Characteristics
Luxury cars tend to offer a higher degree of comfort than their mainstream counterparts, common amenities include genuine leather upholstery and polished "woodgrain-look" dashboards. Compared to mainstream vehicles, luxury cars have traditionally emphasized comfort and safety. Luxury vehicles are also a status symbol for conspicuous consumption.
Contemporary luxury cars also offer higher performance and better handling, which is often known as sport luxury. However in Europe, where large-displacement engines are often heavily taxed and many luxury buyers shy away from conspicuous consumption, brands offer buyers the option of removing exterior engine-identifying badges.
Forbes noted that the reputation of luxury marques enables them to continually introduce many new safety technologies and comfort amenities, such as anti-lock brakes, electronic stability control and DVD entertainment systems, before they trickle down to mass market cars. Numerous "smart car" features are largely only found on luxury cars as of 2009.
The rear-wheel drive with longitudinal engines (FR) is a common layout of luxury cars. European marques like Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Jaguar have almost never adopted front-wheel drive and retained a lineup mostly or entirely made up of FR cars. Japanese brands such as Lexus and Infiniti also have predominantly FR lineups. The FR layout, while more expensive than the FF, has been retained by these luxury manufacturers as it allows for higher performance engines (particularly the straight-6, V8, and other engine configurations with more cylinders), better handling, and a smoother ride.
American manufacturers also largely followed the FR for their luxury brands (as well as their mass-market cars of the time). However, due to the Arab Oil Embargo of 1973 and the 1979 fuel crises, began eliminating their FR platforms in favor of the more economical front wheel drive transverse engine layout (FF). Chrysler went 100% FF by 1990 and GM's Cadillac and Buick brands for the US were entirely FF by 1997. One of the few notable holdouts was Ford's Lincoln Town Car and Lincoln LS.
In the 21st century, as part of the revamp of its design and image, Cadillac returned most of its lineup (sedans, roadsters, crossovers and SUVs) to rear- or all-wheel-drive, the only exceptions being the front-wheel drive Cadillac BLS (which is not sold in North America) and the Cadillac DTS. Chrysler returned its full-size cars to this layout with the Chrysler 300. Ford's Lincoln retained the longtime FR platform for the Town Car, intended for use as a limousine and chauffeured car. However, newer offerings such as the MKZ and MKS use newer FF platforms shared with mainstream Ford vehicles, with all-wheel drive as an option.
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