Used cars ranked by practicality: Luxury sedans
Used cars ranked by practicality: Luxury sedans
By Martin Pretorius
Luxury sedans cosset their occupants and signal to the whole world that their owners are successful and (usually) have impeccable taste. But luxury sedans also depreciate quite dramatically, which makes them appealing in the second-hand market, to be used as anything from luxury airport shuttles to plush family vehicles. In these roles, they have to be practical as well as luxurious, so mere good looks and loaded specification sheets won’t be enough.
We’ve taken a look at 6 used luxury sedans (all of which were current around 2013) listed here on AutoTrader, and ranked them from the least to the most practical. For the purpose of this exercise, we’ve used their boot space as the yardstick, and their luggage volumes are as claimed by the manufacturers.
Porsche Panamera (2009 – 2016)
Perhaps it’s because the stylists tried to make the first-generation Panamera look somewhat like the 911, and thus gave it a rather curvy shape, but that rounded rear end certainly doesn’t do the Panamera’s load-carrying capacity any favours. Its luggage volume of 445 litres isn’t much to write home about, but it has two factors which mitigate this drawback: it’s a hatchback, which makes for a larger loading aperture, and the rear seats fold down to improve on its overall carrying ability.
As the follow-up to the controversial E65 (the one with the bulging “Bangle Butt”), the F01 went a long way to remedy its predecessor’s numerous quirks and design flaws. It was now very well-made, and they sorted out the infernal iDrive system to make it useable to non-tech-heads. But they didn’t do anything about its boot space, which, at 500 litres, was competitive but not exceptional. They did reshape the boot opening, however, making it easier to load bulky items.
Lexus has always followed fairly long product cycles – this particular model was in production for a full decade, for instance. With a luggage compartment measuring 505 litres, it was good enough to compete, but certainly didn’t set any new standards. In hybrid models, that space was significantly reduced by the battery hardware, leading to the LS600h having a laughable 330 litres in the cargo area.
The large Audis have always had decent luggage space, but by the time this “D4” generation rolled around, its opponents had caught up already. Its 510-litres capacity is actually on the smaller side, for this class.
Here’s a bit of a surprise: you’d imagine that the Jaguar XJ would have a compromised luggage area because of its sloping, tapering tail. But, with a load volume of 520 litres, there’s actually a little more space available than you’d get in most of its opponents.
Mercedes-Benz S-Class (2006 – 2013)
With a cargo hold capacity of 560 litres, this generation of S-Class (codenamed W221) had the largest boot among all of its concurrent contenders (and larger than its successor, too). It was also much less trouble-prone than its immediate predecessor, and if you avoid the variants with air suspension and too many electronic gimmicks, it could even be pretty cost-effective to run.