If you're the owner of a five-year-old luxury car, you might finally be thinking about getting a new one.
Foive years ago demand for BMWs and Bentleys were sizzling as the stock market climbed to the moon. Then the double whammy of high oil prices and an economic crisis cooled even the wealthiest buyer's appetite for exotic machinery. Many luxury car owners thought it prudent to hold on to their wheels while taking stock of their financial situation. At the same time, high-end automakers, seeing the market for their products seize up, are now aggressively promoting discounts and deals to their existing customers. Manhattan Mercedes-Benz, for example, is offering $0 down payment and annual percentage rate financing of only 1.9% for a trade-in on a 2009 E-Class. That's more than 60% off the standard 4.9% APR.
Not only are there plenty of deals, but many of the new cars due out soon on the sales floors were conceived during the peak of the boom, and even a global recession wasn't enough to put the brakes on production. Take the new Jaguar XJ, for example. While dealers are slashing the price on the outgoing model to clear excess inventory,