SW03ES

Hey everyone.

I've been shopping Lexus and have decided on the ES300 model because of its closeness in smooth and quiet ride to the ES. I looked around a little and it seems that Lexus is offering 2.9% finaning on their CPO cars, plus new lease residuals (the dealer quit responding to emails when I qued him about what they were). Now, my dad has a 98 LS with 115,000 miles on it that looks runs and drives brand new, and he beats the hell out of it so I know these cars don't age. I'd like to look at low mileage 99s and 00s, and see if maybe I could get a lease or finance payment similar to what I'd get on the new ES. What I'm looking at is about $500 with the ES, I think i could do it with a finance at a similar rate, but the caveat is I'd really prefer to lease for a tax writeoff.

Now, what I'm asking is, what were the final negotiated prices of your cars, their mileage, and if you don't mind, what are your monthly payments? If you'd prefer to respond in PM thats fine.

Thanks a lot!

Oh and one more thing, I found a deep burgundy on cream leather 99 LS with 348 miles on it. Thats three hundred forty eight. They want $48k for it though

oac3

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"...Oh and one more thing, I found a deep burgundy on cream leather 99 LS with 348 miles on it. Thats three hundred forty eight. They want $48k for it though ..."
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348 miles on a '99LS in 2002 (we are almost in 2003) ! C'mon..... where's that puppy being sitting all these years ????? Sounds incredible to me, if you know what I mean

I have a '99 LS now with 67K miles. Bought 5 months ago with 60K miles. Paid 33K out the door. Straight finance, with 10K (cash + trade) down, at 5.9% (back in May)

99's and '00's with 60K or thereabouts should go for ca. $30 - 35K. Just keep looking and you'll find them. If you are ibn a big city, competition should make great deals abound... Be patient, you'll find a great deal.

FWIW, I had an '03 ES300 loaner from my local lexus service recently. It sure drove nice, but it is miles apart in all areas compared to the LS. These two cars are, imo, not even close. For my money, I'd buy a fairly used LS over a brand spanking new ES anyday.

SW03ES

Oh no I do agree, the ES drives nice and smooth and quiet, but the LS is the smoothest and the quietest no question. It just has a buttery smooth feeling not only in the ride but in the powertrain too. I've logged many miles in my dad's LS and I do really love the vehicle.

I emailed the guy about the 348 mile car and the story goes that the car was bought by an elderly gentleman and he died right after he got it. It wound up lost in a battle over his will that lasted a while, and the family finally just sold it to the dealership. Believe it or not my thoughts were is getting a car that has 35k on it even better than a brand new car thats set still for 3 years? It probably is.

What I'm really looking for is a black on black 99 or 00. It looks as if the 99 will run me around 30k, and the 00 around 35. Now, the only thing thats stopping me from going for it full bore here is the lease. I own a small business and one of the main reasons I'm shopping for a car is the tax break. This is our first year of really having to pay taxes and it sucked big time.

Anyone have any experience in used car leasing? I'd probably even do it if the payment were the same...

SW03ES

Hey one more question for you, I see that your 99 has the Nav, is it still useful now? I know you can't upgrade it to the new system and the nav is one of my favorite features.

oac3

For me, the Nav is a life-saver.... I don't know what I'd do without it. I find it most useful, it saves me time having to map my route via Yahoo or Mapquest. I think I can upgrade to the '03 (Sept 2002 release) at a cost of $599 according to my local dealership. They will need to relace the hard drive that's all..... But I do not plan to do this upgrade for now.

SW03ES

$599 is steep but I might be able to use the upgrade as a bargaining chip (I'll take it for 31 and you throw in the upgrade) . I'm gonna go look at these things tomorrow.

I saw someone offering a lease on a 99..........for $299 a month! This may just work out!

Everyone keep your experiences coming please!

Horta

Hey Good Luck in buying a LS your going to love it.

I just bought my 98 LS400 Pearl White/ Tan with 24,400 miles on it about two or three months ago. I bought it from a private rich guy who had taken phenomenal care of it. I paid only $28,500 yes I got the deal of the century.

Any ways I financed only $21k and my monthly payment are $362. I have both of my Lexus cars financed with PeopleFirst.com. I highly recommend them. Piece of cake to use. You can use them to buy a car from a dealer or from a private person I have done both smoothly and efficiently.

If you shop you may find a deal like mine. I looked every single day three time a day at three major sites. WWW.CARS.COM WWW.AUTOTRADER.COM and WWW.EBAY.COM

I did all this shopping to really study the market and figure out what the absolute best deal.

You will see that the color will really effect the price of the car. The cheapest cars are the Purple and Blue cars. Then it goes in order Gold, Black, Silver and white being the most expensive. Silver gold and black seem to be the most of the ones for sale and white seem to be the rarest because they sell quick. Blue is very pretty if the paint was well taken car of same goes for black. Black looks really sporty.

I do recommend getting a www.CarFax.com account for $19 unlimited for 30 days. Just start the account when you are ready to buy. Know I have to say I ran about 50 cars in the couple weeks it took me to find my cars and out of 50 only two or three had ever been wrecked. Now when I was shopping for my mother Mercedes or my friends Chrysler those cars had many wreck and scary histories. People really do take care of their Lexus.

I do recommend you pulling the service history on the car before buying it. Become good friends with you local Lexus Service manager. Explain to him all you need to know if it had it Major service done at Lexus and did he see and repair work that was not schedule maintenance. If he is a nice guy maybe you can work it out that you just call him read him the VIN and he can tell you on the spot what he thinks.

Good luck and keep us up-to-date
Jerry

SW03ES

Thanks Jerry, I'll keep everyone posted.

khang

2 month ago, I got my 99' LS, tan/maroon, navigation system, 1 owner, 59 Kmiles and 3yrs warranty for $30,800 from Lexus of Steven Creek (San Jose). The previous owner is here in San Jose and the car has been driven in northen california only. I could finance @ 4.9% for 60 months, but I got better deal by refancing my house and pay it off.

LS is a great car. Yesterday on the way driving home, there are two Raiders fans on a Ford Mustang wanted to race. I believe it's because they saw the 49ers sign on my LS. So we both stop in front of the intersection. Thanks to the smooth transmittion, I outran them in the second gear. This is the first time I really abuse it, but it made me feel really really good.... I love it... :-)

BTW, I saw an the following ad. I believe it's a black one. Don't know if it's interested you..
LEXUS '99 LS400 35K miles, Navigation! $33,880 #164583 PUTNAM LEXUS 650 363-8500

SW03ES

Well the hunt for the LS does not go well.

So far I've talked to three dealerships that had cars of interest in stock. One had a silver 2000 with the platinum edition (don't care for it really) 39,000 miles, he wants $39,900 for it and isn't wanting to budge. He can lease it to me at $666 (an omen perhaps). He has a great lease, money factor works out to 2.9% APR, the cap cost is just $39,900 and that makes the payment too high to be compared to the ES I've been shopping (about $485). I think if I could get a better price on the car and plug it into that great lease I could get the payment down where it needs to be. He also has two 99s, a silver one with grey interior and 49,000 miles in pretty rough condition (needs 4 new wheels, the wood console has been decimated with scraping, a ding they couldn't get out above the rear wheel well) and he wants $36,000 for it, and again he's firm. He also has a black one with tan interior, 36,000 miles. The exterior is in great shape, as is the interior except for the drivers seat which has some wear on the bolster that is pretty ugly. Other than that it's in good shape. This dealership seems to do a good job prepping their pre owned inventory for the lot. Both the silver and black one were compounded and waxed well. All door dings had been removed. I was also surprised to find that most of the cars on the lot had the front bumpers repainted freshly, I suppose to fix rock chips. The black one had a brand new steering wheel, I supposed that the wood must have been cracked.

Another dealership has a gorgeous black one with chrome wheels and tan interior with 35,000 miles, its in tip top shape (like new, I'd love it) but he's at $36555 and firm again. Another dealership has a 99 with 31,000 miles, interior is in great shape (no refurb. needed), but the exterior is another story. Heavy swirls that are going to need to be machine polished out, and the front bumper was touched up badly over a wide area underneath the right side foglight. On the drivers side fender there is a small crease and scratch. I figure the whole exterior will need to be machine compounded well, fully detailed (Rockville does nothing to refurb their pre-owned cars) the front bumper cover is going to have to be repainted below the chrome strip, and that fender is going to have to be smoothed and repainted. Other than that its great None of these cars save the original 00 have anything special about them, no GPS no Nakamichi.

So, so far I haven't had much luck here. Knowing that you got your 99 for such a great price khang gives me hope though. Problem is, while I'm very knowledgeable about new car pricing and negotiation, I know next to nothing about bargaining for a pre-owned car, I've never bought one before. Any advice? What was your car listed at pricewise?

khang

Well, I have a friend who is the sale person at the dealer. She told me that the dealer wanted to get rid of the car since they had it in stock for so long (more than 4 months). The original listing was $37,980. Then they reduced to $35,980 (sometime in June when I saw it for the first time) and then $34,980. In early September she called me when they again reduced to $32,980. I came in and offered $30,000 and finally settled at $30,800. One thing I learned from buying used car is that do not be affraid to make low offer and be patient. If you do not get it today, you'll may get a better one tomorrow. There are few times when I stand up and go, they call me back and continue negotiation..
BTW, good luck to you and hope you'll find a good one.

SW03ES

Thanks a lot, I'll keep looking.

SW03ES

Okay the dealer emailed me back, he's willing to go to $33,500 from $36500 on the black 99 LS400 with 36,000 miles. Its a good starting place. I also talked with a gentleman at a BMW dealership down the road that has a 99 silver with black interior with 46,000 miles (a little high) for a list of $30,500. Now, this looks like a great price, but the car is not certified and it'll be out of Lexus warranty in 4,000 miles. I looked at Warranty Gold and it appears that it'll cost me $1200 to get into a warranty with a 100,000 mile cap. Am I being overly worried about the warranty? Do I really need it. A guy in Alexandria has one with 18,000 miles and he wants $35k for it. Seems like he'd deal. Only problem is its white and I don't want white.

So far I'm thinking that the ES would just be a lot easier lol, I'm gonna stick it out though and see what I can find. The guy with the inflated lease showed me that its gonna save me $100 a month to buy it instead of lease it. 66 months at 2.9%. I'll probably never keep this car until its paid off, and the Lexus do really hold their value but I'm concerned about winding up upside down.

As I can see it, if I finance $32000 (tax incl.) for 66 months at $1200 down its going to be $504.86. If I were to keep it for a year I would pay out $6058.32 in payments. The trade in value for a 1998 LS400 with 60,000 miles is $21,570, indicating that in this instance I would probably wind up upside down by a few K. I don't want that to happen because I don't like being trapped in a car with no means of escape without losing my shirt. Thats why I liked the assumable lease on the ES so much...

I'm still waiting to hear back from a place in NJ that offers their own warranty built into the price of the car and then they lease out pre-owned luxury cars. They had a 99 in the bronze color with 46,000 miles, they were leasing out for $299 for 27 months with 3k down. I asked him to work up what a similar car would run me with less down, and I'm hopeful.

I'll keep y'all posted.

jslionheart1

I bought my 99 LS from a Lexus dealer in the DC area on Memorial Day. It is spotless with Navigation and is black on grey. The list was near $40,000, but i walked out the door with it at $30,400. I added the platinum warranty for $1600 (which to my understanding is very near certification). All said and done, I bought my 99 LS 400 with 32,128 miles for $32,000.

However, since I financed a majority of the cost, the dealership started me at 7.75% APR. I have since refinanced through my credit union at a much lower rate.

Maybe you should wait until next month to start negotiating with the dealerships? End of the month and end of the year can be powerful bargaining tools.

SW03ES

Was that a Lexus certified car?