I don't think it's quite that bad yet, but I have heard the average new car loan is something like 66 months.
I see plenty of luxury brands on the roads, but most of what they peddle these days are not what I'd really call luxury cars. The majority of BMWs, for example are the 3-series. I just did a quick Google search, and found leases starting around $339 per month. For comparison, 15 years ago I bought a new 2000 Dodge Intrepid that was $22,389 out the door. It was $2000 down and $347.66 per month, 60 months at 0.9%. About two years ago I bought a leftover 2012 Dodge Ram Hemi for $20,751 out the door. We used my uncle's dying '97 Silverado as a trade and got $1300 and I financed the $19,451 for 5 years at 3.99%, and the payment was around $359 per month.
I was just going to write a check for the truck, but if I financed through them they knocked another $500 off the price. Actually, let me re-phrase that, so I don't sound too one-percenty here. I was planning on writing a check from my HELOC, to pay for that truck!
And what I ended up doing was taking their $500 extra incentive, and made a couple months of payments, and then used the HELOC to pay it off.
Anyway, back to BMW's...looks like a 5-series starts around $539 per month to lease. But if you want to really show off, you need a 7-series sedan, which starts at $909 a month, or go topless with a 6-series convertible, which starts around $1079 per month.
I'm sure better deals can be found. I just googled "BMW Lease" and looked at the first page that easily navigated to some figures.
BMWs and Benzes also don't tend to "age", for lack of a better word, like most cars. When a new style comes out, it doesn't seem to be a vast departure from the previous model, in style. And they tend to not be what I'd call "high style" or "flash in the pan", so in a few years they don't go out of style. Therefore, it's easy to go get a used one, and many of the uninformed will simply see that little blue spinning propeller or the snooty star badge and not realize that it might be a ten year old car.
But, in general, car styles don't change as often as they used to, so I guess the same would hold true for more plebian, everyday cars as well. A well-maintained 10 year old car doesn't look all that out of place compared to the current models.