12 Most Affordable Luxury Cars

There are few areas in life where spending $40,000 is considered restrained, but when it comes to buying a luxury car, it’s practically pinching pennies. The average cost of a new luxury vehicle was $55,751 in November, according to Kelley Blue Book, but you don’t have to dig that deep into your pocket to drive off the lot in a luxury marque. Well-heeled bargain hunters can pick from more than a dozen premium vehicles under $40,000.

However, sticker price shouldn’t be the only number that luxury car shoppers should take into consideration. Gas, insurance, depreciation, and unexpected repairs should be factored in, and those costs vary widely from car to car. In fact, the gas bill can rival a car payment depending on the make and model you buy.

Vehicle analytics firm Vincentric crunched the numbers for us on total cost of ownership for luxury vehicles that sell for under $40,000 – a group that includes such sartorial stalwarts as the BMW 3-Series, Audi A4 and Lexus ES, as well as models from some less obvious brands, such as Acura, Buick and Hyundai. The Michigan-based company then used data from a range of sources to calculate depreciation and cost of financing, insurance, and maintenance and repairs for these vehicles over a five-year period (assuming 15,000 miles driven annually) to forecast a vehicle’s true “Cost to Own.”

Our list showcases the most affordable luxury compact, midsize, and full-size sedans from the 2015 and 2016 model years. They all have MSRPs under $40,000 combined with relatively low cost of ownership (determined by the percentage of its MSRP using data from Vincentric as of November 2015).

2016 BMW 3-Series

MSRP: $39,850
Vincentric Dynamic Cost-to-Own: $46,768

2015 Mercedes-Benz C-Class

C300 4MATIC
MSRP: $40,575
Vincentric Cost-to-Own: $51,978

2016 Audi A3

Prestige 1.8LT
MSRP: $39,750
Vincentric Cost-to-Own: $46,819

2016 Acura ILX

A-SPEC Package
MSRP: $34,890
Vincentric Cost-to-Own: $44,564

2016 Lexus CT200h

MSRP: $31,250
Vincentric Cost-to-Own: $39,393