Since the earliest days of motoring, European and American automobiles reflected deeply entrenched differences in their respective societies. In the United States, cars were commodities; everybody drove a car, whether it was a Model T or a Fleetwood. By the midpoint of the last century the automobile was redefining American culture. It was the dynamo that powered the American Dream and literally reshaped the landscape, as farmlands and forests were transformed into highways and suburbs.

In Europe, motoring evolved as the preoccupation of the elite who could afford it. Sports-car racing was on a par with polo and foxhunting. And on public roads, where there were no speed limits, the leitmotif was survival of the fittest. But if, for most Americans, the notion of European-style motoring evoked sports cars screaming along the Mille Miglia or Spa, it was the sedans, including the ones on these pages, that, during their eras, epitomized the priorities of the Old World.

In 1972, Mercedes introduced a new flagship and a new naming system that the carmaker eventually would apply to every model in its lineup. The S-Class designation (S for super) was a nomenclature much coveted by Germany’s manager class, who viewed the car as a monument to the country’s Wirtschaftswunder ("economic miracle," referring to Germany’s postwar recovery). The new model was slightly wider, lower, and longer than the one it replaced.

The car also incorporated innovative technology to improve handling, including a new double-wishbone front-suspension design. More importantly, the S-Class awakened the public to new criteria for safety: The car’s fuel tank was moved back so that it sat above the rear axle, farther from the point of impact in a head-on collision; the dashboard was heavily padded; the dashboard controls were recessed; and the steering column was collapsible.

The most notable of the original S series was the high-performance, limited-production 450 SEL 6.9, which Mercedes introduced in 1975. The 450 featured a hydropneumatic suspension with a level-control system that offered superior handling. Given that the car had a top speed of 140 mph, such a feature was, in retrospect, a wise addition.

In the 1970s Aston Martin was desperate. It was enduring severe financial pressure, and it needed to generate revenue in the worst way. The company’s solution was the Lagonda, a sedan that was an extreme interpretation of the "folded paper" style of that era.

Then, as now, car enthusiasts were fiercely divided on the Lagonda’s aesthetic value. Nonetheless, as soon as it was introduced, it drew in hundreds of deposits from potential customers and boosted Aston Martin’s cash reserves. A total of 645 cars were produced, by hand, in its 12-year production run.

During its run, the Lagonda was among the world’s most expensive sedans. The only other production cars to approach the Lagonda’s lofty price were the Rolls-Royce Silver Spirit/Silver Spur and the Bentley Mulsanne.

Today, Aston Martin spokespeople are reluctant—if not forbidden—to speak the Lagonda’s name, perhaps because it remains such a polarizing design.

For much of the last century, about the only thing that distinguished a Rolls-Royce from a Bentley was the flying lady—Winged Victory—on the former and the winged B on the latter. While Rolls owned Bentley, this detail bespoke the gulf between their patrons: one contingent drove a Bentley, while the other was chauffeured in a Rolls-Royce.

Bentley faithful suffered further indignation in 1955, when the Bentley R-Type was replaced by the Bentley S-Type, which was little more than a dressed-down Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud, with less expensive wood trim and standard carpeting instead of lamb’s wool. By 1980, Bentleys accounted for only 4 percent of the parent company’s total production. This, however, was about to change.

Though it was impossible, given Bentley’s limited resources, to compete with Rolls-Royce by making a finer car, for a reasonable amount of money it could make the world’s next-finest car faster. Thus, in 1982, the Bentley Mulsanne Turbo was born. For the first time in decades, buyers could draw a clear distinction between a Rolls-Royce and a Bentley, and they demonstrated a clear preference for the latter. This trend continued into the late 1990s, when Bentley was outselling Rolls three to one.

The classic Jaguar XJ sedan was one of the most successful cars produced in England. It was introduced in 1968 and remained in production until 1987. Along the way it was also known as the XJ6, XJ6C, XJ6L, XJ12, XJ12C, and XJ12L. As any Jaguar buff will elucidate, "XJ" derived from internal Jaguar project code and stood for Experimental Jaguar, while the 6 or 12 indicated the number of cylinders in the motor. As for the Cs, those were short-wheelbase coupes, and the Ls were long-wheelbase sedans.

An upmarket version was sold under the Daimler brand and called the Daimler Sovereign. The car was launched in October 1969, in a series of television advertisements featuring Jaguar chairman Sir William Lyons. The Daimler was very much a product of the British class system. It was said the Daimler remained in production to give British managing directors the option of buying an automobile more expensive than the XJ6, thereby freeing midlevel executives to own a Jaguar without offending their bosses.