Hyundai sweetens the deal further, giving owners something to brag about at cocktail parties when the name fails to impress. "Oh, yeah? Well, does Mercedes-Benz come to your home or business and swap you a loaner car whenever you need an oil change?!" Yes, 5-year wear and maintenance is fully covered without subjecting Equus owners to the ignominy of mingling with the Accent/Elantra-buying hoi polloi.

But even ETs will admit the design, inside and out, is derivative and bland, and while the quality of the leather and wood trim will wow folks moving up from a Genesis (or TL or G37), the S-Class/7 Series buyer will sniff cost savings. There\'s no innovation here, as associate road test editor Carlos Lago wrote: "Hyundai has painted by numbers, while the rest have attempted making art."

The noisy climate-control fan races when the sun hits the dash, but stability-control programming bests Lexus\'. Ride quality is superb in normal mode, but don\'t touch that Sport button. It makes throttle tip-in jumpy with minimal change to handling. As associate online editor Michael Febbo said, "Other car designers install sport buttons with motorsport in mind. Hyundai designers thought about badminton." This car\'s heart isn\'t in road-carving (as its lowest-in-test 0.81g grip and second-slowest acceleration and figure-eight performance attest); it\'s in smooth chauffeuring. At that it excels. Anyway, ETs should probably be chauffeured.

PERFORMANCE*

1. Porsche 77
2. Audi 75
3. Jaguar 69
4. BMW 66
5. Lexus 59
6. Hyundai 56
7. Mercedes-Benz 48
*Compilation of acceleration/braking/handling performance