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Prestige vehicles

Prestige cars are vehicles that enjoy a high degree of esteem among the public, due to their high price and styling. While most prestige vehicles are proper luxury cars, some such as Porsches and Hummers are not. The only attribute common among prestige vehicles are their relatively high price and often sophisticated quality as well as the high amount of esteem they enjoy and project upon the owner.

Guidelines

Prestige vehicles are vehicles whose pricing is either near or equal to that a proper luxury car. In order to meet the pricing criteria of a luxury car, the vehicle must feature a base MSRP of over $38,000 or $29,000 if it is also manufactured by a luxury car manufacturer.

Scarcity is another factor in determining prestige, as prestige decreases the more common a vehicle becomes. This rule mostly applies to classic vehicles whose prices and collection value, thus also prestige, increase with scarcity.

Semi-luxury Prestige vehicles

While most Prestige vehicles feature base MSRP equal to those found on proper luxury cars, some do not. These are vehicles who are often mistaken to be luxury cars but are not. The Volvo S60 is an example of such a vehicle. The S60 does not meet the pricing standards of a luxury car since Volvo is not a luxury marque and the vehicle's base MSRP is less than the required $38,000. But since prestige is a measurement of esteem and public opinion the S60 can still be considered a prestige vehicle.

The same holds true for some brands such as Acura. Today Acura is no longer a proper luxury car manufacturer anymore, since less than half the vehicles it sells carry a base MSRP below the $38k threshold. Due to its past as a proper luxury car manufacturer, however, many still see Acura as a luxury marque and therefore often mistakenly identify many of its vehicles as luxury cars.

Non-luxury Prestige vehicles

The Hummer line-up consists of one non-luxury prestige (H1), and two semi-luxury prestige (H2 and H3) vehicles

Some vehicles carry high MSRPs as well as a high amount of esteem among the public, yet fail to meet the comfort requirements of a proper luxury vehicles. The cars tend to be performance or utility oriented. Lotus for example sells performance vehicles in the luxury car price brackets, with all its vehicles featuring MSRPs of above $40k. The vehicles are, however not luxury cars since they fail to provide their occupants with sufficient comfort. Many Lotus vehicles do not even feature automatic window levers, a convenience feature standard on many subcompacts. The Hummer H1 is another example of a non-luxury prestige vehicle. The H1 enjoys a large amount of esteem among the public due to its $100k+ price tag, but fails to offer its occupants some of the most basic creature comforts.

Prestige categories

While it is difficult, if not impossible to categorize the prestige enjoyed by the many different types of automobiles it can be easily agreed upon that with the great variety of prestige vehicles come several different types of prestige.

The degree of prestige enjoyed by a vehicle usually depends on the vehicle's pricing as well as its history and position in the manufacturer's line-up. This is why a Mercedes-Benz S-Class or Lincoln Town Car have far more prestige than a Volvo S60 or Acura TSX.

Entry-level This type of prestige is usually enjoyed by some entry-level luxury cars as well as semi-luxury prestige cars and brands. Semi-luxury vehicles such as the Acura TSX, Volvo S60, and proper luxury car such as the Lincoln Zephyr, Mercedes-Benz C-Class coupe, or Lexus IS can be found in this category.

Mid-level This the degree of prestige is mostly enjoyed by the mid-line up vehicles of luxury car manufacturers such as the Mercedes-Benz E-Class, BMW 5-Series, or Cadillac STS. Some non-luxury vehicles such as the Hummer H2, Porsche Boxster, and Chevrolet Corvette fit into this category.

Flagship While many Flagship sedans such as the Lexus LS and the Lincoln Town Car are priced quite a bit below the Mercedes-Benz S-Class or BMW 7-Series, they are nonetheless the flagship models of their luxury manufacturers and enjoy a degree of prestige higher than that of "Mid line-up vehicles" and roughly equal to that of certain Mercedes-Benz S-Class or BMW 7-Series models. Some very high-end non-luxury sport models such as the Porsche Carrera fit into this category as well.

Vehicles in this category include but are not limited to the Lincoln Town Car, Lexus LS, Infiniti Q45, Cadillac DTS as well as the most common models of the Jaguar XJ, Mercedes-Benz S-Class, BMW 7-Series, and Audi A8

Ultra The Ultra luxury segment is probably the only prestige category with roughly the same pricing guidelines as the Ultra Luxury Car Segment, which describes vehicles priced above $90k. This category includes the A8 W12, Mercedes S600, BMW 760, as well as the entire line-up of all marques who exclusively sell vehicles priced in excess of $90k such as Bugatti, Maserati, Lamborghini, Ferrari, as well as Bentley, Rolls-Royce, and Maybach.

The Ford GT and Dodge Viper are the only Ultra prestige vehicles manufactured by neither a luxury car manufacturer nor a marque exclusively selling vehicles which carry a base MSRP of $90k.

List of prestige marques

All marques on red background are prestige marques

Acura
Alfa Romeo
Aston Martin
Audi
Bentley
BMW
Bugatti
Buick
Cadillac
Ferrari
Hummer
Infiniti
International Harvester
Jaguar
Koenigsberg
Lamborghini
Land Rover
Lexus
Lincoln
Lotus
Maserati
Maybach
Mercedes-Benz
Mercury
MG
Porsche
Rolls-Royce
Saab
Saleen
Volvo

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