system or get rid of it in the future.

Pbglas

Mercedes Benz was known for a lot of good things. In India it was called the `German Rolls' after Rolls Royce. It is not a country for `spirited driving' and indeed most Mercedes were chauffer driven, but it was still a desirable car for longevity and reliability. Among drivers there was rumor that body parts were not pressed out of sheet metal but crafted from ingots. Its recent decline in build quality is most regrettable to me who has felt an emotional attachment ot the brand.

Still, I cannot imagine that Mercedes has put in brake by wire unless it thought it was an improvement. Clearly the technology is young and may be in the future it will get better and even trickle down to other cars.

I would like to ask long term users of brake by wire and steering by wire, do you get used to it and does it then feel better? If someone has a contact in MB, may be they can find out what MB plans to do about it. It can program in appropriate resistance to the pedal for example.

Ted Baldwin

...............a little different perspective. I have read the car and driver article. The E55 scored either a 10 or 9 in all categories except the brakes in which it scored an 8. Its total score was 93 which was only one point lower than the 94 scored by the M5. The RS6 scored 96 and the Jaguar scored a distant 87. Basically the M5, RS6 and E55 are identical in their scores.

.................regarding the brakes. The braking distance rom 70-0 mph was 172 for the jaguar, 171 for the RS6 and 173 for the E55. These are not really any different. How this translates to a major criticsm for the E55 is not clear to me. It was the M5 that stole the show at 164 and brought the test average down to 170.


.................I took the time to check the stpoing distance for the C32, and it is 174. Worse than the E55, but the C32 does not get any negative press about its brakes.

Ted

E55AMG99

If you look at the numbers carefuly, you will see that that the RS6 out score the E55 by 1 point (the M5 by 5 points and the Jag by 12) in the overall technical ratings. Further, in each category, both cars were plus or minus one point of each other. What does this mean? It means that the RS6 and E55 are two incredible cars that are equally impressive. However, as equal as these cars are, they are two completely different beasts. Any driver will immediately notice the differences in ride, power delivery, braking sensitivity, steering response and many more aspects. This is why the magazines use subjective ratings to diferentiate a group of cars that are so closely matched in performance. I doubt that the editors/publishers would choose unqualified persons to write their opinions about such immeasurable qualities. Otherwise, how could they sell magazines? Since most of us will never get to do a head to head road test like this before we part with our $80K, we have to rely on someone else's opinion.

My $.02

Pierre32///AMG

Further, the BMW and the A6 are changing their complately body stile......and this is not good if you may think inverst on one of thise cars today

Regime|Life

Agreed, especially the new 5 series... Like what the heck were they smoking when they designed that car? hah.

Pbglas

On reading the C and D article, I get the impression that brake by wire did the E55 in. If it is new thing which the reviewere were unused to they could easily dub is as bad.

I would appreciate it if people who have used it for a while comment on it. Does it become nice once one lives with it a bit.

How about the steering. MB's steering was legendary in terms of feel and response.

ajoe

IMHO the rack and pinion steering on the E500 is a big improvment over the E430. I usually keep the suspension set to the hardest or next to hardest position and I feel good feedback from the road surface. In fact, I once thought I had a flat when the right front tire caught a subtle groove on the interstate and there was slight tugging of the steering wheel as the tires were riding along the edge of this slight groove. The only thing unusual I've noticed on the brakes is on a quick departure from the gas pedal there is a slight pre-loading of the braking system. No big deal and easy to get used to. The combination of luxury and performance is great. None of these cars(RS6,M5,E55) are road course cars, even though that's how they're evaluated and marketed. If you want a car that feels like a go-kart then buy a miata.

Pbglas

Thanks. Ajoe. Do the brakes feel any different, Did they when you got hte car? You have the brake and seering by wire? Right?

Blocktrader

I have an E500, and will get my E55 at the end of the month. The brakes are harder to modulate, but after a couple of weeks you get used to it and don't notice it. In my opinion, C/D is placing too much emphasis in something you get used to rather quickly. This test would be a better indicator of which car to rent. Much of the E55's quirkiness after getting used to it. It is a liitle dissapointing that this car came in 400 pounds heavier than the W210 though. I think the weight hurt the car as much as the brakes/streering feel.

Pbglas

I read somewhere else that it is only 50 to 100 lbs heavier. Go figure.

amg55

2002 E55 (210): 3768 lbs (edmunds)
2003 E55 (211): 4037 lbs (German MB site)
3900 lbs (12/02 C&D)
4000 lbs (1/03 MT)

Philguy

The E55 won on all objective metrics and lost on two subjective metrics. I can't believe that they think that the Audi's interior is luxurious. That is one of the cheapest interiors that I've seen from a German car short of the VW.... it looks like some econo box.

That being said, the big negative against the E55 was in the brakes. For all the talk of the 8 piston brakes, it did surprise me that it was 20' shorter than M5. They also criticized the handling but that score was not bad. Lastly, I am not sure that a manual transmission in a four door sport luxo is considered a good thing. In fact, there was a previous article that the writer suggested that he would give up the extra horse power to get back to the M5 standards... That's what two door sport coupes are for.

I continue to be disappointed by the magazine's lack of appreciation for a true sport luxury sedan or at least a balanced view of the pros and cons. The fact of the matter is that this is a growing segment of consumers across a broad range of price with all the S, R, RS, M, AMG etc. sport designations.