From the February 2018 issue

In this cuckoo-crazy, mixed-up world, nothing is certain and the set order is up for renegotiation. For decades, the four-door sedan was the sensible choice, the vehicle that sober, serious grown-up types bought to show just how sober and serious they really were. But crossovers have toppled the establishment, and now four-doors are struggling to retain relevance. So squash the roofs, pack in the tech, add a practical hatch for the camping equipment, and voilà—the sedan is king again. Only now they’re four-door coupes. Got it?

The quasi-coupes under examination today are Audi’s A5 Sportback and BMW’s 430i xDrive Gran Coupe, with the Kia Stinger here to do its own renegotiating of the set order. The Audi and BMW lead with, and are enabled by, their heritage. They’re tweaked expressions of long-established brand identities. Kia is relatively new to the premium realm and has yet to produce a hit there. The Stinger could be it.

View Photos JAMES LIPMAN

So here are three more or less medium-size hatchbacks, all equipped with longitudinally mounted turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder engines, each making about 250 horsepower, that feed automatic transmissions with at least seven forward gears. They all have all-wheel drive: The BMW and the Kia are otherwise laid out as conventional rear-drivers, and the Audi, as is its wont, has its engine hung out ahead of the front wheels.

There are no high-performance pretensions here. The turbo four-pots are base engines in these models. Above them, the S5 Sportback, 440i Gran Coupe, and Stinger GT all feature turbocharged sixes making over 300 horsepower. But the fun stops at that level. There is currently no RS5 Sportback, M4 Gran Coupe, or V-8–powered Stinger. Pity.

There’s leather on the seats and wrapping the steering wheels. We’ve got some room on our credit cards and Southern California is in flames. So let’s slalom around the infernos and rack up some Marriott Rewards points in sensational Bakersfield and luxurious Lancaster.

2nd Place (tie):

Kia Stinger AWD

View Photos James Lipman Car and Driver

Highs: Muscle-car presence, roomy, bargain priced.

Lows: Not that quick, lousy outward visibility, big enough to overwhelm its own chassis.

Verdict: One small step for Kia, one giant leap for Kiakind.

Kia’s Stinger is the brawler of the group. With its thick shoulders, blunt nose, and muscular stance, it’s all pugnacious attitude. But in this octagon of ultimate fighting, it plays Conor McGregor against old Floyd Mayweather and another, younger Floyd Mayweather. Like McGregor, it competes better than expected and fights for less money.

The Stinger is the largest car here. Its 114.4-inch wheelbase outstretches the Audi’s by 3.2 inches and the BMW’s by 3.8. It’s also longer overall and wider, with wider wheel tracks. Surprisingly, it weighs in seven pounds lighter than the BMW, even if it’s up 127 on the Audi.

In general layout, the Stinger’s suspension is similar to the BMW’s, with struts in front and a multilink system in back. The base Stinger’s suspension tuning is straightforward, well considered, and not plagued by the indecision found in the Stinger GT’s electronically controlled dampers. And the electrically assisted rack-and-pinion steering reports to the driver with more linear predictability than the BMW. But its 225/45R-18 all-season Bridgestones have lower limits than the Audi’s wider, summer-only unfair-advantage-spec treads, and so the Stinger doesn’t have that car’s lightning turn-in and it noses into understeer earlier. That’s reflected in the slalom performance where the Stinger slid through at 43.9 mph—behind the Audi by 1 mph but ahead of the BMW by 0.3 mph. While the ride is comfortable and the car lopes along the highway unperturbed at 90 mph, the trip is accompanied by a bit of tire roar, which can become annoying on extended drives.

Rated at 255 horsepower with a consistent 260 pound-feet of torque between 1400 and 4000 rpm, the Stinger’s engine reveals some noticeable Optima SX Turbo grind. And the eight-speed torque-converter automatic is lazy. There’s some frolic to be found using the paddle shifters in the lower five gears, but the top three are all cruising overdrives. The modest, third-place 6.1-second zero-to-60 time reflects the transmission’s lack of urgency rather than a power deficit.

View Photos The Kia's steering reports to the driver with more linear predictability than the BMW's. Let that sink in for a moment. Even with the test's highest horsepower rating, the Stinger is the slowest among the three. James Lipman Car and Driver

There’s a muscle-car-throwback vibe to the Stinger’s interior, from the 1969 Mustang-like T-handle shifter to the hurricane airflow from the three massive eyeball vents at the dash’s center. There’s also a lack of rearward visibility that’s pure ’69 Mach 1. The front seats are less supportive than the Germans’, but the Uber-friendly rear seat is the roomiest of the bunch, with the best cargo room behind it. However, this is the one car that, as equipped, lacks a power-closing rear hatch.

This is also the only car here that uses a touchscreen infotainment system, and it’s a seven-incher that the driver needs to stretch to reach. Honda and Volvo do screens better, but the Stinger’s is at least more straightforward than the input devices that BMW has devised—if not as sophisticated.

Kia is reaching with the Stinger in general, and some of the effort shows. It’s a bit overdecorated on the outside, a touch stark on the inside, and the whole car feels a quarter-turn of the nut looser than its competitors. But its $37,000 test price is a spectacular $14,050 below that of the Audi and $16,885 below the BMW’s. That’s a more than 25 percent discount for a prestige-free Kia that competes ably with two of the luxury market’s acknowledged standard-bearers. A Kia that ties with a BMW—that’s dogs and cats sleeping together.

2nd Place (tie):

BMW 430i xDrive Gran Coupe

Highs: Great engine, easygoing interior, occasional hints of BMW brilliance.

Lows: Unfathomable steering, not sticky enough in the corners, a long and stupid name.

Verdict: Fills a market niche instead of striving to reach ambitious goals.

The BMW 430i Gran Coupe's steering is frustratingly inconsistent but, as is usually the case with BMW, its engine is truly excellent. The upright BMW does the least convincing impression of a coupe.

BMW still has a thing. The instruments still glow orange, the switches still operate with obsessive precision, and the exhaust still trills. It’s all uniquely BMW, all reassuring and familiar. A new BMW’s cabin even smells different from other new cars’—but pretty much like how every other new BMW’s ever has. All of that is in the 430i xDrive Gran Coupe.

Alas, as BMW has microsliced the market and developed a blizzard of niche vehicles, some of its thing has dissipated. BMW’s model names have grown obscure, weights have risen, core driving values have been compromised, and the steering is in crisis.

With its numb on-center feel, twitchy reactions to initial input, and overly light delivery, the 430i’s steering isn’t so much bad as it is frustrating. There are moments when it feels great, as when pushing the car hard, but those moments never last. Why can’t all BMWs steer like the M2?

Despite riding on the shortest wheelbase and being 3.6 inches shorter overall than the A5 Sportback, the 430i wallows at a porky 3852 pounds over its 225/45R-18 Pirelli Cinturato P7 All Season Run Flat tires. That a four-cylinder derivative of the 3-series wound up weighing this close to two tons is astonishing.

View Photos The BMW 430i Gran Coupe's steering is frustratingly inconsistent but, as is usually the case with BMW, its engine is truly excellent. The upright BMW does the least convincing impression of a coupe. James Lipman Car and Driver

Fortunately, the BMW turbo four does a credible imitation of a BMW inline-six. Rated at 248 horsepower, which is four ponies behind the Audi and seven back from the Kia, the BMW engine has a generous torque curve with consistent production of 258 pound-feet between 1450 and 4800 rpm. That broad torque spread results in a forgiving playfulness so that, even if the driver picks the wrong gear for a corner, there’s enough grunt to pull through it. And there are a lot of gears from which to choose.

The first six of the eight forward cogs in the automatic transmission are tightly spaced and can be rapidly called upon using the paddle shifters behind the steering wheel. Sixth itself is a direct-drive 1.00:1 ratio with seventh and eighth as overdrives. Left to shift on its own, the transmission operates almost invisibly and doesn’t seem obsessed with reducing engine speed.

Given that expanse of torque and the smart transmission, the 430i overachieves in acceleration despite its weight. The trip from zero to 60 mph takes 5.7 seconds and the quarter-mile steams by in 14.3 seconds at 98 mph. This is a drivetrain in search of a lighter car.

BMW keeps calling this car a coupe, but of the three vehicles, it looks the most like a sedan. The nose is relatively long and droops at its leading edge to meet E.U. regulations that protect jaywalkers. It’s the tallest of the three, with the most generous greenhouse and the best outward visibility. The roofline drops back to a shortened decklid that barely keeps the car from being a true fastback.

In the final analysis, there’s nothing about the BMW 430i xDrive Gran Coupe that wouldn’t be better if it weighed less.

1st Place (tie):

Audi A5 Sportback

View Photos James Lipman Car and Driver

Highs: Sweet handling, sweet engine, sweet transmission, great brakes, supermodel looks.

Lows: Tight interior, the tires are an unfair advantage.

Verdict: Smart engineering will always be state of the art.

Funny thing about physics: It usually wins. In this test, the Audi A5 Sportback carries the least weight, its engine delivers the most torque, its brakes are the largest, and it wears the widest tires. So it’s no surprise that it’s the quickest, handles the best, grips the skidpad at 0.93 g, brakes in the shortest distance, and gets the best observed fuel economy. This one wasn’t even close, folks.

But there are tire issues. The A5 was the only car that showed up on summer-spec tires despite C/D’s request for all-season rubber. It’s an advantage, but not one so great that it wholly explains the Audi’s dominating performance.

The A5’s provocative skin is carved around the sinew of its chassis; it’s sensual where the two others are sort of brutal. It’s a happy medium—longer and lower than the BMW and closer coupled than the Kia. The price for that style is a more, um, intimate interior, with the rear seat particularly compromised in headroom. So don’t sit back there.



View Photos The A5 Sportback's combination of a smooth and torquey engine, a quick-shifting transmission, relatively low curb weight, and beauty inside and out made it the runaway favorite, despite what tires it wore. James Lipman Car and Driver

Instead, sit up front and face the most modern cockpit of the three, with a 12.3-inch configurable digital instrument cluster that can display brilliant Google Earth images. The 7.0-inch center screen is controlled by a clickwheel with a touchpad built into the top. It works well. The A5 also includes standard Android Auto and Apple CarPlay integration. But a larger, current-gen touchscreen might be better.

Forget electronic “connectivity”; what the Sportback does best is connect mechanically. The thick steering wheel attaches to the 245/40R-18 Pirelli Cinturato P7s with a directness that is felt in the driver’s ulna and radius bones. Dive into a corner and the A5 turns in with a kind of alacrity and confidence the two others don’t approach. Some credit goes to the no-nonsense 15.9:1 electrically assisted steering rack and the multilink front suspension that keeps the front tires planted.

That mechanical confidence expands with the use of the seven-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission. The gearbox responds instantly to paddle shifts and blips the throttle for perfect downshifts. The transmission makes every one of the 273 pound-feet of torque usable from the 1600-rpm start of the peak up to 4500 rpm. Not only does the A5 dive into corners more aggressively than the others, it’s also the easiest to set up properly and it pulls through most entertainingly.

Rated at 252 horsepower, the turbo 2.0-liter engine is ubiquitous throughout the Volkswagen corporate range. It shines best in this application, where it purrs, growls, and snarls without a burp or fart amid a river of thrust. With the best weight-to-power ratio here, the A5 took a scant 5.1 seconds to go from zero to 60 mph, and the quarter-mile flashed past in 13.7 seconds at 101 mph. It was the only one of the trio to break into the 13s.

About the only demerit for this engine is that it uses an iron block and that the mass hangs over the nose. When the Sportback finally exceeds its adhesion limits, it plows like a Clydesdale.

Under the limit, the A5 Sportback is quick, elegant, and agile. It is the best non-performance-but-still premium, compact-to-mid-size four-door coupe on the market. It makes taxonomy a chore, but it makes physics fun.

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