Hacker News Reader

Comment by SeoxyS | Hacker News Reader

Having a luxury brand and affordable products is not mutually exclusive. Many car manufacturers function this way. Just an example:

Audi cars are nice, but ultimately nothing special. Anybody can own an Audi, because the cheaper ones aren't that expensive. That doesn't prevent them from having the R8, though, which at $130,000 is purely a luxury sports car. Everybody who sees an R8 knows that whoever owns it is probably a millionaire. The fact that there are cheaper Audis doesn't minimize the value of the luxury model. The luxury brand essentially becomes "R8," not "Audi."

Other examples: Mercedes and the McLaren SLR, BMW and the i8 supercar. Ford and the Ford GT. So can it be with Tesla and the Tesla Roadster.

View on HN

>Audi cars are nice, but ultimately nothing special.

I'm not quite sure why you picked BMW and Audi as examples. Everyone knows they're luxury and in the premium class. I'll give you the Ford GT, but as far as Mercedes goes, they're still viewed in the upper-class spectrum in the car world. The C class is currently the cheapest Mercedes and you're lucky to find one for less than $38k on a dealer's lot.

I drove a BMW in highschool^. BMWs and Audis are not "luxury or premium class" cars. Luxury and premium class BMWs and Audis are "luxury and premium class".

^A 3 series almost as old as myself.

The price accessibility of older BMW and Audi cars is convenient, because both brands are still perceived as higher-end, allowing a highschool or college student to buy one for relatively cheap and people will still think "expensive."

I can't tell if you're trolling at this point because this conversation has spun to some irrelevant cost vs brand appearance logic. First of all, we've been talking about new cars and 15 year old models are being brought into the discussion. Secondly, I can buy a 25 year old used Rolls Royce for $20k. Does that mean that Rolls Royce as a brand is not viewed as exclusive and not in the upper echelon of the auto industry?

No, just an off-topic aside directed solely at burgerbrain's comment. I bought a BMW in college for cheap (though a bit more than burgerbrain's).

"allowing a highschool or college student to buy one for relatively cheap and people will still think "expensive."

Indeed, I got mine for 2.5k so that I could pick up "classy chicks". ;)

Surprisingly it worked, to some degree.

>I drove a BMW in highschool^. BMWs and Audis are not "luxury or premium class" cars

You're taking this far out of context and acting as if the current models don't matter just because they were designed one way 15+ years ago. The only "cheap" BMWs are the base model 1 and 3 series. Compare the average new 3 series to a high end model from Toyota, Dodge, Chevy, etc... They don't stand a chance in terms of aesthetics and overall "feel."

In some countries, BMW and Audis are always considered luxury cars (ie. Australia).

A car that sells for 15k pounds in the UK can easily sell for over $50k AUD. (which is 1:1 USD atm)

Reply on news.ycombinator.com