How To Shop For A Luxury Vehicle

Let’s face it: almost any car today will get you quickly and safely from point A to point B and back with excellent reliability and a modicum of comfort. Luxury cars are not about what customers need, but what they want. Luxury car buyers are looking for something more than simple transportation, fulfilling a desire and not a necessity.

But, many of us love our cars, so why not look for one that gives more back to the relationship? We spend a lot of time -- and a lot of money -- with our machines and buying a luxury car can be part of fulfilling a dream for some.

While shopping for a luxury car is not much different than shopping for a typical car, two things tend to set it apart. Luxury cars, with typically higher resale value, have a far higher tendency to be leased and many luxury car dealerships are critically concerned with the customer service experience -- and the subsequent score you may give them when surveyed after the sale. So, they attempt to make you feel more comfortable in their showrooms.

Given the aspirational nature of luxury car buyers, it is not entirely unusual for certain, high demand models to have price markups when they are introduced. Unless you have money to burn, don’t waste it on being the first guy in line for that new Audi RS or BMW M high-performance model. Those markups almost always come back down after the first few weeks or months. Don’t throw your money away.

While the leasing model has changed somewhat in recent years due to credit issues affecting the entire economy, most luxury makers still like to have the opportunity to offer their customers the option of a lease. Since most luxury brands want to avoid the stigma of cash rebates associated with their image, they often instead subsidize leases as a form of offering a better deal to customers. Depending on your financial and tax situation, the number of miles you drive per year and how frequently you want a new car in your driveway, you need to carefully study leasing a luxury car versus buying it before jumping in at the first attractive payment offer.

As with any substantial purchase, you should do your homework before shopping. Familiarizing yourself with the latest trends, available options, competitive products and, perhaps, most importantly, pricing information here at AOL Autos before you go into the showroom will greatly assist you in managing your time in the showroom and give you perhaps a bit more leverage when dealing with the sales team. Ten years ago, very few people ventured onto the web before buying a car. Today, you have the tools to arrive at the dealership knowledgeable and prepared.

And if you do buy a luxury car with sophisticated interior controls and options unlike other cars you had in the past, be sure to sit down with the dealership’s delivery personnel to get a better handle on how all of the functions operate. The last thing you want is to be barreling down the highway on the way home with your new car and not know how to tune the radio or turn on the A/C. We know you’re not going to read the manual, so you might as well ask questions at the dealer.

Types
Luxury vehicles come in all shapes and sizes, from small, so-called “entry-level” sedans to large, conservative and traditional four doors to stylish, low slung coupes to powerful sports cars and even to tough SUVs, designed to conquer any terrain but more than likely destined to simply master the mall parking lot.

Given the plethora of luxury cars on the market today, even beyond choosing sedan, coupe or SUV from a given manufacturer, there are size and price ranges within each brand’s model range. BMW, for instance, offers small, medium and large coupes in the 1 Series, 3 Series and 6 Series models, with prices ranging from $29,400 to $78,200. Mercedes-Benz sells no less than five distinct SUV models in the U.S. Buyers can choose from the rugged, military-inspired G-Class to the more road inclined M, GL and R-Class models to the new, smaller, 2010 GLK-Class.

Quite simply, there have never been more options when shopping for a luxury car.

Alternative Fuel Options
One sign of the new luxury is the growing availability of alternative fuel luxury vehicles. Although not known particularly for fuel-sipping vehicles, the luxury segment offers perhaps the most choices when it comes to alternative fuel choices. Lexus, for example, has no fewer than three hybrid choices, including their mid-size GS450h sedan, the small RX400h paved-road SUV and even the quiet, classy and oh-so-smooth LS600hL large sedan – the flagship of Lexus’ signature model. In the fall of 2009, Lexus will also deliver what they are billing as the world’s first dedicated luxury hybrid, which shares much of its hybrid technology with its corporate sibling the Toyota Prius, but in a far more luxurious and conservative package.

GM offers the Cadillac Escalade Hybrid, which manages a remarkable 67% improvement in city mileage according to the EPA. And modern, clean-burning diesel models from Mercedes-Benz and BMW promise equal performance along with far great fuel efficiency, both around town and on the highway.

Technology
Advances in technology often first show up in luxury cars before working their way down the automotive food chain. Decades ago, that meant power windows and automatic transmissions. Ten years ago, satellite-guided navigation systems. Five years ago, keyless entry. See the pattern? Today, luxury technology means rear-view cameras, radar-enhanced cruise control that maintains a safe distance between you and the car in front, lane departure warning systems, heated and cooled and massaging seats. Other emerging technologies include an LCD screen that replaces a traditional gauge cluster in the instrument panel, headlamps that turn with the steering wheel and even a system that will automatically parallel park the car.

Engineering Advances
It’s not just the personal technology we interact with inside the car that the engineers have been working on. Underneath the hood and throughout the mechanical bits that make up a luxury car, advances are coming at a faster pace than ever. Take BMW’s twin-turbocharged inline six cylinder engine. At 300 hp, it moves a 335i rather rapidly, but it gets better highway mileage than an earlier model with just 255 hp without turbocharging.

To go along with these improvements in engine technology, luxury makers and their suppliers have also developed more fuel-efficient transmissions. Six-speed automatics are commonplace, with even seven- and eight-speed models now on the marketplace from Mercedes-Benz, Infiniti and Lexus. Advanced electronic controls allow these transmission to not only save fuel, but to shift faster, more precisely and smoother than ever.

Traditional Luxury
If you’re looking for real wood, supple leather, electrically powered sun and privacy shades and whisper quiet operation, then a luxury vehicle is still likely your only choice. No matter the focus on technology, the core virtue of spoiling a vehicle’s occupants remains critical to enticing buyers into luxury-car showrooms.

All-Wheel Drive
Offering a great advantage in snowy climates, all-wheel drive is available not only on luxury SUVs, but is optional on many luxury sedans, wagons and even some coupes as well.

Performance
Along with comfort, opulence and a bit of swagger, high-performance is now a hallmark of the luxury space as well. Most luxury brands not only offer more than adequate power from their typical models, but also high performance versions with thunderously powerful engines, including S and RS models from Audi, AMG versions from Mercedes-Benz, F models from Lexus, S-Type version from Acura and the M cars from BMW. Cadillac, too, offers blazing fast V-Series models of some of their cars. These are not stripped down race cars, but high-performance road machines that still need to spoil their passengers as any luxury car must do today.

Most of these models have firmer rides to go along with the higher speeds as part of the performance package. Some are also much louder than their more common counterparts in the showroom, so be sure you are wiling to give up a modicum of comfort and convenience if you choose such a car. Given their limited production numbers, high performance models will also give you back some of the exclusivity the luxury market have lost as it has grown in recent years.