Super Luxury SUV
I came up in a time when SUVs were pretty much non-existent. I remember thinking my friend’s Jeep Grand Wagoneer looked like a giant suit closet on wheels. Times changed and SUVs became the thing. Hell, GM damn near went belly up betting on the Hummer being in every garage in America.
But regardless of its ups and downs in popularity the Sports Utility Vehicle has become a symbol of power and opulence… if the brand is right. With news breaking that Bentley is prepping to release its first SUV, I thought it might be fun to do our own lux SUV league tables.
Some interesting info to keep in mind:
Porsche AG, once best known for sports cars like the 911, now relies on the Cayenne SUV for half its deliveries. Porsche will add a second SUV in 2013 to capitalize on the model’s success, while Jaguar Land Rover is mulling a crossover vehicle. Aston Martin also says it’s not ruling out an SUV-type car.Production of luxury SUVs, including the 58,000-euro ($83,000) Cayenne, the 75,000-euro Mercedes-Benz GL-Class and the 56,000-euros Range Rover Sport, is set to expand 15 percent to 481,000 vehicles in 2015 from 417,000 last year. Automakers built 298,654 luxury SUVs in 2005.
I’m glad the Cayenne got mentioned, as I am absolutely in love with the Turbo. It’s undoubtedly my all-time top SUV, with a slight tip of the cap to the old school Ford Excursion, simply because it was unparkable in an urban setting.
What are you guys’ favorite SUVs and more importantly, would you ever drop hundreds of thousands on a Aston Marton or a Lambo SUV? As cool as it sounds, it’s hard for me to imagine SUVs ever pulling out of the Grand Wagoneer mold, completely.
i like the Lexus Rx
I like this: http://www.landrover.com/us/en/rr/range-rover-evoque/photos-and-videos/
Not really luxury, but someday this will be my daily driver:
Sorry, I love Top Gear.
That's (bad ass)^2
The original SUV is still the most baller. I present you with the 1969 VW Thing:
That thing is a chick magnet.
I wonder how much more the damage would have been with the Bentley SUV...
http://www.myfoxdc.com/dpp/news/offbeat/supercar-pileup-damages-five-ca…
Women...
I'm a fan of Land Rovers.
I'll second this. I love the Range Rover Sport, but the straight up LR4 just speaks to me. For some crazy reason I love boxy SUVs...G Wagon, Defender 90, LR Discovery. etc.
I like to know that my SUV can get the off-road job done...even if there is never a job, lol. With that said, I don't know if I would ever drop a $100k+ on an SUV because I feel like you can only get so comfortable inside a vehicle if you are driving and at the point you aren't (and are able to enjoy the luxury) you might as well get a car you are meant to be chauffeured around in. I don't know, first I will have to see what these new luxury/ultra-luxury SUVs look like and second I will have to see if I'm ever rich, lol.
Regards
I love the boxy SUV's as well.
Eddie - that thing is sweet. They are cheaper than I thought they'd be. http://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/cat.php?id=15
Please do not degrade the Range Rover by calling it an SUV. Freelander: yes, Evoque: yes, Range Rovers, Discoveries, Defenders; NO.
/rant
Range Rover supercharged BMW X5/X6
why anyone would drop that much money on a fridge is beyond me.
Porsche should be ashamed of the monstrosity they call the Cayenne.
I agree with this comment...diluting their brand to sell to soccer moms.
The only thing worse is the 4-door sedan they are making...
The opportunity cost of what made the Cayenne is shockingly disturbing. Porsche decided to forgo a Le Mans prototype program in order to pursue the production of the Cayenne with Audi's help. It was decided in 1998 right after their fairytale win at Le Mans that Porsche would begin production and design on an SUV and ultimately pull out of the premier GT1 and LMP racing class due to the high costs... a very sad chapter in the company's history.
Is a Denali technically a truck? Anyway, I think the Denali is the most badass SUV. I won't hesitate to beep at some preppy guy in a Range Rover. I won't beep at a guy in a black Denali because he'll probably get out and beat my ass.
Or something like this:
No question on this one - Lamborghini LM002
Rambo Lambo
I've got a Lamborghini dealer down the street from my house, and I'm surprised they've never had one of these parked out front. They seem to love all the tourists walking by and stopping to take pictures with the vehicles, and they try to throw exotic stuff out there for that reason.
Humvee. Not that faggity ass H2/3 shit.
I will own one of these before I die. I just hope I don't ever have to attempt to park it.
I wanted to buy a military surplus Humvee so bad when I got out but was told that it isn't possible because the government buys them at such a cheap price (highly doubt that though, lol) that they aren't allowed to resell them per their procurement contract with GM/whoever.
As cool as the civilian versions are, I would never want to take my $120k truck with leather interior through the mud and over rocks...which is why I would have loved to get a hold of just a good old military style one with no radio and no A/C and just beat the shit out of it.
Before heading out to the Kuwaiti desert to prepare for the invasion we did this dry run/camping excursion, not to far from the gates of Camp Doha, in order to check all of our equipment and what not. As luck would have it, it poured rain for the first couple days and left the whole area flooded and muddy which typically blows because that means you have to pack up all the tents and shit, then unpack them back on base and clean everything off etc. But whatever, we ended up being left alone for a bit when our MSG ran back to post for a briefing or something. While he was away we broke out the Humvees and went to fucking town on this open field that had this huge, deep mud puddle. It was so bad that we when we were doing donuts through the puddle the water was coming through the windows of the truck and leaking through the bottom of the doors (soft side doors).
When the MSG got back he looked at the trucks, which went from tan to brown, and the adjacent field, which had tire tracks through the whole thing, and just shook his head laughed. Luckily we were really good friends so he didn't given us any shit about it. The only thing I never got to do with those trucks was actual rock crawling, etc. Other than that the best times were when we traveled back and forth between Camp Doha and Camp Udairi. Usually it was just a handful of us with a couple of trucks and it was pedal to the metal...which can be painful in a bumpy desert. When I was there we only had one "road", which was built during the first Gulf War, and it was far worse than driving on the open desert. We would just pick a general direction coming out of the gate at Camp Udairi and just drive toward Camp Doha. Eventually you would hit the highway and be good to go. It was a blast, though looking back it was probably stupid and dangerous.
Regards
The reason that they scrap all of them after their useful life is up is because they don't meet US highway safety standards (no airbags, etc.). I looked into getting one as well. You can occassionally (and very rarely) find one through certain charity auctions, but these are few and far between. Also, I believe that GM only bought the rights to commercial production of the Humvee. I think AM General still made the military vehicles even after the sale.
Does anyone else find the term "luxury SUV" to be incredibly oxymoronic?
I know I am an idiot for not knowing how to code for a hyperlink in a comment, but this Chinese car is most likely the greatest SUV ever designed. Especially if you belong on, "How to catch a predator".
http://autos.yahoo.com/photos/11-strangest-cars-at-the-2011-shanghai-au…
As mentioned the LM002 and H1 are awesome. I like the Brabus G V12 as well (http://www.autoblog.com/2009/03/05/geneva-2009-brabus-g-v12-s-biturbo-i…).
As for the "opportunity cost" of the Cayenne, I don't know if you can blame Porsche. Regardless of what it does to their "pedigree," the Cayenne is one of the supreme money-makers in the automotive world and it's success has probably helped fund some of the wilder editions of the 996 and 997.
The Cayenne and Boxter ultimately saved Porsche from going under. From the business and marketing perspective it was a smart move to take this route. From the enthusiasts perspective... they sold out.
The irony behind all of this is that Porsche still managed to manufacture the Carrera GT when it was that model itself which was intended to be the project for their prototype racing machine. I guess the conflict of interest with Audi kept them from taking the project to its intended completion.
And you're correct that models like the Cayenne did help finance homologation requirements for the 996 and 997 GT3RS and support GT2 models, but none of those can hold a stick to their earlier predecessors. Porsche up until the very late 90's was a true and hardcore racing manufacturer for their entire existence. Nearly everything they built for the road was built for the sole purpose of homologation requirements... racing was the only component of their DNA. It's not quite the same today... but those days are gone. Today, Porsche is just a mere shadow of its former self... as is Ferrari, Merc, BMW, Lotus, Alfa Romeo, etc.
Jesus christ, a Bentley SUV? Default car choice of rappers worldwide. Disgraceful. Give me a Range Rover, or better yet a Land Rover Defender, any day of the week.
Also, Denalis are sweet almost solely due to their awesome exhaust note.
As a side note to all this Porsche talk. Does anyone else feel that the Cayman is probably the best looking model they offer? To me the fronts are all virtually the same, but the rear of the Cayman sets it apart from all the rest and I think it is phenomenal.
Regards
HPM and I recently had a conversation about this and how the Cayman suffers from "911 disease" (a term to describe how all the Porsche models of late have the same front-end styling as the 911).
I'm not a huge fan of the Cayman because it is deliberately underpowered... and it has a bollocks name. It does handle very well but it is just not as fun to drive as the 911. The mid-engine layout of the Cayman really does make it more tame compared to the rear-engine layout of the 911. In essence it's just a Boxter coupé.
I think that no matter how hard some groups try, they will never separate the love from the American people and the SUV. I am sure that those who hate SUVs are simply those who cannot afford them.
Excuse my ignorance but what makes range rovers worth so damn much? been wondering this for awhile because they seem monstrously overpriced
It's just like any status symbol.... you're buying the brand.
Yeah that's all I could come up with. I heard they are constantly having problems, but don't know how much truth there is to that.
The BMW X6M is seriously one of the most menacing vehicles on the road. Not only does i look badass but it will chew up just about anything out there.
http://www.cartuningcentral.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/Lumma-CLR-BM…
1% of people that buy SUVs are avid outdoorsmen that actually use the vehicles as intended. The rest are either suburban soccer moms or men with little penises trying to compensate. Truth.
I will never buy an SUV. Even if oil were $1 a gallon and I had 10 kids, I wouldn't buy myself or my wife an SUV...
Thankfully, gas prices are only going higher as time goes by, and they will increasingly go out of style
Most SUVs I see in my neighborhood are Honda CR-Vs and Subaru Outbacks. There's really nothing sporty about them and "SUV" is a misnomer now since they're really used as family cars.
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