I attended Edmund's live test driving event this past summer. My test driving results are listed below. The event was very well run and everyone who attended had a great time.

I test drove all the near luxury sedans at the test track. The test track was a series of curves and turns with one straight run. The course was designed for driving the cars to the edge of their road handling capabilities provided that you wanted to drive them that way. Needless to say you did have to sign a waiver before driving the cars.

This test course would not be representative of driving on standard roadways. All my test runs were completed by driving the cars as hard as I could through the test course.

I rated the cars based on road handled ability, driving fun and responsive acceleration. The ranking is the combination of all three combined.

1.Lexus IS 300 (Clear winner, great handling responsive fun car to drive.)

2.Audi A4 2.8 (Surprising runner up, a true drivers car.)

3.Lincoln LS V6 (All around good handling car.)

4.Acura 3.2TL (Car felt a little heavy in turns but overall a good handling car.)

5.Infiniti I30 (Disappointing results, tires squealed during hard turns?) PS: I own a 2000 Maxima SE with 17" tires which feel a lot better then the Infiniti felt.

6.BMW 323I (A complete disappointment, the car held the road well but could not pull through the turns with it's under powered engine. No driving excitement.) PS: The BMW 328 would be a complete different story.

7.Chrysler 300M (Heavy in all turns, not an exciting car to drive. Chrysler can keep it's 300M.)

8.Cadillac Catera (Average handling, no driving fun.)

I would have loved to test drive my 2000 SE Maxima on this test course with my 17" wheels to see how it felt up against the IS300!!! Maybe next time.


[Edited by 2000MaxSE on 12-20-2000 at 07:12 PM]

 

but being that its basically an I30 with stiffer springs and slightly lower profile wheels, it wouldnt have been that much better. Now, if you had the RSB and FSTB and such, it much get up past the TL.

 

..all that car needs is some new Tires and it will handle better. Also, I don't think the I30 or I30t ( the new ones ) have a Rear Anti-roll bar.

 

I also attended the Edmunds live event in Englishtown. That was the best $15 I ever spent. Just get in a $30k car and drive the hell out of it. i would never drive my car that way. Squealing and smoking tires were the norm for most drivers. I just wish the course was bigger. Also wished there was a Max SE to test.

I rated the cars as follows:

1 Lexus-This car handled like it was glued to the road. Plenty of power for the short course. Full acceleration up to the turns and then fly through the turns. SWEET! Some idiot (or crappy driver) managed to spin the car and hit the only tree in the parking lot.
2 Acura-powerful, but not as good all around.
3 Audi-probably the most fun car to drive
4 I30-good all around ride
5 300M-I only drove this because there was no line but was pleasantly surprised and took 2 more laps.
6 Beamer-never drove one or in one before and was expeting great things. Disappointing, what's all the fuss. I guess it is their entry level model..

I did not drive the lincoln, although I heard several people say it was nice. I also did not drive the catera because it was running like ****, almost like it wasn't on all cylinders. They eventually took it off the course.

Can't wait til next year.

 

That's what I said too, but next year I plan on spending the entire day there instead of the 4 hours that I was there this summer. I'm not suprised that you had the same thoughts as I had about the BMW 323i. The only reason I could think of for owning the BMW 323i after test driving it would be for the nameplate only.