For what it's worth, the Camry (an excellent car) is front wheel drive and many luxury cars are rear or all wheel drive. This makes a difference in driving dynamics.
Fun thing is that rear wheel drive is cheaper, and harder to drive ... and yet you're right about the luxury versions using that.
Almost everybody agrees they're harder to drive, and that the drivetrain is much cheaper (because the driven wheels do not rotate, so the mechanics are incredibly simpler)
And you can say, that makes it less likely to break. Technically true, but this is not something that breaks often, nor can you reasonably expect it to break (essentially only under enough mechanical stress to be bending/breaking the axle (a thick all-metal pipe), and at that point I guarantee this won't be the worst problem you have). It's just not the weak point of any car, so it won't ever make the difference between a car that keeps driving and one that does not.
Which makes this weird, because you're paying a lot more for an objectively worse product, which causes more mistakes in driving and is therefore more dangerous, for some bragging rights. I'm probably a geek because this just seems incredibly stupid to me.
Sweet deal for the manufacturers though: charge a lot more for a much cheaper product that's also simpler to design.
