2011 Luxury Car Buying Guide

Our 2011 Luxury Car Buying Guide looks at some of the most competent and comfortable cars on the road. The 41 luxury cars we cover offer a wealth of advanced features, top performance, and enough brand cachet to justify sticker prices that can be stratospheric.

Nailing down the definition of a “luxury” car can be a fleeting target. Is it a car built to be quieter and more comfortable than the norm? Is it one engineered with stronger acceleration and more sophisticated ride and handling qualities than the typical family car? Must it pack a long list of advanced automotive features? Or is it a luxury car simply because the manufacturer says it is or because of the brand name affixed to it?

The answer to all those questions is yes. The luxury-car market has expanded beyond the prototypical large, powerful, ultra-plush freeway cruiser. Today’s luxury cars are offered in all shapes and sizes, from super-spacious sedans like the Mercedes-Benz S-Class to the compact-sized two-door BMW 1-Series. And even the sedans are becoming sleeker these days, as evidenced by recent “four-door coupe” designs in the Mercedes-Benz CLS Class and the new-for-2011 Audi A7 models.

By any definition, luxury cars are the cream of the automotive crop, and are priced accordingly. They usually offer an abundance of luxury features, sophisticated chassis control systems, advanced technology, and exceptional isolation from road noise and harshness.

Luxury-car sales have been in a slump since the economic downturn as buyers postponed purchases or turned toward less-ostentatious models. It can be awkward to be a company owner or manager and drive up to the employee entrance in a new luxury car at a time when layoffs and pay cuts are the order of the day.

In the past, a luxury car was really a luxury car, and driving one meant sitting on sofa-like seats and riding on a pillow-soft suspension. But today’s luxury models include more supportive seating and have adopted sportier ride and handling characteristics. Available on many are adjustable suspensions with real-time damping that change shock-absorber stiffness on a continuous basis according to the road surface and handling conditions. The driver can often choose between multiple settings (usually including “comfort” and “sport” modes) to emphasize either a cushy ride or crisp cornering abilities. This allows a luxury car to deliver a smoother ride than lesser cars but with tauter handling than could otherwise be possible.

Luxury cars typically come with rear-wheel drive, which balances the weight of the drivetrain front-to-rear for good handling characteristics. Packaging rear-drive components means this layout is not as space-efficient as a front-wheel-drive design in which the engine and transmission are concentrated in the front of the car, leaving the rest for passengers and cargo. But luxury cars tend to be large enough to have space to spare, or simply are intended to emphasis driving manners over packaging efficiency. However, the trend is toward all-wheel drive (AWD), either as standard or as an option, to compensate for rear-wheel drive’s traction deficiencies on snowy roads. And as automakers increasingly base upscale models on high-volume mainstream cars, a fair number of today’s luxury cars have front- wheel drive.

As for engines, luxury cars boast the most diverse selection among any automotive segment. There are peppy four- and six-cylinder engines in small-to-midsize models and smooth, authoritative eight- ten- even twelve-cylinder versions in the largest and most-expensive sedans. Diesel engines are available in some BMW models, and BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Lexus all offer gas-electric hybrids. Aside from the smallest luxury models, cars in this category aren’t particularly fuel-efficient and those with the largest engines are assessed federal gas-guzzler taxes.

A few sporty compact luxury cars still offer manual transmissions to please a relative handful of enthusiasts. Otherwise most models in this class come strictly with automatic transmissions, which have anywhere from five to eight speeds, depending on the model. Generally, the greater the number of gears the smoother and more fuel-efficient the operation. And most of these automatics come with some sort of manual-shift mode for motorists who desire more precise control over engine speed.

As mentioned above, features practical and fanciful are plentiful in this segment. Seats come with multiple power adjustments and rich leather upholstery. They can be heated and cooled, and sometimes can give you a massage. Premium sound systems carry upscale audiophile brand names and are often of higher quality than most living-room stereos. Front, rear, and side parking-alert systems are on hand; some employ multiple video cameras that project onto a dashboard screen a top-down view surrounding the car.

Some models, notably the Lexus LS and Lincoln MKS, offer parallel-parking features that auto-steer the vehicle into a space, sometimes with mixed results. GPS navigation systems offer real-time traffic information as well as sports scores, news headlines, weather information, and even local gas prices -- albeit on a subscription basis. Cruise control systems can both maintain a set speed and a set distance from the traffic ahead. High-intensity headlamps can pivot to light the way through the curves at night and can automatically dim themselves so as not to blind oncoming traffic.

Already engineered to garner four- or five-star ratings in front and side-impact collisions in government crash tests, the best luxury cars are literally rolling test beds of high-tech safety systems. The most widespread among these systems is blind-spot monitoring. These use rear and/or side mounted cameras to detect the presence of vehicles just to the side and rear of the car. They give visual and audible notifications to alert a driver to this otherwise unseen traffic.

Lane-departure warning looks for highway lane markings and generates an audible signal if the car is about to cross them. BMW’s system vibrates the steering wheel to signal unintended lane wander. Systems on some Lexus models gently steer the car back into the lane. Infiniti’s latest engages the car’s steering or stability control system, selectively applying the brakes to the appropriate wheel to help nudge it back.

Looking to prevent lane wander before it happens, Mercedes-Benz’s “Attention Assist” system scrutinizes a driver’s steering-wheel inputs to determine if they’re becoming sleepy or are otherwise impaired. It sounds an alert and illuminates a coffee cup icon on the dashboard to advise the driver that it’s time to take a break.

Some luxury cars offer night-vision systems that display infrared images of the road ahead on dashboard-mounted screens to help extend the driver’s effective field of vision beyond the car’s headlamps on a darkened road. Increasingly common in this class are collision-mitigation systems that automatically take precautionary measures, such as priming the brakes to full force and tightening the seatbelts, if onboard sensors determine a crash is unavoidable.

There are luxury cars that will automatically apply the brakes if sensors detect an impending crash. The Pre-Collision System offered in the hybrid-powered Lexus LS 600h L luxury sedan employs video cameras to monitor both the road ahead and a driver’s face. The system determines whether the driver isn’t paying attention to what’s on the road while it also “sees” an object or pedestrian in the car’s path. It will set off audible and visual alerts and will also apply the brakes and reprogram the steering for maximum quickness to help the driver steer clear of the obstacle. Going a step further is the Pedestrian Detection with Full Auto Brake system in the new-for-2011 Volvo S60 sedan. It works under 35 mph and can help a driver avoid hitting vehicles, objects, or pedestrians it detects in the car’s path by slamming on the brakes and bringing the Volvo to a complete halt if it feels the driver isn’t reacting quickly enough.

Driving an auto that looks out for your safety and the wellbeing of those around you is just one of the perks of luxury-car ownership. Buying an upscale car typically means an upgraded ownership experience. Luxury-brand dealerships provide a sense of exclusivity and tend to treat customers quite well when they bring in a vehicle for service. Loaner vehicles, espresso and cappuccino bars, free carwashes are examples. Hyundai faces a special challenge to make buyers of its new-for-2011 $50,000-plus Equus sedan feel as if they’re getting upscale treatment from a brand known for its low-priced compact cars. The South Korean automaker is requiring dealers to bring an Equus to a prospective buyer’s home for a personal demonstration and to pick up and deliver the car to and from an owner’s home for servicing. Hyundai’s also throwing in a free Apple iPad with the purchase of every Equus.

All this is part of the value-added dimension of paying premium prices demanded by premium-brand cars. But that doesn’t insulate you from steep depreciation. Even if many premium models retain a high percentage of value at trade-in time, you still lose more money than you would by buying a lower-priced car that retains a lower percentage of its value.

One alternative is to consider non-luxury-brand versions of mechanically similar models sold via another division of the automakers’ parent company. A top-of-the-line V-6 Toyota Camry XLE model, for example, sells for under $30,000 and is essentially the same car as its Lexus-brand counterpart, the $35,000 ES350. A top-of-the-line Mercury Milan Premier goes for around $25,000 and doesn’t drive appreciably different from its sister-under-the-skin, the $35,000 Lincoln MKZ.

Still, as the old saying goes, “if you’ve got it—flaunt it;” to that end, let’s take a look at what 2011 luxury-car buyers can expect to find in dealers’ showrooms.