What luxury SUVs is the best?

The concept of a modern luxury vehicle has definitely changed in recent times. Gone are the days when a “luxury car” meant a big four-door sedan or two-door coupe from the likes of Lincoln or Cadillac. Instead, the majority of today’s so-called luxury vehicles (those with prices over $50, 000) are full-size pickup trucks and SUVs.

Based on a report from U.S.-based, eight of the 10 best-selling new vehicles priced over $50, 000 last year in America were SUVs or trucks. With 25% of its sales coming from versions with prices above $50, 000, the Ford F Series was the best-selling luxury vehicle — truck, SUV or car — in 2014. Only the BMW 5 Series and Mercedes-Benz E-Class cracked the top 10 list.

It’s easy to see how a new vehicle that can manage to play a practical role as a daily commuter, weekend warrior and loaded to the gills with all-leather interiors, full-on infotainment, and power-everything, has become so popular with well-off consumers looking for the best of both automotive worlds. But where did this trend of luxury trucks and SUVs come from?

Buyers have been moving from traditional passenger cars to larger, more practical vehicles since the first SUVs arrived in the 1960s, parallel with automakers smelling the allure of higher profits by simply adding luxury features to what were once purely utilitarian vehicles.

Arguably, the first luxury SUV was the 1963 Jeep Wagoneer. With traction at all four wheels, lots of room for passengers and their cargo and higher levels of creature comforts, the Jeep Gladiator truck-based Wagoneer established the template of the modern luxury SUV.

Still, up until the 1980s, the majority of buyers were opting for luxury station wagons, like the Ford Country Squire, as comfy-yet-practical transportation. The majority of contemporary SUVs sold were of the two-door nature, like the full-size truck-based Chevrolet Blazer and Ford Bronco, meant more for the fishing and hunting crowd than suburbanites. However, it wasn’t until Land Rover’s Range Rover (first seen in 1970) adopted a four-door body style in 1981, and added features like leather seats and an automatic transmission in 1984, that the idea of an SUV as a luxury car started to gain traction with the wealthy. And the success of the Range Rover prompted other automakers to capitalize on the soaring popularity of SUVs by offering luxury versions of its mainstream SUV offerings.

In quick succession, we saw gentrified versions of plebeian SUVs like the Ford Expedition-based 1998 Lincoln Navigator and the Chevrolet Tahoe-based Cadillac Escalade the next year. Even the German luxury brands could not resist the lucrative profits of the luxury SUV segment. Mercedes-Benz launched its M-Class in 1997, with the first BMW X5 arriving two years later.