Best luxury car 2014 shortlist

Even if you’re fortunate enough to have big bucks to spend on a car, expensive supercars and grand tourers don’t always fit the bill.

For the oligarch who still needs to ferry their family and luggage to and from their private ski chalet, luxury cars both titillate and transport in equal measure.

Luxury cars need a broad range of skills – it’s no longer enough to have acres of cow hide and half a forest of wood veneer. Modern luxury cars need to be faultlessly comfortable, have huge reserves of power for effortless overtaking and need to be more technologically advanced than a branch of Maplins. The best do all of this while being lavishly appointed and extremely desirable.

We looked at the quality, design, desirability and technology featured in this year’s crop of luxury cars when picking our winner.

Range Rover

Historically, the Range Rover was more upper-class off-roader than a true luxury vehicle in its own right. This fourth-generation model, however, has a beautifully-appointed, tastefully-styled cabin that comes packed with all the latest technology.

The base price alone attests to the type of target buyer the Range Rover is targeting – though many will have been specified to well over £100,000. On top of all the luxury and technology, the Range Rover is fearsomely capable off-road – its advanced drivetrain and electronically-controlled terrain response system keeping this leviathan in check.

Maserati Quattroporte

This is the sixth model to come from Maserati to wear the Quattroporte badge, and it’s set to be the first time the car has sold in big numbers. Maseratis have previously been the beautiful, dramatic and slightly compromised alternative choice to the established Mercedes, BMWs and Audis – this Quattroporte aims to redress this balance.

A new platform, Ferrari-designed supercharged V6 and V8 engines, a ZF eight-speed automatic gearbox and four-wheel drive in European markets complete the list of drool-worthy tech that makes it onto the Quattroporte.

Mercedes-Benz S-Class

The list of awards the Mercedes-Benz S-Class hasn’t won will be significantly shorter than the one of those it has. Since its conception the model has always been Mercedes’ chance to show off its very latest, world-beating technology. This generation S-Class is no different.

In addition to all the usual opulent features, the S-Class features magic body control – a system that scans the road ahead, analyses the surface quality, then adjusts the damping to absorb the bumps in the softest possible manner. The cabin has won many plaudits for its sensational design and quality.