Author: Chuck Banks

This started as a blog post for a single sedan, a legitimate unicorn, and then I got carried away. Saw another and another. Either driving enthusiast cars or more luxurious cars. “Driving rich,” as one of my favorite blog readers described it. To narrow them down I ran a search for similar cars; sedans with V-8 motors, less than 60,000 miles, and less than $30,000. I didn’t even add all the gee-whiz stuff I normally want, like seat massagers and auto cruise control. Ended up with 20 cars around the country, and narrowed it down to these top seven, in my humble opinion. Going from lowest price to highest, although it did work out that leaves the best for last.

I’m starting with a 2015 Hyundai Equus Signature. Whenever I see one on the road, I think if I wanted a really good car at a really low price and I was less vain, I would debadge an Equus and confuse everyone. These cars always make me doubletake. This was the last year of the second-generation Equus. In 2016 it became the Genesis G90. A legitimate extinct unicorn.

The Equus is fairly loaded with auto cruise control, air-conditioned and heated seats, a heated steering wheel, and contemporary for 2015 safety features like cross-traffic alert, lane departure warning, and blind-spot monitors. The Equus has 45″ of front seat legroom, more than any other car in this class. I’ve owned a Mercedes S55 and a Mercedes S600, and in both, I never needed to put my seat all the way back for my 6’4″ body (and legs). The Equus has almost four inches more legroom than the Mercedes S-class!

The Equus has a gigantic trunk. It would make a really nice cross-country cruiser. Below, we have a 429-horsepower 5.0 liter naturally aspirated V-8 mated to an eight-speed transmission and rear-wheel drive. It does an old-school 5.6-second 0-60 mph run—decent but not great.

The 2015 Hyundai Equus sold new for about $63,000. It’s had two owners in New England and one accident. Last summer, it was for sale in Maryland near me and is now here in Bloomington, Illinois. It has low mileage and a low price, and I wouldn’t bother with MaxCare. It’s a fairly reliable car and not terribly expensive to fix.

Stock No: 25465422 VIN: KMHGH4JH7FU095219

For the record, the next car is the unicorn that fits the bill for my original definition of such and was what I wanted to write about today. And maybe the second best bargain here. This is a 2014 Audi S6 from back when they came with V-8 motors. A more performance-oriented car by far than the Hyundai.

There was a time when CarMax sold the awesome Audi S6 with the Lamborghini-derived V-10 motor. Here’s a blog post from 2018 when you could get one for about the same price as this one. I test-drove one and loved it, but I knew I’d get tired of hearing myself tell everyone everywhere, “No, really, it has a Lamborghini motor!” Car people probably already know, and non-car people probably think either I’m full of crap or I swapped in a V-10. Either way, it was not a good match for me. Audi moved from a V-10 to a more efficient and equally powerful V-8 for the 2013 model year. Alas, in 2019, Audi again migrated to a six-cylinder in the S6, and again equally powerful and more fuel efficient. Not nearly as exciting, I suspect.

The 2014 Audi S6 is a Prestige model and loaded with features: auto cruise control, heated and cooled seats, heated steering wheel, heads-up display, cross-traffic alert, Bose audio, and even a WiFi hotspot. Unfortunately, there are no seat massagers. I love the quilted seats. With the adaptive air ride suspension, it has to be a comfortable, well-handling ride.

As noted, the 2014 Audi S6 has a 4.0-liter twin-turbo V-8, making 420 horsepower. It has a dual-clutch automatic with AWD and can hit 60 mph in 4.6 seconds, which is very respectable. I doubt it sounds as naughty as the V-10.

The 2014 Audi S6 was sold new for perhaps $80,000 a decade ago. It’s a three-owner, accident-free car that has spent its time in Delaware and Pennsylvania. It’s coming soon to Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Here’s the link.

Stock No: 25599046 VIN: WAUF2AFC5EN163360

Maybe you like the Audi V-8 motor lots but have matured or been promoted to the executive level and don’t really want a performance car. I have the perfect “driving rich” car for you.

Here’s a totally loaded 2014 Audi A8L sedan in a beautiful blue over tan for only $4,000 more than the S6 and with half the mileage. This is a grown-up’s Audi. An executive car at a Honda Accord price. This was once an $84,000 car.

The Audi A8L has the Cold Weather Package, Driver Assistance Package, and Luxury Package. It also has auto cruise control and seat massagers, front and rear sunroofs, and heated and cooled front and back seats. CarMax says it has rear-seat entertainment, and I normally think of the DVD system, but I don’t see it below. Still pretty loaded.

The Audi A8 also has the 4.0-liter twin-turbo V-8 with 420 horsepower, the same as the S6, although it somehow makes 444 ft-lbs of torque over the 406 in the S6. That pushes the larger A8 to 60 mph in 4.7 seconds to the S6’s 4.6. Still good. I like this car, yet it reminds me I haven’t seen an S8 or A8 W12 on CarMax in a long time. Those would be more special.

This 2014 Audi A8L is currently here in Escondido, California, after spending much of its time in Florida. It’s a two-owner, accident-free luxury cruiser.

Stock No: 25976902 VIN: WAUR2AFD2EN009100

The one criticism I saw in the Audi A8 reviews is that it lacks the panache of a Mercedes S-class, so I had to include one. I really miss mine. A base model S-class still looks expensive and luxurious on the road.

This 2014 Mercedes S550 has the highest mileage of my picks at 56,000, and yet it’s affordable at $27,998 after CarMax just indicated the price was reduced by $1,000. This is the sixth generation S-class, the W222, and 2014 was the first year for this new model.

This S550 is fairly well equipped with the Comfort Package, Driver Assistance Package, and Premium Package. It’s got seat massagers, heated and cooled seats, Burmester audio, a panoramic sunroof, and a power rear sunshade. It doesn’t say it has auto cruise control, and I cannot see the stalk adequately to doubt. That would be disappointing. It does have an air suspension and rides so smoothly.

The 2014 S550 is powered by a 4.7-liter, 455 horsepower twin-turbo V-8 coupled to a seven-speed automatic transmission. It hits 60 mph in the same amount of time as the Audi A8 – 4.7 seconds—which is still excellent for a 4,400-lb sedan.

This 2014 Mercedes S550 is here in Kearny Mesa, California. It’s a one-owner accident-free car, once $99,000 or so, and for now, decently priced at $28k. If you’ve always wanted a Mercedes S-class this might be right for you.

Stock No: 26186334 VIN: WDDUG8CB3EA045708

A couple of Audi’s and a Mercedes, and next thing you know, I’m accused of being a Euro-car snob….and for the most part, you’d be right. I Fell in love with German cars in 1981 when the US Army sent me to live in Germany, and I went to the Frankfurt and Geneva auto shows. Changed my life. But I still like two-ton Yankee sedans and am happy to share one that might be a hoot.

The Chrysler 300S debuted in 2005 (not the 1950’s version) and hasn’t changed a whole lot since then. The second generation spawned in 2011 and got a facelift in 2015. For better or worse, this 2019 Chrysler 300S is almost a straight-line descendent of the original. It was 2019 when sales started to plummet, and the model was discontinued in 2023. Chrysler ended the line with a limited run of 2,000 final edition 300C models with a 485 hp 6.4 liter 300C, and those sold like hotcakes. This is not one of them. Not even a 300 SRT. But it’s all we got for less than $30,000 with a V-8, and it’s really not that bad.

The 300S has auto cruise control, cross-traffic alert, air-conditioned and heated seats, Apple CarPlay, and an Alpine audio. It’s a very comfortable highway cruiser. Back in January 2016, we had a blizzard in Northern Virginia on a Sunday morning, and I needed to be in North Carolina to work by Monday morning. My neighborhood was impassable. Airports and Amtrak were shut down, but the National Car Rental at Reagan National had a few cars for rent. I answered an ad on Craigslist offering 4×4 rides for $100, not much more than a regular taxi! I asked my daughter to take down the license plate of the Jeep when it came in case I got murdered. I did not. I rented a very nice Chrysler 300S and raced in the night down the single-plowed lane of I-95. It was a remarkable ride, and I had no complaints about the Chrysler.

Motor Trend reviewed the car in 2019 and said, “Despite its age (like 1 million years old now), the basic car here is still remarkably entertaining. It does all the right stuff—brakes and turns in adeptly, corners with not too much understeer, and accelerates in a nice, powerful RWD manner.”  It’s a good enough large RWD sedan. The V-8 is a 5.7 liter Hemi making 363 horsepower. With an eight-speed automatic it will dash to 60 mph in 5.6 seconds. Up there with the Equus and American made, if that’s important to you.

I could drive this car all day long if it was an SRT model. That said, it’s a bit pricey for a 300S. You can find it here in Norwood, Massachusetts.

Stock No: 26568198 VIN: 2C3CCABT8KH743851

For the same price as the Chrysler, you could have an older Lexus that could scratch the itch for luxury and probably greater reliability. Lexus spun off from Toyota in 1989 with the introduction of the LS400 in the US, a blatant clone of the Mercedes S-class. It was offensive and bad form until it outsold Mercedes and became the benchmark for quality. Thirty-five years later, the flagship sedan is still manufactured in Japan and, after five generations, now hosts a six-cylinder. Sales peaked in 2007 and are now down to less than 5,000 units in the US. A third of the Chrysler 300S!

What we have here is a low-mileage 2013 Lexus LS460 that was not a new generation but was completely remade inside and out that year, although riding on the fourth-generation chassis.

The Lexus LS460 is still nicely appointed for its time, with air-conditioned and heated seats and a heated steering wheel. It’s a nice ride and probably quite comfortable, albeit dated. I suspect this car is for a driver who appreciates a luxurious ride and isn’t as fixated on technology or high-performance driving. When I joined the private sector in 2013, this car was new, and it seemed every realtor or small company executive had one of these, and they seemed to be the top of the line. (The cars, not the executives so much.) This was a $67,000 new car – $20,000 more than the 300S, but the Chrysler has more features. The Lexus has more class.

I’m always amused by the engine bay cover in the Lexus LS models. I don’t know any other manufacturer that 100% hides the hard-working parts so thoroughly. Would it be insulting if I said I suspect most, but not all, Lexus LS460 owners have never opened their own hood? (Honestly, I only open mine to add windshield washer fluid.) Under there, I am told, is a 4.6 liter engine making 386 horsepower. Zero to sixty in the same time as the Equus and the Chrysler.

This is a two-owner, accident-free sedan that’s lived in Florida and Colorado all its life. It probably doesn’t even need MaxCare. It’s coming soon to Parker (Denver), Colorado. Here’s the link.

Stock No: 26537867 VIN: JTHBL5EF5D5123987

FINALLY THE BEST SEDAN OF ALL FOR LESS THAN $30,000!

For $6,000 more than the Audi S6, you can buy this high-performance and fully loaded BMW: a 2013 M5. It’s fast. It’s comfortable. Like the S6, it once came with a V-10 from 2004 to 2010. In 2011, this “F10” generation became the first with a turbocharged engine. Like the Audi, I’ve driven both an M5 and an M6 with the V-10, and at 8,000 rpm they howl. Unfortunately, the ride dynamics beat the hell out of me, and my favorite CarMax service tech, Ryan, had not yet taught me how to configure the settings to be more livable as he did for my M3. Things might have gone differently.

Before we get to the drive train, be impressed with the features. Every single thing I had in my S600. Everything I have in the GLE63 except self-driving. And it’s a third of the price of the GLE! Auto cruise control. Heated, cooling, and massaging seats. Heated steering wheel. Heads up display. Power rear sunshade. Bang & Olufsen audio. Driver Assistance Package. Executive Package. Self-closing doors. AND NIGHT VISION!

Under the hood is the 4.4 liter twin-turbo V-8, which produces 560 horsepower, the most of today’s sedans. With a 7-speed twin-clutch automatic, it rockets to 60 mph in 3.7 seconds. I don’t want to brag (yes, I do). That’s the same as my GLE (but did I mention at a third of the cost?) This is an exceptional car. It’s .4 seconds faster than the V-10 was to 60.

This 2013 BMW M5 sold for close to $100,000 eleven years ago. It’s deeply depreciated, loaded with luxury, and fast. Everything you could want in a unicorn. I suspect MaxCare isn’t cheap, but it’s mandatory. Drive this car until it explodes. Get it fixed for free. Then drive it some more! Find it here in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, just outside Philadelphia.

Stock No: 25827769 VIN: WBSFV9C5XDC773174

Hope you hung in there for all seven cars. Now back to writing about running. After a nap.