Seeing as you have the money, why not get a Prestige Hybrid car, such as a [broken link removed]? Customers would be impressed both by the brand and the green credentials.
I totally agree. The Lexus is a classy vehicle. The Mercedes has become a symbol of nouveau riche/Celtic Tiger - "look how I am considerably richer than you" mentality. The BMW's now are two a penny and are being driven by Irish chavs (skangers with money?), solicitors, TD/Ministers/lobbyists, drug pushers, bimbo celeb models, young yobs in baseball caps etc - especially the 3 and 5 series.
The bigger Lexus hybrids are classy without being ostentatious. Lexus is the best selling luxury car in the U.S., well in the North West anyway where I visited recently. From next July they are going to be scarce!
The big Audi's, according to Clarkson and mechanics in the trade are supposed to be better than the Mercs and BMW's. Mercs always gave me the wrong impression (my jealousy?) when doing business with suppliers I dealt with in a previous job... were they creaming too much from our contracts etc?
I wish I could empathise with the problem of what to do with a car budget of €55K!