flipside909

Unfortunately you live in a place where cost of living goes along with the income out there, so yes, in comparison to the rest of California, it is inflated. I should know this, I grew up in the Bay Area. 5k service here in SoCal is less than $80 w/tax and all the environmental fees and that's for Lexus. Toyota's services are way less. I take it the only place you trust to take your vehicle for repairs is the dealership. A wise consumer always shops for the best price for services, even if you have to drive a little bit further. $100 for a 5k service at Fremont Toyota? Hook line and sinker...and the dealership service dept. wins.

CK6Speed

iTrader: (1)

That is pretty cheap. I think our prices are somewhat in line with SF prices. The difference is we get the high service price but our incomes are quite low compared to the rest of the nation Man, I wouldn't mind so much paying the same gas prices as SF and service prices if I could get paid their average salaries

Rockville

You can pretty much add a hundred dollars to those prices here in the Eastern Region! If you are a happy camper at the end of the day then I guess it's worth it. BMW is in for service twice as often as a Lexus and usually for a repair not maintenance so what is your time and effort worth even if the servicing is under warranty? I would agree with Flipside that if you can find a good reliable shop to service your car put your favorite tech on your Christmas card list. A good service consultant can make your day a lot easier. Those Lexus loaner cars cost about $35,000 each and they are a nice perk too. The service dept. is the toughest job in the dealership and is highly stressful. If there is a grey area such as your car has just gone out of warranty and you need something replaced then a good service history is your best ally and can lead to a "goodwill" coverage of the repair. Just ask nicely....

flipside909

Yeah I guess we're lucky here in SoCal. Considering we are car culture capital of the world, service departments here thrive on the many cars that clog all of our freeways. Lucky for us our Lexus dealers don't charge us an arm and a leg for the same services in other parts of the country. We're even lucky to have places like Luxury Motorworks who offer the same basic 5k dealership service for only $55. And this using Toyota Genuine Parts and techs that have years of Lexus service department experience.

chiawei

It's not i trust dealers. Everything else is expansive too. Yes I am paying a premium to get it done at dealer. But they open at odd hours and I can get in and out when I have the time.

The lexus dealer in fremont's service department is 24 hours operation (except on weekends). Nothing beats that. The toyota also has door open late (even though they do not advertise it).

The dealer is about 5 minutes from my house close to the mountain. It's close. I don't have the time to drive around for better service price. In addition, all dealers in the bay area charges about the same. Unless you are going to drive at least an hour away, you have no choices.

flipside909

You pay a price for convenience unfortunately. Lexus and Toyotas are still relatively cheap to maintain in the long run.

lexguynj

2006 530i vs 2006 GS300 = 2006 530i
2006 530i vs. 2006 GS430 = Still Deciding
2006 530i vs. 2006 GS450 = 2006 GS450 (Not Available yet)
2006 550i vs. 2006 GS450 = Unknown

My decision for my next car later this year has pretty much come down to the BMW 5 Series (Current 2001 530i owner) and the Lexus GS (Fomer 2001 GS430 owner).

Since the BMW 530i loaded is in the GS430 price range, it is a better comparision for what I can get for the money I am able to spend.

I love the new 2006 GS430, but hesistant to buy it later this year and then a couple of months later the GS450 becomes available.

Is a 300HP V8 good enough for now? Sure it is! Is a proported 325+HP V8 in early Spring 2006 worth the wait for the 2007 MY, YES IT IS - if you can wait.

Eventhough the 2006 will have the same look as the 2007, that upgraded V8 engine and the rebadging to a GS450 is a world of difference to me.

The decision would be a no brainer if a 2006 GS450 were possible and available this year. A GS450 if available now would have sold even more units than the current GS430.

This is a tough one!

chiawei

yes in a long run lexus is cheaper. That's why you need to dump the german car before the warranty/maint expires. It makes no sense to keep german car past the 4 year period.

chiawei

If you keep on waiting, there will always be something new on the horizon.

BTW, given the fact that BMW is blowing the 545i out of the door with great incentive. Why not buy a 545i and forget about comparing. The 545i would probably be faster than GS450H. Plus you don't need to worry about battery being recharged (given the fact you probably drive the car hard, chances are your battery will not be charged fully in majority of the time).

3 of my buddies just did ED on 3 545i 2 weeks ago.

LexFather

March Sales
5 = 3,949
E = 3,608
GS = 3,209
STS = 2,954
M = 2,253
A6 = 1,681
RL = 1,376

I wonder if the GS can catch up with the E for 2nd? Maybe even the 5 for 1st place in the segment? It really is not far off.

Incendiary

If Lexus could beat the 7 and S in sales, I'm sure they can beat the 5 and E as well. It'll take time, but Lexus also needs to engineer a bit more excitement into their cars as well. The new GS drives well, but still needs more soul.

RL is starting to look like a has been. I wonder if the Automobile win by the A6 will increase sales. They've been pretty subpar thus far.

jrock65

The RL is a very nice car actually, too bad it's getting overlooked amid the onslaught by the other manufacturers.

The thing that really hurts RL sales is that it only has one loaded AWD $50,000 version. If Lexus only sold a GS300 AWD with Navi/Levinson and Infiniti only sold an M35x with Tech Package, the sales for those cars would not be impressive either.

There is no way you can have FWD with 300hp, so the RL has to be AWD, but Honda should have made some things options, such as the 5.1 Bose and the Navi. And they stubbornly refuse to develop a V8, so their loss.

Acura should have started the RL at $45,000 MSRP and offered the Navi/Bose 5.1/XM Traffic/XM radio/Onstar as a $4,500 option. Then, people could get this "base" RL on the street for $41,000 with discounts, and I could see a quite a few people opting for the RL at that price. After all, not everyone wants or cares about the stereo or the Navi. I bet more than half of GS300 sales are without the Navi/Levinson package.

Incendiary

I agree, I wonder why Honda hasn't realized this yet.

LexFather

Jrock makes a great point. I think Acura did try that (mid 90s to early 00s) and it didn't work. So they decided to go after the niche and to load they're cars up. And it has worked, as sales are back up to early 90s levels and beyond.

I never expected the RL to be a great seller, I accepted it for what it was not want some want it to be.

spwolf

I dont think Lexus will want to sell as many per year, that means bigger incentives, etc, etc. I doubt they will significantly raise production from their estimates either. From their sales goals, seems they will be happy to hoover around 300k mark this year, and that probably means lower incentives on RX330.

I dont see what the big hoopla for 530i is, it was significantly slower in any performance measurment than GS430 in CD, so for the same price it doesnt make any sense. It was below average in handling as well among cars tested so buying 530i performance? Hm.

To me 530i is definetly the souless car of the group, no emotion in the design both interior and exterior, typical German coldness and engineering.

All 3 cars represent their marques well, BMW cold, german design and engineering, GS Japanese fashion statement and MB german elegance.