Cheapest to most expensive: The car brands with the biggest price ranges

But it also got the team to thinking – that’s a big gap between the cheapest Honda model to the dearest... And that made us wonder: which car brand has the biggest gap between the cheapest and most expensive models in its range?

This list is for new cars available in Australia, on sale in 2016. Prices are in Aussie dollars. Here are 15 of the biggest gaps between entry-point and flagship models:

Lamborghini
Gap: $537,250

Lamborghini is not what you could call affordable, but the entry-level Huracan LP580-2 is priced at a sharp $378,900 plus on-road costs, while at the other end of the scale is the highly desirable Aventador LP750-4 Superveloce, which is priced at an eye-watering $916,150 plus on-road costs.

Mercedes-Benz
Gap: $464,800

The cheapest Mercedes-Benz you can buy is the base model A-Class, the A180, which kicks off at $37,200 plus on-road costs. Bookending the range is the manic, super-luxe Mercedes-AMG S65 Coupe, which is attracts a princely price tag of $502,000 plus on-road costs. The gap will be bigger when the Mercedes-AMG S65 Cabriolet arrives later this year – it is likely to be priced at about $530,000.

Honda
Gap: $405,010

Yep, you can get a very wallet-friendly Jazz for just $14,990 plus on-road costs. Honda is, after all, known for its affordability. But with the NSX supercar coming in at $420,000 plus on-roads, there were a few people in the office that said “how do they think they can justify that?”

Porsche
Gap: $385,845

The list price of the Porsche 911 Turbo S Convertible is $477,700 plus on-road costs, which is considerably higher than the entry-level model in the brand’s range, the Macan S diesel ($91,855 plus on-roads). That’s list price, though: some of the Stuttgart marque’s cars are so desirable they’re fetching a lot more than list… 

Audi
Gap: $362,716

Another German brand to make the list is from Ingolstadt, with Audi’s most affordable model coming in at just $26,900 plus on-road costs in the form of the A1 1.0-litre manual. At the other end of the showroom – with an engine 5.2 times the capacity and with more than six times the power – is the R8 plus, at $389,616 plus on-roads.

Bentley
Gap: $343,887

Another luxury brand that has a big spread of pricing is British maker Bentley, another maker that couldn’t be labelled affordable for any model. The entry-point is the Flying Spur at $389,500 plus on-road costs, while the huge Mulsanne Speed wears an equally large price tag, at $733,387 plus on-roads.

Land Rover and Range Rover
Gap: $329,600

The iconic Defender was previously the most affordable model in the brand’s ranks at $42,800 plus on-roads – that was the list price for the final 2016 models – again, people were paying over the odds for it!. The space between the rugged off-roader and the flagship Rangie, the Range Rover V8SC SVAutobiography LWB at $372,400, is massive.

A couple of others worth mentioning:

Ferrari – Gap: $280,857
Cheapest: California T – $409,888 plus on-road costs
Dearest: F12berlinetta – $690,745 plus on-road costs

BMW – Gap: $275,515
Cheapest: 118i – $36,900 plus on-road costs
Dearest: 750Li – $312,415 plus on-road costs

Jaguar – Gap: $247,786
Cheapest: XE 20t Prestige – $60,400
Dearest: F-Type SVR AWD – $308,186

Maserati – Gap: $215,100
Cheapest: Ghibli – $139,900 plus on-road costs
Dearest: GranCabriolet MC – $355,000 plus on-road costs

McLaren – Gap: $186,000
Cheapest: 540C – $325,000 plus on-road costs
Dearest: 650S – $511,000 plus on-road costs

Lexus – Gap: $171,836
Cheapest: CT200h – $37,990 plus on-road costs
Dearest: LS600h F Sport – $209,826 plus on-road costs

Nissan – Gap: $169,010
Cheapest: Micra ST manual – $13,490 plus on-road costs
Dearest: GT-R – $182,500 plus on-road costs

Rolls-Royce – Gap: $80,000
Cheapest: Ghost – $595,000 plus on-road costs
Dearest: Ghost Extended Wheelbase – $675,000 plus on-road costs

Tell us what you think: do any of these brands surprise you?