Living Large on Smaller Budget

The right luxury cars at the right prices.

BY JOHN PEARLEY HUFFMAN
November 2008

Luxury is a malleable concept. After all, the details that impressed back in the Seventies and Eighties—tufted leather seats, digital dashboards, vinyl roofs, and opera windows—have become ironic jokes. But two aspects of luxury never go out of style: quality and performance. And in a worldwide economy that’s stutter-stepping around the abyss of a recession, it’s possible to get both for a low price. Ridiculously low.

The trick for those lucky enough to be prosperous in perilous times is to find products that fulfill their appetites without rubbing it in the unwashed faces of the downtrodden hoi polloi. Showing up for dinner at Ruth’s Chris in a block-long luxury flagship may have been the dream way back in 2007, but right now the smart money is staying with the premium brands, but going mid-size and ordering the New York strip at Outback. As to big V-8s, forget ‘em. No one with half a brain believes the current drop in oil prices will last, and today’s sixes are plenty good anyhow. There are bargains to be had. For you surviving plutocrats out there, here are five of the best.

2009 BMW 535i

Living large on a smaller budget: The right luxury cars at the right prices.

The new-in-2008 BMW 535i is simply the best six-cylinder 5-series ever built and yes, that includes a couple of M5s. And all that goodness is directly attributable to the 300-hp, twin-turbocharged, direct-injected, 3.0-liter inline six under the 535i’s hood.

Of course this is the same turbo six used in the smaller 335i sedan, and it pulls from just off idle to redline with such luscious and velvety smoothness that it could have been engineered by Nestlé. It’s also wicked quick, ripping to 60 mph in just 5.4 seconds when this magazine tested an automatic, all-wheel-drive 535xi. There’s no reason to think that a rear-driven 535i wouldn’t easily match the 360-hp, V-8–powered 550i’s 5.2-second blitz from 0 to 60, even given less traction at launch.

Now here’s the kicker: The 535i’s $51,625 base price is a staggering $9200 cheaper than the 550i’s—and the 550i doesn’t include much more standard equipment. Meanwhile, the EPA rates the six’s fuel mileage at 17 mpg in the city and an excellent 26 on the highway. This one’s on the short list for world’s best overall car.

Ideal Buyer: Tenured MIT physics professor looking to blow some of his MacArthur Fellowship genius grant on something inconspicuous.

2009 Hyundai Genesis

Living large on a smaller budget: The right luxury cars at the right prices.

Drive the new Hyundai Genesis while blindfolded—go ahead, the first 30 feet are fun—and you’d swear it was a new Lexus you’d just run into that telephone pole. The eerie silence, the slightly numb steering, the floating-on-cash suspension movements, all seem to have been lifted straight from Lexus’s Big Book of Disengaged Driving Sensations. Remove the blindfold and the Genesis kind of looks like a Lexus, too. Take a whiff and it. . . okay, it smells like a Hyundai.

But once past that olfactory disappointment, the Genesis is impressive in a staggering number of ways. However, the way it’s most impressive is price. Although it’s only 2.1 inches shorter than a Lexus LS460, the rear-drive, 290-hp, 3.8-liter V-6–powered Genesis’s base price of $33,300 is actually $2145 cheaper than that of Lexus’s front-drive ES350. Opt for the 368-hp, 4.6-liter V-8 in the Genesis, and you’ll surpass the Lexus by less than $3000. If you’re buying your next luxury car on a dollar-per-square-inch basis, you’ll want to shop Hyundai.

Of course, Hyundai’s complete lack of prestige may hinder some buyers. But others may think that only makes the car more attractive.

Ideal Buyer: Lottery winner trying to live anonymously.

2009 Infiniti M35

Living large on a smaller budget: The right luxury cars at the right prices.

The Infiniti M35 is a car for connoisseurs; an assembly of finely tuned parts that delivers a sublime driving experience without any flashy spoilers, wings, or decorative tape. It’s not the sort of car that impresses everybody, but it does impress the right somebodies.

Built around Nissan’s FM architecture that puts the engine behind the front axle line, the first advantage the M35 has over its V-8–powered M45 brother is a slightly lighter curb weight and slightly less of that weight over the front wheels. That leads to a lighter steering feel, even if there isn’t much difference in the way the car sticks on a skidpad or caroms through slalom cones.

The M35’s second advantage is that it’s powered by a 3.5-liter version of Nissan’s justly famed VQ engine family, rated at 303 hp. The M45’s 4.5-liter V-8 offers only 23 more horses, and the M35’s powerplant never feels strained or compromised in any way, and boasts an eager personality missing in many other luxury V-6s.

But the big advantage here is price, with the 2009 M35 starting at $46,615 and going up only modestly when options like the “Sport” package are ordered—the M45 starts at $52,965. For people who know how well the 35 drives, that it does so at a keen price makes it just that much more impressive.

Ideal Buyer: The guy who sets low times at the local gymkhana and also has a thriving dental practice

2009 Jaguar XF

Living large on a smaller budget: The right luxury cars at the right prices.

Jaguar’s XF sedan is the first new Jaguar to look really “new” since the 1961 E-type. There’s nothing about this wedge-shaped car that harkens back to some mystical moment in Jag’s past, there are no sops to tradition in any of its lines, and while there’s still plenty of mouth-watering wood and aromatic leather inside, that goofball J-shifter is finally gone to be replaced by the volume knob off the boombox you had in college.

All XFs sold in America are powered by a 4.2-liter V-8 in either naturally aspirated 300-hp or supercharged 420-hp form. There’s no denying that the blower amps up the action, but the unforced induction is wholly adequate with its sporting nature supported by an excellent, paddle-shiftable six-speed automatic transmission. The suspension meanwhile is both expectedly supple in ride and surprisingly tenacious in corners.

Finally, skipping the blower saves a buyer between $14,500 and $8,500, depending on how the XF is ordered (base price is $49,975). You can buy a lot of books about Jaguar’s glorious past with $14,500.

Ideal Buyer: Someone who sold her mortgage brokerage in late 2006.

2009 Mercedes-Benz GL320 BlueTec

Living large on a smaller budget: The right luxury cars at the right prices.

The only politically correct Chevy Suburban around today is the one carrying Barack Obama’s security detail. Otherwise, full-size SUVs are largely vehicular lepers. Except, of course, for Mercedes-Benz’s excellent GL320 BlueTec, which combines the utility of a Cadillac Escalade with the restrained luxury of Mercedes and an easygoing 3.0-liter V-6 turbo-diesel engine.

The all-wheel-drive GL320 is huge and, at first glance, the 210-hp turbo-diesel doesn’t seem like much to haul around its nearly 5600 pounds. But that engine produces an outstanding 398 lb-ft of torque and Mercedes’s seven-speed automatic transmission does a superlative job of keeping the engine in the meat of its power band. And the EPA-rated 17 mpg in the city and 23 on the highway is astonishing for a beast this big. Sure, it’s not cheap to buy, with a $59,075 base price, but at least it should be relatively cheap to operate.

How well does it drive? We clocked 0-to-60 time of 8.6 seconds in our long-term 2008 GL320, which isn’t bad. And it’s good enough for a GL320 to be newly crowned F1 World Champion Lewis Hamilton’s daily driver.

Ideal Buyer: Anyone with a family so huge, they have their own show on TLC.