The $50,000 Conundrum Wolverine or Bear?

摘要

If you had $50,000 to burn on a sport sedan, would you opt for an all-wheel-drive compact with a high-strung turbo-four or go for a rear-drive full-size with a burly naturally aspirated V-8? That's the question that crossed my mind when, by happenstance, Chris Walton's intro on our new long-term 2016 Audi S3 and Jonny Lieberman's review of a 2015 Chevrolet SS came across my computer screen on the same day. Here were two dissimilar sport sedans that, surprisingly, offered conspicuously similar levels of performance at a parallel price point. Normally, cars boasting comparable chops and wearing window stickers within a pittance of each other reside in the same category-as in, the exact same category. Think BMW M3 and Mercedes-AMG C63. But in the case of the S3 and SS, we're talking about way, way different vehicles. Or are we?