Originally Posted by GSinTN

I had an e46M. can you share with me what makes the GS that much more to maintain than the M?

Thanks

Originally Posted by johnnunez2

sorry, i guess i made it sound wrong. i did check my car all around and found no signs of aftermarket paint or bondo. i know a little something about bodywork. what i meant was that i went to another dealer(small) that had the "auction list" of all the gs300's in the auction.all cars had a carfax "reported" incident. so the carfax states that you need to remove this much from the actual resale price. i actually bought a gs300 and on the way home the sunroof stopped working, and the gas went to zero. so i pulled in to a gas station only to find that the whole drop down box was screwed. i couldnt even open the gas tank.nothing worked on it. i drove home and took it back the next day and got a refund. thankfully i had not signed the papers yet. they showed me a bunch of other gs300 and 350's on the auction lot all of them had some sort of bad carfax reading.and depending on miles a 06' gs was at auction around 21k-23k. this is before dealer adds his profit. i think your best bet is to look, look, look....... make sure you get it from a reputable dealership.btw sorry for the long writing. i just want to give you a heads up.

Originally Posted by BLK98GS3

This is a common misconception with dealer auctions. The truth is that ALL dealers purchase the majority of their used vehicles from the dealer auctions. Franchise dealers are certainly more selective and a lot of their vehicles go through the inspection process to become a CPO.

Originally Posted by kostya79

hey guys, first post here, I'll post an introduction once my car actually arrives :-) I shopped around for about a month and found a 2008 GS 350 with Navi and 44K miles for $27K. Cost me $150 for an inspection at the Toy dealership and $700 to have it shipped from FL to TX. Same cars here sell for over $30K.

Originally Posted by cpcalkins

As for maintenance, my m3 was cheaper to maintain and as for parts, BMW's seem to have a better aftermarket presence and parts can be found cheaper... Why did you get rid of the e46?

Originally Posted by ag.daiba

I saw someone talking about the dealer auctions so here are the "forecasts" for 10/29-11/5 @ Manheim.

condition: below-avg-above (avg condition in my book is somewhere b/w avg & above)

06 RWD
auction: 17.0-18.7-20.4
est. retail: 21.1-23.1-25

06 AWD
auction: 18.8-20.5-22.2
est. retail: 23.2-25.1-27

07 RWD
auction: 20.5-22.7-24.8
est. retail: 23.5-27.1-30.8

07 AWD
auction: 21.7-23.4-25.0
est. retail: 25.5-28.4-31.2

Notes: I've noticed most of the GS's at auction are the off-lease GS's from Lexus Financial that can't pass CPO or have significant past "incidents". Matador Reds go for a lot less (About 1 grade drop in terms of price). I'd advise against getting GS's from auction as most GS auction inventory somehow winds back originating from Lexus Financial.

Hope this helps anyone looking at the dealer auction route for GS.

P.S. Dealer auctions are fine for BMW Financial and Audi Financial. They bring good cars (My 2007 47k mile 335xi $24k in May, 2008 8k mile A4 2.0 $17.5k in Aug 08), Lexus Financial just like bringing trashed GS's I guess... :/

Originally Posted by batman75

But if you're an average new car buyer, servicing the car at the dealer, Lexus dealers are a lot cheaper than BMW dealers. I know that where I live, a Lexus basic service is $99, and a BMW basic service is $225.