It also gets 19 mpg in the city with rear-wheel drive, according to GM.
The 616-horsepower Spider has a 3.8-litre V8 engine and 7-speed dual-clutch transmission with rear-wheel drive.
FORBES: The 2012 Neiman Marcus Christmas Car Is A $354,000 McLaren
Luxury cars, with a few exceptions such as Audis and the Cadillac Deville, are rear-wheel drive.
To accomplish its goal, Jaguar engineered the all-wheel-drive system to behave like rear-wheel drive most of the time.
FORBES: Test Drive: 2013 Jaguar XJ Gets All Wheel Drive, And It's Great
The transmissions to be built for both front- and rear-wheel drive are expected to improve vehicle performance and increase fuel economy.
"Once you like it, a muscle-car person is going to be addicted to a rear-wheel drive platform, " he says.
The outcome would have been different in a standard XJ with rear-wheel drive.
FORBES: Test Drive: 2013 Jaguar XJ Gets All Wheel Drive, And It's Great
Kallenius says that U.S. buyers might be able to custom order an E63 AMG with rear-wheel drive instead of all-wheel drive.
FORBES: Wonderfully Ludicrous: The 2014 Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG S-Model 4Matic Wagon
The 2013 E63 AMG Sedan, with rear-wheel drive, gets 19 miles per gallon overall, and the wagon gets 18 miles per gallon.
FORBES: Wonderfully Ludicrous: The 2014 Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG S-Model 4Matic Wagon
At Dearborn, there seems to be no realization that the world is switching back to rear-wheel drive for luxury and performance models.
If your vehicle is rear-wheel drive, backing into your driveway will also make it more difficult for a thief to tow it away.
Lexus-characteristic L-shaped combination lamps feature a layered, strongly three-dimensional design, and the lower, concave bumper section incorporates a full width spoiler to further enhance rear-wheel drive traction.
ENGADGET: Lexus LF-CC Concept shows the future of touchscreen interiors
The winning design was submitted by Sangho Kim of Pasadena, California, and the result is a car with a 6.2-liter engine, eight cylinders, automatic transmission, rear-wheel drive and 430 horsepower.
Because cars with rear-wheel drive not only don't torque steer (front wheels, upon hard acceleration, fighting the driver's navigating intentions), but have a more natural feeling both entering and leaving a turn.
All V8-powered XJs come with rear-wheel drive.
FORBES: Test Drive: 2013 Jaguar XJ Gets All Wheel Drive, And It's Great
In profile, the powerful convex curve of the bonnet flows seamlessly through a steeply raked windscreen into a roofline which deliberately peaks towards the rear of the cabin to emphasise the traction available from the vehicle's rear-wheel drive powertrain.
ENGADGET: Lexus LF-CC Concept shows the future of touchscreen interiors
Rear-wheel drive remains available in Europe.
FORBES: Wonderfully Ludicrous: The 2014 Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG S-Model 4Matic Wagon
The 2007 Ford Interceptor concept was a modern interpretation of an All-American rear-wheel-drive muscle car.
The first GM-designed and built electric motors are scheduled to debut in 2013 in its next-generation, rear-wheel-drive, two-mode hybrid technology.
It appears he succeeded with the Scion FR-S, a nimble, rear-wheel-drive sports coupe that is flying out of Toyota showrooms.
Reducing that to its core meaning, a well-engineered rear-wheel-drive car can be adapted to more easily and driven more aggressively.
It's the only big, eight-cylinder, rear-wheel-drive sedan built by Detroit the old way: by welding the body of the car onto a stiff frame.
It's just hard to score in the luxury market when you refuse to do an eight-cylinder engine, wear undistinguished styling and don't offer a rear-wheel-drive car.
It was willing to lend Chrysler an outdated E-class platform as the basis for a new generation of rear-wheel-drive sedans, including the Chrysler 300 and Dodge Charger.
But GM says the next-generation technology could power rear-wheel-drive cars as well, such as the Cadillac XTS concept car, which was on display at the recent Detroit auto show.
General Motors (nyse: GM - news - people ) tried this a few years back, taking its revered Pontiac GTO nameplate and slapping it on a rear-wheel-drive Holden imported from Australia.
Of course, the reason to rejoice if you love to drive sports sedans is that--at least in the case of BMW, Mercedes and Nissan--we're talking about cars that started life with rear-wheel not front-wheel drive.
"We were well on the path to making a rear-wheel-drive global platform, " says Mays.
In the case of the 330xi, one answer lies in the aforementioned rear-wheel-drive feel.
应用推荐