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The Iconic GTR: Redefining Luxury Cars?

by Rigel Celeste (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Cars & Autos

Iconic Motors is a company that's looking to redefine the luxury sports car market, and the car they're planning to start with is the Iconic GTR. Besides having all the usual supercar mechanics under the hood, the Iconic GTR boasts an interior loaded with jewelry-grade stainless steel accents along with synthetic sapphire actuators and gauge faces. It also has patents pending on its gas cap control system, door hinges, and shifter. No idea how much the Iconic GTR costs yet, but considering it looks like a modernized Batmobile I'm sure it won't be cheap!

Gallery: Iconic GTR

Tags: auto, autos, car, cars, iconic, iconic gtr, iconic motors, IconicGtr, IconicMotors, wheels

Luxury Car Sales Fall

by Rigel Celeste (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Cars & Autos

So the economy has been taking a hit lately, but as a general rule the highest of high end products haven't really been affected -- apparently those with money up to their ears haven't been feeling the pinch, until now.

Numbers are streaming in from luxury car brands reporting serious sales drops this year from 2007 -- Jaguar sales fell by 52% (whoa!), BMW by 27%, Porsche by 13%, and Land Rover by 17%. Even Ferrari (surprisingly) reported a decline for this past January, although they claim the drop from last year was both planned and expected.

It will be interesting to see what the rest of 2008 brings for the luxury car market.

Tags: auto, autos, BMW, economy, Ferrari, Jaguar, LandRover, luxury cars, LuxuryCars, Porsche, wheels

The Splinter, A Wooden Supercar that's Faster than a Porsche

by Rigel Celeste (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Cars & Autos, Green

Think "wooden car" and images of an old-fashioned toy or model car are more likely to pop into your head than a real-life sleek fast supercar. The Splinter, however, is changing that by not only being a sportscar made of wood that's stylish and sleek but also by being fast -- faster than a Porsche or a Lamborghini.

It's fast partly because of the goodies under the hood and partly because it's just so much lighter than its steel and metal counterparts. Built of a combination of maple, plywood, and MDF it can turn out 700bhp and has a top speed of 240mph. Not too shabby.

There's no price set for this wooden beauty just yet, or color options (I say if you're going to buy a wooden car then don't hide it with a paint job at all), but look for more info as the car is scheduled for release later this year.

Gallery: The Splinter

Tags: auto, car, splinter, the splinter, TheSplinter, wheels, wood, wooden

A Fiat 500 Pepita Painted with 24k Gold and Swarovski Crystals

by Rigel Celeste (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Cars & Autos

Luxury cars are usually about a fast engine, a smooth ride, and extra features for comfort and convenience, but this luxury vehicle is all about the bling. It's a Fiat 500 Pepita and it's all decked out with a 24k gold paint job, Swarovski crystal studded gear shift, hand brake, and foot pedals, cashmere floor mats (cashmere on the floor?!), and gold painted alloy wheels. Plus you get a choice of seats made of crocodile, snake, shark, skate or lizard leather and an assortment of precious gems to add to the interior. €60,000

Gallery: 24k Gold Fiat 500 Pepita

Tags: auto, bling, car, Fiat, fiat 500 pepita, Fiat500Pepita, gold, pepita, swarovski, wheels

Tina Turner's Mercedes-Powered LM002 For Sale

by Rigel Celeste (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Cars & Autos, Celebrity Shopping

Tina Turner wasn't messing around when she went shopping for a vehicle. In true rock-and-roller style, she opted for a Lamborghini (a LM002 to be exact) and had it retro-fitted and personalized with a Mercedes E500 V8 automatic transmission, a 1500-Watt Blaupunkt stereo, and lots of other aesthetic touches. The big news here is not that Tina Turners owns this vehicle, but that she's selling it. It's currently on the market for ?179,000, and although I'm hardly an expert at appraising vehicles that seems like a pretty good deal.

Gallery: Tina Turner's Mercedes-Powered LM002

Tags: auto, autos, car, celebrity, Lamborghini, Mercedes, Tina Turner, TinaTurner, wheels

The Ferrari F430 Spider Bio Fuel

by Rigel Celeste (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Cars & Autos, Green

Fast high-end sports cars are generally not considered to be eco-friendly, with their gas guzzling turbo engines and energy-sucking luxury features. But that's not to say they aren't trying -- Ferrari for example, revealed their F430 Spider Bio Fuel model earlier this week in Detroit. It burns a mix of 85% natural ethanol and 15% gasoline, which results in +10hp (meaning its got a solid 500hp to work with) and a 5% increase in gas mileage over its gas-only counterpart. As for now the F430 Spider Bio Fuel is only a concept, but Ferrari says they'd like to put it into production as part of their efforts to cut emissions by 40% by the year 2012. Like the looks of it? See more photos here.

Tags: auto, Bio Fuel, BioFuel, car, cars, eco, environment, F430, Ferrari, green, Spider, wheels

Luxury Vehicles: Which Give You the Best Bang for Your Buck?

by Rigel Celeste (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Cars & Autos

Although the first thought that comes to mind when thinking "luxury vehicle" is probably not "bargain shopping," that doesn't mean that people with taste and money aren't also looking for a good deal. So besides the obvious value to be found in features like premium leather, a fast engine, a smooth ride, and fancy electronic gadgets, what makes a luxury car a good deal? Forbes recently compiled a list, taking into consideration things like initial cost, dealership service, the complete ownership experience over several years, and depreciate/maintenance costs over the life of the vehicle.

The winner? With its company's legendary service coupled with features that aren't always offered on entry-level luxury vehicles, the Lexus IS250 came out as the #1 best value. See the runners up below:

Gallery: The Best Luxury Cars For Your Buck

#1 The Lexus IS250

#2 The Volvo V70

#3 The Acura TL

#4 The Buick Enclave

#5 The BMW 3-Series

Tags: auto, autos, car, cars, Lexus, wheels

World's Oldest Rolls-Royce Sells For Record Price

by Rigel Celeste (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Cars & Autos, Auctions

The oldest surviving Rolls Royce went up for auction this past Monday and sold for a record-breaking $7,275,000. Over 100 years old (built in 1904), the 10hp two-seater Rolls went to a private British collector who was obviously willing to pay more than twice the initial estimate for the vehicle -- after two phone bidders drove the price sky high. And it didn't only break the record for highest price paid for a Rolls Royce, but it also broke the record for highest price paid for any veteran (pre-1905) vehicle.

Tags: auction, auto, autos, Rolls Royce, RollsRoyce, vehicle, vehicles

Koenigsegg Limited Edition CCX and CCXR

by Rigel Celeste (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Cars & Autos

Koenigsegg has, due to popular demand, created limited edition versions of its CCX and CCXR cars. And they mean it when they say "limited," as there will be only 14 of the Koenigsegg Edition CCX and 6 of the Koenigsegg Edition CCXR built. Each Edition model gets a boost in performance over their standard counterparts (from 806hp to 888hp for the CCX) and both cars can go from 0-60mph in just 2.9 seconds. If you're seriously interested you better get moving since 2 of each limited edition model has already been sold, and get ready to shell out somewhere between 1,330,000 and 1,500,000 Euros.

Want more photos? Click here.

Tags: auto, autos, car, cars, CCX, CCXR, Koenigsegg, wheels

Simon Cowell Picks Up A Bugatti Veyron

by Rigel Celeste (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Cars & Autos, Celebrity Shopping

Simon Cowell blew some serious cash on some serious wheels recently when he had some spare time on his hands (and apparently some spare cash) due to a week off work for the Rugby World Cup. He dropped over £1,000,000 in LA on two new cars: a £750,000 Bugatti Veyron and a £400,000 Rolls Royce Phantom Drophead Coupe.

Somehow this doesn't surprise me. Simon Cowell hardly seems to shy away from flash and attention, and although fast cars don't necessarily mean an ego problem (I would love to have a Veyron myself!) I think in his case they might!

Tags: auto, automobile, automobiles, autos, bugatti, bugatti veyron, BugattiVeyron, car, cars, cowell, ferrari, phantom, phantom coupe, PhantomCoupe, rolls royce, RollsRoyce, simon cowell, SimonCowell, veyron, wheels

Luxury Car Condos and Extreme Garages

by Rigel Celeste (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Services, Luxury Cars & Autos

The thing about collecting cars is that storage easily becomes an issue -- you can't leave a 1956 Mercedes-Benz sitting out on the street. But if you're regular garage is already full of other vehicles, what's to be done? Usually cars end up in storage garages or in public parking facilities, but obviously sitting an investment like that in a corner somewhere under a tarp collecting dust is hardly ideal.

Enter the Taj Garage (I can't help but smile at the name), and other companies like it springing up across the country. They will work with you to create a customized car-storage experience -- basically a beautiful, clean condo for your vehicle(s) to live in complete with bathroom, wet bar, 24 hour security, and maybe even a private rooftop club for socializing with your car-minded condo neighbors. Now it can't get much better than that.

Via Trendir

Tags: auto, automobile, automobiles, autos, car, cars

The Colorless Bugatti Veyron Pur Sang

by Rigel Celeste (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Cars & Autos

I love a shiny red sports car as much as the next person, but here's something completely different: how about getting a new Bugatti Veyron Pur Sang and passing on the paint job altogether? The colorless design ends up two-toned, and highlights both the functionality and artistic beauty of the vehicle. The dark carbonfiber down the center covers the W16 engine, passenger cell, crash box, and linkages to the wheels while the shinier aluminum sides give the car its sleek shape and silhouette. The car will be available in limited edition for about 1.4m euros.

So what do you think? I love it.

Tags: auto, automobiles, bugatti, bugatti veyron, BugattiVeyron, car, cars, pur sang, PurSang, veyron, wheels

The Most Envied Cars

by Rigel Celeste (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Cars & Autos

The cliché "money can't buy everything" is true, and we're not just talking about love or happiness. Money may not be able to buy you the car you want either, depending on exactly which one it is. According to this list the most sought after and coveted car in the world is the Aston Marton DBS. Have one? Be proud, because if you don't not only will you have to dish out $265,000 but you'll also have to spend 28 months or more on the waiting list.

Other cars with enormous "envy" factors include the Morgan Aeromax, the Ferrari F430 Scuderia, and the Ferrari F599 GTB Fiorano.

I am so green right now.

Tags: auto, automobile, automobiles, autos, car, cars, covet, coveted, desired, envied, envy, exclusive

BMW Welt. BMW's Fancy New Palace Of Cars

by Rigel Celeste (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Services, Luxury Cars & Autos

BMW Welt, or BMW World in English, is located in Munich Germany and is designed to present new BMW owners with their vehicles in the best light possible -- literally. After purchasing a new BMW, owners will have the option of passing on picking up their car the boring way (at a local dealer) and can instead head over to get the full treatment at BMW Welt. Their car will be gleaming and glittering under a spotlight while spinning slowly on a turntable -- what better way to see your brand new purchase for the first time?

Of course there's a lot more going on at BMW Welt than just cars on turntables, although with 170 cars being delivered there daily come October there's got to be a lot of turning going on.

Tags: auto, automobile, automobiles, autos, bmw, bmw welt, bmw world, BmwWelt, BmwWorld, car, cars, drive, drivers, germany, munich, wheels

50 Cent's Lamborghini on eBay

by Rigel Celeste (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Cars & Autos, Auctions, Celebrity Shopping

I really don't understand the appeal of selling big name items online -- isn't eBay largely for bargain hunters? But obviously there are plenty of people who don't share my views, as demonstrated by how well this 2005 Lamborghini Murcielago, rumored to be owned by rapper 50 cent, is doing. The auction ends soon and as of writing this post there are 15 bidders and it's currently at $310,000. 50 isn't actually mentioned in the auction, but based on this YouTube video it sure looks like he's the mysterious "celebrity owner."

Via AutoBlog

Tags: 50 cent, 50Cent, auction, auto, automobile, car, ebay, lamborghini, online, sale, wheels

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