The personal luxury market expands

The four-seat Thunderbird's sales increases, but the other American auto manufacturers were inexplicably slow to react. Four years into the larger-sized design, GM's Pontiac finally offered the 1962 Grand Prix and Buick its Wildcat, but neither was an attempt to fully replicate the Thunderbird "luxury" and unique design formula.
The breakthrough was 1963, Buick serving up a true "personal luxury car" with its well-received Riviera and Studebaker with the powerful and futuristic Avanti. Where the Grand Prix and Wildcat were little more than trim variations on standard full-size sedans, the Riviera was a striking new design squarely aimed at the four-place sports coupe marketplace,^[5] while the Avanti offered near-GT styling and performance in an American-built car. The Thunderbird had competition.
Within three years GM's Oldsmobile had rolled out an ahead of its time front-wheel drive Toronado and Cadillac reintroduced its exclusive Eldorado as a long-nose, short-tail 2+2 design. With so many "entries in the personal-luxury-car class" ... "to meet this competition, Thunderbird, long predominant in the field", was "sharply restyled and has added a four-door model for the first time."^[6] Other personal luxury car influenced "sports" models such as Dodge's Charger and American Motors' Marlin,^[6] both full-sized fastbacks based on an intermediate platform, as well as the Mercury Cougar, made their appearance.
In Europe, smaller-bodied and more expensive models such as the BMW CS coupes, Citroën SM, and second-generation Mercedes SL roadsters aimed at the personal luxury car market. Some began to join Mercedes as imports available in America.
By 1967, Motor Trend magazine was able to state: "Motorists of just about every stripe can now find a car with pleasing and distinctive lines, good performance and all the things that go to make a car enjoyable."^[3]
The decline of the muscle car in the early 1970s coincided with a strong upswing in the personal luxury segment, as buyers shifted emphasis from performance to comfort. Models such as the Chevrolet Monte Carlo, Pontiac Grand Prix, Ford Elite, Mercury Marquis, and Chrysler Cordoba racked up impressive sales figures in the mid-1970s with their intimate, luxury-oriented feel, plush interiors, and vintage styling cues like Rolls Royce-style radiator grilles, opera windows, and vinyl roofs.

[edit] Decline

American 'personal luxury' cars grew ever larger, heavier, and more luxurious, and were typically equipped with either a V6 of moderate performance or a massive V8. Poor fuel economy, an industry switch to smaller cars and front-drive architecture, and renewed emphasis on utility over image began to winnow their ranks during the early 1980s.
By the 1990s, younger buyers had moved either toward imported European and Japanese cars or sport utility vehicles. After years of steadily declining sales, the Oldsmobile Toronado was discontinued after 1992, the Lincoln Mark series after 1998, the Buick Riviera after 1999 and the Cadillac Eldorado after 2002. An effort by Ford to reintroduce a small, two-seat, retro-themed Thunderbird in 2002 was discontinued after three years of slow sales. ^[7]
Imported personal luxury cars from European marques such as BMW and Mercedes, and Japanese manufacturers Lexus, Infiniti and Acura, are still marketed in the United States while domestic production of personal luxury resurfaced with the introduction of the Cadillac CTS Coupe for the 2011 model year.^[8]