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So, what exactly was a 'personal luxury car'? It's a luxurious but practical automobile designed primarily for the pleasure of its driver and owner, rather than the comfort of its passengers. A full-size luxury car places the comfort of its passengers (both front and rear seat) at least as highly as the driver's; after all, many people with the means to buy such a car might choose to be driven by someone else. A personal luxury car, on the other hand, was designed to appeal to those who wanted a vehicle mostly for their own personal transportation. Most such cars had only two doors, showing that carrying rear seat passengers was not a priority and the car was not chosen by or for them. Seating for four or more was provided in reasonable comfort, of course, since most buyers who could afford such a car had families and a two-seater like the original Thunderbirds couldn't be justified.
While not a true performance car , a personal luxury car had to have power and speed. Part of its market were those who couldn't afford a full-size luxury car, but another part of its market were people looking for something more enjoyable to drive. While acceleration was always decent, the personal luxury car's forté was highway and freeway cruising, long-distance mile-eating rather than stoplight wars, which were not its owner's style. The suspension was tuned for comfortable high-speed driving on the highway, being rather too soft for negotiating winding roads at speed, and the steering was generally lazy, slow-turning and fingertip-easy in the manner of a Cadillac rather than a Corvette. Top speeds were high, thanks to the high gearing used to give smoothness at lower speed, and the large engines fitted for the same reason. Engines were generally big V8 lumps of Detroit iron, towards the top end of the manufacturer's size range, though not performance-tuned models. Transmission choices were few and automatic transmission de rigueur.
Internally, these cars were well-appointed, offering nearly the appointments of a luxury car. Wood-grain vinyl was more likely than real wood accents, but drivers of these cars were reasonably pampered. Fitting of a multitude of power accessories was common; power seats, power windows, power radio antenna, power door locks, remote trunk release, and much more. Exterior styling was often dramatic and even extravagant; this class of car did much to popularize such items as hidden headlights, opera windows , and the vinyl roof.
The era of the true American personal luxury car lasted until around 1985, though many of the same models continued in much shrunken form for quite a while. Today, this market segment is dead, or nearly so, among domestic cars, but very similar imports from Japanese manufacturers like Lexus and Infiniti and European marques like BMWcircle divided into four quadrants of alternating white and light blue colour. This is a stylised representation of an aircraft propeller. The colours of the logo are those of the flag of Bavaria. BMW AG, abbreviation of Bayerische Motoren Werke ( Bavaria and MercedesThis page is about the Mercedes-Benz brand of automobiles and trucks from the DaimlerChrysler automobile manufacturer. For other uses of the name Mercedes see Mercedes. Mercedes-Benz is a brand of automobiles and trucks from the DaimlerChrysler company (f sell well.
Today, old American personal luxury cars are a good buy if you're in the market for a classic car. Everyone wants a muscle carPontiac GTO started the muscle car trend. Pictured is the Pontiac GTO Judge, introduced in 1969. Muscle cars are high-performance automobiles made primarily in Detroit from 1964 to 1974. Car manufacturers placed large V8 engines in mid-sized cars, giving or pony carA pony car is a class of automobile. The term is applied to North American-built "baby muscle cars"—performance cars built on compact (by American standards) passenger car chassis. The first cars of this type appeared as 1965 models in mid 1964 as the For, and personal luxury cars, more expensive then, are now cheaper - and rarer, and in the opinions of some a classier ride. The exceptions to this are Ford Thunderbirds of 1966Events January January 1 In a coup, Colonel Jean-Bedel Bokassa ousts president David Dacko and takes over the Central African Republic. January 2 Strike of public transportation workers in New York City ends January 13 January 3 First Acid Test at the Fil and earlier, and a select few high-performance editions, which fetch more money. Doing a major restoration on one of these cars will be harder since parts availability is much worse, but mechanically they share many parts with full-size cars or muscle cars of the period. On the upside, these cars will generally be in much better condition than unrestored muscle cars or pony cars, since they were generally bought by older individuals and have never been raced or used hard.
Cars that can be included in the Personal Luxury Car sector include the following. Note that not all model years with cars bearing these names count, since automobile manufacturers often re-use names, sometimes on very different types of car:
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