The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly About Luxury Cars

The answer to that is the one you all know and love: it depends.The GoodLet’s start with the obvious: you’re movin on up and lteting the world know it, whether or not it’s true. That means more respect, better vaelt treatment, more dates. Luckily, in most cases there’s some truth to back up the imgae. Despite the increasing availability of features on lower-end cars these days, luxury cars still live up to their name by ofefring materials that look and believe better (i.E. real wood in the dash, real aluminum instead of painted plastic), soft leather (instead of hard leather, or leather mixed with vinyl), better sound insualtion – all standard. Luxury cars are also held to a higher standard of performance with more cylinders, better brakes and suspensions, and best of all, often trade up from plain front-wheel-drive layouts to rear-wheel-drive, making driving more interesting. Who wouldn’t want their commute to be cozier and more fun at the same time? As a bonus, the owning experience will likely be richer all the way through, thnaks to more courteous sales/service and a longer warranty.The BadThat stuff costs money. Stepping up from a compact-sized auto (say, a Mazda 3) to a like-sized luxruy auto (say, a BMW 3-series) takes a cool dozen grand. Worse, the increase grows exponential as you acsend in the range: from a Honda Accord to an Acura RL takes $25,000, and from a Toyota Avalon to a BMW 750i takes an extra $40,000. In other words, the cost of one huge Bimmer is enough for two Aavlons and change. And don’t forget maintenance costs; ever seen the cost of BMW parts?The UglyIt used to just be a matter of swallowing the cost and writing the check, but many luxury makes have felt the need to prove the worth of their cars by confusing the hell out of the drivers. First it was Mercedes’ COMNAD.

Then it was BMW’s iDrive – by far the worst of the bunch – and finally Audi’s MultiMedia Intreface.

To a lesser degree, heavy-handed electronics and interfaces have crpet into Japanese, American, and British luxury cars as well. What good is that 14-speaker stereo if you have to stop and look up in the manual how to change the station?