Neef – 2, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Gone and Kind of Forgotten

May 23, 2023

There has been a murder in the car world, and no one seems to care or have noticed. 

The manufacturers certainly don’t care because they’re too busy lining their pockets with tremendous amounts of cash and doing that nefarious hand rubbing thing that Mr Burns does. But I care, and I think at least a passionate few might also.

I am talking about a class of cars I am going to call the “super saloon”. Not the BMW and Mercedes type, but the type that were made by automotive brands who usually specialize in the extreme and the not-so-practical. 

One of my favorites of these cars is actually one that never even made it to production: the wonderfully styled, and perhaps aptly named Lamborghini Estoque. Estoque, being a reference to both the estoc, the death-blow-dealing sword of traditional bullfighters, and Lamborghini’s own old four seater, the Espada (also named after a sword). 

The Estoque was a fantastic looking car that seemingly followed design cues that Lamborghini would employ in future cars like the Aventador and Huracan, mixing them together in a four door, four seat, V10 powered, front engined monster. 

Unveiled at the Paris Motor Show in 2008, the design was truly ahead of its time, and would still look at home today next to the likes of the Aventador, Huracan, and Urus. In fact at the time of its reveal, many people assumed the Estoque was the “Urus”, a name that Lamborghini had inadvertently revealed to the public just a short time before teasing the Estoque. With many reporters and bloggers even mislabeling early teaser shots of the Estoque as the Urus. 

And while wrong at the time, in the long run it may have proved true. The Estoque never came to be, while the Urus, released in 2018, is now on track to be Lamborghini’s most successful car to date. 

But what happened to the Estoque? Why did Lamborghini never end up putting it into production? In a way, I think they did: if you take a Lamborghini Estoque and throw it into photoshop for two minutes, you can arrive at something very close to the Urus with a very minimal amount of squidging. Lamborghini themselves stated that the reason for not producing the Estoque had nothing to do with marketing data or sales projections, but no official reason was ever given. 

The answer then, I believe, was that Lamborghini saw a future trend coming early, and as they do, decided not to take any half measures. They went full in on practicality and comfort, skipping the sedan or 2+2 all together, and going straight into production of a super SUV. After the smash success of the Urus, it would not take long for other companies to recognize the demand and follow suit. 

The Aston Martin Rapide– the beautiful four door stretched DB9 was killed off in 2019, with the DBX releasing one year later in 2020. And clearly this was the correct decision, because the DBX has released to outstanding success, accounting for over half of all Astons sold in 2022, widely outselling the long established sport and supercar lineup. 

Even Ferrari, whose lineup of 2+2 stretches back nearly uninterrupted for decades, has axed the model in favor of an SUV in the form of the Purosangue. Sure, the Portofino and the Roma do technically have backseats, but those cars are a 2+2 in the same way that Brendan Schaub is a comedian – in name only. The only way anyone is ever fitting in the back seats of those cars is if they’re still seven years old, or they have the same proportions as Kirby. 

There are certain trade-offs that are going to be necessary on both fronts. Do you want full grown adults to be able to sit in the back seats? Then the car will have to be longer, and the roofline higher. Want space for a couple of weekenders and an excessive amount of shopping bags? Then the rear end will have to be extended.

There is something special when all of these things balance out and we get a car that is practical enough, looks amazing, and drives like a dream. And that’s exactly what these super saloons did. So why didn’t they sell? 

I think at one point manufacturers like Lamborghini realized that the market they were trying to reach with the super saloons didn’t want just enough in a practical car, they wanted enough, and maybe a little more on top of that. And they were willing to sacrifice looks and feel to get it. The super saloons were not practical enough for the average person to drive everyday and not flashy enough to take center stage outside the club like their two seat relatives. 

So who were these cars actually for? I believe that the actual audience of this car ended up being the hardcore enthusiast. The person who wanted to feel the joys of their favorite supercar, in a vehicle that was just practical enough to use everyday. Despite the two seats in the back and 16 cu ft trunk space, the Ferrari FF is still the driver’s car – it’s about having fun and looking amazing. It can take passengers, but it will remind them that it’s not about them. 

The new SUV replacements certainly are still fast, with new technology and AWD systems; they’re probably even faster than the super saloons they are replacing. But they just aren’t the same. The practicality and comfort is totally there, but now it’s the styling and driving feel that’s being compromised. And I think that is just wrong on an Aston or a Ferrari. 

In the end, I recognize that it’s probably me who’s wrong. The Ferrari Purosangue has sold so well that Ferrari has told people they can no longer buy them for the foreseeable future because they’ve become “too popular”. And I don’t hate the Purosangue, or the Urus, or the DBX. They all excel in every area an SUV should and then some. But just because they’re fast four seaters with engines up front does not mean they fill the space left by the cars that they’re replacing. 

I’m not mad the super SUVs are here, but I am sad the super saloons are dead. 

Written by Weston Caloyer