76% of drivers say luxury badges aren’t worth it anymore—here’s what they want instead

There was a time when the luxury car experience was inseparable from the badge on the hood. If you wanted rich leather upholstery and cutting-edge tech (like CD players and heated seats back in the day), you paid a prestige tax to a handful of legacy brands. In that landscape, the logo was a status symbol that told your friends, neighbors, and colleagues you’d arrived.