Oh, now...thrifty doesn't necessarily mean you're relegated to driving yugos and $500 beaters. To me, value purchasing is just as important as spending wisely. When my parents-in-law buy an off-brand DVD player at Menards on black friday because it's cheap, and it's a piece of junk and they hate it with the passion of a thousand suns...that's more wasteful than when I research for hours to get a good rated, seemingly reliable one and spend twice as much, but use it for 5X longer.
(and I know you were probably joking, but this is a oft-discussed topic with me because of her parents...Mrs. used to want to buy the cheapest everything until I started showing her the consequences. Cheap grill: Shot after 2 seasons. Cheap power tools: Shot after a year, but the DeWalt chop saw I found used, but seemingly well cared for, at a resale shop is still with us 10 years later).
And, as boxster said, he bought them used...you can actually get a pretty good deal on used luxury vehicles. You think depreciation is bad on a Taurus...it's 10X worse on a luxury car. Combine them being a status symbol with their original buyers (who have to get rid of them after a few years), and having the stigma of being 'too expensive for most people' scaring a lot of people off...the demand for used luxury cars makes them sometimes a pretty good deal if you're looking for that. You have to be careful, though...the glitchy bells and whistles can be a pain, and certain tendencies for expensive things breaking (air suspension on Range Rovers, for instance) can be part of the reason they're so cheap, but there are values out there.
