It’s one of life’s great curiosities that luxury saloons suffer heavy depreciation from the moment they’re bought new. Makes no sense. Luxury saloons represent the pinnacle of their respective manufacturers’ abilities in terms of technological excellence and brilliance in driving dynamics, but the second-hand market runs scared of them.
Which, of course, is good news for you should the idea of a car designed from the outset to be luxurious appeal more than the notion of a good yet basic car glammed up to mimic the breed.
The Best Used Luxury Saloons: How to Bag a Bargain Limo
- Think Beyond Passats and Tiguans
- Audi A8
- BMW 7 Series
- Jaguar XJ
- Mercedes-Benz S-Class
- Volkswagen Phaeton
- Back in the Real World
Think Beyond Passats and Tiguans
For the price of a high-spec Volkswagen Passat, you could bag yourself any number of genuine luxury cars from prestigious manufacturers. More space, more refinement, more performance, a greater sense of automotive wellbeing. They’ve got presence and style. Yes, they’ll be second-hand, but in some instances not as second-hand as you might imagine.
Cars such as the Audi A8, BMW 7 Series, Jaguar XJ and Mercedes-Benz S-Class typically are bought by companies in the first instance, and companies buying or leasing vehicles that are sometimes knocking on the door of £100,000 or more aren’t likely to scrimp on the maintenance.
Now picture the drivers of such cars. Very senior executives, a group not prone to vehicle abuse. Probably doing most of their driving on motorways or commuting from leafy districts on the outskirts of big cities. Maybe they’re so senior they have a chauffeur. No chauffeur is likely to rag around in the boss’s chariot. So vehicle condition in most instances isn’t going to be an issue.
Perhaps a bit strangely, neither is mileage. Whereas executives lower down the pecking order – think those who drive an Audi A6 or Mercedes-Benz E-class – are prone to scurrying around the countryside racking up huge mileages, those granted pole position in the office car park seemingly are stuck in the boardroom and don’t travel far.
Audi A8
The Audi A8 makes extensive use of aluminium in its construction, making it one of the lighter luxury limos you can buy. That lower weight also means it handles well, while the ride is super-smooth, if not quite as cosseting as you'll find in a Mercedes S-Class.
As with many of these luxury offerings, the A8 is offered in standard- or long-wheelbase configurations. In all honestly, even the standard wheelbase model is huge inside, so we'd stick with that. Interior quality is impeccible, the tech still holds up well, and Audi's big diesel engines offer performance and refinement in abundance.
BMW 7 Series
If you want a large luxury car that can do the occasional impression of a sports car when the need – or the mood – arises, the a BMW 7 Series could be just the ticket. At the moment, for the purposes of bagging a used bargain, your best bet is probably the seventh-generation BMW 7 Series, known by the BMW codenames G11 and G12 (for long-wheelbase models). This was built between 2015 and 2022 and is somewhat more elegant than the rather blocky, gawky model that replaced it. And with everything from sensible turbodiesels, a twin-turbo V8 or even a full-fat V12 to choose from there are plenty of interesting powerplants available.
Jaguar XJ
A little more cosseting than the BMW – but still almost as entertaining to drive – the final generation of Jaguar XJ is an elegant piece of design that still looks fresh, despite having been out of production since 2019. And with aluminium construction (much like the Audi A8) it's actually a lighter car than you might expect, meaning performance and handling is pretty sprightly, even with the least-powerful twin-turbo V6 diesel under the bonnet.
Mercedes-Benz S-Class
For decades, Mercedes' flagship saloon has been known as 'the best car in the world'. Now, regardless of whether or not that's strictly true, it's undoubtedly the case that the Mercedes S-Class has often been at the cutting edge of luxury and technology over the years, and here we're focusing on the sixth-generation W222 that was sold between 2013 and 2020. As well as a bewildering array of trim levels and engines, this S-Class featured some pretty clever technology, including adaptive suspension (called Magic Body Control) that literally scans the road ahead for potholes and uneven surfaces so that it can pre-adjust individual dampers for a smoother ride.
Volkswagen Phaeton
The Volkswagen Phaeton is the oldest car in our list and, consequently, now sits in a price bracket normally associated with used superminis than luxury cruisers. Yet because they are exceedingly complex cars, they are also often rather expensive to maintain. On the other hand, the Phaeton was a personal pet project of VW's then boss, the late Ferdinand Piech, and it has the reputation for being one of the most over-developed and engineered luxury cars ever.
Back in the Real World
Of course, the truth us that Luxury cars cost more to service than run-of-the-mill motors and potentially a lot more to fix should something go wrong. Also, big, powerful saloons can’t match the fuel economy of a modern hybrid or an older turbodiesel, although if you’re not regularly doing big trips that could be less of an issue.
There’s also the sense of a gamble that comes with the fact that most of the luxury cars we’ve mentioned will have only a small part of their manufacturer warranty left, if any at all. A worry, certainly, but be slightly reassured by the number of top-flight Mercedes, BMWs and Audis being used for airport runs by prestige travel companies: many of those drivers buy their cars second-hand and they can’t afford to have a vehicle that’s unreliable.
Last but not least, you’ll have to accept that the period of heavy depreciation for your luxury car is most likely far from being over. While the same could be said if you were to opt for a posh Volkswagen Passat, or indeed an equivalently priced Mercedes-Benz C-Class or BMW 3 Series, it will always be the new car, with its full warranty and brand-new parts, that represents the safer buy. To buy a true luxury limo, then, is almost certainly going to be the braver choice – which is one of the many reasons it’s so compelling.