Best used luxury cars for £25,000

You’d be hard pushed to find a car at any price that has as broad a range of talents as the BMW 5 Series – a previous What Car? Used Car of the Year in our chosen form. It comes with a range of punchy yet efficient engines, neat styling and a wonderful ride and handling balance. It's wonderfully refined, too.

Our recommended version is the 530e plug-in hybrid, because it has the potential for great economy. Add to that its luscious and spacious interior, excellent ergonomics and class-leading iDrive infotainment controller and it’s no wonder we rate this car above all others as a used luxury buy.

We found 2019 BMW 530e SE, 16,000 miles, £19,900

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Audi is responsible for some of the most comfortable and refined saloons ever made, with the current Audi A8 being a prime example. It's a popular chauffeur car for good reason, being massively spacious, luxurious and stuffed full of cutting-edge tech. Of course, to enhance its chauffeur qualities, there are long-wheelbase models as well. 

For £25,000, you can pick up a very respectable example, meaning the model truly represents exceptional value for money. 

We found 2019 Audi A8 3.0 TFSI V6 55, 41,836 miles, £24,990

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Another, even more popular chauffeur car is the Mercedes S-Class. Sure, our budget gets you an older car with more miles on it, but the S-Class remains an outstanding bargain – in many of the same ways as the rival A8. 

The S-Class has long been a flagship for Mercedes and it's famous for getting certain new pieces of tech before any other car on the market. As such, they're often kitted out and a bit ahead of their time, you could argue.   

We found 2017 Mercedes S350Ld V6 AMG Line (Executive), 53,500 miles, £24,950

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The Mercedes E-Class is available used with a great range of engines, comes very well equipped and is a quiet and smooth cruiser. It’s not as spacious in the rear seats as some – including the larger S-Class – and the ride can be quite firm in the ride on certain versions too. Still, those are minor flaws in a very elegant, classy and comfortable package that happens to be really good value used. Its reliability record is pretty good, too. 

We found 2019 Mercedes E400d AMG Line, 41,313 miles, £24,490

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The ultra-sleek BMW 6 Series Gran Coupé is a luxurious and comfortable grand tourer. It has plenty of room for four and an air of opulence that's hard to beat on this budget. It's great to drive, bolstered by some terrific engines – even entry-level petrol and diesel options it can hit 62mph from a standstill in just 5.4sec. And for maximum oomph, there's the M6 performance car.

We found 2017 BMW 640d 3.0 M Sport, 25,847 miles, £21,000

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Another luxury limo stuffed with tech, the BMW 7 Series has always been one of the best of the breed to drive. You can punt it down a winding road with surprising confidence, or cruise down a motorway from its beginning to its end. It’s impressively clean and frugal for such a large car, too, with our chosen 730d version boasting a six-cylinder diesel engine of unusual refinement. Inside is a spacious and luxurious interior fit for any captain of industry, with plenty of up-to-the-minute kit.

We found 2018 BMW 730d 3.0 xDrive M Sport, 53,200 miles, £22,949

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Thanks to its precise steering and agile handling, no mainstream luxury saloon is more entertaining than the Jaguar XF – mind you, it's still comfortable over long distances. The best rivals are quieter, though, and they have classier interiors, but we reckon the XF still strikes a superb balance between ride and handling, and is great fun to drive. It’s well equipped, too, and very stylish. Reliability is a little mixed, though. 

We found 2021 Jaguar XF 2.0 P250i R-Dynamic, 36,235 miles, £24,995

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The Audi A6 is a cosseting, quiet and technologically advanced saloon that feels beautifully built. True, its latest touchscreen infotainment system is a little distracting to use on the move, while the automatic gearboxes can be slow-witted. Its poor reliability (mostly comprised of electrical issues) is a problem, too – try to get one with a good warranty if you can. 

If those problems were sorted – namely that last one – the wonderfully refined and very reasonably priced A6 would be right near the top of this list. 

We found 2022 Audi A6 40 TFSI Sport, 21,927 miles, £23,699

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After something a little less ostentatious and a lot more affordable than most of the other cars on this list? Then the big, Swedish saloon that is the Volvo S90 could be just the thing, because it has a spacious and stunning interior, and comes very well equipped. It’s refined, too, and its striking looks will certainly impress the neighbours. Just bear in mind that it's not quite as good to drive as the best on this list. 

We found 2021 Volvo S90 2.0h T8 Recharge R-Design, 27,595 miles, £23,000

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The Jaguar XJ has always been the creamiest cat in the Jag range. Strikingly different in its styling, it equalled previous Jaguar standards in ride quality and refinement and shattered them in terms of driving pleasure. Inside the XJ brings a touch of modernity to the trad wood and leather look, and there’s plenty of kit for your money.  

We found 2019 XJ 3.0d V6 Luxury, 46,648 miles, £20,495

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