What Separates A Luxury Vehicle From the Pack

For today's (admittedly short) post, I want to open the forum on what truly makes a "luxury" vehicle a luxury vehicle. Back in the late 90's and early 2000's, luxury vehicles truly stood on a pedestal all their own. Makers like Audi, BMW and Mercedes were considered among many true tier luxury vehicles. Usually swaddled with leather and fine woods on the inside, advanced (for the time) technological features, and comfortably powerful engines. Thrown into the mix were Japanese competitors Acura, Infiniti and Lexus who brought their best to combat these luxury giants. Lexus gained infamy for its dealership experience and high reliability marks. Infiniti, although facing a bleak beginning, soon was able to niche into its own as one writer described as "the Japanese BMW." Acura still is strangely in limbo, trying to shed it's image as simply "nicer Hondas" and with their new advances in technology they are truly setting their crosshairs on the heavy hitters.

But these days, what do you perceive as luxury? 
Simply a leather strewn interior? You can get that in a Honda Civic.  Turbocharged engines? Most modern brands have at least one or multiple turbocharged offerings. Advanced features such as swiveling headlamps and passive entry? Available on your well endowed Mazda3. So how are these poised luxury brands reaching ahead of the pack? Each is approaching at a different angle but they have certainly all made a strong case for themselves as true luxury vehicle manufacturers.

Let's get into some examples. Recently, Audi is approaching more and more to the autonomous vehicle. In fact, it is one of the most mainstream brands that is most nearing to the technology. True, Google has been testing their own autonomous technology on the homely Prius. But Audi wants to take that further. They are working to create a system that can actually take you to your destination, allow you to exit your vehicle and then find a parking spot and park all without any driver assistance.  It is ideas and (hopefully) executions like this that start to put space between luxury brands and more commonplace brands.


Another example that comes to mind is Mercedes-Benz. Not only does Mercedes lay claim to creating the "original" automobile, they have pioneered the streamlined integration of features such as seatbelts and air bags. While resting on those laurels might be sweet, they need to press and advance to keep one cut above the rest. Their modern offerings can be had with complete LED lighting inside and out, "magic" sunroofs and complete leather interiors rivaling offerings from extreme luxury giants Bentley and Rolls-Royce.

So what do you think? What is your idea of "modern" luxury. Does it simply come down to leather here and there, maybe a splash of wood trim and calling it a day? Or does every single detail and feature of the vehicle work in cohesion to give the customer the most absolute luxury experience.