chatrathi

Hello:
With an immensely heavy heart, my wife and I decided to trade in our RX for a Sienna. Two kids (plus their belongings) have made the once roomy RX a tight fit!

The KBB site quotes a price of $29650 for our RX. Just wanted to see if that's a good price. Here are the details:

2002 RX300 AWD
Navigation, Roof Rack, Spoiler, HIDs, Wooden Steering wheel, cargo cover, cargo net (essentially all options except premium alloy wheels). It has 19000 miles on it with the 1K, 5K, 15K service done as scheduled. It's a black exterior with Tan interior. Both exterior and interior are exceptional (one spot on the carpet behind the driver's seat).

THoughts?

-chatrathi

salimshah

Here are my candid thoughts ...

Dont do it.

Are the inlaws coming?

Seriously, if you do not need the third seat, RX has plenty of room, But you have to convince the Mrs.

Blue Book value is a resonable ceiling price of the vehicle. Expect less than that from an individual buyer and still less than that for a trade-in. Also the price is different for different cities.

Here is somethng you can try

1. Ask the place you are buying the MINI VAN (sorry can't resist ... after driving MINI VAN for 4 years) for the trade-in value and safely add $500 and not more than $1000 to get a ball-park number.
2. Check the used sales section of local Lexus dealers and subtract $500 to $1500 from an equivalent vehicle.
3. Check classified section of local newspaper.
4. Check out sites which hep you buy and sell used cars (autotraders etc)

You will most probably find out that fiancially selling RX and buying a new MINI VAN will be a loss. Buying a used MINI VAN maybe a better choice but you may inherit some one elses problems.

But then there is a price to pay for marital bliss. Good luck.

Salim.
PS: I hope my reply does not offend you.

chatrathi

Salim:
Don't worry, no offense taken!!!

Believe me when I tell you that my wife want's to keep the lexus more than I do. The fancy treatment that she get's at the dealership has her hooked on it!! And not to speak of the vehicle itself, which we have immensely enjoyed for the past 2.5 years.

And financially we are resigned to the fact that we will take a hit. Given that the bulk of the depreciation for a vehicle as expensive (relatively speaking of course!!) as the RX occurs in it's early life.

We are softening the emotional blow by buying the Sienna. The top of the line XLE LTD interior has the same quality of the Lexus. And it doesn't hurt that the Sienna shares the same 3.3 liter V6 as the 330.

Also per your suggestion, I looked at local ads for 2002 Lexus in our area. There were none that had Navi on them AND the cheapest was at $28500! Based on that, I am hoping for a price as close to $30K as possible.

I will keep the forum posted on progress.

-chatrathi

rxdriver

Check the price on Edmunds, too. It seems that KBB tends to be low, and Edmunds tends to be high, so an average of the two is about right.

The idea of comparing the price of similar used cars on the lot is also a good one, but there's probably more than $1500 of markup on a used car at a Lexus dealer. If it's "certified pre-owned", your trade-in value will be at least $2000 less than the retail price of the used car... I've had a dealer tell me it's as much as $3000. There is some cost associated with getting the vehicle checked, possibly repaired, and certified, so not all of that money is profit.

dsg6397

Just BOUGHT a 2001 RX (loaded) w/39k mi and joined this site. I payed $26k from a dealer friend. Being a year newer and half the mileage I'd guess for yours close to $30k would be a good price. I'd still follow previous advice as well if you can.

Oh, and by the way - We purchased the new 2004 Sienna (XLE) last August and it was the thing that really made me shoot for the RX for myself. The van is awesome (minor transmission hicups, though), but just awesome. We love it. Except for some shifting hesistation (which I heard the RX has too) we have had zero problems. Runs great in the bad weather, lots of room and looks and feels like a Lexus.

Dave

chatrathi

OK. So the latest update is that we decided we love our RX too much to part with it!!!

This weekend we went to the Toyota dealer, placed an order for a van that was being built with our exact specifications. On our drive back, in the utter silence of the RX cabin, my wife and I looked at each other, then at the RX, the interior, the kids sleeping like angels in the back seat, the unbelievable smoothness of the pavement and almost blurted out at the same time, "What the hell were we thinking!??". As soon as I got home, called the dealer and said, "Sorry, I don't think we will be doing business in the near future!"

So the game plan now is to locate a used minivan (thanks Salim!!!) and keep the RX. For the few times a year that we need 5+ seating, we can use the minivan and the rest of the time, we will wallow in the decadence of our RX

Thanks for all the information from everybody on the board!

-chatrathi