Is getting an older luxury car a good buy? I've been checking some luxury brands on cargurus for shit and giggles...

Is getting an older luxury car a good buy? I've been checking some luxury brands on cargurus for shit and giggles, and I was surprised to find that older luxury cars are relatively affordable to buy, all things considered. Nowm when it comes to maintenance and parts, this is where things could start getting expensive really fast, and I wanted to get opinions from you guys that know much more about cars than I do.

Potential pros:

>riding in style
>comfortable luxury that still holds up
>luxury cars often have more safety features
>owners are more likely to have taken good care of them
>can be found in better conditions relative to their year of make

Potential cons

>expensive maintenance
>too flashy, can call the attention of the wrong kind of people
>parts could be expensive

I've been looking at models from late 90's and early to late 00's from Mercedes Benz, Jaguar, Audi and BMW and it's the same story. Luxury that you probably thought you could never afford, made available to you thanks to devaluation. To be honest, if I could afford it I'd go for one of those if the price is right.

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MB went through kind of a renaissance where they were building cars of terrible quality in the 90s. Started turning around in mid 00s

BMW is ludicrous with maintenance but ask anybody who bought a second hand 750i, I bet half of them don't regret it (much)

Audis became lease queens in the mid 00s... I have heard from friends and coworkers that after 50k miles they start to disintegrate

And Jaguar... I just wouldn't. That being said, you can buy one for less than $5k...

There was a time where I almost bought an E55 MB, 500 supercharged hp from one of the best engines ever. The projected maintenance deterred me though. Good luck

>W211 with 199k miles

I don't think you're cut out for buying an old luxury car.

Do the Carmax warranty deal if you want something European, it WILL get expensive.

A Lexus will be a little pricier but bulletproof.

I don't think it's a bad buy, necessarily. Just get some old German thing with a NA inline-six and a manual like an E39 530.

Ls400, gs300, e36. Probably all I'd consider. All three available for 3k and under as well.

Even shit tier luxury cars will be more expensive to maintain. Just don't be a retard and do research on shit before you buy. For example the E38 728i uses the same engine as the E39 so it's pretty solid (slow though), can even get a pre-VANOS one, there really isn't any reason a car like that should be prohibitively expensive unless you're homeless. It's just a matter of doing your research on a case by case basis.

As someone else said Lexus' are pretty solid, but you still can't run them on a shoestring budget like you can with some 3k Civic as all the wear parts shit like tires, brakes and fuel will still be more expensive. I personally wouldn't waste my time with a Mercedes as their interiors are garbage compared to something like a Jaguar, Audi or BMW and they have a history of being the shittiest reliability wise. X300 Jaguar is pretty much bombproof so long as you get one without rust, pre-2000 X308's will need the timing tensioners done if they haven't already, otherwise should be good. If you're getting an Audi I'd avoid their V8's, if you're getting a BMW V8 get the x40i rather than the x35i as they are the same maintenance and reliability wise but have more power.

In general avoid air-suspension, CVT's and V12's unless you like throwing money away. For context, I bought a early-2000's 3k Audi once and it cost more in maintenance in a year than the initial purchase price.

Pretty much this. Don't be a retard about it, try to stay under 125k.

>owners are more likely to have taken good care of them
lol no chance.

Often expensive cars will have been bought by some rich yuppie 15 years ago who got it as a status symbol who didn't care about it. It will then have been passed on to some guy who didn't have enough money to run it right and has fucked it up. If you see a luxury car being sold in a shitty area just don't waste your time.

Little side note, I saw one of these in the flesh a few days back and they look surprisingly nice still.

Shame they all blow their transmission at 150k.

Absolutely not. They're cool cars but if you are on a budget then they're not your daily driver. Things will go wrong and parts and labor aren't cheaper just because the car is old. It's still a Mercedes Benz at the end of the day.

You only want the car to look cool, trust me the novelty will wear off in a few months and after a couple of years the only good thing about the car will be that it looks nice and has a cool badge but that's it because the upkeep and cost on the car has wore your morale down. Do NOT buy one of these cars and expect to drive it everyday. Buy one after you already own a DD econobox or something and cruise in it every now and then but you cannot afford or do not want to afford one of those shitboxes