Awesomely Expensive Sports Sedans

Looking for a little fun for your morning drive in the shape of a shiny new sports sedan? While you could go the usual 3-series, Audi A4 route to get the best of performance, handling and image you have to open your wallet a bit wider. While Mercedes Benz S-Class sedans the BMW 7-series are nice, these vehicles are about as fun to drive as an Ocean Liner.

A sports sedan must have supercar performance, flawlessly beautiful styling (that alone kicks the 7-series off the list) and plenty of space. Nothing about these vehicles has to necessarily be politically correct or frugal. They exist to entertain the driver and intimidate everyone else.

Whereas these two vehicles generally have sticker prices equal to the cost of at least ten Hyundai Accents, it is the nature of their sporting/utility dichotomy that allows them to succeed. To behold the interior of the new Porsche Panamera is to lay your eyes upon a lovingly engineered and built showplace. The exterior of the Maserati Quattroporte makes Heather Locklear look homely in comparison. These are the best sports sedans money can buy. And they take a lot of money.

Maserati Quattroporte

(Starting at $119,750)--To create a practical four door sedan that is both fun to drive and weak at the knees sexy is a nigh on impossible task. Well thank heavens for the Italian maestros at Maserati. After spending decades making quality disasters like the TC by Maserati, the firm rebounded somewhat with the release of the Gran Turismo coupe back in the earlier part of this decade. It was nice and stood out from the pack stylistically but had one of the worst transmission in supercar-dom.

But it was not until the arrival of the Quattroporte that Maserati pulled off a bigger comeback than a post-death Michael Jackson. Perhaps it might have a little bit to do with being owned by Fiat and getting a lot of assistance from Ferrari (which donates V8 engines from the F430 to the Quattroporte).

While the first couple of years of Quattroporte were saddled with a similarly bad semi-manual transmission to the one found in the old Gran Turismo, now they can be have with seamlessly smooth ZF automatics. (ZF is a transmission company that supplies units to BMW, Jaguar and more.)

While most sports cars are best with a manual transmission that is the difference between a sport sedan and a sport coupe. They have to be sport yet with a dash of sensible. Sure, try telling that to your significant other when you blow the savings on a new Quattroporte. But, oh, wouldn't it be worth it?

Porsche Panamera

(Starting at $89,800)-Go ahead and cry Porsche loyalists. With the sale of your favorite performance brand to VW there are just going to be more and more models coming on line. But guess what? The Panamera is truly worth of the brand. What Porsche has created in the Panamera is a true extension of the sports car maker's performance ethos. It looks like a Porsche and it drives like a Porsche. It just happens to have four doors.

The basic Panamera S comes standard with a 400 horsepower V8, the 4S adds AWD to the mix (that sounds like no fun taking away the rear drive) and last but not least is the Turbo replete with a pavement melting 500 horsepower.

Although the only transmission option in this country is a double clutch automatic transmission this setup suits the car nicely. When there is this much performance on hand there is really no need for, well, shifting. A true sports sedan from the finest sport car maker in the world.