onthebuyside.com

Bentley’s Elite New Drive - Forbes.com

The company recently unveiled its new Brooklands model, which it is calling “the world’s most exclusive coupe.”
Bentley will start delivery in the first half of next year, and will build no more than 550 during the vehicle’s lifetime. The company’s engineers will hand-assemble each one, using its famous, traditional coach-building techniques and craftsmanship skills in wood veneer and leather hide.

Be the first in Greenwich to buy one.

Best Rides For Billionaires - Forbes.com

This September, Rolls-Royce will start delivering what could be the hottest new status symbol for billionaires: the $412,000 Phantom Drophead convertible.But a fat wallet does not an owner make.

“No matter how much money you have, you’re just not going to be able to decide that you want one at the drop of a hat,” says Rolls spokesman Bob Austin. “It’s sold out almost two years in advance. If you’re a billionaire and you decide you’ve got to have one, you have to get in line–and there are few things that billionaires get in line for.”

Or you could simply outbid the other billionaires for it.

New startups allow shared ownership of cars, yachts - February 1, 2007

If you were to buy the car of your dreams - say, a Porsche 911 GT3 (sticker price, $106,000) - the odds are you’d drive it about 30 days a year and cover maybe 1,000 miles. Those are widely accepted metrics in the exotic-car industry, reflecting the reality that you don’t fire up a Porsche 911 to pick up groceries. For boats the numbers are even more stark - most are used just ten to 20 days in season. The rest of the time they gather barnacles while you pay for insurance and maintenance.As a result, high-end luxury products are increasingly being offered in fractional-ownership or shared-access deals. The model started out with real estate time-shares in the 1970s, spread to private jets in the last decade, and is now being applied to sports cars, boats, RVs, helicopters, even handbags and jewelry.

There is a market for everything.

Acura’s RDX: a standout in the crossover crowd | csmonitor.com

Leave it to Honda/Acura to make us look twice at a crossover (car-based SUV), that crowded category that’s been spawning some ho-hum drive-alikes. The five-passenger RDX, actually built on an all-new platform, sits high without towering, handles with verve (enhanced all-wheel-drive), and offers welcoming cockpit ergonomics – deep footwells, high headrests, and an intuitive instrument array.

We bought the MDX, and have been very happy with it other than the fact that the bluetooth system drained the battery about twice a month until they finally figured out what was happening.

Magnificent Maserati - Forbes.com

Maserati has released a photo of its new GranTurismo coupe, a model that will replace the company’s current, so-so sports car, the $80,000 Maserati Coupe.Styled by Pininfarina, the Italian design specialist that creates nearly every Ferrari, the muscular, sporty GranTurismo will make its debut at next month’s Geneva Motor Show. Maserati promises the vehicle will have excellent steering and enough room for four people.

We’ll take one for the road.

Fortune test drives a Mercedes Maybach with Quincy Jones - February 5, 2007

Above all, this supersized two-seater is unique; no marketing exec argued that buyers wanted a 19-foot-long, 6,000-pound coupe with 23-inch wheels and gas mileage of 2.5 mpg at full throttle. In fact, the Exelero - bless its unapologetically over-the-top heart - is the antithesis, the car that didn’t need to be. The beast was built to develop Fulda’s ultra-low-profile Exelero tires and break a speed record for a car of its proportions and mass, which it did: 218 mph, or 351 kilometers per hour.

We’ll take two.

We think changing the DVD at high speed will become the next extreme sport.

2006 Jaguar XJ: Just Like An Old Airliner - Gizmodo

What they liked: The engine puts out 400hp, which is a lot considering the car is completely aluminum and quite light for a large sedan at 4,001 pounds. Overall, the car performs well and rides comfortably - like a first class airliner.

What they didn’t like: The car lacks simple luxuries like bi-xenon headlamps (we don’t mind because those things freakin’ blind us). And the entire design feels a dated, complete with a nav system from 1999.

Gizmodo thoughts: Bluetooth phone support is a step in the right direction and the front seats have screens in the back of their headrests. But to change a DVD, the player is in the trunk. In a boat like a Jag engineers can’t fit a player in the rear console? None of this tech is that expensive anymore - so in a $90,000 car the layout should be perfect.

That’s what every self-respecting hedge fund manager should own.

A Film-Worthy Ferrari - Forbes.com

Ferrari’s new P4/5 is a one-off, customized supercar that looks like the Batmobile–or some other futuristic, million-dollar vehicle you would see in a movie. This is appropriate, considering it was built for James Glickenhaus, the American director of such action movies as McBain (1991, starring Christopher Walken) and The Protector (1985, starring Jackie Chan).The P4/5 is the work of Italian design house Pininfarina, a longtime Ferrari partner. The car uses the mechanical underpinnings of Ferrari’s out-of-production 2002 Enzo Ferrari supercar, and gives the Enzo a body and interior customized to Glickenhaus’ specifications. No price is available for the P4/5, but each of the 400 Enzos Ferrari built costs $650,000.

Some luxury cars just aren’t as robust as their proletarian counterparts. When you are manufacturing for the masses it is imperative to eliminate mistakes that will have the customer in your showroom for non-purchase purposes. Luxury cars get a more personal touch - and humans being humans that can mean more mistakes.

Forbes says you may want to avoid these cars. We say, if you like ‘em, buy ‘em. In fact, buy two - you just might want a spare for redundant backup purposes.

Least Reliable Luxury Cars 2006 - Forbes.com

When you spend $76,000 for a car, you expect it to be bulletproof.

What you don’t expect is for Consumer Reports to call it “unreliable,” and for J.D. Power and Associates to give it below average ratings across a range of manufacturing quality measures.

But had you bought a 2006 Range Rover, both would be the case.

If your driver can’t park the damn car you may want to get a new driver rather than a new car. But if for some reason you are attached to the dude (incriminating photos, perhaps?) you can pick up one of these babies.

Lexus Self Parking Car Video and Review - Gizmodo

Lexus invited Gizmodo along for a ride in the new LS 460 L super rich guy sedan. The thing is packed to the gills with tech. In fact, I’d call it the most geeked-out car evar, next to the Tesla.

But even the Tesla car can’t park itself. Explanation of how the Advanced Parking Guidance System works, information on how this thing rips CDs, and other e-goodies, after the jump.