2001 GS430 vs. 2003 GS300
11-04-14, 10:33 PM
#31
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I am the OP for 2001 GS430 vs. 2003 GS300
Folks:
Apologies for just jumping in now, but I only got a notice yesterday that people were even replying to my post! Not sure why, but maybe all of the other posts went into my spam. Anyway, if anyone's interested, a brief (sad) overview of what I did.
First off, the morning after my original post, it suddenly struck me like, WTF am I even thinking, of course I'll go for the 430! So, I immediately called the dealer in NJ - a Lexus dealer in fact, Lexus of Route 10 - and told this sales guy Carl I'd be driving up the next day from outside Wash, DC. I was psyched, the GS430 had only 59K miles on it, AND the dealership had just replaced the timing belt. And to beat it all, the car was only $12,400. With that low mileage and timing belt replaced, I figured I'd get 100K miles of fun and reliable driving. Carl said he'd have the car ready for me, they'd value my trade in, and we'd get it done. I was so psyched I had trouble sleeping.
So, at 7:30am the next morning I left, still totally excited. Then disaster. At around 9am I get a text from my sales guy saying that when he walked in that morning he discovered the car had sold the night before after he'd left at around 5:30. Absolutely true story. Carl of course was bummed because he lost the sale to another sales guy. But he wasn't as bummed as me! I was well up I95 by then and I was just shocked. Literally losing what I'm sure was an awesome car by a few hours. And at that price with low miles and new timing belt, from a well reviewed Lexus dealer as opposed to a fly-by-night used car lot it was just an incredible steal, no way that type of value is coming up anytime soon. Needless to say, it was a looooong ride home
At this point... I may go for a Certified ES350 as there are some incredibly good deals out there on the 2007-2011 body style. Alternatively, have seen a few 2008-2009 Lexus GS 350s at fairly reasonable prices as well (although not sure about reliability of post 2005 GS models, I'm going to do another post on this question in fact). The wife meanwhile wants an RX350, so we'll see.
Anyway, apologies all for "disappearing" - I really didn't mean to. I guess according to the consensus I did make the right choice going for the 430, I just missed it by a few hours.
And sorry for making you all read my long note, but I figured since so many folks took the time to post replies I owed everyone the full (sob) story!
Apologies for just jumping in now, but I only got a notice yesterday that people were even replying to my post! Not sure why, but maybe all of the other posts went into my spam. Anyway, if anyone's interested, a brief (sad) overview of what I did.
First off, the morning after my original post, it suddenly struck me like, WTF am I even thinking, of course I'll go for the 430! So, I immediately called the dealer in NJ - a Lexus dealer in fact, Lexus of Route 10 - and told this sales guy Carl I'd be driving up the next day from outside Wash, DC. I was psyched, the GS430 had only 59K miles on it, AND the dealership had just replaced the timing belt. And to beat it all, the car was only $12,400. With that low mileage and timing belt replaced, I figured I'd get 100K miles of fun and reliable driving. Carl said he'd have the car ready for me, they'd value my trade in, and we'd get it done. I was so psyched I had trouble sleeping.
So, at 7:30am the next morning I left, still totally excited. Then disaster. At around 9am I get a text from my sales guy saying that when he walked in that morning he discovered the car had sold the night before after he'd left at around 5:30. Absolutely true story. Carl of course was bummed because he lost the sale to another sales guy. But he wasn't as bummed as me! I was well up I95 by then and I was just shocked. Literally losing what I'm sure was an awesome car by a few hours. And at that price with low miles and new timing belt, from a well reviewed Lexus dealer as opposed to a fly-by-night used car lot it was just an incredible steal, no way that type of value is coming up anytime soon. Needless to say, it was a looooong ride home
At this point... I may go for a Certified ES350 as there are some incredibly good deals out there on the 2007-2011 body style. Alternatively, have seen a few 2008-2009 Lexus GS 350s at fairly reasonable prices as well (although not sure about reliability of post 2005 GS models, I'm going to do another post on this question in fact). The wife meanwhile wants an RX350, so we'll see.
Anyway, apologies all for "disappearing" - I really didn't mean to. I guess according to the consensus I did make the right choice going for the 430, I just missed it by a few hours.
And sorry for making you all read my long note, but I figured since so many folks took the time to post replies I owed everyone the full (sob) story!
11-06-14, 07:20 AM
#32
Man that sucks. I've been to that dealership a few times and they're pretty good. I'm from the DMV area originally so I know what that ride to and fro is like; especially when you expected to be coming back with your new ride (ouch)
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