Ferrari has the F12. I don't know if the Lexus LFA was a herald of change, or agent of change, but the F12 took a radical turn from the previous 599GTB and ended up much closer to the LFA than the 550/575 that preceded the 599GTB.

The F12 is more inline with a Corvette than it is with an XKR or Vanquish. I would rather have the Lexus LFA than the Ferrari F12.

 

So where's the Convertible version? That's an absolute requirement.

 

 

OK, I'll get one next year!

 

Ummm...... I won't get one next year. $350,000 USD is a bit more than I'd pay for a vehicle.

 

There once was a day I wouldn't pay more than $7,500 for a car. That was about a week before I bought my XK.

But yeah, there is a bit of sticker shock on a new fantastic Aston Martin compared to the resale on a XKR.

Still, the question is how to move on, and frankly, this new body style of Vanquish looks to be the perfect car if someone is looking for an upgrade.

The XKR occupies a segment with very few similar options. You either lose lots of luggage space, lose the extra seats, have the engine behind you, etc.

 

A buddy recently bought an MB E550 Cabrio upgraded to nearly 600 hp... Beautifully designed and clever touches to make convertible driving darn near year round. Fast as cars get... Handling and braking is ok and over all kind of boring driving experience, but very practical and solid choice if you want real back seats and year round driving.

 

I have seen a number of Lexus' new GT roaming around Los Angeles streets including two, yesterday, that had crazy graphics all over them, obviously corporate cars. The Lexus is nice, but not as shapely as the X150. Apparently, Vovlo's Polestar division is preparing to bring a new 600hp personal luxury GT to market within the next couple of years. Attached is the story although the picture is not necessarily what the car will look like.
Is Polestar working on a 600-horsepower coupe? | Driving

 

I've had a number of volvos including an '04 S60R manual which was just a beast, and better to drive very fast in a straight line than any other car I've had. But volvo tend to persist with FWD bias and too much weight over the front axle making them understeery and often have bad torque steer (though the AWD tends to sort out the torque steer).

The cars can be nice to drive, but not really fun like the Jags are, IMO. That said I drove the 6 cyl turbo polestar AWD S60, huge and annoying turning circle and sub par ride aside, it was amazing to drive hard and had tremendous grip. It was really what you would buy if you loved your WRX but had to grow up.

Agree the Lexus looks good, but best in black IMO to disguise some of the odd design features.

 

Purchased 3 Volvos in the mid 80's, three different models. Unquestionably, the three worst automobiles my family has ever owned. Unreliable, horrible build quality, problems from the first day of ownership. I wouldn't own another if it was given to me. But some people love them. So this article was meant for Volvo lovers everywhere!

 

Yes, we had a 760GLE which was a disaster. But then the c70T5 was nice - very quick at the time and beautiful to sit in the back oddly enough for a coupe, the s60R was great turning circle aside (and that was a killer, 14 metres kerb to kerb) and that did me for volvos. My wife persisted with an '04 s40T5 (good car) and an '09 model (also good) and then a v40T5 CC which was nice but she didnt like the wagon shape, so we didnt have that for 2 years before we traded it for the XE.

Never had any reliability issues with any of them save for sqeaky brakes in one of the s40's that ended up being a software issue. We gave the '09 s40T5 to my mother who is still driving it, it has done well over 100,000kms and no issues. I give it an occasional wash, clay, and polish and it comes up like new.

The seats and stereos in the volvos are very, very good. I quite like the cabins, but the driving experience and turning circle tends to let them down. My wife came out of 12 years of volvos into the XE and she'd never go back.

 

We have a Volvo S60 on lease and it has not had one mechanical problem in 30K miles. Just oil changes and that's it.

 

I have a coupe, as far as the convertible goes, yes, perhaps there are lots of similar options.

The large hatch back coupe is able to fit awkwardly sized objects, and this is a strong consideration for me. Once you go to a drop top, the trunk size becomes more similar from car to car.

So I suppose I should of included XK/XKR Coupe in my post.

 

[QUOTE=BruceTheQuail;1723899]Yes, we had a 760GLE which was a disaster. But then the c70T5 was nice - very quick at the time and beautiful to sit in the back oddly enough for a coupe, the s60R was great turning circle aside (and that was a killer, 14 metres kerb to kerb) and that did me for volvos.

My bride's 1st and only new car. Still hs it s her DD. 1989 740GL with 370K miles

 

Aston Martin and Ferrari make the best looking coupes on the market; albeit priced accordingly. Bentley & Rolls if you want more of a porker.

Mercedes GT is pretty darn awesome looking and you don't see a ton of them. I put the Mercedes GT on the top the list for German Coupes at a reasonable cost.

 

Yes it is, and I agree it'd be a hoot... BUT it's still a Merc, with all its ridiculously high parts costs and, as I've heard, quite a few maintenance issues.
Plus AGAIN, no convertible.

 

I must admit, I cannot give a modern Mercedes a fair trial. Their two door high performance coupes do look good, but when I see one in a parking lot, and I could stop and look at it, I keep walking.

I think Mercedes marketing rubs me wrong. I also associate modern Mercedes with over-complicated electronics that fail to often. Is this latter part still true? I don't know, but the former keeps me from looking into it further.

This add still remains embedded in my mind as a huge turn off to the Mercedes brand.

 

Missing the vacuum lines for the door locks? The good old Mercedes days. My family had an '85 500 SEC for like 20 years...

 

'82 Turbo diesel came into the family when I was younger. Had huge miles at the time(compared to other cars.) It was my mom's car for a bit, then I think my brother drove it from when he was a teenager, to after he got married. I'm not sure just how many miles he put on it.

He was awful at taking care of cars, remarkable how robust it was.

 

Quite an advanced looking car for its time...the problem with the 760 was the engine, it was just one problem after another. My mechanic told me that it had mechanical injection and it was very difficult to work on with one of the cylinders upside down. I was just starting out and ended up spending a fortune (comparatively speaking) keeping it on the road.

I swore off volvos after that, but then went back to them about 6 years later and really didnt have a problem. But then going to Jag, you realise how much fun driving can be.