Iceman

Those of you who have been following the saga of my new car purchase decision know that I narrowed the field down to these two worthy contenders. In this corner, the undisputed champion of luxury, build quality, and customer service. And in the other corner, the never-defeated "bang for the buck" winner, with nice performance, luxury features, and service of its own.

I just placed my order for a 2002 GS430.

Although my wife and I clearly liked the Lexus better, we kept coming back to wondering if it was really worth the $20K premium over the Acura. In the end we decided that it was. We ordered it in millenium silver/light charcoal with the full stage 2 L-Tuned kit including 18" wheels. They all come loaded now, so it's got the ML/nav, spoiler, floor and trunk mats, cargo net, and wheel locks. We ordered direct from Japan because of that nasty "four colors only" problem (they were going to get us a mystic sea opalescent), but L-Tuned side skirts only come in white, black, and silver. L-Tuned was more important than the color, so we settled for the boring (but safe) color choice!

It will be 6-8 weeks before it arrives in the final allocation of 2002 models. I'm not too worried about what Lexus will do with next year's GS because I know that we're perfectly happy with the looks, features, and performance of the current model. They offered us quite a deal (about $6K off sticker plus paying off the rest of our BMW lease), and it was the smoothest purchase process I've ever been through. If this is an indication of Lexus customer service, then I think they've earned a customer for life.

Sorry to bore you all with the lengthy post, but we're pretty excited. Thanks for the help and information you all have provided over the past several months--it really did help us make the decision!

Kbueno

I was in the same situation you were in except I was looking for a used GS (couldn't afford a new one...come to think of it I don't know I can afford the one I bought) vs new TL-S. Having extensively driven the TL-S (my brother in law was one of the first to purchase) I had an idea what I was gettin into. For pure bang for buck the TL is hard to beat. But after taking a test drive in a (now my) 01 Silver GS430 the choice was clear. Sure the parts are expensive, insurance is higher....but let's face it: the GS430 is in a class above the TL Type S. I do wish the GS430 had the manumatic tranny shifter like the TL ..but it makes up for it in performance.

Now for the big question:
Who gets to drive it most? I only get to drive mine on weekends cuz I need a truck for work usually.

Congrats anyway!

mumbles

Congrats on your purchase, it was a wise one and I'm sure you'll be pleased... let the waiting begin

///MDex

Congrats!

When I saw the thread title, I said to myself oh no, not another one of these threads...

That sound like a heck of a deal too with the reduction and paying off your existing lease; good deal. Glad to see you took the time to get what you really wanted.

GlobeCLK

iTrader: (5)

congrats man.

Hey, even the GS forum is better than the TL forum! (no offense to the TL forum but hey that's the fact)

Rover

Congrats, bro.
And welcome to the club.
It's nice to see that you are happy
with the decision you made.
Believe me, you think you love Lexus
now, you gonna love it even more as
the time goes on. It was a wise choice.

Toog4me

Congrats!!! You will love the GS430 so much! I just got a 2001 (pics coming soon) gs430 and spent the weekend driving and driving, and never got bored of it. Good choice and congradulations!

Dvlad

Like everyone said, Congrats!!

Over time you'll find the people in this forum have a huge wealth of knowledge on the GS.
Even if you aren't into modding as most of the forum members are, it's always nice to know that you will find someone that can provide answers for a basic or advanced question.

Enjoy your new baby

mooretorque

Well done, Ice!!! And (not to wear it out, but) congratulations!!

LexFather

ICE ICE BABY!!!!

Congrats, this is wonderful!!!! Wow L-tuned and all, I am speechless ICEMAN!!!

Murph

Ice

You chose wisely. I also was making the same choices however I ended up with a CPO 99 GS400 due to my high mileage accumulations. The GS is a unique automobile that will never be mistaken for any other vehicle. Enjoy and welcome to CL.

Murph

Johnny Mo

Congrats! on the new ride.

mumbles

Agreed. One of the nice things about the GS is that you don't see too many of them on the roads.

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

Iceman - I too have millenium silver and charcoal interior although mine's a 2000 (wish I had the newer ML/Nav but I'm not sure I'd trade it for e-shift which I use every day).

Iceman

Thank you everyone for the kind words of welcome. It has been a sometimes painful journey these past several months trying to make the decision (as 1SickLex among others can probably attest). In the end the car sold itself--we felt happy when sitting in and driving the TL, but felt at home with the GS.

Believe it or not, one thing that influenced me was this board. Although I've seen petty namecalling and whatnot here at times, the general level of maturity does seem higher than at the TL board. Heck, I was just in the lobby learning about high-end wristwatches! And, as others have said, the GS (especially the GS4) is a fairly rare beast.

I worded the title of the thread the way I did just to get a reaction like Dex had--sorry! Here I am talking about board immaturity and I resort to such a sneaky trick...