Jabberwock

I love the brown and green colors - they are my favorite but most may not like them at all. I know Lexus only produced small numbers of cherry, brown and green.

beauty is in the eye of the beholder - that's why they make several colors so folks can choose what they like.

CarGuy89

Thanks for all the helpful input! Glad to hear the positive experience everyone has had with their awesome rides so far! I agree that color is a huge deal, I, for ex, would never buy a car in a light green color while my dad loves that color lol. I took a look at a silver 430 with 18in 5 spokes and I must say it looked stunning in person. I know that that color combo/wheel style is definitely my first choice. I like how silver is relatively low maintenance and shows off the lines of the car. I also like the fact that silver blends in (I like to blend in). Darker colors and white are also very nice so I wouldn't complain about those either. I would like to have the modern lux package for the Bluetooth. I am always focused 100% on the road (hence no accidents my fault so far). The Bluetooth will help me receive calls without taking my eyes off the road.

I did read a lot of people suggesting that I look for one without nav. Is this a particularly troublesome area? Our 2000 odyssey had an in dash nav and that still works fine (ya I know it's not Toyota but I'm lumping the good Japanese brands).

Again thanks for all the great feedback and advice, I really appreciate it!

EDIT: Just curious how many people bought their cars from a Lexus dealer? How many went with some arbitrary dealer? There are some attractive deals at independent dealers like an 06 modern lux with 33k miles for 25k, while other similar ones are closer to 30k. I have heard mostly horror stories from these types of places like lencore (sp?) and car max.

Jabberwock

In DFW area LS models are in very high demand, so the 3 main Lexus dealers outbid smaller dealers and buy all the really nice lower mile LS at the local and regional auctions. They avoid the serious problem cars and high mile cars so the third party smaller guys get those to sell. I would not buy a car from a non Lexus dealer in DFW area especially if it came from one of the local or regional auctions. So it really depends on the demand for LS in your town. If demand is low you might be able to get a good car from an independent.

CarGuy89

Thanks for the tip. Yeah I am definitely leaning towards going with a Lexus dealer and getting a cpo for peace of mind. The one that i mentioned in my post comes from a place called finest autos. I did some more research on them and all i can say is DO NOT ever buy from them. They tried to sell one guy a severly wrecked IS without disclosing this to him! There are several cpo within a realistic distance that seem very nice. Those are the safest bets.

Slightly OT, but do the 430s come with an aux jack so you can hook your phone up and play music through the speakers?

DDLexus

The LS430 might show up in several places... if the 1st owner leased the car, Lexus will then recover that car after the lease expires. Then, the local Lexus dealer will have the option to keep and recondition the car and sell as used or CPO. If that local market doesn't do well with that car, Lexus corporate will take it to auction. Then, at auction, the car can be bought by anyone with a dealer's license.

Another way the car shows up on the market is when a LS430 owner (purchased the car) decides to trade it in on something else. Could decide that they want to get a car from Hyundai. Then, the car would show up on their lot as a used car.

I don't put much stock in buying from Lexus dealers. They often price their cars a few grand more than the competitors. They also try to justify buying from a Lexus dealer with things like 120 point inspection (which most other dealers do too).

I just recommend looking the car over well or taking it to a trusted mechanic for a professional opinion. Pull the AutoCheck report and visit Lexus.com and enter the VIN so you can see what service was performed over the life of the car.

good luck.

caddyowner

I asked this question once...

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/ls4...s430-from.html

I bought my car from a BMW dealer, supposedly a trade-in.

CarGuy89

Thanks for that link Caddyowner and the solid advice DD. When I first learned stick about 2 yrs ago, my parents were at the Toyota dealer looking for a Prius and I found a beautiful red 1995 BMW 530i with a 5 speed. That turned out to be pretty bulletproof (although it did have some electrical issues and a throttle issue). I picked up my current 3 at the local BMW dealer as a CPO vehicle, everything works perfectly other than some issues with the service computer. My (short) car buying experience has been overall positive. However, I feel like I lucked out both times and got pretty honest salesmen. I really liked how I was treated at my local Lexus dealer (Lexus Ann Arbor, however they only have a 109k 2004 LS for sale). Went to a Toyota dealer yesterday (Page Toyota in Southfield, MI) and the salesman was quite rude (due to my age probably), so a big turn-off for me there.

I kept looking and there is one being sold at Lexus of Merillville in IN, CPO, 62k miles, ML, going for 27k. They had a free carfax and said car was a corporate lease, lots of maintenance has been done which is good. However, it does mention things like "door window checked" and "steering/suspension checked". Should I be weary that the car was a corporate lease?

Here is the link if you want to take a quick look.
http://www.cars.com/go/search/detail...3&aff=national

Thanks again for the input everyone and keep em' coming!

Bocatrip

My personal feeling on buying a used LS430 is that having a full service history from the Lexus site showing as close to regular 5,000 mile services as possible is worth its weight in gold. This will be the closest you can get to know the cars history and if it was well maintained. Just finding a car with low miles in not necessarily the answer. Even low mileage cars can be abused.

djMaru

yup, I was looking for 350z in the market, but something wasn't right about it. with low mileage car the interior look like crap and wasn't comfortable at all. parking lights didn't work. such bad feeling about that cars with low mileage.

CarGuy89

Totally agree with you. I would much rather have a car with high miles that has been properly taken care of than a low mileage one with a shady history. I am always interested in private sellers who have service records. Didn't bump into any real attractive ones within 250 mi though (any further and it's getting too ridiculous, since I would like to test drive and get a ppi before making any sort of commitment).

lexuslspro

WOW!
What do these kids do?
What college is this?

I remember seeing a fellow college kid driving a 33O ci. I honestly think that was the best car I ever saw a fellow student driving at my college.

Bocatrip

The car I ended up buying was 250 miles away! I happened to be lucky and had the guy drive it within one hour from my home. I did all the research, carfax, lexus site service history, etc. In addition, I knew a salesman from a nearby Ford dealership that had a tech put it up on the lift for a general inspection. It was the best I could do under the circumstances. It turned out to be an extremely well maintained car with regular service at Lexus. Although it was just about 100k, it was super clean and very healthy mechanically. Sometimes we get lucky. In this case, the car was not around the corner. I was looking for a long time limiting the search to 50 miles. Once I went to 300 miles....Bingo! I found my car. Good luck. Just don't settle. Do your research and get as much info as you can. If there are no service records...PASS!

caddyowner

Don't rely on carfax alone. When you find a car you are truly interested in, go to lexus.com, register, and add the car to your "ownership" list. You can then see the dealer service history. If you decide not to buy the car, be sure to remove it from your ownership list. Someone advised me to not do this too often as the admin may ban you on the site.

https://secure.drivers.lexus.com/lex...-lexus/home.do

Other suggestions:

- Search for CPO cars on lexus.com

- Use the list of dealers within 250 miles on lexus.com com, go to the dealer website, review their list of sales reps that handle used vehicles, and call one personally. Tell him/her what you are looking for, price range, colors, etc. and have them call you as soon as they get something in. I called every dealer within about 250 miles plus selected sunbelt dealers with national reputations like Sewell in Dallas. The tough part is getting these folks to stop calling you after you buy your car somewhere else.

- The best cars tend to be sold by the time they show up on autotrader or even the dealer website. From the time a car gets traded in, there are a few days waiting for and getting reconditioning. The car is then officially put up for sale. It then may take a few days for the advertising service (dealers often use an outside firm) to come take the pics, and then it often takes a few more days for the service to post the pics on the dealer website, autotrader, and/or cars.com. Even if you have a daily alert set up on autotrader, by the time that car appears there it may be been available to buy for a week - and be long gone.

- Buy a car that has not spent its whole life in the midwest. While these cars tend to have good rust protection, a local 04-06 car has still seen 4-7 winters of salt. Here is where that service history is useful again to tell you where the car was really driven and serviced. Some Michigan and other midwest cars were owned by older snowbirds and never saw snow and ice - spending winters in FL or AZ. Some cars for sale in the sunbelt were bought at auction and spent their lives in Chicago, Detroit, or NYC.

- There are a number of strategies for buying a car remotely. The best is to pick a few large cities; call new and high end used car dealers to get them looking; identify an independent shop recommended here for inspection; ID some dealer and private party cars; fly there; inspect; buy; and hopefully drive home. This way you know what you are getting. However, there may be some issues with having to pay sales tax in some states if you drive the car home. Flying back home and having the car shipped to you will cost you a few hundred to $1K. I bought my LS from Bellevue, WA and shipping was about $900.

- You can also buy the car completely remotely, as I did. A car popped up on autotrader for a great price with no pics in Washington state and I posted a request here and in the NW forum for volunteers who knew LS to look at the car and take pics. Within about an hour, I had multiple people volunteering and Airtime said he worked very close to the BMW dealer the car was at. He visited the dealer, took lots of pics, and posted them to his photobucket account. He gave me the name of his independent Lexus mechanic and I had the dealer deliver the car there for an inspection after I paid the dealer a deposit via credit card. Both Airtime and the mechanic gave the thumbs up on the car, except there were a number of scratches and scrapes. I had a local bodyshop owner (Kate Lawrence in Brighton) review the pics and give me a SWAG on costs to repair. The dealer arranged transport by open carrier and included that in the price. I met a notary at a local coffee shop to sign all the paperwork and present a check. About two weeks later, the car arrived at my house. There was a previously unknown dent in the trunk lid that I suspect happened after Airtime looked at the car. Oh well, that happens. I had Lawrence Autobody fix everything because I've had great service from them in the past, even though their final quote was higher than the other two shops that quoted the car. The car still came in under my budget, even with the bodywork, 30K service and switch repair at the Lexus dealer, shipping, $100 inspection, and a $50 gift card for Airtime.

CarGuy89

Most of these kids are loaded international students (I go to Michigan State btw). Was next to a grad student with a new E92 M3 not too long ago. Also saw this kid with a black X6 with a full Hamann kit + rims! He told me it was 400+hp. If I did end up getting a 430 it will blend into the background nicely. There are also wealthy kids who live near the area, but they mostly drive domestics (several really nice vettes though). Some kid drove an Audi R8 for a while (it was sooo nice). There is a car club meeting on campus sometimes and one kid has a delorean! Overall some nice rides, also the occasional Ferrari passes by. You wouldn't know it looking at Lansing, MI though lol.

Thanks caddy and bocatrip for yet some more very detailed and helpful tips. I will definitely check out that service thing on the Lexus website. I did do a nationwide search not too long ago and didn't really see anything that really stood out. I got my 07 328 which is a MI car and inspected it for rust before I agreed to anything. I avoid going out after a snow storm hits. If I do go out I make sure to wash it asap. I always clean the door jabs just so that water can't accumulate and rust won't form. I really do prefer to drive the car for a while. I drove a 109k mile example without squeaks or rattles and would want the one I'm purchasing to feel just as solid. Can a pre purchase inspection be done at mechanical shop? Should you take it to another dealer? The one I'm looking at does have cpo so I'm not all that worried about it, plus car fax did show it was serviced regularly (yes, I know that doesn't necessarily mean much I will check on the website like you said caddy).

caddyowner

^^^
Most independent mechanics have a pre-purchase inspection service priced at about $100. They will put it on a life and look for accident damage, check for obvious engine and transmission problems on a test drive, inspect fluids, check brakes, tires & suspension, inspect exhaust, check A/C, and generally check everything under the hood / car. Be sure to take it to a person who works on the brand.

Your job as the buyer is to make sure all the exterior and interior stuff works like power windows, mirrors, seats, radio, dents & dings, etc. Some cities have professional inspection services (or you can use the ones used by leasing companies) that will give you a complete report on all items of the car.

IMO, if you are looking for a Lexus CPO car and will be test driving it yourself, I think you can rely on your judgement and the CPO inspection / warranty to assure yourself that you're getting a good car. Taking along another knowledgeable person is always a good idea to look at the car without beer goggles. If you are buying a non-CPO car or buying from a private party, inspection by a Lexus mechanic should be mandatory.