luxury sedans

11.22.09

Bugatti's 4-Door, Ultra-Luxe Galibier Concept Trumps Veyron in Sheer Ostentation, If That's Possible

Bugatti reveals a mega-luxury 4-door sedan fit for a robber baron (that tops out at 217 mph).

By Mike Spinelli Posted 09.14.2009 at 11:45 am 12 Comments

Yep, it's a good time to be one of the haves. Volkswagen-owned Bugatti, maker of the wickedly fast and pricey Veyron, this week unveiled an ultra-luxury sedan for the upmost echelon of car buyers. It's the Galibier, which takes its name from a pass in the Alps traversed during the Tour de France. But does such a machine still have a place in this age of downscaled expectations and environmental responsibility? Before you answer, that's an entirely rhetorical question.

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READ MORE ABOUT > Bugatti, bugatti galibier, concept cars, concepts, frankfurt auto show, luxury sedans

A $40,000 Hyundai? Luxuriating in the 2009 Genesis Sedan

Hyundai undercuts Lexus, Infiniti and Mercedes with a luxury car that'll give car buyers another reason to forget the Korean carmaker's checkered past

By Mike Spinelli Posted 09.22.2008 at 1:28 pm 1 Comment

The world has turned upside-down. The US government is the hottest ticket on Wall Street, Cadillac builds European sports sedans, Saab markets SUVs, and now Hyundai makes a $42,000 luxury car. Someone e-mail the Bizarro Justice League, stat.

The 2009 Hyundai Genesis has been a long time coming for the South Korean automaker. Years ago, Hyundai introduced to the American market an ignoble range of economy cars that, unadjusted for inflation, cost the equivalent of pocket lint. It's a different company now. To mangle a Pink Floyd lyric, 20 odd years may have gotten behind Hyundai Motor America, but it didn't miss the starting gun.

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READ MORE ABOUT > automobiles, Genesis, hyundai, korea, luxury sedans, Mike Spinelli, review

Poise and Luxury on the Track

The freshened 2009 Audi A4 brings smart tuning and luxury touches to the table to compete with genre stalwarts BMW and Lexus

By Mike Spinelli Posted 05.30.2008 at 11:49 am 3 Comments

Audi A4 '09 On the Track: Audi

The business of cars, like that of pop music, is a what-have-you-done-for-me-lately proposition. Take Audi, which has moved scores of A4s since the mid-1990s. Like any other automotive hitmaker, every so often it must turn out a fresh one that reads like a John Grisham novel, a force multiplier that reacts to trends and keeps things moving forward. This can get tricky, as Ford found out when it tried to update the popular Taurus in 1996 and wound up, as Britney Spears did with Britney (the one where she tried to write her own songs), on the losing end of a pivotal moment.

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READ MORE ABOUT > audi, audi a4, bmw, luxury sedans, Mike Spinelli, test drive

Cars That Own the Night

The latest luxury sedans use night-vision systems to let you see in the dark

By Eric Adams Posted 05.11.2006 at 1:00 am 0 Comments

We tested two new night-vision systems that are available in the top-of-the-line Mercedes Benz S550 and BMW 7-Series luxury sedans. They operate on virtually opposite principles-Mercedes illuminates the environment with projected infrared light; BMW detects thermal energy emitted from objects-and each works well under different circumstances. Click here to see what we found.

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