The most affordable luxury cars

There are few areas in life where the spending of $40,000 is considered moderate, but when it comes to buying a luxury car, it is practically pinching pennies. The average cost of a new luxury vehicle was $55751 in November, according to Kelley Blue Book, but you don't have to dig so deep in your pocket to drive out of the lot in a luxury brand. High-heeled bargain hunters can choose from premium vehicles more than a dozen less than $40,000.

However, tag price should not be the only number that luxury car buyers should take into account. Gas, insurance, depreciation and unexpected repairs must be taken into account, and costs vary widely from one car to another. In fact, the gas bill can compete with a pay car depending on the brand and the model to buy.

The vehicle analysis firm Vincentric creaked the numbers for us in the total price of luxury vehicle ownership that are sold for less than $40,000-a group that includes the unconditional tailoring like the BMW 3 series, Audi A4 and Lexus is, as well as models of some less obvious brands, such as Acura, Buick and Hyundai. The Michigan-based company and then uses data from a variety of sources to calculate the depreciation and cost of financing, insurance, and maintenance and repairs of these vehicles for a period of five years (assuming 15,000 miles per year) to predict true cost of a vehicle "to possess".

For example, the 2016 Buick Regal GS has a suggested price of $36,490, which is not much more than the suggested price of 2016 Lincoln MKZ hybrid of $35.19 mil. Both vehicles have similar projections for depreciation ($ 22,000 vs. $22,621, respectively), charges and opportunity cost, but maintenance, repairs, insurance, and the need for fuel vary greatly between the two. Adding in the cost of five years of ownership, the real price tag for the Lincoln MKZ is $44.569, according to Vincentric-almost $5.000 less than the cost of the Regal $49.109 to five year property, which wins the Lincoln hybrid MKZ a place on our list of the most affordable luxury cars.

While it may be obvious to many buyers that a hybrid can save thousands of dollars in fuel compared to a vehicle equipped with a conventional gasoline propulsion system, the "cost-owning" framework can help consumers streamline spending more money in advance to achieve a lower cost of ownership over time.

"The cost-effective approach is to look at the total cost of ownership, because sometimes the higher priced vehicle actually costs less to own and operate than a lower priced vehicle," says David Wurster, president of Vincentric.

Also listed in our list is the 2016 Lexus is 350. It has a suggested price of $38,000, which is higher than many of its competitors, however, it has a "cost of owning" relatively low total of $44,567. This makes the luxury medium sedan a better value than several others thanks to its modest costs repairs, good fuel economy and low depreciation.

Eric Lyman, vice president of Industry Insights for TrueCar, warns that depreciation is the highest cost of ownership "but it only matters if you plan to sell the car in five years." It is also important to note that depreciation is not always representative of the quality of a vehicle, but it can be a reflection of the supply of a vehicle in the market.

That could be the case of several General Motors GM + 0.54% vehicles, including the Cadillac ATS, Buick Summer, and the Buick Regal, which all fall under the mark of $40,000, but do not on the Forbes list because of the high calculation ' cost with option to buy ' Vincentric. Despite these vehicles have closed the quality gap and can now compete with imported competitors, Lyman says, the perception of consumers of these brands still has to catch up. But that could change in the near future with an aggressive Buick marketing campaign or Cadillac price fixes.

Our list shows the most affordable compact luxury, midsize, and full-sized sedans of the 2015 and 2016 model years. All of them have "of less than $40,000 combined with relatively low cost of ownership (determined by the percentage of their MSRP with Vincentric data from November 2015).