Best luxury and performance car deals
If you've got a healthy monthly budget, you can find some very tempting cars for your cash
If you’re in the fortunate position where you have around £500 to £1,500 to spend on your new car every month, you can find some very special models for your money. The best luxury and performance car deals on the market offer some seriously attractive cars for an ever more desirable price, and our experts have trawled the market to find the very best offers out there.
The deals below include everything ranging from the sporty Lotus Emira to the hugely practical Volkswagen Touareg. If you’re keen to reduce your carbon footprint, you’ll also find two of our favourite electric cars. Put simply, you’ll be pretty spoilt for choice.
Of course, the car market is a fast-paced one, so we’ve also linked to our Auto Express Find a Car marketplace so you can find the very latest offers from our network of dealers.
Audi RS 6 Avant - £1,300 per month
- Model: RS 6 Avant Performance
- List price: £113,815
- Powertrain 4.0-litre V8 petrol, AWD
- Power: 621bhp
- 0-62mph 3.4 seconds
If you can spend £1,300 a month on a lease, there are some very desirable choices from brands such as Porsche and Maserati. But for us, the most thrilling all-rounder is the superb Audi RS 6 Avant.
It makes a convincing pitch to be the only car you’d ever need, offering the practicality of a family estate car with a 565-litre boot, plus a 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 that in the latest Performance trim produces 621bhp. Unlike electric and hybrid models, it also makes a fantastic noise.
The 'everyday supercar' credentials are further bolstered by the quattro four-wheel drive system and the latest model’s improved suspension, which means you can use the RS 6 in all weathers without having to be petrified of slippery surfaces and potholes. This pumped-up Audi A6 is a surefire future classic, so grab one while you can.
BMW 5 Series - £625 per month
- Model: 530e M Sport
- List price: £59,445
- Powertrain: 2.0-litre 4-cylinder petrol PHEV, RWD
- Power: 295bhp
- 0-62mph: 6.3 seconds
If you are a company car driver and have HMRC peering into your pay packet, you are likely to be looking at tax-efficient executive cars such as the all-electric BMW i5. But private motorists could save a few quid per month on a lease and have a combustion-powered BMW 5 Series instead.
Look at the list prices and the difference between the lowliest 520 and the 530e plug-in hybrid is a whopping £8,440, but bizarrely the PHEV is £117 per month cheaper on a lease. That means drivers can have the best of both worlds, plugging in at home or work to get up to 64 miles of electric range, while having the back-up of the 2.0-litre petrol engine for longer journeys.
If you want a little more practicality than the saloon version offers, we’d recommend opting for the 5 Series Touring estate, especially because it adds just 77p to the monthly payments on a lease contract.
Kia EV6 - £509 per month
- Model: EV6 239kW GT-Line S
- List price: £53,675
- Powertrain: 84kWh battery, 1x e-motor, RWD
- Power: 225bhp
- 0-62mph: 7.7 seconds
There are some great deals on the facelifted Kia EV6, and it’s possible to get some of the lower-trim models for a lot less than £500 per month. But electric driving offers savings if you can charge at home, so you might fancy the posher GT-Line S version, which costs £509.36. As well as having some extra luxuries, it looks far sportier, with a bodykit and 20-inch wheels.
This is the rear-wheel-drive variant rather than the twin-motor AWD car, but we think it’s slightly sweeter to drive despite the lesser performance and grip. The other advantage is its range: the 84kWh battery offers 347 miles between top-ups, compared with 324 miles for the AWD. When you do need to charge, the EV6’s 800V electrical system means it can take on power faster than almost any other electric car on sale.
Lotus Emira - £732 per month
- Model: Emira 2.0 First Edition
- List price: £82,650
- Powertrain: 2.0-litre 4-cylinder petrol, RWD
- Power: 360bhp
- 0-62mph: 4.3 seconds
Although £732 per month would rarely be considered cheap, we don’t think you could get a more exciting car than this Lotus Emira for less than £750 per month. For example, the Emira’s biggest rival – the Porsche Cayman – costs £201 a month more, while an Alpine A110 is £859.
The last combustion-engined Lotus combines the dynamic performance you’d expect from the iconic British brand with huge leaps in quality, equipment and refinement compared with older models. It’s not quite as raw as an Elise or an Evora, but it is still engineered for excitement.
Our chosen offer is for the First Edition model, which is powered by a 2.0-litre four-cylinder engine borrowed from the Mercedes-AMG A 45 hatchback. It'll do 0-62mph in just 4.3 seconds, while a V6-engined version is also available.
Tesla Model Y - £569 per month
- Model: Model Y performance AWD
- List price: £59,990
- Powertrain: 78kWh battery, 2x e-motors, AWD
- Power: 426bhp
- 0-62mph: 3.6 seconds
There are lower-spec versions of Tesla’s big-selling Model Y that are available for less than our £500 limit here, including some which now have a seven-seat option. But if your monthly budget can stretch to £569, you will be able to afford the astonishing Performance model.
As with all Model Ys, it has a massive interior, which offers a van-like boot and plenty of space for passengers. It’s light and airy too, with minimal switches and enough technology to keep gadget fans happy. Oddly, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are not available, but Tesla’s operating system is so good you don’t really miss them. The 319-mile range on the Performance version isn’t as long as you get in the less sporty models with smaller wheels, but the trade-off is acceleration figures that are better than most supercars.
Volkswagen Touareg - £610 per month
- Model: Touareg 3.0 V6 TDI 4Motion 286 Black Edition
- List price: £72,875
- Powertrain: 3.0-litre 6-cylinder diesel, AWD
- Power: 286bhp
- 0-62mph: 6.4 seconds
Some drivers will be resisting the move to electric and hybrid cars, perhaps because they cover big mileages and can’t access charging, or need to tow a caravan or horsebox. Luckily for them there’s still a decent selection of big turbo-diesel 4x4s available that are perfect for lugging loads, including this Volkswagen Touareg. It has a massive 3,500kg braked towing capacity and an 810-litre boot.
The VW flagship might not be the obvious choice in this market sector, but the lease cost of £609.59 is at least £300 a month less than an equivalent Land Rover Discovery. That price is for a Black Edition, which has some desirable equipment and dechromed exterior styling. It is powered by a 3.0-litre V6 TDI engine, linked to an automatic gearbox and a 4Motion all-wheel drive system.
See our Volkswagen Touareg deals
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