what is your favorite luxury auto brand?

[cityboi]

what is your favorite luxury auto brand?

[Neo]

I drive an Acura, thus I am biased. I do like their (or at least did until they came out with their most recent revisions) designs, safety marks and reliability, but I was absolutely drooling over a Jaguar XF I got beside the other day.

Acura has some pretty aweful looking designs lately, like their new TL design. It looks cheap, just like the newer Honda designs (i.e. Accord). I still like the Civic design, which is very similar to the TL design I have (previous TL model).

[monsoon]

Cadillac used to be the brand that defined luxury and was the car that all others measured against including Mercedes-Benz. That image got tarnished in the 1970s when the finance people started making engineering decisions and then totally destroyed in the 1980s when they rationalized their brands. The Cadillac Cimmaron, a horribly over priced rebadged Chevy Cavalier, was the end of this brand as a luxury icon.

BMW did not have a good start after WWII. Its former factory ended up on the Soviet side of Germany and they couldn't use it to make cars. So they got by, by making motorcycles for close to 10 years. They reentered the luxury car market with a model based in part off an old pre-war design and though it was nice, the company almost went bankrupt. They ended up surviving and thwarting a threatened takeover by Mercedes, by licensing a very cheap low quality Fiat micro car and building 100,000 of those powered by one of their motorcycle engines. It was hardly luxury, but it was the right product for the right time and got them through a bad situation.

If BMW had it bad, Porsche had it even worse right after WWII. Porsche, who invented the VW, was the head of VW during WWII which built much of the infantry vehicles for the Wehrmacht. After the war, the British stripped Porsche of this position and took all his money. He went to France with his son looking for automobile design work and they instead accused him of war crimes and threw him in jail for 20 months. He then returned to Austria and later to Germany where he started Porsche. Their first car was a vehicle that was based on a large amount of VW technology. The follow on to this car, the Porache 911, also based somewhat on the VW design became a famous car and made that company. The 911 line is still part of their lineup today.

I believe the first Saab imported into the USA was the Saab 92. This was a vehicle that had a 2 cyl, 2 stroke engine that maybe put out 30hp. It wasn't even competitive with the VW beetle at the time. The company at the time did not have the resources to produce anything else. By the 1980s, though they had managed to gain the image as an upscale European car in this country, it was in dire straits. Hence the takeover by GM.

Any of the British brands also had the same problems. After WWII, the British economy went through several bad phases and the car industry there suffered though a disastrous nationalization plan then an unraveling of it. Rover, MG, Jaguar, Bentley and Rolls Royce all have ceased to exist as companies and their vehicles essentially don't exist anymore or they are full of someone elses technology. Land Rover and Jaguar would not exist today if it wasn't for Ford.

Of the list above, the only company that has managed to maintain it's independence for the last 100+ years and be considered the manufacturer of luxury cars, many of which are highly sought out collectibles, is Mercedes-Benz. This is the same company that can lay claim to inventing the automobile.

[Gard]

My pick isn't listed, so no vote from me....Maserati

[monsoon]

My pick isn't listed, so no vote from me....Maserati

[cityboi]

Jaguar use to have some serious reliabilty problems until Ford took it over. I heard the horror stories of brand new Jaguars breaking down. but they have always been beautiful cars and Ford has really made these cars reliable. My mom has the flagship 2006 XJ Super (supercharged) V8 which has 400 hp. while it has the classic Jaguar look, it will smoke many sports cars on the road. It has adaptive cruise control where the car automatically slows down when it gets close to the car in front. The Super V8 also has a few more bells and whistles like lambs wool floor mats, navigation and DVD tv screens in the back of the headrests. I just bought the V6 X-type Jag and both drive really well. But I love BMW or Bavarian Motor Works. BMWs will outlast any of the cars on the list. BMWs logo was inspired by airplane propellers. In fact before BMW made cars they made airplanes and motorcycles. All the German luxury brands use circles in their logos though which is not a coincidence.

But Monsoon I agree. Cadillac's image has been tarnished over the decades. The Cimmaron was a disaster for Cadillac, I remember that. It was indeed an overpriced Chevy. Before the mid 1970s Cadillacs and Lincolns were the luxury cars Americans wanted. Thats why you see many older people driving them. But today Americans want Mercedes, BMW and Lexus. American luxury brands unfortunatly fall in last place in my book and Lincoln's cars are beginning to look cheap. They almost look like Mercurys.

1982 Cadillac Cimmaron

1982 Chevy Cavalier

[suburban george3]

While the Cimarron was indeed a debacle for Caddilac, I think with recent offerings it has atoned for it's past and is the American luxury brand while Lincoln is relegated to Fleet/rental status. The new CTS, the XLR, the V-series cars. Caddilac has models that compare well to the foreign brands. Hopefully the new GM can continue to capitalize on this.

[ironchapman]

I could easily go for several options on this list. Mercedes-Benz and BMW are both great brands, IMO, and my Grandfather used to have a Lincoln Continental many years ago that I loved riding around in. However, I chose Jaguar.

[cityboi]

The ultimate luxury car! The Mercedes Maybach. Top that Rolls Royce! This car will set you back about $470,000

[Lowerdeck]

If I was to pick from that list, I'd take a BMW followed by Acura