To be dead honest, in terms of luxury, my favorite car was my 1991 Cadillac Brougham D'Elegance. I just loved the way that car looked, the way it rode, the cushy button tufted leather "D'Elegance" seats, the space in the interior and trunk, the ease at fixing stuff under the engine, it never broke down(from 100k to 130k).

I just loved the imposing 70's "box" styling, but yet it was reliable with modern fuel injection and it had a Chevy V8 and transmisson. Once again it was that Cadillac look with Caprice 9C! cop car reliability.

I will say I do love the way my 1992 SC300/5 speed drives and overpowers that 1991 Cadillac, despite its nicer interior, crazy for the time exterior style, superior driving manners, it just does not hold a candle to that character of that big, low, and slow Brougham Cadillac. That was the last Cadillac that properly looked like a Cadillac.

I mean come on, this was the proper "BIG" Cadillac.

 

Aron......I liked the riding and seating comfort of big luxury vintage American iron, too, but build quality ranged from mediocre to downright unacceptable.

I owned a (used) 1965 Buick Electra 225 (deuce and a quarter) when I was in college. Damn, I loved that car, despite the lousy power drum brakes, even lousier paint, poor mileage on premium leaded gas, worn rings/valves (I was constantly adding oil), and the oft-needed tune-ups to the old breaker-point ignition system. It had a cush-tush, ultra-soft front bench seat just like an old living room sofa....you sank deep down into it. Arguably the smoothest 3-speed automatic transmission ever built....it was mostly fluid-drive through a variable-pitch stator/impeller, with very few mechanical moving parts, and with more than the average number of U-joints along the driveshaft to smooth out driveline vibration. Big Buicks of that vintage were famous for their unique, smooth drivetrains until they adopted the standard GM 3-speed Turbo-Hydra-Matic transmission in 1967 to simplify things. Something that size, though, would simply be impractical for me in today's traffic, too much of a PITA to maintain, too large for the size of my condo parking spaces, and for where I usually park and shop.

Some of my friends chuckled, and kidded me about driving a Grandpa/Grandma car. I didn't care.....unlike them, I rode around in comfort, and my closest auto buddy and friend at the time also liked big luxury American iron.......he had a big Olds 88.



After the early 1970s, though, Buick build-quality and interiors (IMO) worsened drastically, and, for several decades, they built very few products that I would have bought, until the Delta-platform, Opel-based Verano came out in 2012. It brought back a solidness and respectability to Buick construction that I had not seen for 40 years.
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That's a tough one, but I would have to say the 1976 Eldorado Convertible. It was huge, luxurious and actually had back seat space. My neighbor used to have one when I was a kid and had just learned to drive and he let me take it for a spin one night with a buddy of mine. We felt like high rollers!

My second favorite luxury car would be anything that Aston Martin builds.

 

That's a tough choice Aron9000. So many years and owning and wanting so many iconic cars

I agree with you about the old school Cadillacs. They had a presence. Never owned but drove one very similar to the pics I've posted. It was a Fleetwood. That thing was amazing. Comfy interior, fake wood and all. Some garage buddies of mine bought it. It was nowhere near as bad around corners as people think, Surprised me.

But the truly all rounder and car with presence, handling and reliability would have to be an NSX. Yeah the new one's out but the original really has something. 290 horsepower and amazing reliability with 0-60 times that would keep up with today's supercars. Just amazing how Honda did it.

 

No doubt, BMW 540, 6-speed manual, 8 cylinder engine. Nothing can compare

 

My favourite is Mercedes-Benz' long-living (1972 to 1989) R107 SL-Class, even the North American models with the 4 round sealed-beam headlights and protruding 5mph bumpers required by American vehicle safety regulations of the time.

The picture is not one in my preferred colour of royal blue and I am not fond of the high, centre-mounted third brake light either, but that model (of car, not the blond behind the wheel) will always be my favourite.

 

but DAT FACE Dooo

 

gotta be my LS 400 lol








in terms of just being outright the most comfortable, reliable, well performing, best value for money, quiet, smooth, fuel efficient, well built, balanced luxury car i'm convinced there's nothing better. sat in a 2013 bentley continental flying spur the other day, it was almost as comfortable as my LS seat, which is high praise haha

 

Love the LS and mine obviously but if I had to pick a couple of others that stand out I would definitely say the W190 Mercedes sedan and the E38 BMW 7 Series sedans were a couple of my all time favorites.

 

Aesthetics alone, I once saw a Rolls Royce Phantom with round doors and open-fan windows at the Peterson Museum here in L.A.

Love the design. It's so art deco.

 

i was trying to base my decision on only things that i've driven, but if we're gonna talk about fantasies i'm gonna have to include the:

Toyota Century (only japanese V12, never sold outside of japan, and the friggin emperor rides in one)




and of course this list would be incomplete without the Mercedes 600



you weren't a true third world dictator if you didn't roll in a 600 lol...

 

And of course my first Bimmer, the car that made me fall in love with the BMW brand. The last of the true 3-series BMWs




/thread

 

I have a buddy who just bought one of those, same color combo but with the chrome wheels. Just a magnificent car, Beverly Hills Cop anyone?

 

There's a neighbor in my area who drives one of those R107's. He keeps it under a car cover in front of his house. Old guy and it's the same red color. Beautiful car. Once in a while when he takes it out, I definitely notice it.

The E39 is easily one of the nicest looking Bimmers from that era.

 

My dentist owns one of these and I think it's the pinnacle of kitty cruisers-the 2007 XJR