The Most Ordinary Cars Repackaged For Luxury Chauffeurs

0 Comments | 24 Apr 2024

Executive passengers accept no imitations when it comes to the luxury chauffeur experience, and the types of cars that make up the fleet of the latter are carefully chosen to provide a unique experience.

The feel, performance and style of a high-end Mercedes Benz or Range Rover have become synonymous with luxury, and passengers rightfully expect the very best when they see either badge parked and ready to take them to their destination.

By contrast, executive passengers and chauffeurs are neither fooled nor impressed by attempts to repackage quite ordinary cars as luxury items. Here are the most infamous examples.

Vauxhall Signum

Essentially a rebadged Vauxhall Vectra estate, the Signum was meant to be a tentative step into the luxury market for a manufacturer somewhat infamous for low prices and relatively low quality.

Unlike the Citroen C6 or the Volkswagen Phaeton, which could have been successful cars with different branding, the Signum baffled consumers, failed to create a niche for oxymoronic lower-cost luxury and disappeared alongside the Vectra in 2008.

Infiniti M/Q Series

Creating a luxury car brand is a popular way to get around the issue that Vauxhall, Citroen and Volkswagen had, and after Honda became phenomenally successful with its Acura luxury car brand, two of its biggest Japanese rivals followed suit.

However, whilst Toyota’s Lexus marque was phenomenally successful at distancing itself from the everyday car image of its parent company, Nissan’s Infiniti failed to make an impact, particularly with its flagship M/Q series of luxury saloons.

Part of the problem is that they were based heavily on the Nissan Cedric and Gloria models, which not only had rather unfortunate names but also did not have particularly good reputations as cars. 

By the 2020s, Infiniti had withdrawn from practically every market outside of China.

Jaguar X-Type

Arguably the most famous example of a distinctly ordinary car repackaged in an attempt to fool discerning luxury customers, the Jaguar X-Type saloon launched in 2001 was, behind the leaping cat badge, radiator grille and nostalgia-tinged body, a Ford Mondeo saloon.Whilst popular with some customers, most notably the late Queen Elizabeth II, most people saw it and opted for either a C-class Mercedes-Benz or bought a top-of-the-range Ford Mondeo instead, as whilst the latter is not a luxury car at all, it was significantly cheaper than the X-Type for the same quality.