2013 Affordable luxury cars

The Audi A5 and Porsche Panamera are two of the cars that made our list this year of the most affordable luxury vehicles on the market. They each offer creature comforts like heated leather seats, seamless music interfaces with high-quality speakers, stunning xenon LED headlamps and anti-crash technology but rate so well when it comes to depreciation, maintenance costs and interest rates that they are actually a better value over the long term than many cars that cost thousands of dollars less.

Need something bigger? Try an SUV from Toyota or Volvo, like the Land Cruiser or the XC90. Each offer excellent options that are powerful, posh and—most importantly—practical on a long-term basis.

Behind The Numbers
To compile our list of the Most Affordable Luxury Vehicles of 2013, we consulted data provided by Vincentric, which is based in Bloomfield Hills, Mich. Vincentric measures value by comparing ownership costs: two vehicles can have the same purchase price but vastly different costs to own.

The data assumes an annual rate of 15, 000 miles driven per vehicle and a price of $3.294 for regular, $3.448 for midgrade, $3.608 for premium and $3.901 for diesel fuel. Fuel prices are national averages and use a 3.5% inflation rate. All costs are plotted as projections based on forecasts by Vincentric analysts, and the analysis is done comparing vehicles within the same segment against each other, which helps ensure that comparisons are valid.

For our list, we included any car, truck or SUV with a price of at least $40, 000, and the evaluation detailed five-year total costs of fuel, maintenance, repairs, average national insurance rates, depreciation, interest, opportunity costs and taxes. The overriding assumption: Vehicles with lower ownership costs are better values than the one with higher ownership costs.