There are not big mansions in Palermo Recoleta- there is one small area where there are some structures that once were mansions, and are now mostly foreign embassies.
But in the city, even very wealthy people usually live in apartments. There are tens of thousands of "Casa Chorizo's", which are small, usually one story houses, and a few neighborhoods with a few streets of bigger houses- but to get into mansion territory, you need to get pretty far out of town.
The center of Buenos Aires looks much more like Paris- blocks filled with 5 story tall apartment buildings- than it does like Beverly Hills, with mansions on large yards, fenced and landscaped. Even the few big single family houses that remain are almost always shoulder to shoulder with apartment buildings on each side, and have quite small properties.
And, generally, an SUV or a Citroen 5 or an Audi in the garage.
While there are rich people in Argentina, it is not a land of conspicuous consumption, and its nothing like Los Angeles, or even Tokyo, where you see expensive cars daily.
