Today, even basic trim levels are downright loaded compared to what counted as standard equipment for the cars of twenty years ago, and the comparison only becomes more dramatic the farther back in time you go. Features that once defined luxury are simply expected today; air conditioning certainly comes to mind, and power windows.
And if you’re shopping for a bonafide luxury car in 2025, the scope of technological luxuries as well as paints and coverings and conveniences is truly staggering. Multi-mode massaging seats, custom interior lighting, ergonomic memory settings, voice-activated features … the list goes on and on.
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But what defines luxury to you? Certainly we can agree those massaging seats are nice, not to mention the ability to warm one’s hams via electrical filaments beneath the leather (real or animal-friendly), or come summertime, blast said hams with cooled air. But as Autopians, I’m confident we all have some unique takes on what constitutes luxury beyond the usual niceties.
As a serial shitbox owner for many years, I still count “starts every time” and “is safe” as highly valued luxuries. I’ve also suffered many a crap stereo – factory and aftermarket – so a nice sound system is clutch. And a power rear hatch? Absolutely delightful.
Your turn: What is luxury for you?
Top image: Doug DeMuro/YouTube
my base model Maverick XL is luxury to me..
first new car of my life at 64, starts and stops EVERY SINGLE TIME. Amazing.
I miss the view of the road through the floorboards though.
I would like a Bentley Continental R Mulliner please.
Both AM and FM. Physical controls for both HVAC and radio.
7 cylinders or more.
Luxury for me is my wife sitting shotgun saying she is comfortable, can see out, heat ac and fan controls easily reached.
I’ll also say what luxury *isn’t*. To me, the car that exemplifies that is the 1985 Olds 98 Regency Brougham that my old man bought himself as a retirement present when the “downsized” FWD full-size GM cars debuted. It was awful, and in fact he ended up hating it so much that it basically became my ride the first few months I had my license and he just kept driving his Suburban. It was big, and it looked “fancy” with it’s shiny black paint, chrome, and lipstick red leather. but everything about it was just crap. The build quality was Fisher Price, the materials were incredibly cheap, it didn’t run properly from new, it squeaked and rattled, and it had goofy things like a power driver’s seat with NO recline. Just tilt and slide. The passenger seat had power tilt and slide and manual recline though. This was a car that cost $22K in 1985 and you could adjust the backrest angle of the driver’s seat? The skinny plastic steering wheel cracked a week after the warranty ran out. It was also terrible to drive. Managed to be wallowy and busy at the same time.
In contrast, a few years later I bought an ’87 Volvo 744GLE that FELT so luxurious in comparison, even though it only had a wheezy 114hp four under the hood and only power windows and locks. Everything was just so much better, and so much better thought out. And built like the proverbial brick outhouse. Between the original owner, me, my housemate and then his mother, it did 400K miles before the tinworm killed it – and it was still running like a top when she parked it in the garage. We stole parts off it for a decade for other Volvos housemate and I owned after that one. And compared to the Germans of that era, the Volvo had kind of a crap interior!
Luxury is about that little bit of excess that differentiates what is needed for a given task and what makes that given task at least slightly easier or more enjoyable. Think of the difference between power seats and power memory seats. That little memory function really makes a big difference. Many cars have auto dimming rearview mirrors, but when you throw in auto dimming side mirrors again its that little extra bit that makes the car just a bit more comfortable.
Absolutely spot on and exactly what I was going to say. It’s the little thoughtful touches plus that extra bit of build quality that makes the car feel carved from granite and everything you touch feel nice.
What luxury is NOT is gimmicky techy tinsel sprinkled around the place. Especially big screens and no physical controls being touted as “cool and luxurious” when it is 110% about saving a buck.
Dougie keeps pronouncing the Caddy as “brahm”, but back in the day I always heard it as BRO-um.
Just me?
You’re correct. BRO-um or browm is the correct pronunciation. Now just imagine how much consternation could come with the masses trying to correctly pronounce a Porsche Brougham model.
To further muddy it, in the hood where I grew up it was a BroHAM, emphasis on the ham…
“Yo! he’s got the BroHAM on Daytons!”
Huh. Interesting. Whereabouts was this at?
To me, luxury is more about the build quality and the choice of materials. AKA leather and soft vinyl rather than rattley hard plastics. Real wood trim, not a sticker or some shiny black plastic. Leather seats that wear nicely with age like a fine pair of loafers. Controls that feel substantial and not plasticky. It also means good engineering that holds up over time and nothing silly or gimmicky. BMW and Mercedes were at the top of that game in the late 90’s, building timeless cars that still hold up to this day.
My daily driver for a while has been a 1995 BMW 540i, and it’s amazing how well it’s held up considering it’s almost 30 years old. At 288,000 miles, the seats are in excellent shape, the headliner is perfect, the dashboard has no cracks or warping, all of the features of the car work perfectly, and it still does autobahn-level cruising like an absolute champ. Yes, it’s had maintenance done, but it’s still on the original motor and transmission. A great all-around sport luxury car.
BMW continued that into the next generation of cars as well. My two 2011s have been basically anvils, especially the wagon I have owned from new. Literally just a battery in the near decade since the warranty ended, and just a couple minor squawks under warranty. Then my 2016 M235i was better in that it had no warranty issues, but it felt rather cheaper inside. And was not as good to drive, even if it was much, much faster. I didn’t keep that one long.
Yeah, while the E60 and E90 generation had their issues, the build quality was notably higher than the F-chassis cars that came after. BMW really cut corners on the build quality at that point, even with the 7-series.
The e8x/e9x was peak modern BMW, IMHO, as far as quality and reliability as long as you avoid the turbo motors. My ’11 328i wagon has been an absolute anvil, and my ’11 128i has had the usual trifecta of oil leaks, but otherwise, also an extremely reliable car with none of the fragilities of the e46 (cooling system and rear subframe/trunk floor and others) and e36 (rust and biodegradable interiors). Given they ARE relatively complex modern cars, the reliability is really quite astounding. And FAR better than the cars from the “good old days”. My stepfather bought an e28 528e new and kept it for 20+ years. I have all the maintenance and repair records, it looks like the NYC phone book. And that car was literally as complicated as a hammer. The difference in scheduled maintenance alone is HUGE, never mind all the stuff that broke.
My f22 M235i had slightly better initial quality (no issues under warranty at all), but the materials quality was definitely a step down, and while fast, it just wasn’t amazing to drive. Though they do seem to have pretty well sorted the turbos at this point, then they had all the timing chain issues with the fxx 4-cylinders. But I can’t even begin to deal with the interior nonsense that started with the gxx and keeps getting worse and worse, never mind what horrors they have wrought on the outside.
Also, it’s interesting what a difference even pretty minor materials differences can make in the ambiance of the car. I have 1 and 3-series BMWs. They are fundamentally the same car. The mechanicals and electronics are the same, and so are vast swaths of the interior. But to make the rather cheaper 1-series, BMW did very much cost-cut some of the interior, left out some little features that I sure miss, and it just seems notably less luxurious than the 3-series. Still a cut above something like a Camry for sure, but definitely a cut below it’s big brother. And a 3 is that little bit below a 5 which is a little bit below a 7 in this as well. That 1-series is mighty nice to drive though, especially top-down.
Got a 04 f150. Two different interiors with one better than the other. Trim lines the obvious one with the xl and xlt looking fresh from injection molding with lines everywhere the above xlt trims didn’t have. I assume more foam on the high end as the high end had randomly soft fake leather sections. I assume the dash incase you randomly smash your face in a sub airbag cash, but I assume I’d break the center console first.