14/06/2008 03:58. It’s no secret we tend to prefer cars with manual transmissions, and that we think less mass is invariably mo’ bettah. Still, when your luxury sports sedan is also your daily driver, there are times—slithering through wintry slush up the corkscrew ramp from the Lincoln Tunnel, for example—when all-wheel drive and a smooth automatic look pretty damn appealing.

The “x†here denotes all-wheel drive, which invariably adds bulk. Our test car weighed 3856 pounds, which is at least 230 pounds more than any G35 Sport (the only G35 manual) tested recently, and much of that added mass is up front, for a weight bias—55.8 percent front/44.2 percent rear—that’s almost three percent heftier at the nose than that of the rear-drive car.

But... // Car and Driver