Section Contents:- Large family cars grew in size, being offered with larger engines (including V6 units, considered premium in Europe) and higher equipment levels, taking over the role of less premium executive cars due to still lower prices.(More...)
- The term was coined in the 1960s to describe cars targeted at successful professionals and middle to senior managers, often as a company car but retaining enough performance and comfort to be desirable in their own right.(More...)
Large family cars grew in size, being offered with larger engines (including V6 units, considered premium in Europe) and higher equipment levels, taking over the role of less premium executive cars due to still lower prices. The executive cars from mainstream manufacturers, such as Opel Omega and Ford Scorpio fell victim to this trend, with the remaining models being positioned mostly as premium cars and coming from brands specializing in larger/more expensive vehicles.
[1] Executive car is a British term that refers to a cars size and is used to describe an automobile larger than a large family car.
[1] A saloon car larger and/or more expensive than an executive car would be classified as a luxury car in Europe. In Germany, those cars are referred to as Oberklasse ("upper class"), or "F-Klasse".
[1] In general, executive cars are 4-door saloons. Some manufacturers seek to differentiate their offerings by offering fitting them with spacious station wagon/estate variants, or with 5-door liftback bodies - in particular Rover, Saab, and Renault have been known to prefer such body styles, with Ford also offering such models through the 1990s. Until the 1990s, some models were also available as 2-door coup"s, though such models are often also categorized as sports cars.
[1] Notable exceptions are French manufacturers, Citro"n, Peugeot and Renault, who continue to offer executive cars despite having a lineup of vehicles starting with economy city cars and not being considered premium brands. A growing number of Asian manufacturers started offering executive cars, though some of them backed off facing rather slow sales.
[1] While executive cars were quite popular in Europe in the beginning of the 1970s, with most major manufacturers and brands having an entry in this category, the fuel crises hampered their sales. Some models did not achieve sales volume that would justify their development costs and have been cancelled without replacements.
[1] The definitive Ford executive car of the 1970s and 80s was the Granada. Larger Triumphs such as the 2000 and 2500 firmly fitted into this category, as did some of the larger Vauxhall models from the VX4/90 and Ventora through to the Carlton.
[1] Gradually, the executive cars became more premium vehicles, with basic versions with less equipment and smaller engines disappearing from the market. Another problem was steep depreciation, especially concerning cars with less favorable image.
[1] Compact executive car is a mainly British car classification term applied to premium cars smaller than executive cars. Dimensionally, these vehicles are often shorter than large family cars, and the rear leg room and boot/trunk size is smaller to accommodate larger engines. While they offer the buyer less equipment, inner room or engine for the money, the material and building quality is higher and the nameplate itself is part of the value proposition.
[2] Compact executive cars are usually available in saloon, estate, coup" and cabriolet body styles. This market segment is fairly new, pioneered by the BMW 3 Series, which found consumer demand for a small but upscale sedan in the late 1970s, as well as Volvo.
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The term was coined in the 1960s to describe cars targeted at successful professionals and middle to senior managers, often as a company car but retaining enough performance and comfort to be desirable in their own right. Ford identified some of the higher-spec Cortina models as Executives, the 1600E Mk2 becoming something of a cult car in later years for its blend of performance and comparative luxury.
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