vfr700f2

Hey y'all--

I'm shopping for an '04-'06 LS430 with Sport package. There's nothing local for sale, and I'm willing to travel. Anyway, ~90% of the cars I've found are 2004s. I'm looking for a car with less than 130K, preferably less than 100K. They all have Mark Levinson & Nav. I wouldn't mind a base model with Sport at all, but that's a truly rare setup.

So one car in particular works for me logistically, is silver with gray, 78K mi, original owner, service records, etc. Asking $12500, which is KBB dealer retail in "excellent" condition. Private party "excellent" is $10800. NADA retail is about $2K higher (edit: higher than his asking price @ $14500), and clean trade-in is $13300.

I was going to ask whether the price seemed reasonable, but writing this and looking up the NADA value (I'd only looked up KBB previously), and compared to the other cars I've seen advertised, I need to shut up and go buy this one ASAP.

Is anyone near Palm Beach FL that could look at a car for me real quick?

Thanks
kevin

jrmckinley

If I were working in south FL this week I'd do it for you. Sorry can't help.

Few questions:
1) How can the clean trade-in be $13,300 which is the highest of anything you posted? Trade in can't be higher than dealer retail or private party pricing.
2) IMO, there is no such thing as an "excellent" condition car from 2004-2006. You need to use that in your negotiating tactics. I am currently selling a mint 2010 Audi S5 and when I posted it on AutoTrader (owned by folks who own KBB), it showed me what % of cars from 2010 fell into each category (ex: 60% of cars fall in the "good" category whereas something like 8% fall into excellent) -- and that's for a 2010...
3) You didn't post the exact year of the one you're asking about so it's hard to know fair pricing.
4) Is car being sold at dealer or individual?

vfr700f2

Sorry, my writing is usually better than that! Edited to say (edit: higher than his asking price @ $14500). So, asking $12500, top book retail values are $12500-$14500.

I know "excellent" is an extremely high bar. KBB says 3% of cars qualify. But I'm sure 50% of sellers think their car is one of the 3%.

Seller is private party, car is a 2004.

Thanks
kevin

vfr700f2

If I can get it for less, I'd be tickled, but I'm not going to be in a good negotiating position when I fly down from NY with a wad of cash. I'll look like I want it pretty bad...

The logistics work 'cuz I really need to pick up some stuff in Weeki Wachee, like the new bumper cover for the BMW I'll be selling. I stupidly left it there when I sold my truck. So, fly in, buy the car, hop across the state, grab some stuff and drive back to NY in a relaxing 3-day weekend. Do we have a emoji?

lextout

ls's in ny are dirt cheap, 04 n up can be had for 6k unless there beat.

vfr700f2

Lex-- If you see any nice Sport packages with under ~120K, please let me know!

The West Palm Beach car is sold.

Still looking. Hopefully for something within a day or two drive of Metro NY.

JffGRY706

Santa Fe New Mexico, 2006 81,000 miles sport suspension badges in pictures $14,595 now about my finders fee

FatherTo1

Sorry that one sold so quickly, vfr. Hopefully everything falls in place for you to find exactly what you're looking for soon.

rkw77080

Forward the attached checklist when you find your next out-of-town LS430. Someone local can have a more "focused" inspection and give you a more objective assessment.

vfr700f2

Jff-- I've seen that ad, at the Chevy/Cadillac dealer. It looks really nice! What part of TX are you in? There are several Sports scattered around TX....

Father-- Thanks for the good wishes...

rkw-- Dude! I can CPO my own car! Thanks!

Bocatrip

next time.

vfr700f2

Somehow I read this as "my area", not "NY are".

There's only 1 Sport for sale anywhere near here. Iirc $6k is the price, it has 200k. IMO, the definition of "beat" is "car from NY". Between the potholes, street parking and road salt, it's a bad place to be a car. I'd much rather shop in a state with lots of retired folks, nice roads, 3-car garages at every house, and no snow. If I do find a car advertised locally of course I'll look, but I'm not getting my hopes up.

Johnhav430

Cars are cheap in NY, I like browsing on cars.com and there was a 2006 Audi A8 with 80,xxx, for $11k. Of course I would not touch it, but wouldn't it have been nice to save $3k and to have driven what I really wanted (this is a fairy tale lol).

As I become more seasoned with the LS, personally I would only be interested in 2006's. It just clears a bunch of hurdles, TSBs, this and that, and was the last year. I'd even prefer one mfg'd in 5/06 as opposed to one from 7/05. A 2006 is an 11 y.o. car already, a 2004 is 13 y.o. It seems that a lot of folks are fixated upon mileage and willing to pay a big premium for less, which is the opposite in the BMW world. They always say the cars are meant to be driven, not sitting for long periods in a garage, and the latter is bad for the car. So for me, a lower mileage'd '06 would be in the sweet spot, maybe 60k miles (how much better is 30-40, may actually be worse), but I'd still want the timing belt/water pump/idler/tensioner pulley/tensioner job to have been done, so take $850 off the selling price in addtion to whatever else should be taken off. Don't ever let sellers downplay the timing belt job--they try. They act like 89,999 doesn't need it, 90,000 yes it needs it, but the car only has 89,999.8 so we're 2/10 of a mile away and at this point it's not needed.....forget all that and go by age....8 years I think, replace and deduct from selling price! Also be careful, based on the age, accidents can evade the CarFax, a Lexus dealer told me that when I asked how come the rear right is dented and black paint was splashed on it, and the left 1/4 has overspray like it's been hit?

vfr700f2

John-- I agree, newer is better, and an 06 with 60K has spent less time parked than an 04 with 60K. I understand the ways that sitting may cause different deterioration than driving, but I still don't want a car with a lot of miles. I've always bought high-mile cars (my 3 most recent had ~170K), and I want to break that cycle. I won't pay ~$18K for a 40K mi car, but I'll pay ~$13K for one with 70K.

IDK why, but the vast majority of ads I find are for 04s. Did they make 3x as many in 04? Did Sport fender badges have defective glue in 05-06 and fall off 4x as often? Seems unlikely.

Sport package cars almost never have "Sport" in the ad. You have to look at the pictures. The most likely reason you'll see "Sport" in the ad the seller sees the Sport/Normal/Ice button on the console and calls it a Sport! Next most likely reason to find "Sport" in an ad is the car has Michelin Pilot Sport tires.

Don't get me started on Collision damage! Seems like lots of shops these days are good enough you can't spot the repairs, even if you know what you're doing. Which is good and bad... I want a car that's never been hit, not one that appears to have been invisibly repaired.

Gotta figure out which far-away car I want to try to get looked at next...

kevin

Johnhav430

It does seem that as much as we know from the forum, and as much as we are shade trees and know more than average, the experts really do notice stuff. When my car was in the air, the tech asked me how the LCA bushing job changed the car if at all, and then said the car is in really good shape and I must clean the undercarriage often. I said why and he said this car has very little rust for 11 y.o....then I said yeah it was a FLA car until 2 yrs. ago, I'm not the original owner....etc. So I guess he knew that it was above avg. underneath, in NJ, for its age....therefore I'm sold on a southern used car from now on, if keeping, it will be worth it to go out of the way....oh yeah on age, the front large LCA bushings will not be mint, and there is debate on whether visible cracks mean anything, but also imho everyone should plan on that, simply drive into a dealership and they're going to mention this $1,400 job on the multipoint inspection, no thanks!!

Personally I would like 55-60k on a 2006, I got mine with 81k and now have gone 7k already since Oct....but I still want the timing belt to be included or deducted based on age of 8+, and imho with the lower mileage, it's still safe to drain/fill the tranny....they told me at 86k the fluid was dirty and I should plan on 2 more drain/fills, but even verbally owner of the indie told me no chance at damaging your tranny by drain/fill at this mileage, and we don't do flushes period.....

p.s. you have a E46 330 coupe, that was my dream car when it came out, I downloaded pics and dreamed about it. Good thing my pocketbook couldn't afford it at the time, cuz I would still have it today if I could have bought it, buddy still has his 2005 ZHP sedan, imola red...I ended up ordering a E92 335i in Oct '06, and still have that, my garage queen with 50k....