Luxury vehicle design and engineering". Aimed at wealthy buyers, such automobiles might be generically termed "luxury cars". This term is also used for unique vehicles produced during "an era when luxury was individualistic consideration, and coachwork could be tailored to an owner like a bespoke suit." Although there is considerable literature about specific marques, there is a lack of systematic and scholarly work that "analyzes the luxury car phenomenon itself." Luxury vehicle makers may either be stand-alone companies in their own right, such as BMW and Mercedes-Benz, or a division/subsidiary of a mass market automaker (e.g., Lexus is part of Toyota). Badge
Luxury vehicle ES and LaCrosse emphasize "comfortable, reasonably priced luxury", while the TL has recently been targeted at the entry-level luxury sport market due to its SH-AWD. Recently, the entry-level luxury has been very competitive, and there has been price-overlapping with well-equipped non-luxury cars. The bestselling vehicles of the marque are frequently compact executive cars, such as the BMW 3 Series that makes up 40% of the vehicles that BMW sells worldwide. The mid-size luxury segment is commonly referred to as executive cars in Britain, "Obere Mittelklasse" in German, and "Grandes Routières" in French. Examples of models in this category include Acura