What constitutes a luxury car? We tend to use general guidelines such as price, design, comfort, and prestige to classify the category. But this may longer be true.
Luxury cars usually offer a higher degree of comfort than their mainstream counterparts, typically with a sumptuous interior emphasizing design and beauty. Features such as interior leather and polished wood dashboards and a host of high tech accessories are common amenities in almost every car, but this no longer can be used to define the term luxury.
As you also know, many automakers develop "luxury" or halo vehicles from their existing mass production siblings in an effort to boost profit margins. To the manufacturer they simply add relatively minor enhancements and slap an new badge on the car and call it a luxury car. As a result, "luxury" is sometimes only in the perception of the consumers not in the reality of the product.
Also many automakers now may upscale variants of existing mainstream models that crossover into the luxury definition, thus blurring the lines between pseudo luxury and real luxury. So now is luxury defined more by style, price or maybe both? Does a brand name like Hyundai also command the appeal of Mercedes Benz?
So with that in mind what manufacturers do you think maybe associated with luxury but are simply playing a shell game. Are they simply hiding behind gussied up mainstream models and profiting off others hard earned cash? Or are they worthy of the title of a luxury car maker?
Detroit Auto Show Gallery
Also, don't forget you can now upload your photos direct from your mobile devices simply by sending them to mobile@autospies.com