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Comment by beedogs | Hacker News Reader

Never thought I'd see the same lame-brained arguments here that I saw on the reddit thread about this.

The "luxury" class of cars is pretty narrowly defined and includes the A8 and the BMW 7 series. (No, it doesn't include the 3 or the 5, or the A6.)

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I have to disagree with you; the A8, S, and 7er are "large luxury" class cars. The A6 and 5er are "midsize luxury" and the A4 / 3 are "entry luxury." One should also consider the Lexus LS, GS, GX, and LX, an occasional Cadillac, the Toyota Land Cruiser, a variety of Jaguars and Range Rovers, and on and on. It's dishonest to assert that Tesla is taking 8.4% of the entire "luxury market" and then sneak in with the next breath that the luxury market includes only flagship sedans.

Am I understanding correctly? You are putting audi A4/3($27K MSRP) into the same class as Jaguar(starts at $47K) and Range Rovers ($83K MSRP)? I think Tesla with it's price tag should go into a separate category from audi a4,3...

Edit: According to wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Car_classification#USA.2C_UK_a...) - the British English "Luxury Car" is represented by: Audi A8, BMW 7 Series, Jaguar XJ, Maserati Quattroporte, Mercedes S-Class.

Yes, the US taxonomy includes a great swath of vehicles in the "luxury" main category, even though many of them are not directly comparable. For example, the US market would consider the Audi A3/A4 to be the luxury versions of the VW Rabbit/GTI and Passat, and generally the trim levels available in the US reinforce this: it is very unusual to see in the States any Audi with cloth seats, but not uncommon in Europe.

Hardly any Americans would place a BMW 550i in the "non-luxury" group, least of all BMW USA. It isn't the largest or most feature-jammed car in the fleet, but to Americans it is absolutely a luxury car.

This is largely due to the manufacturers. "Americans" don't decide that a 5-series is luxury, it's the manufacturers. You can't buy a BMW or Mercedes without all of the bells an whistles. You can't even buy many of the cheaper cars (i.e. A-Class) from those manufacturers in the US.

It is a very broad class. It literally divides vehicles into luxury and non-luxury, so we shouldn't expect it to be limited to a small number of cars.

I would put the RS versions of the 5 & 6 in luxury and probably all the RS sort of qualify as would some of the S models (not the S Line thats just trim)

If you call A6 and 5-series luxury cars then half of Germany / northern Europe are driving luxury cars, that is by definition not luxury. Those are called "upper midrange" or "premium".

The cheaper trim levels and options packages are not available Stateside.

I'd like to join in on this game. How about this for an idea:

I disagree with both of you. Your categories are all are artificial and for people with "new money". It's a concern for those who seek to differentiate themselves from the rest the middle class by burning cash on these silly toys. Those with true wealth find this mundane and even distasteful.

Given what the original report actually says, your answer might be a tad bit more lame-brained than the person you are responding to.

"PEV[1] sales, while not matching up with original sales targets laid out by some auto manufacturers, have been strong for a new entrant in a market that has been dominated by internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEs) for a century. Through their first 30 months in the marketplace (2011-2013), sales of PEVs have been more than double the sales of hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) in their first years in the U.S. market (2000-2002) and the sales continue to grow—June 2013 saw the strongest PEV sales numbers yet, and more than 110,000 units have been sold to date. In the luxury segment, Tesla’s Model S has captured 8.4 percent of the market in the first six months of 2013."

So, the 8.4% is actually not "luxury" class cars at all. It is a subset.

1) plug-in electric vehicles

Never thought I'd see the same lame-brained arguments here that I saw on the reddit thread about this.

The overlap between the two communities is probably larger than you want to believe.

In that case the Tesla isnt a luxury car either because it competes with the likes of 5 and 6 Series BMW and Audi A5/A6. It clearly is not an A8, 7 series or S Class rival.

Model S seems to rival both the 5er and 7er in size (btw, seats 7)

I woudl put all the RS Audis into the luxury bracket

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