Infiniti M35h vs. Lexus GS 450h vs. Porsche Panamera Hybrid - MotorTrend Magazine
Every time I observe somebody calculating a hybrid's "payback miles" -- that is, its price premium (if you can figure that out) amortized by its mileage improvement -- I cringe. For those who need simple answers, I guess it's hard to resist, but the trade-offs embodied by these cars are more complex than simpleminded division. Let me flip the conversation: How many people figure out the payback cost effec-tiveness of a concert-hall-quality sound system. But for some reason, the word "hybrid" brings the calculators out. We looked at how they rate as luxury cars, how they compare as performance cars, and, of course, whether they're any good at being hybrids in the first place. So let's start with the "luxury" part. Although all three can readily produce long lists of the requisite lap-of-luxury features -- a funny one being the Infiniti's lane-departure chime, which repeatedly sounded around the Cypress College track during our photo shoot (it was detecting... ) -- luxury is really something you know when you see it. And feel it. Although each of these cars appears to date from a different automotive era, you can see and feel luxury in all three. This would be the car in which to take your future mother-in-law to lunch and watch in the rearview mirror as she caresses its backseat surfaces. Source: www.motortrend.com
