Years have been passed since the first luxury car came into the market. It was in 1966 when Oldsmobile Toronado was launched and became the first-ever luxury car world has witnessed. Since then, manufacturers have been trying their best to come up with more advanced versions. Nowadays, many cars in the market can even drive themselves.
It’s been so many years that these high-end features of luxury cars look a lot different than the luxury cars that are manufactured today. If it is the 60s car or if it is the latest version, one thing remains common that these are always reserved for the riches.
Models
According to Mr. Mark Moskowitz, a judge at the Manhattan Concours event and an automotive journalist, the top three models of luxury cars which were 50 years ago were Cadillac, Mercedes, and Lincoln. Some other brands which were included in the list are Chrysler, Buick’s luxury line, Rolls Royce, Thunderbird, and Oldsmobile 98. Few cars don’t exist even today but still have managed to mark their names in the history of luxury cars. Today new brands like Tesla offers a great luxury to their customers and keep on adding new features to it.
The cost
In the 60s, a top luxury car would set you back for about $8,000. The top-lined car was Mercedes 2-door 1969 edition which would cost $10,000 approx. A 1969 Lincoln Continental used to cost around $6,000-$7,000 and a Mercedes 280 SL luxury roadster used to cost about $7,200. But today, as we look from the perspective of inflation, a Mercedes 2-door would cost you around $69,000. As time has changed, many Mercedes luxury models would cost you in about six figures.
Size
We have seen a lot of changes when it comes to luxury cars. There has been a drastic change in the size of the cars from the last 50 years. Take, for example, Cadillac Escalades and Lincoln Navigators are luxury vehicles that are popular currently. But when we talk about the 60s, we can see that these cars were very much smaller in size and could only fit two people at once. It is seen that people today put much emphasis on SUVs. Long before the luxury SUV segment became popular in the 1990s, the vehicle in this segment was the 1996 Jeep Super Wagoneer model. Before launching this, a famous company Range Rover also introduced a luxury SUV in the year 1970.
The features
Moskowitz says that people were looking for something that would appeal to their senses. If they wanted to buy a luxury car 50 years ago, they were looking for high-end features that were not typically added and available in regular cars. They wanted something that had both luxury and style and was not like the rest of the pack.
The most significant and most important feature of any luxury car is the seating. These cars had leather seats. Other cars had vinyl seats and not leather seats, making luxury cars standing out.
Features in luxury cars from the 60s included:
- the addition of plush carpets,
- excess chrome on the exterior,
- power steering,
- four-wheel disc,
- power brakes,
- automatic headlight,
- air conditioning,
- power windows
- automatic headlight dimmers
The best part of these features was that they could be controlled from the driver’s seat itself.
Features we still see today
Standards of luxury that transcends both ears have included plush carpeting, leather seating, and state of the art sound systems. It is due to incredible advances in technology that luxury cars have a long list of features included in them. Some of these features include self-driving capabilities, large touchscreens, voice-controlled climate, and surround-view cameras and warnings.
Due to incredible advances in technology, today luxury cars have a much longer list of features. Some of them include large touchscreens, self-driving capabilities, voice-controlled climate, and surround-view cameras and warnings.
Conclusion
There has been a lot of change in the feature, size and cost of cars from the past 50 years. Many companies have stopped manufacturing cars while some have brought a whole range of luxury cars.
