Personal luxury car
Encyclopedia
Mass production
Mass production is the production of large amounts of standardized products, including and especially on assembly lines...
by employing a two-door platform
Automobile platform
An automobile platform is a shared set of common design, engineering, and production efforts, as well as major components over a number of outwardly distinct models and even types of automobiles, often from different, but related marques...
with common mechanical components beneath their distinctive exteriors, these vehicles were a lucrative segment of the post-World War II automotive marketplace.
Characteristics
Personal luxury cars are characteristically two-door coupéCoupé
A coupé or coupe is a closed car body style , the precise definition of which varies from manufacturer to manufacturer, and over time...
s or convertible
Convertible
A convertible is a type of automobile in which the roof can retract and fold away having windows which wind-down inside the doors, converting it from an enclosed to an open-air vehicle...
s with two-passenger or 2+2 seating. They are distinguished on the performance end from GT
Grand tourer
A grand tourer is a high-performance luxury automobile designed for long-distance driving. The most common format is a two-door coupé with either a two-seat or a 2+2 arrangement....
and sports car
Sports car
A sports car is a small, usually two seat, two door automobile designed for high speed driving and maneuverability....
s by their greater emphasis on comfort and convenience; on the luxury end, by appointments, features, and style over actual vehicle performance. With great variability within the market, however, this is not absolute but a general trend.
The vast majority of personal luxury cars are mass produced rather than coach built
Coachbuilder
A coachbuilder is a manufacturer of bodies for carriages or automobiles.The trade dates back several centuries. Rippon was active in the time of Queen Elizabeth I, Barker founded in 1710 by an officer in Queen Anne's Guards, Brewster a relative newcomer , formed in 1810. Others in Britain included...
, and typically share many mechanical components with high volume sedans to reduce production costs. However, they have additional styling elements and sometimes "baroque" designs. They are typically equipped with as many additional features as possible, including special trim packages, power accessories (e.g., windows, locks, seats, antenna), leather upholstery, heated seats, etc.
Origins
The antecedents of the modern personal luxury car are the highly expensive, often custom-bodied sporting luxury cars of the 1920s and 1930s. Typically made by Alfa RomeoAlfa Romeo
Alfa Romeo Automobiles S.p.A. is an Italian manufacturer of cars. Founded as A.L.F.A. on June 24, 1910, in Milan, the company has been involved in car racing since 1911, and has a reputation for building expensive sports cars...
, Bugatti
Bugatti
Automobiles E. Bugatti was a French car manufacturer founded in 1909 in Molsheim, Alsace, as a manufacturer of high-performance automobiles by Italian-born Ettore Bugatti....
, Delage
Delage
Delage was a French luxury automobile and racecar company founded in 1905 by Louis Delage in Levallois-Perret near Paris; it was acquired by Delahaye in 1935 and ceased operation in 1953.-History:...
, Delahaye
Delahaye
Delahaye automobile manufacturing company was started by Emile Delahaye in 1894, in Tours, France. His first cars were belt-driven, with single- or twin-cylinder engines. In 1900, Delahaye left the company.-History:...
, Duesenberg
Duesenberg
Duesenberg was an Auburn, Indiana based American luxury automobile company active in various forms from 1913 to 1937, most famous for its high-quality passenger cars and record-breaking racing cars.-History:...
, Mercedes-Benz
Mercedes-Benz
Mercedes-Benz is a German manufacturer of automobiles, buses, coaches, and trucks. Mercedes-Benz is a division of its parent company, Daimler AG...
, Lincoln
Lincoln (automobile)
Lincoln is an American luxury vehicle brand of the Ford Motor Company. Lincoln vehicles are sold mostly in North America.-History:The company was founded in August 1915 by Henry M. Leland, one of the founders of Cadillac . During World War I, he left Cadillac which was sold to General Motors...
, Cadillac
Cadillac
Cadillac is an American luxury vehicle marque owned by General Motors . Cadillac vehicles are sold in over 50 countries and territories, but mostly in North America. Cadillac is currently the second oldest American automobile manufacturer behind fellow GM marque Buick and is among the oldest...
, and others, these extremely stylish prestige cars were favored by film stars, aristocrats, playboys, and gangsters for projecting dashing and extravagant images. Two extreme examples were the Duesenberg Model SJ
Duesenberg Model SJ
The Duesenberg SJ is a car manufactured from 1932-1937 by Duesenberg in Indianapolis, Indiana. Only 36 were ever made. It was the supercharged version of the Duesenberg Model J, with...
and Mercedes-Benz SSK
Mercedes-Benz SSK
The Mercedes-Benz SSK is a roadster built by German automobile manufacturer Mercedes-Benz between 1928 and 1932. Its name is an acronym of Super Sport Kurz, German for "Super Sport Short", as it was a short wheelbase development of the earlier Mercedes-Benz S...
, extremely fast and expensive automobiles which eschewed both pure luxury and absolute sports performance in favor of a distinctive combination of style, craftsmanship, and power: these combined to produce cars that became status symbol
Status symbol
A status symbol is a perceived visible, external denotation of one's social position and perceived indicator of economic or social status. Many luxury goods are often considered status symbols...
s.
The Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
and World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
temporarily eroded the market for these expensive bespoke
Bespoke
Bespoke is a term employed in a variety of applications to mean an item custom-made to the buyer's specification...
cars before post-War recovery saw a reemergence in Europe. On the sedate end of the spectrum appeared such erect yet swift two-door sedans as the H.J. Mulliner
H. J. Mulliner & Co.
H. J. Mulliner & Co. was a well-known British coachbuilder operating at Chiswick in West London.The Mulliner family can trace their coachbuilding history back to 1760, building coaches for the Royal Mail in Northampton....
bodied, straight-6
Straight-6
The straight-six engine or inline-six engine is a six-cylinder internal combustion engine with all six cylinders mounted in a straight line along the crankcase...
powered Bentley Continental R Type. On the other, performance oriented GTs, relatively comfortable low-slung cars intended for high-speed, long-distance travel. Italian marques such as Ferrari
Ferrari
Ferrari S.p.A. is an Italian sports car manufacturer based in Maranello, Italy. Founded by Enzo Ferrari in 1929, as Scuderia Ferrari, the company sponsored drivers and manufactured race cars before moving into production of street-legal vehicles as Ferrari S.p.A. in 1947...
and Maserati
Maserati
Maserati is an Italian luxury car manufacturer established on December 1, 1914, in Bologna. The company's headquarters is now in Modena, and its emblem is a trident. It has been owned by the Italian car giant Fiat S.p.A. since 1993...
took the GT lead, offering distinctive, often custom-bodied two-seat and 2+2 coupes powered by exotic alloy-lightened engines straight off the race track. In between could be found such combinations of luxury and performance as the Mercedes-Benz 300SL
Mercedes-Benz 300SL
The Mercedes-Benz 300SL was introduced in 1954 as a two-seat, closed sports car with distinctive gull-wing doors. Later it was offered as an open roadster...
and 190SL
Mercedes-Benz 190SL
The Mercedes-Benz 190SL is a two door grand touring convertible with a removable hardtop that was produced by Mercedes-Benz between May 1955 and February 1963...
, BMW 507
BMW 507
The BMW 507 is a roadster produced by BMW from 1956 to 1959. Initially intended to be exported to the United States at a rate of thousands per year, it ended up being too expensive, resulting in a total production figure of 252 cars and heavy losses for BMW....
, Alfa Romeo 1900 Sprint
Alfa Romeo 1900
The Alfa Romeo 1900 is a sports sedan designed by Orazio Satta for the Alfa Romeo company in 1950. It was Alfa Romeo's first car built entirely on a production line and was also Alfa's first production car without separate chassis and first Alfa offered with left-hand drive...
and DKW 1000Sp
DKW
DKW is a historic German car and motorcycle marque. The name derives from Dampf-Kraft-Wagen .In 1916, the Danish engineer Jørgen Skafte Rasmussen founded a factory in Zschopau, Saxony, Germany, to produce steam fittings. In the same year, he attempted to produce a steam-driven car, called the DKW...
.
Luxury and reliability over sport
With both custom luxury cars and GTs beyond the reach of all but the wealthiest, the 1950s saw a growing trend in both the United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
towards mass-market "specialty cars" catering primarily to drivers coveting the image of bespoke machinery without its cost. Joining them were affluent buyers who could afford the genuine article but disliked the inconvenience of complex service and repair, especially in areas where exotic car dealerships were few and far between. Many of both classes were also interested in such modern conveniences as automatic transmission
Automatic transmission
An automatic transmission is one type of motor vehicle transmission that can automatically change gear ratios as the vehicle moves, freeing the driver from having to shift gears manually...
, air conditioning
Air conditioning
An air conditioner is a home appliance, system, or mechanism designed to dehumidify and extract heat from an area. The cooling is done using a simple refrigeration cycle...
, power steering
Power steering
Power steering helps drivers steer vehicles by augmenting steering effort of the steering wheel.Hydraulic or electric actuators add controlled energy to the steering mechanism, so the driver needs to provide only modest effort regardless of conditions. Power steering helps considerably when a...
, and other comfort options not generally offered on GTs or sports cars of the day."
Factory customs
The result was a burgeoning market for so-called "factory customs," models using standard or mostly standard engines and other mechanical components, but with unique styling. A prominent early example was the 1953 open top Cadillac EldoradoCadillac Eldorado
The 1953 Eldorado was a special-bodied, low-production convertible . It was the production version of the 1952 El Dorado "Golden Anniversary" concept car, and borrowed bumper bullets from the 1951 GM Le Sabre show car...
, where customized styling gave it a price tag nearly twice that of a standard Cadillac convertible despite nearly identical underpinnings.
The Personal Car
The personal luxury car market segment in the United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
was largely defined by the Ford Thunderbird
Ford Thunderbird
The Thunderbird , is an automobile manufactured by the Ford Motor Company in the United States over eleven model generations from 1955 through 2005...
. Joining the Chevrolet Corvette
Chevrolet Corvette
The Chevrolet Corvette is a sports car by the Chevrolet division of General Motors that has been produced in six generations. The first model, a convertible, was designed by Harley Earl and introduced at the GM Motorama in 1953 as a concept show car. Myron Scott is credited for naming the car after...
in 1955 as America's only other two-seater, the original "T-bird" was a softly sprung, reasonably powerful auto for its day, available as both a convertible and an open car with removable hardtop. Too large, slow handling, and luxurious to be a sports car, yet lacking the high-performance of a GT, Ford instead coined a new term for the industry to market it, a "personal car."
The model met with reasonable success its first three years. However, since Ford basically defined the "personal luxury" niche, they believed they could also reshape it. As a result of their own surveys, Ford decided the Thunderbird should gain two seats and a permanent hardtop, changes they considered to be refinements of the personal luxury idea even if the car which emerged was considerably less personal than its two-seat forerunner. Only one American car occupied the target marketplace, the Studebaker Golden Hawk
Studebaker Golden Hawk
The Studebaker Golden Hawk is a two-door pillarless hardtop coupe type car produced by the Studebaker Corporation of South Bend, Indiana between 1956 and 1958.-Styling:...
, a highly styled two-door performance hardtop in the GT
Grand tourer
A grand tourer is a high-performance luxury automobile designed for long-distance driving. The most common format is a two-door coupé with either a two-seat or a 2+2 arrangement....
tradition.
The bulkier, four-seat 1958 Thunderbird which emerged, arrayed with comfort features and weighed down with styling gimmicks, nevertheless found tremendous success, outselling any of its predecessors. Its merely above-average performance and mediocre handling proved no daunt: the marketplace had spoken. The Continental Mark II
Continental Mark II
The Continental Mark II was a personal luxury car produced by the Continental Division of the Ford Motor Company in 1956 through 1957. Many aficionados of the automobile consider the Continental Mark II one of the classics of the postwar period.-History:...
of 1956 and 1957 was also a personal luxury coupe of the time, sold through Lincoln
Lincoln (automobile)
Lincoln is an American luxury vehicle brand of the Ford Motor Company. Lincoln vehicles are sold mostly in North America.-History:The company was founded in August 1915 by Henry M. Leland, one of the founders of Cadillac . During World War I, he left Cadillac which was sold to General Motors...
dealers.
The personal luxury market expands
The four-seat Thunderbird's sales increases, but the other American auto manufacturers were inexplicably slow to react. Four years into the larger-sized design, GMGeneral Motors
General Motors Company , commonly known as GM, formerly incorporated as General Motors Corporation, is an American multinational automotive corporation headquartered in Detroit, Michigan and the world's second-largest automaker in 2010...
's Pontiac
Pontiac
Pontiac was an automobile brand that was established in 1926 as a companion make for General Motors' Oakland. Quickly overtaking its parent in popularity, it supplanted the Oakland brand entirely by 1933 and, for most of its life, became a companion make for Chevrolet. Pontiac was sold in the...
finally offered the 1962 Grand Prix
Pontiac Grand Prix
Picking up where the Pontiac Ventura model left off, the Grand Prix first appeared in the Pontiac line for 1962. It was essentially a standard Pontiac Catalina coupe with minimal outside chrome trim and a sportier interior...
and Buick
Buick
Buick is a premium brand of General Motors . Buick models are sold in the United States, Canada, Mexico, China, Taiwan, and Israel, with China being its largest market. Buick holds the distinction as the oldest active American make...
its Wildcat
Buick Wildcat
In 1966 a one-year-only Wildcat "Gran Sport Performance Group" package could be ordered by selecting the "A8/Y48" option. Two engine choices were available. The single carb 425 CID/340 hp V8 was included in the base package price but a dual-carb set-up was also available at extra cost...
, but neither was an attempt to fully replicate the Thunderbird "luxury" and unique design formula.
The breakthrough was 1963, Buick serving up a true "personal luxury car" with its well-received Riviera
Buick Riviera
The Riviera by Buick is an automobile produced by Buick in the United States from the 1963 to 1999 model years, with 1,127,261 produced.A full-size coupé or personal luxury car, the early models of the Riviera in particular have been highly praised by automotive journalists and writers.A common...
and Studebaker with the powerful and futuristic Avanti
Studebaker Avanti
See also Avanti cars The Studebaker Avanti was a sports coupé built by the Studebaker Corporation at the direction of its president Sherwood Egbert between June 1962 and December 1963...
. Where the Grand Prix and Wildcat were little more than trim variations on standard full-size sedans, the Riviera was a striking new design squarely aimed at the four-place sports coupe marketplace, while the Avanti offered near-GT styling and performance in an American-built car. The Thunderbird had competition.
Within three years GM's Oldsmobile
Oldsmobile
Oldsmobile was a brand of American automobile produced for most of its existence by General Motors. It was founded by Ransom E. Olds in 1897. In its 107-year history, it produced 35.2 million cars, including at least 14 million built at its Lansing, Michigan factory...
had rolled out an ahead of its time front-wheel drive Toronado
Oldsmobile Toronado
The original Toronado began as a design painting by Oldsmobile stylist David North in 1962. His design, dubbed the "Flame Red Car," was for a compact sports/personal car never intended for production...
and Cadillac reintroduced its exclusive Eldorado
Cadillac Eldorado
The 1953 Eldorado was a special-bodied, low-production convertible . It was the production version of the 1952 El Dorado "Golden Anniversary" concept car, and borrowed bumper bullets from the 1951 GM Le Sabre show car...
as a long-nose, short-tail 2+2 design. With so many "entries in the personal-luxury-car class" ... "to meet this competition, Thunderbird, long predominant in the field", was "sharply restyled and has added a four-door model for the first time." Other personal luxury car influenced "sports" models such as Dodge
Dodge
Dodge is a United States-based brand of automobiles, minivans, and sport utility vehicles, manufactured and marketed by Chrysler Group LLC in more than 60 different countries and territories worldwide....
's Charger
Dodge Charger
The Dodge Charger is an American automobile manufactured by the Dodge division of Chrysler. There have been several different Dodge vehicles, built on three different platforms and sizes, all bearing the Charger nameplate...
and American Motors
American Motors
American Motors Corporation was an American automobile company formed by the 1954 merger of Nash-Kelvinator Corporation and Hudson Motor Car Company. At the time, it was the largest corporate merger in U.S. history.George W...
' Marlin
Rambler Marlin
The AMC Marlin is a two-door, mid-sized fastback car made in the United States by the American Motors Corporation from 1965 to 1967. A halo model for the company, it was marketed as a personal luxury car....
, both full-sized fastbacks based on an intermediate
Mid-size car
A mid-size car is the North American/Australian standard for an automobile with a size equal to or greater than that of a compact...
platform, as well as the Mercury Cougar
Mercury Cougar
The Mercury Cougar is an automobile which was sold under the Mercury brand of the Ford Motor Company's Lincoln-Mercury Division from 1967 to 2002. The name was first used in 1967 and was carried by a diverse series of cars over the next three decades. As is common with Mercury vehicles, the Cougar...
, made their appearance.
In Europe, smaller-bodied and more expensive models such as the BMW CS coupes
BMW E9
-BMW 2.5CS:The last version of the E9 to be introduced was the 2.5CS in 1974. This was a response to the 1973 oil crisis, such that the buyer could choose the smaller, more economical engine. The engine, from the 2500 sedan, displaced and produced at 6000 revolutions per minute...
, Citroën SM
Citroën SM
The Citroën SM is a high-performance coupé produced by the French manufacturer Citroën from 1970 to 1975. The SM placed third in the 1971 European Car of the Year contest, trailing its stablemate Citroën GS, and won the 1972 Motor Trend Car of the Year award in the U.S. in 1972.-History:In 1961,...
, and second-generation Mercedes SL roadsters
Mercedes-Benz SL-Class
The Mercedes-Benz SL is a grand tourer manufactured by Mercedes since 1954. The designation SL derives from the German Sport Leicht, or Sport Lightweight — and was first applied to the 300SL 'Gullwing' named also after its gullwing or upward-opening doors.The term SL-Class refers to the...
aimed at the personal luxury car market. Some began to join Mercedes as imports available in America.
By 1967, Motor Trend
Motor Trend
Motor Trend is an American automobile magazine. It first appeared in September 1949, issued by Petersen Publishing Company in Los Angeles, and bearing the tag line "The Magazine for a Motoring World". Petersen Publishing was sold to British publisher EMAP in 1998, who sold the former Petersen...
magazine was able to state: "Motorists of just about every stripe can now find a car with pleasing and distinctive lines, good performance and all the things that go to make a car enjoyable."
The decline of the muscle car
Muscle car
Muscle car is a term used to refer to a variety of high-performance automobiles. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines muscle cars as "any of a group of American-made 2-door sports coupes with powerful engines designed for high-performance driving." Usually, a large V8 engine is fitted in a...
in the early 1970s coincided with a strong upswing in the personal luxury segment, as buyers shifted emphasis from performance to comfort. Models such as the Chevrolet Monte Carlo
Chevrolet Monte Carlo
The Chevrolet Monte Carlo was an American-made two-door coupe introduced for model year 1970, and manufactured over six generations through model year 2007. It was marketed as a personal-luxury coupe through most of its history, with the last model version being classified as a full-sized coupe...
, Pontiac Grand Prix
Pontiac Grand Prix
Picking up where the Pontiac Ventura model left off, the Grand Prix first appeared in the Pontiac line for 1962. It was essentially a standard Pontiac Catalina coupe with minimal outside chrome trim and a sportier interior...
, Ford Elite
Ford Elite
The Ford Elite was an automobile produced by the Ford Motor Company for the North American market from 1974 to 1976. The Elite was based on the Ford Torino, and was a two-door coupe intended to be, in the words of Ford's advertising, a "mid-size car in the Thunderbird tradition"—a more...
, Mercury Marquis
Mercury Marquis
These were known as the "Continental Styling" years, as Mercury was trying to market itself as an affordable Lincoln, rather than a more expensive Ford...
, and Chrysler Cordoba
Chrysler Cordoba
The Chrysler Cordoba was an intermediate personal luxury coupe sold by Chrysler Corporation in North America from 1975-1983. It was the company's first model produced specifically for the personal luxury market and the first Chrysler-branded vehicle that was less than full-size.-History:In the...
racked up impressive sales figures in the mid-1970s with their intimate, luxury-oriented feel, plush interiors, and vintage styling cues like Rolls Royce
Rolls-Royce (car)
This a list of Rolls-Royce motor cars and includes vehicles produced by:*Rolls-Royce Limited *Rolls-Royce Motors , which was owned by Vickers between 1980 and 1998, and after that by Volkswagen...
-style radiator
Radiator (engine cooling)
Radiators are used for cooling internal combustion engines, mainly in automobiles but also in piston-engined aircraft, railway locomotives, motorcycles, stationary generating plant or any similar use of such an engine....
grilles, opera window
Opera window
Opera Windows are small porthole sized side windows in the C-pillar of some cars. Typically offered in unison with a vinyl roof, they were a very common design feature of American automobiles during the 1970s. The design was new at the time, "... and would prove to be very popular, indicated by its...
s, and vinyl roof
Vinyl roof
Vinyl roof refers to a vinyl covering for an automobile's top. This covering was originally designed to give the appearance of a convertible to models with a fixed roof, but eventually it evolved into a styling statement in its own right. Vinyl roofs were most popular in the American market, and...
s.
Decline
American 'personal luxury' cars grew ever larger, heavier, and more luxurious, and were typically equipped with either a V6 of moderate performance or a V8. Poor fuel economy, an industry switch to smaller cars and front-drive architecture, and renewed emphasis on utility over image began to winnow their ranks during the early 1980s.By the 1990s, younger buyers had moved either toward imported European and Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese cars or sport utility vehicle
Sport utility vehicle
A sport utility vehicle is a generic marketing term for a vehicle similar to a station wagon, but built on a light-truck chassis. It is usually equipped with four-wheel drive for on- or off-road ability, and with some pretension or ability to be used as an off-road vehicle. Not all four-wheel...
s. After years of steadily declining sales, the Oldsmobile Toronado
Oldsmobile Toronado
The original Toronado began as a design painting by Oldsmobile stylist David North in 1962. His design, dubbed the "Flame Red Car," was for a compact sports/personal car never intended for production...
was discontinued after 1992, the Lincoln Mark series
Lincoln Mark series
The Continental Mark II was a personal luxury car produced by a newly formed Continental Division of the Ford Motor Company for only two model years: 1956 and 1957....
after 1998, the Buick Riviera
Buick Riviera
The Riviera by Buick is an automobile produced by Buick in the United States from the 1963 to 1999 model years, with 1,127,261 produced.A full-size coupé or personal luxury car, the early models of the Riviera in particular have been highly praised by automotive journalists and writers.A common...
after 1999 and the Cadillac Eldorado
Cadillac Eldorado
The 1953 Eldorado was a special-bodied, low-production convertible . It was the production version of the 1952 El Dorado "Golden Anniversary" concept car, and borrowed bumper bullets from the 1951 GM Le Sabre show car...
after 2002. An effort by Ford to reintroduce a small, two-seat, retro-themed Thunderbird in 2002 was discontinued after three years of slow sales.
Imported personal luxury cars from European marques such as BMW
BMW
Bayerische Motoren Werke AG is a German automobile, motorcycle and engine manufacturing company founded in 1916. It also owns and produces the Mini marque, and is the parent company of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars. BMW produces motorcycles under BMW Motorrad and Husqvarna brands...
and Mercedes
Mercedes-Benz
Mercedes-Benz is a German manufacturer of automobiles, buses, coaches, and trucks. Mercedes-Benz is a division of its parent company, Daimler AG...
, and Japanese manufacturers Lexus
Lexus SC
The Lexus SC is a personal luxury coupé that was retailed by Lexus, and built from 1991 through 2010. It features a front engine, rear-wheel drive design and seating for up to four passengers. The first generation SC debuted as the V8-powered SC 400 in 1991, and the I6-powered SC 300 was added in...
, Infiniti and Acura
Acura Legend
The Acura Legend, sold as the Honda Legend outside the U.S., Canada, and parts of China, was a luxury vehicle sold from 1986 to 1995 as both a sedan and coupe. It was the first flagship sedan sold under the Acura nameplate, until being renamed in 1996 as the Acura 3.5RL. The 3.5RL was North...
, are still marketed in the United States while domestic production of personal luxury resurfaced with the introduction of the Cadillac CTS
Cadillac CTS
The Cadillac CTS is a mid-size car manufactured by the Cadillac marque of General Motors currently available in three body styles: Sedan, Coupe, and Sport Wagon. It was introduced in 2002 as a sports sedan, replacing the Cadillac Catera. The CTS and the supercharged CTS-V variant have been named...
Coupe for the 2011 model year.