Ultimatley, my choice would be undecided between the bavarian trio.
The Lexus is suprisingly disappointing to me, especialy after its long, and well cemented reputation of producing well balanced, bueatiful, competitive vehicles.
Plus, it looks plain old ugly to me...

I would the say the Audi A8 is the best looking car of the test.

I still would rather have the Mercedes S-Class, though.

Interesting views

A lot of pro German bias it seems, undertandably perhaps given that this is a German car fan zone.

But how many of you have actually driven the Lexus?

Or the S Class for that matter, and actually compared them?

Or are you taking an review, and juxtaposing the comments to suit your own biases, thoughts, preferences and ideas, but are sitting there in your armchair making these comments, without actually driving the vehicles concerned?

Unless one can come up with some solid engineering facts, as far as I can see, it is all very subjective and personal opinion.

Nothing wrong with that at all.

But to bag one brand of car over another based upon a review, which is again purely subjective, and especially given that I gain the impression that most of you haven't actually driven the vehicles concerned, and provide no facts to back up your arguments, seems to me just a little to much like cheergirl/fanboy behaviour.

IMHO of course.

Now, that may be an upopular line of thought for me to take, but I do believe in being as logical and objective in these kinds of things, as much as possible at least.

Notwithstanding that we all have tastes and preferences, I would be the Benz owner if I could afford an S Class, out of the vehicles tested.

But don't tell me it is the 'better' car, as in an absolute value judgement, because I would find it very hard to agree - I simply can't find any objective facts to support that POV.

At this point, I'll stand back and don my flame suit, but certainly not my intention to offend anyone, but point out that just because we have different tastes, or ideas of what a car should be, doesn't mean that what we don't like is 'bad' or inferior.

Just different.

Best Regards

John...

Excellent analysis.