Aren’t you curious about luxury cars? Each of us has always been passionate about cars, and years have passed since the first luxury car came into the market. Oldsmobile Tonorado being one of the first-ever luxury cars, came into being in 1966. Manufacturers, since then, have been trying their best to come up with more advanced versions.
It’s been so many years, and there is no surprise that these high-end features of luxury cars look a lot different than the luxury cars manufactured today. If it is the 60s car or the latest version, one thing that always remains common is that – that these cars are always reserved for the rich.
Models
According to Mr. Mark Moskowitz, an automotive journalist and one of the judges at the Manhattan Concours event, the top three models of luxury cars, 50 years ago, were Cadillac, Mercedes, and Lincoln. Some other brands included in the list like Buick’s luxury line, Chrysler, Rolls Royce, Thunderbird, and Oldsmobile 98. A few of them don’t even exist today but have embarked their names in the history of luxury cars. Today new brands like Tesla offer a great luxury to their customers and never fail to add new features to it to keep their foot up in the competition.
The cost
In the 60s, a top luxury car would set you back for about $8,000. Some of the few examples are :
- The top-lined car was Mercedes 2-door 1969 edition at a rough cost of about $10,000.
- A 1969 edition of Lincoln Continental was at the cost of around $6,000-$7,000.
- Mercedes 280 SL luxury roadster used to cost about $7,200.
Today, as we look at inflation, a Mercedes 2-door would cost around $69,000. With changing time, many Mercedes luxury models might cost you in about six figures.
Size
A drastic change has occurred in terms of cars. The changes are quite evident if we notice the 50 years old version of cars and the present version of it. For example, Cadillac Escalades and Lincoln Navigators are luxury vehicles that are currently popular. But when we talk about the 60s, these cars were very much smaller in size and could only fit two people at once. People today are seen to put much emphasis on SUVs rather than hatchback cars. A famous company Range Rover introduced a luxury SUV in the year 1970.
The features
According to Moskowitz, people have always been looking for something that would appeal to their senses. If they wanted to buy a luxury car 50 years ago, they prefer to look for high-end features that were not available in regular cars. They want 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 while other cars had vinyl seats. Features in luxury cars from the 60s included:
- plush carpets,
- power steering,
- excess chrome on the exterior,
- four-wheel disc,
- power brakes,
- air conditioning,
- automatic headlight,
- power windows
- automatic headlight dimmers
The best part of these features was that they could be controlled from the driver’s seat itself.
Features that are still there
Standards of luxury always include plush carpeting, leather seating, and sound systems. It is due to incredible advances in technology that luxury cars have a long list of features. Some of these features include self-driving capabilities, large touch screens, voice-controlled weather checker, and surround-view cameras and warnings.
There has been a lot of change in the feature, size, and cost of cars from the past 50 years. But luxury cars have always been a symbol of being rich. Enjoying luxury is one of the things people crave today. Even though many 50-year-old companies have stopped manufacturing cars, some are still in the race and have brought a whole range of luxury cars.
