Leaving the X for an appliance car

[MINIz guy]

So my parents are thinking of getting rid of their X6 (yea, not an X5 but the X6 forum gets no activity) so they aren't just sitting on a depreciating piece of metal. It is 4 years old now with only 32k miles. We're worried about long term reliability with the turbo engine, especially since my parents do not push it ever.

This brings us to the problem. We need another car to substitute for the X6. Instead of being a "fun" car like the X6, they want it to be a spare/appliance car. Therefore, this car needs to have an automatic, be pseudo-luxury, be as reliable as gravity, cheap (less than $15k), and preferably used so it doesn't depreciate much more.

I want to get them into an American car, but cannot think of something made recent enough. I want to show them an Impala or something similar, but I know they won't be able to get over driving just a "Chebbie".

Japanese cars are clearly the answer, but which one? They've test driven the Lexus RX and didn't like it compared to our E53 X5. They want a little more steering feel than the Lexus, so which one? For instance, Mazdas have great steering feel but the older ones aren't luxury and the newer ones are too expensive.

They've always wanted a Mercedes. I don't want to introduce them to a Daimler-era Benz, since that has the chance to be a money pit. What about the older W124? Any other German cars could I look into?