Personal luxury car on a 14% volume gain." New "luxury" competitors and hanging consumer demand for the traditional personal luxury models meant the Lincoln Mark series was discontinued after 1998, the Buick Riviera after 1999, and the Cadillac Eldorado after 2002. An effort by Ford to reintroduce a small, two-seat, retro-themed Thunderbird in 2002 was ended after three years of slow sales. Personal luxury car A personal luxury car is an American car classification describing a highly styled, mass produced, luxury vehicle with an emphasis on image over practicality. Effectively high priced Veblen goods, personal luxury cars favor style and perceived cachet while
Puma (car manufacturer) increasingly import-friendly regulations of the mid 1980s and turmoil in the company are widely considered to be among the main factors that ended the production of the first generation of Puma's Brazilian produced automobiles. During this era, Puma sourced engines from DKW (3 cylinders), Volkswagen (4 cylinders) and General Motors (4 and 6 cylinder) and mounted them on their own chassis and Fiberglass bodies. A select number of cars were exported to US markets during the 1970s to the 1980s, but a more cost effective Kit car option was responsible for the majority of US models. The Kit car variant