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When it comes to $50,000 luxury sports sedans, there is the German triumvirate, and there's everybody else. Of the others, two in particular take a surprisingly similar tack in presenting an alternative. One is Jaguar. This brand, with its long and low styling, elegant interiors, and graceful dynamics, has always been a sensualist's choice. Infiniti has generally been more of a Japanese BMW than a Jaguar, but for 2011 it has redesigned and redefined its M sedan, and in so doing has moved toward what can only be described as a very Jaguar-like ideal.

Some cars are derisively said to look like refrigerators, but the shapely Italian automobiles built by Renzo Rivolta's company, Iso, are actually descended from refrigerators-or, more accurately, the refrigerator business. Iso (originally Isothermos) made refrigerators in Italy starting in 1939. In the postwar years, the company began building motorbikes, scooters, and then minicars, most notably the Isetta bubble car, which was also licensed to other manufacturers, including BMW.

Who says you can't appease the slushbox-loving American public while still providing some manual control over gearchanges? Those skeptics likely haven't driven a properly tuned dual-clutch gearbox, like the one in this 135i. For 2011, BMW dumped the six-speed automatic option in the 135i, and instead pairs this seven-speed doppelkupplungsgetriebe to the new, single-turbo N55 engine.