A TTAC reader writes: “I’d like to suggest a question for the QOTD: ‘What is the most elegant modern car on the market?’ If a person has a lot of money, and could afford any car they’d like, what could they buy that could show intelligence, money, class and taste? What is the modern timeless Talbot Lago? (On the off chance you do use this question, I’d rather not have my name mentioned.) Thanks!”
74 Comments on “Question of the Day: What’s the World’s Most Elegant Automobile?...”
Back to TopLeave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
You can also login using Facebook Connect.
Any modern Aston Martin or Maserati. Bentleys, Rollers, Beamers and Benzes are for poseurs…
The Astons are gorgeous, for sure, but in terms of overall elegance, it’s hard to top a Series III Jaguar XJ. Grace, Pace and Space.
The Talbot Lago is hard to beat!
Alra Romeo 8C
Cayman The base body, without extra groundeffects BS, is gorgeous, as compared to the body-bloated GT3.
Delage D8-120
The Quattroporte is a good choice. I also rather like the Mercedes CLS. Astons are gorgeous as well.
Forgot about Jaguar. An XJ is the perfect classy choice for those who thinks the 7-series and S-Classes are too common…
And for those who seeks an SUV, nothing beats a Range Rover.
for me it’s the 1985 Buick Riviera Convertible.
1956 Lincoln Mark II
Ingvar: You’re lacking in logic. BMWs and Benzs are for poseurs, but a Range Rover is okay? Please. Also, grouping Bentleys, RRs, BMWs, and Benzes together doesn’t make a whole lot of sense either.
Car: Quattroporte, Phantom
Sports Car: DB9
SUV: G55 AMG
Elegance is the attribute of being unusually effective and simple. It is frequently used as a standard of tastefulness, particularly in the areas of visual design and decoration. Elegant things exhibit refined grace and dignified propriety.
Some westerners associate elegance with simplicity and consistency of design, focusing on the main or basic features of an object, its dignified gracefulness, or restrained beauty of style.
IMO a Honda Accord V6 EX-L or if you wish to spend 2.5 times as much Lexus LS460.
Intelligence – Why spend more money than needed to get from here to there in comfort and safety?
Money – Why spend more money than needed to get from here to there in comfort and safety?
Class – Doesn’t engage in visible displays of wealth.
Taste – Doesn’t engage in visible displays of wealth.
Sajeev, you can pick up a D8-120 at the RM auction in Phoenix on 16 January. they’re estimating a million to a million and a half.
Lamborghiniz:
A Range Rover Sport is not ok, it’s a poseur vehicle. I was referring to the “real” Range Rover. And that has more class than any BMW or Mercedes. And any post-VW takeover Bentley is for poseurs only. And, as Mike Solowiow so elegantly put it in his review of the Continental: “If you don’t get it, it’s for you.” Perhaps a Roller is okey, but all that hip hop/sport crowd makes it less classy. So, yes, any modern day Bentley, Roller, Bimmer or Merc is not as classy as say, any modern Aston Martin, Maserati or Jaguar. There’s no logic in taste, but ask about what consists of class and elegance, these are my answers.
Among the classics, any pre-Silver Shadow Rolls-Royce or Bentley is okey. And the pearl: Bentley R-Type Continental. That is class… Among the american cars, I have only one answer: The four-door convertible Lincoln Continental, preferrably one of the earlier ones.
8C
8C
8C
done.
volvo, I like the way you describe elegance.
How elegant a vehicle is will depend, in part, on its mission.
Basic personal transportation – I’m going with the Civic Coupe. It has a beautiful, clean shape and you get a lot of effectiveness out of this small car. A close runner-up would be the Prius.
Family vehicle – Volvo V70. A close runner-up would still be the Prius. If the 240 was still available and modernized, I’d probably vote for that instead.
I almost put the Prius first in both categories but the complexity of the drivetrain somewhat offsets the beauty of energy recapture and reuse.
Off-road vehicle – Jeep Wrangler. No, the Prius would not be a close runner-up.
Stephan: Any chance I can get 0% financing on a French Masterpiece? I’ll put 1% down to sweeten the pot.
Seriously, if I ever get that wealthy, the D8-120 is the first rolling investment I purchase.
Volvo and Kixstart, while your definition of elegance might have merit, it doesn’t meet the nature of the question. The (anonymous)questioner is looking for the modern equivalent of the Talbot Largo. No Honda, Volvo, Jeep, or Prius comes close to meeting that standard.
I believe this calls for a more traditional definition of elegance: Refinement, grace, and beauty in movement, appearance, or manners.
“On the market” removes classic cars from the list(which would defeat the point anyway, otherwise your equivalent of a Talbot Largo would be… a Talbot Largo).
My choice? Quattroporte for a sedan, 8C in a coupe. If I can go world market, I might consider a Weismann GT.
My vote is for the W124 Mercedes. Understated class, timeless style, and engineering excellence.
Most elegant…hard to tell…there are a couple of contenders.
The Talbot Lago in your picture is already pretty good, as is the similar Bugatti Atlantic…I also like these:
http://www.fookingcool.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/1935_duesenberg.jpg
http://www.classicdriver.info/upload/images/_uk/11919/img02.jpg
http://www.maybach.de/images/194.jpg
Sports car: any current Aston-Martin
Sedan: Volkswagen Phaeton (2nd place: A8)
GT: Bentley Continental GT
The correct answer is “none.”
In its day, the Talbot Lago and other cars of similar lines, such as the Bugatti Atlantic, were revolutionary – utterly different from anything on the road.
Today’s cars are all evolutionary. The current Bugatti, for example, is just another wedge, not really all that different from a Lambo of three decades ago.
The most elegant modern car doesn’t exist.
Compare, for example, an S Class or a 7 Series to that Mark II Continental, or even the 1961 Lincoln.
Elegance, today, is not found in automobiles.
If the question is the modern equivalent of the Talbot Lago then I would agree that the answer is none.
All current cars are essentially disposable and I do not believe any will be desirable in 70 years. Also they will probably not be drivable due to high level of computerization which will not be replaceable if they fail in 1040.
While an automoble built between 1920-1980 can be “restored” at some expense the same will not be true of rebuilding the CPU on a 2008 Quattroporte in 2080.
Oldsmobile Aurora. Well, not the worlds most elegant, but it would be my first choice for an elegant car.
Foreign – Aston Martin
Domestic – Dodge Challenger
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f5/2006_SAG_-_Morgan_aero_8_-03.JPG.JPG
volvo –
While an automoble built between 1920-1980 can be “restored” at some expense the same will not be true of rebuilding the CPU on a 2008 Quattroporte in 2080.
Sure you could. The software will be stored somewhere, and you can substitute a modern CPU for the old and busted one. I’ve done something similar with some old lab equipment (1970’s era) I wanted to reuse, but the controller had long since disappeared. If the car’s valuable enough, someone will figure it out.
Back to the question at hand, Mercedes CLS.
It’s beautiful, useful, graceful in motion, not at all gaudy. It’s elegant.
Ford F150 Platinum Edition :)
Honestly, I’m not sure anything with an engine can be considered elegant. Big cats, thoroughbred horses and sailing boats are elegant.
The most elegant thing on a car today might be the Honda Fit’s rear seat.
What is meant by “modern”? How far back can you go until you’re pre-modern?
None, although Infiniti has recently shown sporadic flashes of stylistic brilliance. By and large auto designers have embraced an over-the-top look that trades spectacle for timeless elegance. Bangle may have started the trend but it has been picked up pretty much across the board (e.g., I find the CLS to have an exaggerated, melted-clay look). Aston and Audi have eschewed banglization more than most, but are their designs that exceptional from a historical perspective? Eh. The Alfa C8 is one of my favorite recent designs, but it strikes me as being too derivative to attain true classic status.
Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione
Model T for the elegant deployment of keep it simple engineering.
Corvette for punch well above it’s weight (price).
Any Ferrari for working better than Viagra.
Well we all know what Chuck Goolsbee would say if he weren’t tooling around in his old Jag today, and I have to agree.
Why, the Pontiac Parisienne of course!!!
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/aa/%2782-%2786_Pontiac_Parisienne.jpg/800px-%2782-%2786_Pontiac_Parisienne.jpg
Good Grief, people…what the hell’s wrong with you? It’s what PARISIENNE’s drive…ALL of them!!!
Grow UP!!
Alfa Romeo 156, pre-2003 facelift and certainly not the SW version.
I don’t think there is anything on the road these days that’d match the Talbot-Lago as far as looks and “elegence” goes. It would have to be a concept car, and I’m not that familiar with most of recent concept cars. Off the top of my head I’d have to say the Cadillac Sixteen is the closest in elegence. 16-cylinder engine, long hood and short deck, and not too over the top as far as looks go.
The Alfa 8C might be a good looking car, but it’s too much of a sportscar, and not a gentleman’s grand tourer like the cars of the 1930’s. I could picture Clark Gable driving the Cadillac Sixteen, the Alfa not so much.
I’m shocked that no one has mentioned the Porsche Cayman. It may be the most graceful shape sold today.
The Talbot Lago is hard to beat.
To me, elegance is simplicity. Some that come to mind are the 1948-49 Cadillac Sedanet, early 50s Bentley Continental (some coachbuilders are more elegant than others here), 1961-63 Lincoln Continental (both styles) and the 1966-67 Buick Riviera (with no vinyl top).
There are current models that are flashy, impressive or attractive, but I can’t think of one that is elegant.
I second the Dodge Challenger.
I would add the ‘40 and ‘41 Lincoln Continental.
Frank Lloyd Wright said it was the most beautiful car ever designed. He owned two. A great collaboration between Edsel Ford and E.T. Gregorie.
bjcpdx: Good list. I’d offer the friendly addition of the 1953 Studebaker Starliner coupe. Extraordinarily clean and aerodynamic for an American car of that era.
The Riviera was one of the best American designs of the 1960s, but I’m partial to European cars such as the Iso Rivolta and De Tomaso Mangusta. I’d argue that the styling of both had long-standing influence on car design that can still be seen today.
Assuming ‘modern’ means “in production today”, Toyota Century.
I always liked the Porsche 550 Spyder.
Infinity g35/g37 coupe,
last gen Supra
Alfa Brera
Among coupes, I will go with Aston Martin DBS from the late 60s, not the tacky looking current one.
And, I think I should mention that Jag. E-type is also one of the most elegant looking drop-top of all time. Also, I am taking Alfa Romeo Spider from the 70s as my second in commend.
For sedans, Iso Fidia is hands down the most elegant of them all.
Broadly speaking I agree with Packard. There is no Talbot equivalent today, simply because the art of sheer elegance has been lost in automobile design. In fact a designer friend of mine tends towards the view that there’s been hardly anything of worth in automotive design since about 1960…
The Talbot-Lago is a stunner, no doubt about it. For my money the height of automotive elegance was the art-deco 1930s – things like the Cord 810 and Auburn Speedster from the US strike this sort of, ahem, chord. Moving on a bit in time, I’d also chuck in a vote for the Alfa 8C 2900 by Touring, and Lancia’s Aurelia Spider and Flaminia Touring. And then there’s this, an Abarth 205 Vignale Berlinetta:
http://www.supercars.net/cars/3183.html
Of the ‘moderns’ though, I’d give a vote to the Ferrari 456, a brace of Citroens (DS, especially the Decapotable; SM; and CX), plus, of all things, the Lancia Thesis – simply because it’s the only modern car I can think of which consciously harks back to the height of art-deco elegance.
Beaten down to just one, though, the DS Decapotable would probably just edge it…
Sebring Sedan. ROFLMAO
Ingvar: I mean, I agree with you about the Range Rover being classy…my point is just that, I don’t think that Bimmers and Benzs can be looked at as poseur cars while Range Rovers are looked at as legitimate, because I personally think all THREE are legitimate, real deal automobiles.
I don’t like VW takeover Bentley’s either, I think they’ve lost some of their soul, I’m a fan of the Arnage and its various iterations (Azure, Brooklands especially).
I think BMW has preserved RR’s greatness, and it still exists as the pinnacle of that type of auto.
Maseratis I agree with you on, they’re fantastic.
Astons I also agree, they hold a degree of class and style not found in other makes..they aren’t my favorite, but they’re certainly the classiest.
Jaguars I will have to disagree on. Maybe older Jags, but since the Ford takeover, not much impresses me really, though I do like the XJ.
Probably the Bentley Arnage. Pulled up beside one on Friday actually, in silver.
Not much else on the market worthy of the sobriquet ‘elegant’. Then again, we don’t exactly live in an elegant era.
LamborghiniZ: of course I’m not entirely serious. This is a question for fun. And, when it comes to a matter of taste, everybody has an opinion…
But speaking from the classy angle, the problem with BMW and especially Mercedes is that they are too common. An S-class is the entry ticket to the gravy train all over the world, it is the first on peoples lists of expensive cars, if they only had the money. From bookmakers in London to the local pizza dealer in Lebanon to stockbrokers in Shanghai to hip hop artists in Baltimore, the S-Class is their reward for outstanding achievement in making money. Mercedes is of course more than that, but most of all it is the car for the bourgeoisie, doctors, lawyers, psychiatrists, etc. The S-Class is the most sold luxury vehicle out there. And the problem is thus, that is too common to be truly classy.
The thing with Jaguar XJ, the Maserati Quattroporte, and to an extent, the Audi A8, is the snob appeal. They appeal to those who wants to stand out with their refined taste. The Jaguar XJ doesn’t have to be better than the Merc, just different, and in the same or above price range. Who wants to drive the same as the Joneses next door? If all of the Joneses drive Mercs or Bimmers?
Then, of course, we have the reversed snob appeal. If it is tacky showing off your money driving a Rolls-Royce, perhaps something more ordinary would be more appropriate? I know, for an example, that the founder of IKEA, Ingvar Kamprad, drives around in a 1985 Volvo 240 Station Wagon. And the landed gentry in England have been seen happily driving around their estates in their Land Rovers. The anti-choice is a choice nonetheless, but for those people, Lexus, or even better, the Toyota Prius is the obvious choice. Lexus doesn’t have class, but they have stealth luxury. And the Lexus LS600h is a sleeper of a car when it comes to state official limousines.
SherbornSean:
Well we all know what Chuck Goolsbee would say if he weren’t tooling around in his old Jag today, and I have to agree.
yeah, I’d say the Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione!
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, I’d kill all of you to have an 8C.
Besides, I wasn’t tooling around in the E-type today, I was tooling around in the barn building a methanol recovery unit for my BioDiesel brewery. I did drive the Jag twice this week though as we had a bit of Indian Summer. Likely the last drive this year.
The E-type does not answer the original question though, as it is a relic of the past. When style and performance were paramount, and safety and comfort were irrelevant. It is closer to the Talbot-Lago than the 8C. The 8C however captures the elegance of the E-type in a far more modern machine.
–chuck