I went with my wife to Istanbal, Turkey last week...the hotel used a MB500s(model around 2003) to send us to the airport...the ride was around 30 minutes

the MB500s is more roomy than our 2000LS400 at home, has more "fun" things at the rear seat.

MB500s' ride is a lot rougher than our LS400:
1 it's nosier with the engine's sound when picking up in speed
2 we felt a lot more bump from the road(the high way and local road of HK is as poor/good as Istanbal )
3 we heard more noise from other cars on the road(hk is as busy as Istanbal)
4 even the MB500s is 5000cc, when the professional chauffer wanted to speed up, the engine had a little bit of hesitation
5 when turning corners, the feelings in turning were felt stronger making it less comfortable as passengers

we were very happy when we arrived in HK and took our LS400 from the car park, it's a lot more comfortable....then my wife started to say "See, before we bought our Lexus, I have asked around and my buddy who loves to play with expensive cars told me that the ride and handling of Lexus are superior to BMW and MB"

 

nice comparison i drove 745, s430, and the new ls430 before on road course, so i was able to push the car quite a bit.

the s class is definitely roomy, or maybe i should say it's BIG. with the front seats all the way to the front, i still had troble driving that car in a comfortable position. but i have to say though, i think the handling of the bimmer is far superior to the mb and the lexus. it's just good, like driving a small car. the mb and lexus are about the same i think

road noise is deifnitely an issue for the bimmer and the s class. i think this is where lexus really shine. the super low drag coef, the insulation, the built quality, etc... makes the car sooo quiet at any speed

 

*** probably only valid in Hong Kong ??? ***

A friend of mine (in Hong Kong) used to have a LS400, but now swears with Mercedes. He recently tried to sell his '96 LS400 and it now worth less than even an '96 ES300 or '96 Mercedes C200

Although the LS400 is a good car (reliable, comfortable, ... ) it is not holding its value compared to Mercedes, or many other makes

 

You really cant base all that from a rental car that a chauffer was driving god knows if that thing has been ragged out or not already...

 

very true, must be in hong kong. here in the states at least, lexus is holding values extremely strong. look at the 1st of 2nd yr depreciation on lexus and it's quite a bit less than bimmer and mb. and lexus also holds pretty much the highest residual values on their cars, i think with the sc430 at the top.

 

Yeah, HK people are ultra status concious, & MB is still the vehicle to own, even if bought used . . .

 

very true, somehow i think they take mb even more seriously than the bimmer

 

an used '96 LS400 will only sell for HK$40,000 (about US$5,000), while an used Mercedes '95 C180 with a 1.8L sells for HK$45,000!!!! Btw ... a '97 Civic is approx. HK$37,000

I learned my lesson in HK ... go with the market, don't try to be too much different (get one of the popular cars ). Otherwise, maintenance costs can be 10 - 20 times higher and maintenance and tuning parts may not be available ...

 

Only 3-series will have a good resale value, the 5-series resale value is 20% lower than an equivalent mercedes. Used 7-series are probably similarly in fate as Lexus LS4xx.

 

Mercedes has the looks and all but you have to choose,
do I want to look at the car or drive the car?"

 

to be true to the second hand value, we can't compare the cheap models to the most expensive model...comparing an orange to an apple

my rich friend has 2 MB, 1991 500S and 1991 320S...it ends up that the S320 has a higher 2nd hand value by HK$10,000 because the MB500S sucks oil on one hand and on the other hand the carrying cost is higher.

also, most of the expensive cars(eg LS400) devaluate faster than a cheap car(civic) car after 5 years(especially after change in model), rich guy won't buy a 1996 LS400 but poor guy will buy 1996 civic.

i dare say a 10 years old BMW 750, MB 600, Rolls Royce will definitely lose more value than a LS400...actually ppls are willing to buy old 2nd hand LS but r very hesitate about old BM or MB because of maintanence

 

r u comparing his "selling price" of the LS400 to "acquisition price" of 96ES or 96MB C200?

i've just bought a 2000LS400 and i knew the current owner selling to dealer price of 96LS400 is around HK$40,000 but the acquisition price from dealer on 96 LS400 is HK$70,000-80,000 depending on condition and mileage

 

wow, that seems like a lot of margins for the used car dealership huh?

 

the overhead in Hk is very high...rent(the highest only next to NY, Tokyo and London) + commission to the sales + running cost...than there's no gurantee that you can sell that particular car

 

Looking around, it is obvious to me that MB holds up more value than Lexus, but I'm not so sure about BMW.

First off, the MB should be more expensive than the Lex given that it costs more to buy, more often than not. To my point, When I was looking for my 1998 GS400, I noticed a lot of 97, 98 and 99 BMW 540i's that costs a few grand less my GS. It might just be in my area, but you can't find a 98 LS400 for $14,000 here, but you could find more than a few 98 BMW 740i's for that price, and even a few grand less if it has very high miles.

But like I said, it might just vary from area to area. I look in the classifieds here and I see cars in the east cost going for as much as $3-5k less than they would if the car was in California.