With 7 year car loans and a gigantic used car market increasing competition and price transparency, it seems almost anyone can get a luxury car now (as long as its used). BMW, Benz, Lincoln, Cadillac, Porsche, Lexus, etc.
Some cars are still only for the professional class and the rich though (Lamborghini, Ferrari)
But was there a time when a Lexus, BMW, Benz, etc was something rare that only extremely successful people could afford? As opposed to now when a luxury sedan that is a few years old is about 15k, which makes it affordable to many people if they are willing to take out a loan.
First of all, if you can’t afford to buy it new, you ain’t rich. Also, brands like Lexus and Lincoln were NEVER the cream of the crop, they have always been “midgrade luxury”. The same is true, to an extent, to most of the other car makers in your OP as well (maybe you could exclude Porsche).
Rolls Royce, Bentley, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Maybach, Aston Martin, etc. are all cars that only the very wealthy can afford. People rarely see these, let alone own them.
Was there a time when owning a BMW, Benz, Lexus, etc was the same way?
And I know its not about being rich, but if in 30 years pretty much anyone with a reasonable job could afford a used Lamborghini or Bentley, it’d be the same thing. Right now people can’t even afford these things used unless they have a lot of money.
In the 1970s and early 1980s, in my ordinary suburb in Québec, a Mercedes was a rare sight, a BMW even more. Audis and Porsches were a bit more frequent. Cadillacs and Lincolns were pretty common and still associated with “success”. Lexus, Infiniti and Acura weren’t invented yet, but you saw a few Toyota Cressidas.
As far as I know, around here, Mercedes and BMW only started doing leasing much later, around 2005 maybe, so that’s when more people started being able to afford them, including the end-of-lease used car market.
Those supercars like Lamborghini, Bugatti, Bentley, etc. could never be accessible to the general public as used models, similar to how other higher-end brands are, because they aren’t mass-produced.
I’d argue as well that a lot more people are buying products they really can’t afford, there a lot of people out there with horrible debt to income ratio that are spread quite thin and just one misstep away from financial oblivion.
When Lexus was introduced in 1989 they sold the ES 250 which had an MSRP of $22000. A 1989 BWM 325i could be had for $25000. Neither of those were so high as to be out of the reach of the upper middle class.
this reminds me of concerns that the old luxe gas guzzlers of the 70s and 80s would become the poor persons care of the 90s and cause pollution and have the poorer drivers would be flat broke because they couldn’t afford the gas they drank it was one of the reasons for the "cash for clunkers " idea
its still a worry as the 1st and 2nd gen SUVs are reaching the "no credit needed " type of clipjob lots
I used to go to a working class(or lower ) African American church when I was in foster care and if you didnt examine the cars too closely youd think you were in the high end of town … they had lincons caddys ect but most were on their 5th owner oxidized paint ect …………
I even asked one of the elderly women why she drove hers ……… "well I promised my self id own a caddy before I died and even tho its not what I had in mind … I kept my promise to me " car only got 15 miles to a gal of gas and had expensive insurance but she did keep it nicer than most did
(she was supposedly the 12th owner of it since '78)
If the concern was the finances of the poor, causing the price of used cars they drive to increase by removing a large amount of the supply seems like an odd thing to do.
The thing about used luxury cars is that (except for perhaps Lexus) they tend not to be cheap to keep. Try $500 every time that Porsche needs an oil change and don’t even think about how much too replace an actual part.
That’s an interesting statistic, since it ‘feels’ like it’s the other way around, with the perception I hear from most people being that old cars could be kept running forever, they lasted, while new cars wear out fast.
In the 90s my college roommate got an old Caddy sedan for $4K, which had some issues but at least ran (most of the time), so it has to go back further than that.
I think a more interesting question might be “was there a time when only the extremely successful could afford new mid-tier luxury cars?” Because I consider “well-off” to be “upper middle class”, and right now, they can afford a new mid-tier luxury car, but I wouldn’t call them “extremely successful”.
I’m still drivin’ it…