Any full-size sedan costing over $60,000 represents more than just transportation. If it didn't, everyone would drive Crown Vics, which can carry at least as many people and just as much stuff for a lot less coin. To make you buck up 80 to 100 grand for a big, fast, designer four-door, you want style, comfort, performance, prestige, technology, craftsmanship, self-satisfaction, and respect from the valets at Spago--that's what these cars are all about.
Every country that plays in this segment has a different take on the luxo-sedan game. Quality, technical innovation, and sheer competence have long made Germany the default setting, but Britain and now Italy are making convincing plays for a share of the action.
But are they convincing enough?
From the U.K. comes the latest, and likely greatest, edition of Jaguar's all-aluminum XJ. The Super V8 combines the spaciousness and drawingroom accoutrements of the recently introduced long-wheelbase version--five inches are added to the wheelbase, just aft of the B-pillar and ahead of the wheelhouse, for rear-seating-area comfort rivaling First Class on British Airways--with the supercharged punch and taut leg muscles of the naughty XJR. It carries every option Jaguar has on the list.
From the region of Italy known for exotic cars, Pavarotti, and vintage-dated vinegar comes the Maserati Quattroporte. Most Americans picture Maserati as a boutique sports car builder, but this new flagship is, in fact, the fifth generation of a sedan model that's been around for 40 years. Unlike its competitors, there is but one size, and the chassis structure is made of steel. There's no supercharger or all-wheel drive. The Maser's calling card is a killer body and a six-speed manual transmission that (generally) acts like an automatic via the toil of electrohydraulic robots that handle the clutching and shifting.
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