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Six cars for six figures
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October 5, 2001: 12:24 p.m. ET
Some cars are just cars -- but you get what you pay for.
Peter Valdes-Dapena
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NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Sometimes a car is just a car -- a way to get to the grocery store and back or to get the kids to soccer practice on time. Considering all that we ask them to do, it's not surprising that the average new car costs about $25,000.
So what do you figure you'd get for 5 or 10 times that amount? These days, not many of us would even consider spending that kind of money on four wheels, a couple of seats, and a dozen cylinders. But we can dream, can't we?
Rolls-Royce Corniche Convertible: $359,990
You are looking at the last of a kind. The 2002 Rolls-Royce Corniches will be the last ones ever made. Rolls-Royces, you see, are currently products of Volkswagen, which has owned Rolls-Royce Motorcars since 1998.
For now, they're still made the old-fashioned way (the opposite of "mass production") at a factory in Crewe, England. But in 2003, a new owner, BMW, takes over. Volkswagen will keep making Bentleys, Rolls-Royce's near-mirror image sister cars, but BMW will take Rolls-Royce on a new path. Production will move to a new facility in Goodwood, England, and all current nameplates and styles will be dropped. Take a good look. This is one British Tradition that is changing.
BMW Z8: $128,570
If you think the sporty little BMW Z3 is a nice-looking automobile, the drop-dead gorgeous Z8 makes it look like a clunky economy car. The Z8's design is an updated version of the classic BMW 507 of the late 1950s, with power supplied by the strongest BMW engine ever.
The 5-liter M5 V8 puts out 394 horsepower through a six-speed manual transmission, taking the aluminum-bodied car from zero to sixty in 4.5 seconds. If you do happen to order one of these, you'll probably be impatient to get it in your garage. So the folks at the dealership will give you a scale model you can look at while you wait.
Lamborghini Diablo 6.0: $265,000
If you want to drive a really fast, really expensive car and you want everyone to know you're driving a really fast, really expensive car, this is your ride. Certainly, this 12-cylinder, 550 horsepower all-wheel-drive machine will turn heads, but don't be surprised if folks tend to snicker a little while they're gawking. Lambos can seem a little too "macho," sort of the automotive equivalent of a fat gold chain. Of course, if it bothers you, you can just hit the accelerator and take off.
Aston Martin V12 Vanquish: $228,000
For many long-time James Bond fans Aston Martin was the only "real" Bond car. When I was a kid, my father had a die-cast model Aston Martin DB5, just like the one in Goldfinger, complete with a little plastic guy who popped up into the air from the tiny functioning ejector seat.
Well, fans, here's a news flash for you. In the next Bond film, 007 will drive the new V12 Vanquish. Gear shifting is done through Formula 1 style steering wheel paddles with the electronically controlled gear changes taking just 250 milliseconds. The first two years of production (that's 550 cars) are already spoken for. Dealers are taking names for year three.
Ferrari 456M GT : $225,625
A concept people don't usually associate with Ferrari is "back seats." The 456M, what they call a two-plus-two, has them. This isn't the typical family car, but if you want a safe place to put a child safety seat while you tear up the road in an flashy Italian sports car, this fills the bill.
On its website, Ferrari actually brags about the 465M's "saloon-class comfort and roominess." It even has room for (gasp!) luggage. The 465M is the first Ferrari in modern times to have the engine in the front and the driving wheels in the back, the lay-out one usually finds in more ordinary cars. The car's 12-cylinder engine puts out 442 horsepower so you and your back-seat passengers can hit 62 mph in a more-than-respectable 5.2 seconds.
Hummer H1 Wagon: $108,000
It seems kind of ridiculous to call the Hummer a "sport utility vehicle," although that's how it's usually classified. Perhaps it depends on your definition of "sport." (Sumo wrestling perhaps?) The four-door wagon weighs in at an asphalt-cracking 7,145 pounds. These bad boys are marketed by General Motors, but made by AM General, the folks who still make the High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV) for the U.S. military.
Among the Hummer features that make it particularly well suited for taking the kids to soccer practice in Death Valley are four-wheel disc brakes that are mounted inboard as part of the axles rather than out on the wheels where they might more easily get damaged. It's powered by a 6.5 liter turbo-diesel V8. New for 2002: the front winch is now standard, there's an express-down power driver's side window, and the color "firehouse red" replaces "candy apple red." "Candy apple?" Gee. Wonder why they dropped that color... 
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