Posted on Monday 2 June 2008
The Luxury Institute is a New York-based research firm that traditionally compiles data based on the opinions of America’s wealthy, solely the top 10% of highest earners. The Institute’s latest study, based on the responses of 1,642 wealthy American consumers with an average income of $349,000 and average net worth of $3.7 million, has ranked a number of vehicle brands by their perceived status.
Leading the field was Porsche, which got the most votes, followed by Lexus in second and Mercedes-Benz in third. According to the researchers, Mercedes-Benz lost a lot of its status following during its partnership with Chrysler and doesn’t share the same appeal with younger, performance-oriented luxury-car buyers that Porsche enjoys.
BMW ranked fourth, Jaguar fifth, and Lincoln was last of the 12 brands covered, in terms of overall status. BMW’s rank has fallen in recent years because a lot of respondents have been turned off by the carmaker’s styling of late, explained Luxury Institute CEO Milton Pedraza.
Those who rated the brands most favorably tended to be males over the age of 55, with average household income between $150,000 and $300,000, and net worth under $1 million. Lexus was the luxury brand the largest group of respondents (14.4%) said they would consider for their next purchase. It was also rated the best for customer experience.
I wonder why Cadillac is no longer driven by wealthy people. why do people like Lexus?
s***! why do so many people spend pile of money to buy a Japaness car? I am not a racist, but I think that not worthy. And u?
Lexus, you got to be kidding me, most people i know who fit into this category do NOT drive lexus. Porsche of course is #1 but lexus #2.
lexus has the best customer service and least amnt of problems (after porsche) per car.
If this was stlying, lexus would not be second, their styling is not even close to that of porsche mercedes or jaguar
They may not have the most popular styling, but not many companies hold water to the technologies in their car (not even porsche). 1300 images of the paint job are taken of the LS before it goes on sale, the car reads each person’s body temperature, the car beeps and slows down in the event you take your eye off of the road, 8 speed transmission…
The study is misleading because it includes a lot of people who are not really that rich in today’s dollars; someone making only $150,000 a year is out of Porsche territory and would end up with a Lexus when comparison shopping. Forexample, with proper options BMW 7-series and MB S-class are both around $90,000 to $100,000 while a Lexus 760 can cost around $70,000.
You got to be kidding me, so BC your saying i could close my eyes and put my foot to the floor, and the car will slow down, give me a break ive been in a fully loaded ls and that thing is a gimmick.
archony is right, those numbers do not make you “rich”…
Will it depends on where you live on if those numbers make you rich. New york –No, kansas—yes.
its kinda funny watch it….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nS4WMJR_JZs
Lexus are so great, I got a roadster and I like it more than my previous Benz and BMW
id way rather have a good styled vehicle that handles well, and is powerfull, than some lexus with its useless gadgets that are for old people who shouldn’t be on the road. & when the hell is lexus going to restyle the sc430? its been forever and it is still ugly as ever
Although i’m not a big fan of Lexus (still can’t get over the expensive Toyota feeling), it really has being quite an amaing success. And no matter how much we car lovers here bag Lexus, the truth is many people out there who have a life away from forum but knows nothing about cars will keep buying Lexus, because it looks decent, has amazing reliability and is quite comfy for daily commute. Not to mention, many people (women esp in their Lexus RX) don’t realise Lexus is just an expensive Toyota
Considering the audience it is not surprising. Wealthy does not mean car enthusiast. This would explain Lexus topping MB.
Surveys of this type are completely irrelevant, IMO, because most people are not car enthusiasts and thus their opinions should not count for someone who is into cars. If Joe Shmo loves his Lexus to go the Spa for a facial and does not even care for the driving experience, why should his opinion affect mine?
There is a survey and marketing campaign for everyones taste. Just enjoy what you decide is best for you. I personally do not need any survey to tell me what car style I prefer, what driving dynamics I enjoy, what price I can afford and specially what brand I am loyal to (or not).
JVC - sure, most people in this survey are not car enthusiasts but it would be a mistake to think that only car enthusiasts buy nice cars.
Think about all the doctors, dentists, businessmen etc. that don’t know a thing about cars but want to buy ’something nice.’ These are the people the luxury car companies often target, not nutters like us, who are interested in the shift times of the latest gearboxes.
It might seem weird, but for a lot of Lexus buyers the after sales service is more important than the car itself. I have an rich aunt, for example, that has a Lexus ES300 and her favorite thing about it is to get the free car washes from the dealer. Also, her friends all drive Lexus after previously driving Mercedes/BMW but switched because they found the cars unreliable.
Those figures are fairly small. You can pretty much assume most of those Porsche owners lease their cars. As for Lexus being runner up, thats just strange. Who does the analysis on these reports??
Ryan
I dont know what you guys are talking about if you make 349,000 a year, and have net worth of around 3 million you are rich. This puts you in the top 1 percent of all americans and you can afford a porsche.