It used to be that we Americans could drive a car that offered either luxury or practicality or high performance. Then, in the late 1980s, the BMW M5 arrived on our shores replete with all three attributes. It was built for roads without speed limits, and yet its styling evoked the most mundane of all American vehicles, the sedan.
Today the appeal of hair-raising acceleration and sports-car handling in an automobile with the comfort, opulent interior, and understated styling of a luxury sedan is evident in the growth of this market segment. In 1988 the BMW M5 was the sole high-performance luxury sedan available in America. Now, as the following pages show, our options are many.
Aston Martin Rapide
You expect any car bearing the Aston Martin badge to be sophisticated and handsome, and the Rapide lives up to expectations on both counts. The Rapide’s pedigree is obvious in its silhouette, which is adopted largely from Aston Martin’s DB9 coupe. So, too, is its 470 hp V-12 engine and frame, a complex of extruded aluminum, aluminum honeycomb, and bonded aluminum plates that is 7 percent more rigid than the coupe’s chassis. While some aficionados might carp that, its name to the contrary, the British sedan is not quite as rapid as other supersedans, it might be the most handsome one.
Base price: $199,950
Porsche Panamera
The Panamera looks less like a sport sedan than a bulbous hatchback. But the vehicle is immune to criticism on aesthetic grounds; nobody at Porsche is likely to throw up his hands and lament, “What? They think it’s ugly?” After all, the looks of the 356 and the 911 were once disparaged. And critics initially lambasted the design of what has become Porsche’s best-selling vehicle, the Cayenne. In time the Panamera may become a new standard of beauty; until then, the only thing to do is come to terms with it. The car does have a lot working in its favor: reviews note that the Panamera’s driving dynamics are close to those of the 911; it is downright practical with its 15.7 cubic feet of hatchback space; it offers a sumptuous interior; and the turbo version has a 500 hp V-8 and a 188-mph top speed.
Base price: $132,600
Audi A8
Virtually overnight the big, black getaway car in the 1998 film Ronin established the A8 as a cult favorite; suddenly every teenage boy wanted to drive the flagship of the Audi line. Now that those kids are all grown up and eco-friendly, they might still aspire to the all-new A8, whose power plant is, according to Audi, the greenest in its class. The environmental gains begin with the braking system, where kinetic energy produced during deceleration is converted into electric energy and stored in the car’s battery. The energy is then distributed by the thermal management system to the transmission and engine, dramatically reducing the warm-up time during cold starts, when emissions are highest. Thanks in part to the A8’s 8-speed Tiptronic transmission, the car gets 17 percent more gas mileage than the previous model. Inside the cabin, an ambient-lighting system uses LEDs to bathe the interior in hues Audi describes as ivory, polar, and ruby.
Base price: $90,000 (estimated)
Lexus LS 460 Sport
From the day the Lexus LS debuted in 1989 it was hailed as an automobile of destiny. It broke new ground in comfort, quality, and technology while proving the Japanese could compete with German carmakers. The new Sport package, first offered last year, includes the same 380 hp V-8 engine that powers the standard LS sedan, and it’s mated to an 8-speed automatic transmission that includes paddle shifters on the steering wheel for full manual operation. Downshift rev-matching is built in, a boon to novice heel-and-toe-ers. The Sport-only design elements include 19-inch Dunlop tires, a blacked-out grille, an extended front spoiler, and rocker panels. And the Brembo six-piston fixed front calipers are visible behind the Sport package’s forged alloy wheels.
Base price: $74,000
Maserati Quattroporte Sport GT S
Many are the luxury cars that loudly proclaim success, virility, or wealth. However, in its performance, appointments, and aesthetics, the Quattroporte Sport GT S bespeaks refinement. The Sport GT S rolls on 20-inch wheels and teams a 433 hp, 4.7-liter V-8 with a paddle-shifted 6-speed automatic transmission. The motoring enthusiast who really wants to have some fun can take delivery of his new Quattroporte in Italy and then drive over the Dolomites to the autobahn and open ’er up. Unlike the new Mercedes-Benzes, Audis, and BMWs, which are electronically limited to 155 mph, your Maserati will keep accelerating to its unlimited top speed of 177 mph.
Base price: $134,200
Rolls-Royce Phantom
The time was the early 1990s, and the place, the Rolls-Royce factory in Crewe, England. There, an aged engine builder revealed one of the things that set Rolls-Royce apart from lesser automobiles. Other carmakers, he confided, tried to keep their engines from burning oil, but not Rolls-Royce. It was, in fact, the oil leaking down the sides of the pistons that kept a Rolls engine so well lubricated. When told this anecdote, Paul Ferraiolo, president of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars North America, laughed. “That sounds like the kind of thing Rolls-Royce used to say,” he said. Rolls-Royce engines haven’t leaked oil since BMW acquired the brand name. The benefits of new ownership became evident in 2002, when Rolls-Royce’s first Phantom in more than a decade rolled out of the new factory in Goodwood, England. Though 17 inches longer than the Seraph, the last wholly British-built Rolls, the new Phantom was two and a half times as rigid. When combined with the state-of-the art suspension technologies, the aluminum space frame provided the magic carpet ride that is unique to Rolls-Royce. The V-12 power plant is impressive, not just for its 453 hp output, but also because even when the car is traveling at 70 mph, more than 90 percent of the engine’s power remains available in reserve, making for effortless acceleration.
Base price: $380,000
Bentley Mulsanne Turbo
The Mulsanne takes its name from a stretch of track at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and the sight of the marque’s winged badge on a new sport sedan might prompt the motoring enthusiast to reach for his leather racing helmet and goggles. The Mulsanne’s look recalls the Bentley S-Type of the 1950s, with its chicken-wire grille set between headlamps the size of dinner plates. The long hood, short front overhang, and long rear overhang conjure up a sense of power and movement. Optional 21-inch wheels reinforce the Bentley’s powerful sporting stance, which is more than an illusion: the Mulsanne’s 6.75-liter twin-turbocharged V-8 produces 505 hp and 725 ft lbs of torque. Even with a weight of 5,380 pounds, this Bentley has a top speed of 184 mph and can do the zero-to-60 mph sprint in just 5.1 seconds.
Base price: $195,000
Mercedes-Benz S63 AMG
Beneath the hood of every Mercedes S-Class sedan rumbles a powerful engine, but the flagship of the line, the S63 AMG, also hisses. To the cognoscenti this is a glorious dissonance, the sound of the S63’s twin-turbo, 5.5-liter V-8. The new direct-injected engine bumps output up from its predecessor’s 518 hp to 571 hp while generating 663 ft lbs of torque between 2,250 and 3,750 rpm. That’s sufficient to transform a behemoth into a juggernaut and catapult it from zero to 62 mph in just 4.5 seconds. In addition to its new biturbo V-8 engine, the S63 AMG comes with special body styling, alloy wheels, sports suspension, and a high-performance brake system. A front bumper with large air intakes houses LED daytime running lights trimmed in chrome, and a “V8 BITURBO” badge enhances each front fender. A pair of twin tailpipes completes the car’s exclusive look and sound.
Base price: $127,825
BMW 550i
The 550i might be the only luxury sedan with a manual shift that’s standard equipment (the Cadillac CTS-V Series manual is optional). The ZF-built 8-speed is attached to a 400 hp TwinPower turbo V-8. Thus configured, the 550i accelerates to 60 mph in just under five seconds. Top speed in North America is electronically limited to 130 mph, except for those cars equipped with the Sport Package, which delivers speeds as fast as 150 mph, along with tighter, more precise handling. Conveniently located buttons can be used to vary the suspension, steering, transmission, and throttle programming between the Comfort, Normal, Sport, and Sport+ settings. The last setting disables the stability control to produce throttle-induced oversteer, which is every bit as fun as it sounds.
Base price: $59,700
Cadillac CTS-V
The Cadillac CTS sedan was introduced in 2002 as a sport sedan to replace the lamentable Cadillac Catera, aka “the Caddy that zigs.” The CTS’s sharply creased lines were a departure from the bland offerings of the GM stable of that time. Who knew the CTS would be credited with reviving the Cadillac brand? It also marked a return to rear-wheel drive for the brand and was the first Cadillac to be offered with a manual transmission since the 1988 Cimarron. The CTS eventually metamorphosed into the CTS-V, which, with its 6.2-liter, 556 hp V-8 and optional 6-speed transmission, Cadillac claims is the world’s fastest production sedan. But the CTS line represents an achievement that might be even more impressive: with it, Cadillac has helped exorcise the stodginess from American sedan designs.
Base price: $64,290