Personal luxury car
In the United States, a personal luxury car was a car classification, a specific automobile market segment. The originator of the classification is generally considered to be the 1958 four-seat Ford Thunderbird, which had no close competitor. With the sales success of the Thunderbird, other manufacturers soon introduced their contenders into this market niche.
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 BMW and Mercedes 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 car or pony car, 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 1966 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:
- Ford Thunderbird - the original personal luxury car, and always one of the best sellers
- Ford Elite - the company's first intermediate PLC, obsoleted when the T-Bird shrank in '77
- Oldsmobile Starfire - until the arrival of the Toronado in 1966
- Oldsmobile Toronado - the first modern American front wheel drive car
- Buick Riviera - considered one of the most beautiful American cars of the 1960s
- Buick Regal - born personal luxury, learned performance, finished as sedan
- Pontiac Grand Prix - Introduced in 1962, early models are similar to the Pontiac Catalina in looks but they were always more luxurious. From '69 through '73, it shared a chassis with the Pontiac GTO. A revolutionary top seller.
- Chrysler Cordoba - Late to market in 1975, but for several years phenomenally successful
- Mercury Cougar - the pony car that grew up
- Chevrolet Monte Carlo - Introduced in 1970, and related to the Chevrolet Chevelle; again, a much more luxurious car than its stablemate, but considerably smaller and cheaper than the following cars from luxury car brands, which fitted in at the very top end of the personal luxury car market:
- Cadillac Eldorado - from the late 60s sharing the front wheel drive and other characteristics of the Oldsmobile Toronado
- Lincoln Continental Mark Series - from 1969 usually sharing the chassis, drivetrain and other parts of the Ford Thunderbird
- Chrysler Imperial - in the early 80's this venerable name was briefly an Eldo-wannabe
