Is there one secret about luxury cars that people should know?

Vineet Madan, Former engineer and follower of all things automobile related for 30+ years

The one secret is that there are many secrets about luxury cars that people should know, for starters:

Spending more money on a car does not equal higher quality in most cases, Lexus is probably the major exception today (2018)

The basic platform of most luxury cars is shared with cheaper models - take a look at an Acura MDX and the Honda Pilot, the Porsche Cayenne and Volkswagen Touareg (image above), or choose any comparable Infiniti/Nissan, Lexus/Toyota, Acura/Honda or Porsche/VW group pairings.

The three things you generally pay more for with a luxury car are: (1) higher quality interior appointments - soundproofing, richer leather, more digital “stuff” (which also breaks over time), (2) better performance - mostly higher quality brakes, tires and more powerful engines, (3) the badge - maybe this should be #1

Oh, and let’s not forget that depreciation on your brand spanking new $85+K SUV is going to be brutal. Three years from now that’s a $35–40K used car for someone to buy outright. Yes, you would have paid half - or more - of the purchase price in depreciation if you sold your luxury car in three years whereas the enterprising used car buyer can spend the same money that you did yet own the vehicle for the remainder of its life if they choose to for the same money - call it $40K each. Yes, that’s correct. The new luxury car buyer gets a three-year rental for that money and the used buyer keeps it forever.

Now you see why most people don’t purchase luxury cars, the math doesn’t make sense. From our friends at Car & Driver:

The most commonly leased cars are small luxury sedans. Leases soaked up 60 percent of these models. More than half of all luxury sedans of any size are leased.

The Most Commonly Leased Car Brands in America (and the Most Commonly Purchased)

Keep in mind you’ll be spending 3–5x/year over a regular car in maintenance and upkeep after the first few years as fancy gadgets break quickly and cost a mint to keep running. Check out replacement prices for a Mercedes air suspension or Porsche’s carbon ceramic brake rotors. Yes, you could buy a lightly used BMW i3 for about the same cost as these repair expenses.

On the flip side, the coffee in the service area might be a little better than your run-of-the-mill high-volume, low-price, dealership. Drink up, you need to consume a lot of coffee to get to economic break-even!