Affordable luxury cars are one of those pleasing quirks thrown up by a market where the machinations of supply and demand go hand in hand with ruthless product replenishment and a culture that errs toward disposability. As we all know, it's the sort of perfect storm which delivers what was once a six-figure saloon into the hands of mere mortals - and that's what we're celebrating this week: the barge-tastic prospect of a £10k luxury car.
Now the definition of luxury is a slightly tricky one - after all, what your postman considers luxurious is probably going to differ from what the Duke of Edinburgh thinks - but we'll try to stick to the commonly held view of these things and (as ever) you can be the judge of where we end up. Needless to say the real victory here is unearthing something which was previously only available to the few, and could now said to be firmly on the shopping list of the proletariat.
Why £10k? Well, true enough you could go even cheaper - but we're really only interested in genuinely usable cars with bags of life left in them. While the prospect of a Roller with weeds growing under it is not without its own degree of fascination, we're not discussing project cars here or even investment opportunities. We're talking about accessing the lap of luxury for the sort of money that Dacia charges for a mid-spec Sandero. To the classifieds...
There are a lot of things that industrial Britain does well, but perhaps our greatest achievement - or at least it's going to be for this feature - is having produced so many great luxury saloons for so long. Stretching back to Racing Pete's youth, when the family gathered around the wireless of an evening, good ol' Blighty could be relied upon to combine luxury, performance and subdued confidence in a four-door. It still does to this day.
One other thing a great British barge does, more often than not, is depreciate. Often their worth doesn't so much plummet as simply vanish from existence like Prince Andrew, only to reappear at a much lower ebb some years down the line. Just a decade ago this Jaguar XJ would have surely cost its first owner almost £100k, yet here it is languishing with a mere four-figure price tag.
Part of that is clearly due to its hefty 104,000 miles, but where better to rack up the distance? At no point in the XJ's history has the model been more relevant, talented or desirable as the X351. This is the 5.0-litre Portfolio, essentially the unsupercharged XJR V8, good for 385hp and preferable to the V6 that replaced it. I still think this is one of the best pieces of contemporary saloon design, showed off with real distinction here in dark red with polished 20-inch wheels. The interior is maybe not quite so agreeable, but who cares? It's grace, space and pace - you knew it was coming it some point - done as well as Jaguar as ever done it, and maybe ever will. For £9,995. You can post the winner's trophy, lads.
MB
Okay, second go at this (thank you to everyone who highlighted issues with previous ad). I've stuck with Mercedes-Benz, but have opted to play it a little more humble with an S320 from 1995. Not that anyone would ever consider the W140 humble. Built like a tank and endowed with much the same presence, the car was conceived in wild eighties boom and then launched in gloomy early nineties bust.
Of course it was intended to be a technological dreadnought, equally at home on Wall Street or wafting up the tree-lined driveway of a private estate, and hummed to the tune of tiny electric motors doing your bidding. Famously, Mercedes delayed the launch so it could design, develop and incorporate a V12 engine that would compete with the E32 generation 7 Series. Over-engineered? Just a bit.
Unsurprisingly this car doesn't get the 6.0-litre M120 unit - but the naturally-aspirated 3.2-litre six-cylinder engine is a worthy substitute, especially when it's only had 34k cycled through it. Those are Japanese miles, too, which means that the car is said to be free from the tin worm which can typically be found chowing down on even well-kept W140s. Registered in the UK since 2016 and with a service to come before sale, the car is up for £8,995.
SL
What says luxury, class and decorum better than a Bentley? That's right, nothing. Not one of those nouveau riche, VW-era cars, either - though early Flying Spurs are close to this threshold - but a proper double-breasted suit of a Bentley: the Turbo.
That's right, this rippling hunk of opulence can be yours for the price of a Kia Picanto. And while this might lack the greater cachet of the Turbo R - which we're told the owner has now moved onto - look at what you're getting for £9,995: the iconic six-and-three-quarter-litre V8, lustrous claret coachwork and red-piped magnolia leather, just for starters. Plus, of course, the unmatched, traditional Bentley experience: peerless ride comfort with those giant rubber rings at each corner, torque to last a lifetime, and the sense of wellbeing that comes with a cabin of such rich and luxurious materials.
And the best bit? Nobody will know it was £10,000. Everyone assumes an old BMW or Mercedes might be cheap, but the landed gentry vibe of a classic Bentley means it'll never be guessed just how little it cost. In fact, anybody who does find out will probably be more shocked at how quickly £10k was spent again in keeping it on the road - best of British to you.
MD
You want luxury? Lexus was founded by the world's largest car manufacturer on the premise that it would deliver that quality without compromise. Famously the first LS was created without time or budgetary constraint; it simply had to surpass its rivals in a number of key areas. It achieved this by deploying Toyota's unmatched superiority in two spheres: manpower and attention to detail. The LS 400 was the result of its labours - subjectively imperfect, but singularly immaculate, too.
Subsequent generations have not particularly built on the charm (the one thing Toyota couldn't benchmark) yet they have sought to maintain the consistency elsewhere - notably in technical excellence. The fourth generation LS 460 earned a new 4.6-litre naturally-aspirated V8 twinned with the first production eight-speed automatic. It also got Adaptive Variable Suspension and was festooned with the sort of pioneering safety tech which has since become commonplace in the industry.
For £10k you can have a SE-L with less than 100k on the clock - meaning it's hardly broken a sweat - and only two owners. Sure, the LS is on the anonymous side, but you're still getting a V8-powered, sub 6-second-to-60mph, rear-drive luxury saloon for a fraction of what it cost brand-new. Or for its maker to painstakingly develop.
NC
In case anyone hadn't noticed, 'luxury car' is not synonymous with 'saloons'. Land Rover has been merrily encroaching on the term for decades with its finest ever (sorry Defender) motor vehicle: the Range Rover. All the attributes we associate with used prestige cars - conspicuous opulence, enormous value for money, huge bork potential - are all present and current in the mighty Range.
This is not just any Range Rover, either, but perhaps the greatest P38 Range Rover you ever did see. Not only are the 1990s back in fashion - and the P38 couldn't be more 1990s if it were raising a Tamgotchi - this seems far from your average Range Rover disaster waiting to happen. Originally sold new in Japan, it's said to have been meticulously cared for over two decades with one owner before reaching the UK last October.
The mileage is low, the MOT spotless and the condition seemingly excellent; obviously one of these Range Rovers will always be something of a risk (roughly equivalent to running across the M25 at midday) but there's a lot here to be reassured by. And it would be a stretch, Lexus aside, to call any of these six a safe bet anyway. So as the embodiment of 1990s' swag myself, the old Range should suit me down to the ground - and doesn't Woodcote Green look fantastic?
PD
Deride me as blind if you must, but I've become a big fan of the Bangle-era BMWs. I think his Z4 M Coupe is drop-dead gorgeous, his E60 M5 looks brilliantly purposeful and his 7 Series, well, I think it looks properly gangster. That's spec-dependant, of course, but with big rims and thumping great V8 under the bonnet, it's fit for Tupac - were he to have made it into the noughties.
And trust me, Tupac knew luxury, which is what the 7 Series is all about. Sure, I could have rounded out this weekend's Six of the Best with an Audi A8 (which is luxurious in a way that Pete's P38 Range Rover could barely conceive) but Ingolstadt's limo is Johnny-come-lately compared to BMWs famed autocrat carrier.
The E65 is a sweet mix of analogue and digital in the cabin, too. The car's iDrive isn't quite the all-singing affair that you'd find in today's 7 Series, althoug apparently everything works as it should and the 20-inch deep dish rims (see, gangster), cream interior leather and exterior paint all look in good nick. Fingers crossed the 367hp, 4.8-litre motor is similarly healthy; 110,000 miles is nothing for a big-capacity atmospheric lump. You'll even have a cool grand for fuel...
SS
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