2009 Audi A6 3.0T vs. 2009 BMW 535i, 2009 Infiniti M45, 2009 Jaguar XF, 2010 M-B E350

Five at fifty: We gather a quintet of $50,000 execuliners—luxo-sports sedans that really haul in the hills.

On comparison tests, the cars with genetically ingrained faults—sometimes glaring, sometimes subtle and varied—will usually have confessed their sins by cocktail hour on Day One. The editors often won’t say anything initially—each man is free to vote without persuasion or influence from his obviously ignorant peers—but we individually already know who won’t be spraying the Dom Pérignon on the podium.

This time ’round, that didn’t happen. It wasn’t until late on Day Three in the Hocking Hills of southern Ohio that various of us ceased saying, “I don’t know who’s gonna win—I like ’em all.”

Keep Reading: 2009 Audi A6 3.0T vs. 2009 BMW 535i, 2009 Infiniti M45, 2009 Jaguar XF, 2010 M-B E350 – Comparison Tests