6 Cool Cars the Middle Class Can Afford, According to Car Expert Doug DeMuro

Buying a car on a middle-class budget doesn’t mean you can’t get a “cool” car.

Based on the middle-class income range of $56,600 to $169,800, as identified by the Pew Research Center, and on the rule of thumb that a vehicle that costs roughly half of your annual take-home pay is considered affordable, a budget of $40,000 should be attainable for many middle-class car buyers.

If you’re looking for a unique, fun car that’s suitable for the everyday driver, you might want to consider one of these models for $40,000 and under recommended by car expert Doug DeMuro.

“This is a full-size, big body luxury sedan and it was intended to be Genesis’s answer to the Mercedes-Benz S-Class, the BMW 7 Series, the Audi A8, the Lexus LS — the flagship luxury sedans,” DeMuro said in a recent YouTube video.

DeMuro particularly recommends going for a 2020 model year or newer, as this was the year the G90 was given a “heavy facelift.”

“It got a more upscale, almost more sedate, pure luxury kind of look to it,” he said. “It really looks like a true crazy luxury car, and that’s because it now was offered with a 5-liter naturally aspirated big old V8. It made 420 horsepower and about 385-pound-feet of torque, so you have a full-size, big body, comfortable plush luxury sedan and you have big power.”

The G90 also offers “serious high-end opulent luxury” throughout its interior as well as “really high-end technology equipment.”

“These cars have enormous power, enormous excitement [and] they’re tremendously fun to drive,” DeMuro said. “They’re crazy vehicles. The engine is really fantastic.”

While these can be fun cars to own, they’re better fits for experienced drivers.

“You’ve got to know what you’re doing to even get behind the wheel and do anything fun in the car,” DeMuro said. “The biggest danger of the Hellcat is the third owner — not the first one who’s got all the money or the second one who buys a lightly used car and babies it. When they start getting into this price point, this is where they become dangerous.

“And you can be that danger and drive around with a 700-horsepower supercharged V8,” he continued. “[The Hellcats are] very appealing cars, very ridiculous and absurd, and I’m absolutely thrilled that the Hellcat is starting to make its way into the $40,000 price bracket.”

The only SUV or truck on DeMuro’s list is the fifth-generation Toyota 4Runner TRD Pro. While this model came out in 2012, DeMuro said to look out for models from 2015 and later.

“In 2015, they came out with the top-of-the-line TRD Pro model, which was the most off-road version,” he said. “Not only did it have all the cool off-road gear, like crawl control, terrain select, low range, etc., but it also just looked the part. They gave it beefy tires and cool trim and upgrades.”

DeMuro also notes that these vehicles are typically easy to maintain.

“[The 4Runner TRD Pro] is tremendously capable — they can really do anything and go anywhere,” he said. “They were amazing adventure vehicles; and, because they’re 4Runners, they will run forever.

“They are very simple cars,” DeMuro continued. “This generation of 4Runner [comes equipped with a] 4-liter V6 — an easy engine to own and maintain.”

If you want to add to your car’s “cool” factor, opt for one of the limited edition colors.

“Every year Toyota would do a new special color just for the TRD Pro models, and there were some really gorgeous colors in there,” DeMuro said. “The colored cars tend to cost more money, but you also get more when you go to resell it later. And in the meantime, you drive around in the coolest thing.”

The BMW M3 F80 is the fifth-generation M3, sold from 2014 to 2018.

“Considering this car is … less than 10 years old, the tech is probably pretty good and fairly modern, and the performance is fairly good,” DeMuro said. “As much as I love the M4, and it also deserves to be on this list, it’s cool to have the practicality of an M3. You get four doors, a real sedan body style and a six-speed manual transmission.”

While not everyone is a fan of the styling of these vehicles, DeMuro likes the look.

“I happen to think they look quite nice,” he said. “[Since] the new M3 has come out, there’s been some controversy about its sort of unusual styling — the F80 is very sedated and more simplistic and basic by comparison.”

“All car enthusiasts lust after the Porsche 911 in one way or another,” DeMuro said, “and, while some 911 and especially 911 Turbos from this era have really taken off in price, the 996 model has always stayed relatively affordable.”

In the $30,000 to $40,000 price range, you can find Porsche 911 Carrera 4S models, which have a wider body than the regular Carrera 2.

“They’re just cool,” DeMuro said. “I really think they’re some of the very best-looking Porsche 911 models.”

However, he noted that these cars have “one fatal flaw, which is the intermediate shaft — the IMS issue. You want to look into it and make sure it’s already been changed, or factor into the purchase price changing the IMS. But other than that, they’re actually fairly reliable cars.”

“The RS 3 is really cool — I love how it looks, I love how small and nimble it is,” DeMuro said. “That’s the thing that really gets me about it. The [BMW] M3 is great, but the RS 3 almost makes the M3 feel big.”

Although it’s available only with automatic transmission, this makes the RS 3 more practical for someone looking to drive it as their everyday vehicle.

“It drives well — it’s relatively smooth when you want it to be, but it can also be a thrilling car to take on corners and really have fun with on weekends,” DeMuro said. “It’s kind of a do-everything car.”

Editor’s note: Photos are for representational purposes only and might not reflect the exact makes and models of the vehicles listed in this article.