Characters on “The Sopranos” love SUVs. Many on the show have driven them, including Carmela Soprano (Porsche Cayenne), A.J. Soprano (Nissan Xterra) and Christopher Moltisanti (Land Rover Range Rover).
Tony Soprano's SUV of choice? A white, $61,000 Cadillac Escalade ESV — the stretched version of the swank Escalade SUV.
But in the show's final season, which premiered Sunday, Tony is not driving a current-model Escalade — but instead rides around in an older model.
Point being, no matter the model, the Escalade is the perfect Soprano vehicle: a menacing SUV that has the nicest American interior in decades. We have included it, as well as Ferrari's $168,000 F430 and Aston Martin's $165,000 DB9 sports cars, on our list of this year's sexiest luxury cars.
Believe it or not, though, choosing 10 super-hot vehicles for this feature was no easy feat (we know what you're thinking: How hard can it be to ogle Ferraris?). Let us explain.
| Click to Enlarge 2007 Lamborghini Murcielago LP640
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When People determines the winner and runners-up in its “Sexiest Man Alive” issue, or FHM its “100 Sexiest Women in the World” poll, each entrant on the list is one of a kind. There is only one Matthew McConaughey, just a single Angelina Jolie.
But there are multiple Ferraris. Tons of Mercedes-Benzes. There are two Lamborghinis, and they look pretty similar from the front. In fact, because consistency is an automotive-design virtue — upscale companies such as Cadillac and BMW make their grilles the same so you can recognize their cars instantly — picking the sexiest car from a family of similar-looking vehicles can be tough.
The recent New York International Auto Show demonstrated that making customers lust after cars is a top priority for automakers.
Here, Ford Motor unveiled the most powerful Mustang ever. Hyundai showed a luxury-car prototype that will catapult the Korean automaker into the big leagues — that is, the Hyundai prototype is a bona fide Lexus competitor. Nissan Motor's Infiniti subsidiary displayed two swanky new luxury cars. Lexus showed a new, $65,000+ flagship SUV. Mercedes had new models. And New York is not even the most significant auto show.
The point is, it's all about sex appeal; it just might come in the shape of beautiful cars instead of beautiful people. But these days, you have to look hard to find unsexy cars.
Wow Wheels
Knowing we had to whittle hundreds of hot cars down to a list of sexiest models, we first saw a mouth-watering assignment — a chance to look at Bentleys and Porsches all day.
But then it dawned on us. Bentley has multiple versions of each of its cars. Porsche has what seems like a dozen different kinds of 911s — convertibles, coupes, two-wheel-drive models, four-wheel-drive models, turbocharged models, non-turbocharged models. If we had to pick 10 or 12 of the market’s sexiest cars, would the list contain five Porsches and five Bentleys? Three Ferraris, two Lamborghinis and seven Mercedes-Benzes? Twelve BMWs? Some car enthusiasts — ourselves included — could get excited just by flipping through a Lexus catalog. Heck, just a complete list of every Ferrari model is getting pretty steamy.
Clearly, in this golden age of hot cars, we would have to make things interesting. Because we wanted this story to be more than just a chance to drool over 10 beautiful cars, we challenged ourselves to walk in other people’s shoes. Forget what we find sexy. What would a Miami Beach plastic surgeon find sexy? What would a hip-hop mogul find sexy?
Fortunately, “The Sopranos” has made it easy for us by showing what car turns Tony Soprano on. But we had to venture guesses for other larger-than-life personalities and, truth be told, we had a lot of fun doing it.
* Sexiest Car for Hip-Hop Moguls: Rolls-Royce Phantom
* Sexiest Car for Hollywood Agents: Lexus LS Hybrid
* Sexiest Car for Miami Beach Plastic Surgeons: Lamborghini Murciélago Roadster
* Sexiest Car for Mobsters: Cadillac Escalade & EXT
* Sexiest Car for Newly Divorced Dads: Chevrolet Corvette Convertible
* Sexiest Car for Newly Divorced Moms: Mercedes-Benz SL65 AMG
* Sexiest Car for Lobbyists: Cadillac CTS
* Sexiest Car for Forbes Readers: Maserati Quattroporte
* Sexiest Car for NBA Players: Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano
* Sexiest Car for Driving Purists: Aston Martin DB9 and Ferrari F430 (tie)
