Quote:
Originally Posted by stein_325i
BMW has a habit of giving reviewers cars with Individual paint jobs to make them look more impressive but that also ends up adding an extra $5,500 to the sticker, and most press cars also have Carbon Ceramics which is at least another $8,000 The last M8 Car and Driver got was $175k!  I didn't even realize one could be spec'd that high! |
All of this is true, but C&D did not need to use the "as tested" price for their scoring. It would have been much more reasonable to score the price factor based on the C&D suggested configuration which should build the contestants as similarly as possible.
For example, the custom paint and custom interior add huge amounts to the M5 price, but do not reflect the configuration the average buyer would choose nor is there anything similar on the Caddy. Similarly, the base audio system in the M5 is likely very similar to the system in the Caddy.
In short, C&D should have based their price comparison on an M5C with the exec package, standard paint, standard leather, CCBs and no other options thereby matching the configuration of the Caddy. In that configuration, the M5C stickers at $124K, or about $18.5K more than the Caddy. If C&D wanted to add just a bit more, then tack on the Driving Assistance Pro package for another $1,700 which adds some self driving features that Caddy does not offer.
In any case, other than the objective stuff, C&D definitely gives a skewed impression in this comparison.