Volvo C70
Badge snobs may scoff that it's a poor man's BMW335i, but the Volvo C70 (HK$488,000; top) can whoosh four adults around in as much style and comfort as BMW's luxury drop-top - and save you HK$200,000. It's not as fast off the mark as the autobahn-stormer, but the C70 is a better all-round car for Hong Kong. Sure-footed and comfortable with a slick, ergonomic interior that's fast becoming Volvo's trademark, the C70 delivers a healthy 220-brake horsepower from its 2.5-litre T5 turbo engine, hitting 100km/h in a respectable eight seconds. Volvo is safety obsessed, but has also improved its luxury and refinement. Inside, the C70 is well-sculpted, with an impressive 'floating' centre console, soft leather seats and a tasteful wooden fascia.
The car's curvy, noughties styling looks as good with the roof up as down, which is rare among convertibles. Better still, the C70 has power when you want it to move, making it a perfect Hong Kong daily driver or cool Sunday drop-top.
Jaguar XKR
Scottish designer Ian Callum has done a magnificent job in styling the XKR (HK$1.598 million; bottom), tracing its lineage back to the stunning E-type of the 60s and blending it with an American muscle-car aesthetic, replete with bonnet louvres, aluminium grilles and a quad-pot exhaust.
The 400bhp Jaguar's silver-screen looks are more than matched by its throaty V8 performance. The XKR hits 100km/h in 5.2 seconds, pushing through to 250km/h so urgently and handling with so much poise that it's a worthy challenger to its more expensive arch-rival, the Aston Martin DB9.