By Ron Amadon, MarketWatch
DAMASCUS, MD. (MarketWatch) — It’s time to turn on the seat heaters, look back at 2011 through smoked rear windows and pick the luxury car of the year.
Three worthy contenders made it to the 2011 finals:
Second runner-up: Infiniti M56
Unlikely to be confused with any other luxury car on the road today, the top-of-the-line Infiniti
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presents a nice streamlined look world. Power is more than adequate from the 5.6 liter V-8 with 420 horsepower and 417 pound-feet of torque. Shifting through a seven-speed automatic, you can hit 60 in 4.8 seconds in the M56.
The transmission can be set for economy, standard, snow or sport settings. With the kind of power the M56 has, I doubt that many will select the econ mode.
The sport mode was just right for back roads, leaving lots of torque for a quick exit from each turn. And there was the excellent downshift matching along with blind spot detection, which are two of the current car gadgets that I can endorse.
Here’s a quick way to save $3,000 on the M56. Leave the Technology Package unchecked on your order. It only complicates certain programs and increases the number of things that beep in this car to unacceptable levels.
The M56 lacks that bank vault solid feel of a Mercedes Benz and the unmatched feeling of road holding and grip of a BMW. Yet as Infiniti found, there are many people who want to show up at the country club in something different.
The car I tested, with options, would sell for $67,410.
Runner-up: Cadillac CTS-V Wagon
This is the best darn fire-breathin’, hell-raisin’ wagon on the market.
The test Cadillac
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had the supercharged and intercooled V-8 from other CTS-V models, and that works out to 556 horsepower and 551 pound-feet of torque at 3,800 rpm. They were good buds with the Tremec six-speed manual transmission that felt like piece of equipment that you had been using for years right from the first shift.
GM says the CTS-V will only be available in limited numbers, so only a few wagon fans will be able to experience the shove-you-back-into-the-rear-of-the-seat when the captain commands Warp 9.
Seldom heard from when not called for a real injection of performance, the big engine does emit a great racket during max acceleration, a deep bellow that can only come from an American made V-8.
Zero to 60 comes in less than 5 seconds with 14 mpg to 9 mpg on premium fuel, according to the EPA. I got an overall 18 mpg.
Handling is top-rate for such a heavy car, helped, from the driver’s viewpoint, by the extra-cost Recaro Seats. I highly recommend them. Visibility is okay in most directions.
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