When hearing the term executive car, more often than not one correlates the term with luxury; however, such a notion may or may not be true depending on the country one shall find themself in. For example, if one finds themself in the United Kingdom or Australia, then executive cars are not necessarily considered luxury cars; however, if one finds themselves in the United States, then executive cars are considered luxury. This difference of classification is due to the fact that the importation price of executive cars results in a higher price in some countries - not necessarily because they are more luxurious or bigger. Executive cars were invented in the late 1960's in the United Kingdom in order to give consumers an option of purchasing a car that was bigger than sedans and/or station wagon, yet cheaper than sports cars.

During the 70's and 80's, the popularity of executive cars was at its peak. This popularity saw a massive decline in the 1990's due to ever-increasing gas prices and pollution concerns. Thus, at the turn of the century manufacturers gradually began to add more bells and whistles to executive cars in order to curb financial loss and promote sales. The types of accessories that manufacturers utilized when curbing the declining sales of luxury cars consisted of installing bigger engines, utilizing keyless entries, and employing in-dash computer programs. Since the turn of the century, the types of accessories that manufacturers have implemented are high-tech devices. These devices include satellite navigation and i-pod adaptors. Given this evolution, although executive cars are not necessarily considered luxury cars in the UK, recent history has essentially caused all executive cars to become luxury vehicles.

Throughout the history of executive cars, manufacturers have used many different body styles and options; however, all executive cars have always shared the same basic features. The first quality that executive cars share is that they are designed to provide a consumer with more passenger space than a sports car. The second quality that executive cars share is that most of them have four doors. Although some models vary by having two doors, all executive cars have the same general amount of passenger space. Another quality that executive cars share is that they have been affordably priced. This has enabled consumers to have the option of purchasing an efficient sedan without having to spend too much money. The final option that executive cars have shared is that they all have a base model with a V6 engine. Although the option to purchase models with varying engines has been available to consumers, each manufacturer always has had the base mode which entails 6 cylinders.