Incendiary

Who were the big lux brands before Acura, Lexus, and Infiniti entered the US market (ie in the 80's)? Audi wasn't big back then, and Cadillac was still in a serious decline. MB, Jaguar, and BMW, that it? (I'm talking consumer luxury here, not ultra lux like RR, etc.)

GRAND_LS 4

iTrader: (2)

Lincoln... they were on top of thier game, and kept declaining over the years.

LexFather

GOod question. Benz and BMW were the top marques here with BMW behind Benz. Jag was plauged with problems and it became well known in the 80s along with the I-6 XK that no one liked. Square headlights on a Jag coupe! Caddy was on the decline and Lincoln had the TownCar and Continental. Audi was doing okay until 60 minutes almost took them under here, lol.

mmarshall

In the 1980's.....clearly Mercedes-Benz. M-B in those days clearly built what was the best car in the world, both safety-wise and quality-wise. Volvo had safety but not M-B quality. Though Toyota and Honda ( and other Japanese nameplates) were steadliy building quality reputations by then, neither had anywhere the luxury or refinement of a Mercedes....or cost as much, of course.
Cadillac?.... by then a joke, with overpriced junk like the V-8-6-4, the 350 diesel engine...a true disaster, Athe ridiculous Cimarron, the rear-wedge Seville...another disaster, the ill-fated Allante, trim pieces throughout the entire line that fell off faster than they could be reattached, fading paint, rattles, squeaks, etc......
Lincoln? Somewhat better than Cadillac, but clearly just an average car in quality...still nothing to write home about.
BMW?....coming up fast. BMW by this time was really gaining its reputation as the ultimate luxury drivers' car. Quality was good, sales were on the rise....fueled by the growing cult-like attraction to the marque by the so-called "Yuppies", the emerging young urban professionals.
80's Jaguar?....beautiful interiors, trim, and hardware. The rest of the car a joke....worse than Cadillac.
A common joke back then was a "good" Jag going coast-to-coast and only catching fire once.
Audi?.....coming up, but still just an overpriced VW. The 5000's TV panning sure didn't help any either.
Chrysler and Imperial? The true Imperials were dropped by the 1980's, although the nameplate was carried through 1981with a special model. Other Chryslers....even the luxury New Yorker...were just rebodied K-Cars.
No, M-B ruled the roost in the 1980's in the luxury-car world. Even Acura's introduction in 1986 did little to upset M-B's throne.....and arrogance.
However....when Lexus came along in 1990 with the first LS400 and Infiniti with the Q45, the hammers started to fall on the M-B empire. Suddenly M-B had REAL competition...at lower prices.
The rest is history. You guys know it..........I won't bore you with the rest of the story.

iloveGS300

Great Post Marshall. Nicely done.

Robert

mmarshall

Thanks....a lot of people in CL make good posts.

GRAND_LS 4

iTrader: (2)

Lincoln always had the Mark series, a car that was truely ahead of its time.

BLexACK LS

Speaking of the first LS400. I found out that my recently deceased uncle bought and garaged the 1054 LS400 ever made. Until last year when it was given to his daughter it had under 3000 miles

Incendiary

So basically MB ruled undisputed, BMW was an up and coming, Audi was a POS, the Japanese didn't exist, Lincoln was doing well in the US, and Cadillac and Jaguar were regarded as luxury brands but had terrible reliability problems?

Did this hold true in the 70's as well? Actually, I don't think BMW was well regarded back then, and in fact almost had to pull out of the US before they made it with the 2002. So MB ruled from like the 60's, or whenever Cadillac began its decline (sometime in the 70's, right?), until the early 90's?

jet864

Wow man, you should trade your LS for your cousin's! That's an amazing story and I hope she keeps it in good condition.

I think Cadillac (like many American makes) got screwed in the 70's when stricter emissions standards were released. This led to the fall of the muscle car, almost requirement of fuel injection, and was a huge set back to the big engined RWD American cars. It started Caddy on their stupid stupid stupid front wheel drive phase which is just now coming to an end. That time in history stopped the big heavy rear wheel drive large displacement V8 luxury cars. Enter Germans.

James

Incendiary

Wasn't MB making big heavy RWD V8 luxury cars, too? I guess there was more American product patriotism back then, though. "Jap cars" didn't tide over too well in Detroit in the 80's. Just witness Vincent Chin, I think his name was.

mmarshall

Emissions were part of it, but many things led to the demise of muscle cars. The 1973-74 oil crisis and shortage, the huge price increase in gasoline, skyrocketing insurance rates for the muscle cars, a growing emphasis on safety, the increasing weight of new cars due to added and mandated equipment, increasing congestion on the roads.......all of this played a part.
Later in the 1970's the traditional American full-size luxury cars were the next casualties as they were all downsized into mid-sized cars with expensive-sounding names.

jet864

MB was making big sedans too but they had quality and safety over Americans as well as relatively smaller engines. They were (and mostly still are) overall better cars and I'm sure there was some sort of uncertainty about buying a German product vs the tried and true American versions before.

The way that the Americans tried to work out the fall of their pride and joy due to the reason mmarshall listed to me shows why they're still behind in many aspects. Rather than actually researching new emissions advancements and safety concerns they added stickers and expensive names while the cars continued to fall in quality. Even up until the 1996 mandate for dual front airbags our old 1993 Volvo 850 as well as the 1993 Lexus family (SCs for sure) had them early while our 1995 Suburban didn't.

James

rdollie

If you're talking volume I wouldn't include BMW on the list (unless you want to include Volvo since they had similar or slightly greater volume than BMW in those days - which isn't saying a lot.)

Incendiary

The list for the 70's or the 80's? Or both? I'm talking more "prestige" than I am volume.