Please help find a gently-used, luxury-ish sedan.

January 25, 2009 9:27 PM

Please help find a gently-used, luxury-ish sedan.

My girlfriend’s stepmother is in the market for a new used car. I have been recruited to help but I am kind of at a loss. The cars that she says that she likes are the Chrysler 300, Cadillacs, and Lexus. She wants to buy a 2007 or 2008 with warranty and not many more than 19,000 miles. Her budget is roughly $20,000. What she wants is a four door sedan with ideally leather seats, heated seats, wood trim, and built in navigation (this last one is very optional). In the research that I’ve done there seems to be a lot of Chrysler 300s in this range. There are a few Cadillac CTS and no Lexus (Lexi?). She currently drives a VW bug but says that she is now at that age, early sixties, where she wants something more comfortable and maybe a little fancier. I’m wondering what other cars that you know of that fit these criteria that she isn’t thinking of. All of the Acuras and Infinities also seem to cost too much but there must be other luxury-ish 4 door sedans that we aren’t thinking of. She lives and wants to buy in the Albuquerque area if that makes a difference. One of the problems for me to wrap my brain around is for someone to want to go from a car the size of a bug to a behemoth Cadillac. Are there some nice cars (leather, wood trim, etc) that are in between these two sizes that also fit in this price range? I think most of the European cars are out just because of cost of upkeep (unless you can make a great argument otherwise). What are we missing? Your personal anecdotes are extremely welcome.

posted by fieldtrip to shopping (8 comments total)

Using Edmunds, I came up with this list, all of them 2007, all of them around 20 grand:

Audi A4*
BMW 328*
Cadillac CTS
Jaguar X-Type
Mercedes Benz C-Class (230)*
Lexus ES 350
Saab 9-5
Toyota Avalon
Volvo S60
Volvo S80

* Technically classified as compact executive, however they aren't small.

Now for the great argument otherwise: BMW, Audi, Mercedes all have 4 year, 50,000 mile warranties, and if she bought a certified used car, it would extend to 6 years, 100,000 miles. BMW (and maybe the rest) have maintenance covered under the warrantee too; that's oil changes, air filters, brakes, wipers, and etc. all free. Furthermore, reliability is on par or beating Japanese cars these days too.

The thing to do would be to have her test drive them all. With cars on paper, you can only go so far. When I test drove a range of similarly priced and equipped cars, they all seemed the same. That is, until I drove the one I bought, which really stood out.
posted by luckypozzo at 10:31 PM on January 25

A suped-up Toyota Camry or Nissan Altima might fit the bill as well, and they are very comfortable and very reliable.
posted by Vindaloo at 7:20 AM on January 26

luckypozzo: I appreciate the list from Edmunds and your argument for consideration of European models. I'm wondering if that list, though, doesn't fit the roughly 20K mileage criteria...for instance I can't find any Lexus in the mileage/year price range.

Regarding the European reliability where are you getting your reliability figures? I have always seen (Consumer Reports I think and other places ((can't search right now)) that Toyota and Honda beat out everyone with Subaru and all the luxury Japanese brands (Acura, Infiniti, Lexus) close behind.

Thanks for the help.
posted by fieldtrip at 8:20 AM on January 26

you need to have her test drive a gently-driven, loaded 5series bmw. it's gonna be a couple years old and it's gonna have more miles than she desires but it's going to be the exact right vehicle for her and she is going to love it. look for something like a 525.
posted by krautland at 8:42 AM on January 26

Youre going to have a hard time finding a 2007 with less than 20k miles. Most people drive 12-15k annually. 2007 cars were sold in 2006, three years ago. You might have better luck with 2008, but I suggest being more flexible with miles, especially if they are highway miles. Cars from 2008 retain their value pretty well. Youre not getting the deep discount you think youre going to get, unless it has a shitload of miles.

You can probably squeeze in a low-end Lexus with your criteria, but if you ignore the chrome and other trivial luxury items then its really just a Camry in disguise. You can get a new 2009 Camry for that kind of money. No worries about a used product then. Its just as "luxury" as a Chrysler 300 imho.
posted by damn dirty ape at 9:37 AM on January 26

I'm not shilling here, but my buddy just bought a ridiculously awesome BMW M3 via Autotrader.com for what he says is a great price (and he knows what he's talking about). I've never used the site but he seems to have had gotten good results with it.
posted by exhilaration at 1:45 PM on January 26

oh, it's a used M3, 2005 I think.
posted by exhilaration at 1:47 PM on January 26

I didn't look at any mileage, I just made the list based on price.

J.D. Power: BMW, Jaguar, Cadillac, Honda, Toyota, all equal. (Although that chart is a little vague.) Incidentally, recent figures are showing Ford's reliability is as good as Honda, Toyota. But there are always worries when buying used, which is why I like the long warranties of the Euros. But in the luxury end of the market, they will probably all offer something similar. Especially if she buys certified, which I recommend.

Another good point I forgot to mention is resale value. The European cars hold theirs much better (especially against the American cars).

But there are plenty of reasons to buy a Cadillac too, don't get me wrong. In many ways, ithe CTS is on par with the Europeans. In the end, what matters is what she likes.

Again, she should test drive as many cars as she can. I think people don't do this enough. This is the best way for her to compare the cars side-by-side, to see which ones were the most fun, and so on. Test drive, test drive, test drive.

Personally, I'll recommend the BMW. Highest resale, highest reliability in class, great gas milage, rear wheel drive, and fantastic to drive. You may think it can't be much better than, say, oh I dunno, a Camry or an Altima, to pick a few at random. You would be dead wrong. They are on a higher plane of existence. They make driving a smile-inducing joyous celebration. A 5-Series would be great, but maybe too pricey. An M3, well, it's a coupe, it's a sports car, and it's too pricey -- amazing, also. Utterly. But the 3-Series might fit her budget.
posted by luckypozzo at 4:57 PM on January 26