Appreciating The Depreciating: Big Boss Cars For Small Wallets

Hi everyone! This is a new series where I, Adhitya, will take a look at the cars that used to be expensive when new, but now are very cheap to find. Without any further dues, let’s get started!

Right, on this premiere episode, I am going to round up the 5 greatest luxury cars (a.k.a The Big Baws’s Ride) for $10,000 or under…

1. Cadillac DTS

If you want cheap cars, you’ll first turn your head to your local products and this is a prime example. You want a cheap luxury car and my head went straight to the 2006 generation Cadillac DTS. According to the ads on multiple sites, the DTS’s price varies from $3,000-$15,000. So…how’s the luxuries? Man, it’s a Caddy, why are you pessimistic? Certainly, you don’t get Mercedes/BMW levels of luxury but on its class, the DTS is very, very good.

The DTS is actually sitting on the G-body platform used on the then-new DeVille and Buick Lucerne, GM’s previous mid-sized front-driven sedan. Well, why not just get a cheaper Lucerne? Here’s the thing, if you are on the look for some luxury cars, the first thing you think about is the spaciness and the Caddy is 4.4 inches longer and one inch wider, resulting in the Cadillac having 4 more cubic feet of back-room and 2 more cubic feet trunk space than the Buick.

2. BMW 7-Series (E65)

It isn’t the prettiest looking car in the world but it makes it to this list for good reasons. One, German quality, no explanation needed there. Two, then-innovative gadgets. Three, it is in the price range (yay). It’s a BMW, people will look at you like you’re a successful businessman who spends his spare time in on the golf course and buys Patek Phillipe watches when you only bought the car for around $5,000-$10,000.

The price depends on which engine you have. For example, the 745i/iL costs around the $5,000-$6,000 mark while the 750i/iL costs around the $7,000-$10,000 range. 760i/Li cars? Out of price range, they;re still hovering around the $15,000 price.

3. Mercedes Benz S-Class (W140/W220)

You can’t talk about luxury cars without mentioning the Mercedes-Benz S-Class, the main rival to the BMW 7-Series lineup. Much like the Bimmer, the price varies depending on the engine type. If you opted to go with a newer W220 generation that was built in 1999 to 2005, our budget restricts us to the S320 and S430 models because the S550, S600, and the AMG models are still holding their values. You could actually get them for $10k but the cars that are on our budget have absurdly high miles on the odometer so, I’m playing it safe with the more-depreciated, lower-powered, lower-mileage S320s and S430s.

However, on the W140, the model that was built in 1991-1998, you can get the larger engine cars for our budget but again, a Mercedes Benz that isn’t a W201 or W124 or older Mercs with high mileage is a dodgy car to me.

But, no matter which one you went for, again, much like the BMW, you’ll look like a man that has a high place in the Parliament but you just bought the car for $2,000-$6,000 for the W140, $3,000-$10,000 for the W220.

4. Jaguar XJ (X308/X350)

I will also put one car from the Great Britain/EU market in this article and the first Brit’s Choice car in this series is the Jaguar XJ X308/X350. USD10,000 is GBP13,200 (ish) and for that budget, a Jag is a solid choice. It was a tough call between this and the Alfa Romeo 166 but I decided to pick the Big Cat because it has a bit more prestige to it than the Alfa and arguably, as a luxury car, better looking.

At this price range, you can get the 2.7l diesel engine and the 3.0l gasoline engine. for the X350 generation.

Sure, the Ford era Jaguar is the worst era of Jaguar when it comes to the old British insanity, looking back at the XJ220, XJR-9, XK120, and everything, the Ford Jaguars are the slower and had this retro styling. However, as a luxury car, the X300’s model carries classy looks which, in a luxury car, a great thing. For the people who hated the looks of the 1990’s-mid 2000’s Jags, take a look at another retro styled car, PT Cruiser and you’ll see why I praised Ford for doing retro style the right way.

5. Audi A8 (D3)

And to round this up, we have the Audi A8. OK, yeah, much like the BMW, there’s nothing very good about the car’s looks although not as ugly as the BMW. The exterior is pretty much an Audi A6 that has hydrocephalus, obese, and overgrown body. But, as a luxury car, the A8 has the techs and gadgets back when it was first launched in 2002.

Will you look classy at all, though? Of course, looks is a subjective taste but to me, if I spot an A8 at a glance, I wouldn’t take a second look and ignore it thinking that it’s a cheaper Audi A4.

Price? Again, depends on the engine type but you’ll get a 3.0l model for about $4,000. You could get the 4.2l V8 version for around $6,000-$10,000.

That was my first article on my new series! Let me know what cars I’ve missed and what list that you want to see me round up in the comments!