Luxury vehicle BMW, Audi and Jaguar) luxury car makers. Mercedes-Benz and BMW were the top-selling luxury import until 1991, when they were overtaken by Lexus. Since 2000, Lexus has been the number-one-selling luxury car marque in the U.S. Since the 2000s, with the Cadillac CTS, the marque has seen a resurgence in sales and brand value. Ford's Lincoln, which had seen sales fall as a result of an aging lineup, has attempted to return that luxury marque to competitiveness, by releasing new models such as the Lincoln MKS, as well as divesting itself of its other Premier Automotive Group brands. Hyundai had
Personal luxury car . This marketing approach was also used in Japan, where the early 1970s saw the introduction of the Toyota Crown coupe, followed by the coupe versions of the Nissan Cedric and Nissan Gloria, and the Mazda Luce. In the 1980s the Toyota Soarer, Nissan Leopard, Mazda Cosmo, and the Honda Legend were popular with Japanese buyers. Throughout the 1970s American "personal luxury" cars grew ever larger, heavier, and more luxurious. By the early 1980s, however, they were typically equipped with either a V6 or a dramatically detuned V8 engine in order to comply with increasingly strict vehicle emissions standards. In