Latest news with #AlexanderEdwards
Yahoo
23-04-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
The 15 Best Luxury Convertibles to Buy Right Now
As the warmer weather sets in, convertible tops can finally retract. At present, the luxury-car market is spoiling us, and our committed skincare regimen, with a startling plethora of quick, sporting, and sybaritic six-figure droptops. And they not only come in all sorts of shapes and configurations, but also with a range of gas, electric, and hybrid options. 'Convertibles have stayed fairly consistent at about .5 percent of all new vehicles sold to consumers each year,' says Alexander Edwards, president of Strategic Vision, a research and consulting firm that conducts hundreds of thousands of surveys with new car buyers annually. 'However, those over $100,000 seem to have jumped significantly in 2020 from just a few vehicles, to 13 percent of the convertible market. That has increased to 22 percent in 2022, and has stayed there till today.' More from Robb Report Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button Both Owned McLarens. Now the Supercars Are Heading to Auction. This Aston Martin Race Car Was the Last of Its Kind. Now It Could Fetch $2 Million at Auction. This Ex-Ralph Lauren Ferrari F50 Could Fetch $7.5 Million at Auction The reason for this growth, according to Edwards' data, is twofold. First, at the start of the pandemic, fully loaded and more profitable convertibles were among the only droptops being produced, as only their economic demographic of consumers were still actively in the roadster market. Then, based on positive feedback, this high-end segment became vibrant and stable. 'Essentially, consumers didn't know what they were missing out on, and now they look for it,' Edwards says. These buyers break down into two main categories, psychographically, Edwards says. About 40 percent of purchasers are what is known as 'Best Performers.' These are true enthusiasts who want the best in the segment. The second largest group, at about 30 percent of buyers, are the 'Status Seekers.' They want people to look at them—and appreciate how much they are into speed and performance. The latter segment is unlikely to diminish anytime soon. 'These buyers are particularly loyal, often mentioning multiple purchases from the same brand or model line,' Edwards says. 'This loyalty underscores the strength of brand identity and customer love within the segment,' something luxury automakers crave and would be silly to relinquish. With all of this in mind, here—in ascending order of price—are some of our favorite roof-optional rides in production. Best of Robb Report The 2024 Chevy C8 Corvette: Everything We Know About the Powerful Mid-Engine Beast The World's Best Superyacht Shipyards The ABCs of Chartering a Yacht Click here to read the full article. Chevy's 'Plastic Fantastic' Corvette offers a startling mix of variants for the eighth generation of its fiberglass-bodied two-seat convertible, and they're each so different that we feel obligated to call them all out. The Corvette eRay Convertible (starting at $113,595) is a blisteringly fast all-wheel-drive hybrid, combining a 495 hp V-8 with a 160 hp electric motor; 60 mph arrives from a stop in 2.5 seconds. The Corvette Z06 Convertible (starting at $120,795) is a focused sports car, with a 670 hp V-8 that revs like a Ferrari; with all that power driving just the rear wheels, it hits 60 mph in 2.7 seconds. Then there's the Corvette ZR1 Convertible (shown above and starting at $184,995)—a ridiculous track monster with a twin-turbocharged, 1,064 hp version of the Z06's power plant, a rear wing better suited to an airplane, and enough added ductwork to crowd a plumbing van. We'll see if it can hit 60 mph without melting its tires, and wheels. BMW's big two-door convertible has been on the market since 2019, outlasting rivals like Mercedes-Benz's S63 Cabriolet (RIP). Its life may expire in 2026, but it perseveres into its twilight solely in compelling Competition form, in which its snarling twin-turbo V-8 produces 671 hp. Coupled with all-wheel drive, this model variant is capable of an absolutely eruptive 2.5-second blast to 60 mph from a standstill, making the M8 droptop a performance bargain. In addition, it features minatory good looks and clean styling left over from before BMW designers lost their minds. It's time to grab one before they're gone. Starting at $150,975 This new 'entry-level' Aston, and its forthcoming droptop sibling, is key to proving and disseminating the brand's upmarket/up-powered strategy. We haven't tried the convertible yet, but the gorgeous coupe surprised and enchanted us with its razor-sharp moves, its 3.5-second rush to 60 mph, the raucous soundtrack from its 656 hp twin-turbo V-8, and its exquisite interior. Aston has long been benchmarking the Porsche 911 here, and with this latest Vantage, it finally shows. It's great to see Aston differentiating its lineup this way. Estimated starting price of $200,000 Maserati's GranCabrio Folgore follows a similar recipe as the Bentley Continental GTC. With a four-place cabin and power sent to all four wheels, the model also yields a zero-to-60 mph time of around 3 seconds. But the similarity ends there. Where the British Bentley is stately and blunt in its appearance and affect, the Italian Maserati is sinuous and lithe. As for the Folgore suffix in its name, which means 'lightning' in Italian, the moniker indicates that this is the 818 hp, fully electric version of the trident brand's sensual grand tourer (a 542 hp gasser is also available.) With an 83 kWh battery, it will go 233 miles on a charge. Starting at $206,995 Like the Porsche 911, Mercedes-AMG's SL comes in seven convertible variants priced over six-figures. Again, we selected the most bahn-burning. This plug-in-hybrid version incorporates a 4.8 kWh battery, which is good for only seven miles of EV range, but adds 201 hp to the standard 603 hp V-8, allowing sub-2.5-second sprints to 60 mph. With all-wheel drive, and all manner of seat, steering wheel, armrest, and neck heaters, along with power-enabled wind deflectors, this roadster is ideal for rollicking top-down runs to the lake house, mountain house, or beach house, in any season. Starting at $208,300 Porsche produces seven convertible variants of its 911, each with different features and performance, and all priced over $100,000. But we favor the top-tier 911 Turbo S, which includes an obstreperous and audacious 640hp, twin-turbo flat-six engine in is lumpy rear. Although that output is the lowest on this list, when coupled with the car's class-leading sub-two-ton curb weight, and all-wheel drive, it's enough to hurl the sporty convertible from zero to 60 mph in a world-blurring 2.2 seconds. At that velocity, the wind may not only be in your hair, it may remove it. Wear a hat. Starting at $245,495 For those Benz SL aficionados more attuned to ultimate luxury than performance, Mercedes-Maybach offers this highly branded boulevard cruiser. Tattooed on its hood, roof, seats, grille, headlights, wheels, and elsewhere with the marque's layered-M monogram—like a giant Louis Vuitton handbag—there will be no mistaking it for any other SL. The Maybach model also loses the SL's vestigial back seat and receives all manner of suspension and sound insulation to deliver a cushier ride. It should be noted, however, that its 577 hp V-8 will still propel the car to 60 mph in 3.5 seconds. Estimated starting price of $250,000 Aston Martin has gone upmarket, attempting to benchmark Bentley on luxury and Ferrari on performance. The DB12—the latest in the British brand's 75-year line of DB-monikered cars—splits the difference between these two touchstones. It offers a booming 671 hp twin-turbo V-8, which is good for a 3.3-second rip from zero to 60 mph, as well as a gorgeously appointed cabin. As for that interior, it features an all-new—and surprisingly functional—Aston infotainment interface. And it's all complemented by the quick-retracting top that adds to the joyous rush of driving the car on mountain roads, or blasting along oceanfront boulevards. Starting at $271,825 With 'only' 612 hp from its twin-turbo V-8, Ferrari's Roma Spider is the least potent of the marque's current offerings, and the least potent on this list. But when a car looks this good, it doesn't need to show off its strength. (Its output still enables a run from zero to 60 mph in 3.1 seconds.) Subtle and elegant, the Roma Spider harkens back to mid-20th century Ferrari convertibles, with a cheerfully sneering face, a curvaceous bodyline, and strong rolling fenders. Its soft top isn't as insulating as the retractable hardtops found on its siblings, but there's a simple solution: leave the top down. Starting at $277,970 McLaren's near monomaniacal focus is on decreasing mass so its cars' potent power plants push them further, faster. For the Artura Spider, its entry-level convertible supercar, that means a lightweight plug-in hybrid system that combines with a twin-turbocharged V-6 to produce 690 hp. The Artura is the first model in the British marque's lineup to feature its new McLaren Carbon Lightweight Architecture (MCLA) platform, which the new 750S flagship has been subsequently built on. And while the Artura is not the 'sportiest' McLaren, it still manages to race to 60 mph in just 3 seconds, and it sprints through straightaways and turns like a high-powered go cart, always eliciting joy. Starting at $281,008 Bentley's fourth-generation, 2+2-seat, all-wheel-drive droptop has been enhanced by a plug-in hybrid power-train configuration. The setup combines a twin-turbocharged V-8 with an electric motor to yield a combined 771 hp, enough to catapult the car from zero to 60 mph in around 3 seconds. And the 21.8 kWh battery is capable of 40 miles of range. With the top down, you can really enjoy the bombastic grumble of the exhaust note, or, if you're in nature (or affecting stealth) the whisper rush of EV power. Either way, the hulky three-ton convertible crushes roads with alacrity and precision, and never fails to get noticed. Starting at $336,350 You want a sportier McLaren convertible? Here it is. Its mid-mounted, twin-turbocharged V-8 makes 740 hp, which, when combined with just 3,200 pounds of vehicular mass, results in an almost violent 2.3-second acceleration from zero to 60 mph. The rush turns every freeway onramp into the starting grid and back straight of a Formula 1 race. With the top down, this kind of velocity also acts as temporary cosmetic surgery, which is useful as the wrinkly smile lines derived from driving this two-seat sports car may otherwise become permanent. Such standout styling and performance makes it no surprise that the 750S earned our crown as Robb Report's 2025 Car of the Year. Starting at $337,195 The Prancing Horse marque has slowly been hybridizing its convertible lineup, first in the $2.2 million La Ferrari Aperta of 2016, then in the $600,000 SF90 Spider in 2021, and now in the 296 GTS. Anyone who feared that electrical integration would impact negatively on the precise driving experience delivered by machines from Maranello has, by now, been proven incorrect. The 296 GTS may be our favorite Ferrari hybrid so far, with an explosive 819 hp capable of pushing the lively two-seater to 60 mph from a standstill in under 2.5 seconds. But it's on twisty roads where this car's magnetic capabilities really shine. Starting at $379,950 Saving the best Aston for last? The new Vanquish elevates the marque's performance chops with an 823 hp twin-turbo V-12 that allows the car to cover zero to 60 mph in 3.4 seconds, a metric that just bests that of the Vantage. But it also brings a level of sumptuousness that rivals the Bentley Continental GT, with unique and redolent textured leathers. It is almost impossible to appreciate the allure of its carbon-fiber body in photos. The Vanquish coupe is long, low, wide, and mean, but also ludicrously lovely and delicate. We expect the forthcoming convertible to add sunshine to our infatuation. Estimated starting price of $465,000 The Doh-dech-chi Chi-lin-dri's traditionalism is right there in the name, derived from the anachronistically profligate (though melodious) 12-cylinder mill making 830 hp. And as is the case with every Ferrari grand tourer produced since the marque's founding in 1947, that engine is housed in a long hood up front. In accordance with convention, the motor drives only the rear wheels, but is still good for launching the 12Cilindri Spider from zero to 60 mph in 2.9 seconds. A complex mechanism for retracting and hiding the small hardtop roof coexists with a trunk out back that's just large enough to hold one's compact luggage. Starting at $510,000
Yahoo
19-03-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
What's Up with the Wagon Market in the U.S.?
The U.S. wagon market peaked in the mid-Seventies, when dozens of offerings flooded the category and these middle-class suburban schleppers accounted for 10 percent of new-car sales. In subsequent decades, however, new automotive forms—the minivan, then the SUV—found favor as family haulers, and the longroof's popularity plummeted. It is now at its nadir. In the past five years, wagon sales have flatlined, hovering at just over 1 percent of the U.S. market, and nearly all of that is the Subaru Outback. What about the sport/luxury wagons that we love? 'That's been right around 0.2 percent,' says Alexander Edwards, president of Strategic Vision, a research and consulting firm. 'It's an insignificant part of the market. But even 0.2 percent of 16 million sales is 32,000 cars.' Enough to keep some manufacturers interested, if capriciously. At the low end of this category, in 2019, Volkswagen discontinued its Golf Alltrack and Golf SportWagen models. After 2023, Mercedes offered its long-running E-class wagon solely in jacked-up 4Matic All-Terrain guise, no longer sending the U.S. the robust AMG E63 iteration. Volvo, which is defined in this country by its wagons, similarly just canceled its V60 T8 Polestar Engineered wagon, offering the States this mid-sizer, and the larger V90, only in lifted Cross Country form. Meanwhile, BMW has decided to bring its racy, $122,000 M5 Touring to the U.S. for the first time while denying Americans any other 5-series (or 3-series) estates. This echoes Audi's likely strategy shifts. While Audi currently offers its Avant in compelling hot-rod RS6 guise at nearly $128,000, the recently announced replacement of the A4 with the A5 hatchback seems likely to kill off the A4 Allroad wagon here, and the automaker has hinted that the U.S. won't receive the handsome standard next-gen A6 wagon either. Likewise, Porsche has purged American variants of its gas-powered Panamera Sport Turismo wagon while maintaining a half-dozen versions of its electric Taycan Cross Turismo. Why all of this movement? Well, the pie slice available is minuscule, so automakers battle to cross-section it as best as possible. 'They're trying to use whatever they have to outmaneuver the competition,' says Brian Moody, an analyst at Cox Automotive. 'So if they can offer one little advantage to the buyer, they'll try that. And if that doesn't work, they shift and try something else.' For BMW and Audi, the decision to lead with boss wagons is predicated on consumer demand. 'We received literally thousands of inquiries from customers asking us to bring the RS6 Avant to the U.S., as the predecessor was not offered in our market,' an Audi spokesperson says. A BMW spokesperson echoes this reasoning: 'We've had an outpouring of customer enthusiasm for high-performance wagons here since the launch of the M3 Touring in other markets.' These German archrivals also disdain ceding sales to each other, no matter how niche. 'Frankly, we were the creators of the performance-wagon segment with the 1994 RS2, and we have offered RS4, S4, RS6, and S6 Avants over the years,' the Audi spokesperson says, throwing impressive shade. 'So we were ahead of all the competitors.' Mercedes and Porsche spokespeople both cited diminished market returns from the performance-wagon subsegment as the reason for their departure. But Volvo, which has perhaps the most complex brand relationship with high performance here, seems conflicted about abdicating. The automaker's CEO recently said there's a possibility its future won't have any wagons at all. That doesn't mean all love is gone for its long-roofed models, though. 'There's always been a small group of discerning enthusiasts who also appreciate something rare, unique, and maybe even unexpected,' a Volvo spokesperson says. 'From a volume perspective, a V60 T8 Polestar Engineered is more exclusive than many exotics.' This sentiment aligns with Strategic Vision's data, which cites these wagons' exclusivity as key to their appeal. 'The thing luxury-wagon buyers want most from their vehicle is a sense of individuality, something that makes them stand apart,' Edwards says. 'A wagon is like a convertible. It's 'I've got a vehicle that nobody else has.'' Yet these vehicles are stealthier than a drop-top. 'They offer great dynamics with exceptional functionality that allows customers to stand out without screaming 'Look at me,'' the Audi spokesperson says. Edwards's findings corroborate this. 'Owners believe these luxury wagons are significantly more refined,' he says, than offerings in other high-performance and exclusive vehicle categories. Wagon buyers are, not surprisingly, a particular lot. According to Edwards's data, they're 12 percent younger than the average luxury-vehicle buyer. They're 44 percent more likely to identify as Democrats. And they are significantly more likely to live on the coasts. Audi and Mercedes note that of their entire customer base, these owners have some of the highest household incomes, and they are among the most loyal and passionate as well. 'It's such a weird group,' Edwards says, in sum. So what's the prognosis here for wagons? It's anyone's guess. Volvo's rep hints at shapes that defy categorization. 'As technology evolves,' he says, 'we are confident there will be new styles and approaches that will quickly become as iconic as the wagon.' And against expectations, Audi, Porsche, and Mercedes all suggest that we may see the category diversify, especially given the upcoming electrification offensive. 'Given the handling, aero, range, and other advantages, maybe it's time for the Avant to make a comeback,' the Audi spokesperson says. Edwards is not so certain. 'My guess is that market share for these vehicles will shrink in 2025 as OEMs offer more unique options,' he says. 'So, consumers who want to express their individuality can do so in other ways—with electrification and other features out there.' This raises the question of why these automakers send wagons here at all. 'There is still a global marketplace where some of these platforms have some relevance,' Edwards says. 'The Germans and Swedes have always been more interested in wagons. It's part of who they are. So, not doing a wagon seems counterproductive for what they think they represent.' He pauses. 'The real answer is, frankly, hubris.' You Might Also Like You Need a Torque Wrench in Your Toolbox Tested: Best Car Interior Cleaners The Man Who Signs Every Car
