For consumers with luxury tastes but lunch bucket incomes, about the only way they'd ever see a Lexus, Lincoln or Mercedes-Benz in their

driveways was if a rich friend came to visit. Now, however, fantasies of tooling the boulevards in a high-end ride are being requited more often for those with modest incomes, thanks to the spread of certified

used vehicle programs, according to the Detroit News.

Word is getting around that certified used

programs offer a solid alternative to buying a new vehicle, the News said. Since 2000,

sales of certified used vehicles have increased 46 percent, according to a recent J.D. Power study.

Adding to the value of used vehicles,

especially those that are certified, is the fact there are just so many of them. The torrid pace of new car sales over the last four years has resulted in a flood of trade-ins jamming dealers' lots. About 100,000 trade-ins or vehicles coming off leases are flowing into the marketplace each month, according to Paul Taylor, chief economist at the National

Automobile Dealers Association (NADA).