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Recently i found myself in the market for a new car. Coming from a S2000 and owning an Acura TL as my daily driver I knew i wanted something with a v8, sporty, but still a sedan that would be comfortable enough to drive daily if desired. But also stand apart from the crowd upon a closer look. I always was a fan of the CTS-V and the ISF has been one of my favorite cars since 2007 when it came out as the 08 model. However when I started really looking into them the CTS-V’s interior left something to be desired for me. And the ISF seemed to be just as small as my TL so I wanted something a little more roomy.
After lurking on here for a month and scouring AutoTrader.com for what feels like an eternity, I found a 2017 Caviar GSF with black interior in Gwinnett GA. It had all of the things that I learned that I wanted from browsing the forum. It had the orange painted calipers, the hand polished BBS wheels, Mark Levinson audio, color HUD, rear bumper appliqué and only had 23,000 miles. I called the dealership and started working with a salesman and got a price and was happy with it so I pulled the trigger on sending them a deposit.
When they sent me all of the paperwork to look over I noticed that there was no warranties on the car that came included with the purchase. So that kind of made me skeptical but i knew the car was still under factory warranty but I was a little uneasy that this dealership didn’t try to offer me any extension of the warranty like I’m used to from other experiences I’ve had making a purchase. I left the deposit on the car but I started scouring autotrader.com for a car that a Lexus dealership was offering. A few days go by and I see a bunch of them but none of them are speaking to me like the one I found at the BMW dealership. I think it was on the fourth day that I checked at like 2am because I couldn’t sleep. I found the car that I ended up purchasing, it was a 2016 with 10K more miles. But it also had all the options that I wanted. But the even bigger thing was this car had circuit red interior and I always wanted a car with red seats. It also came with Velgen Forged wheels, and it was already lowered on RSR springs. The problem was this car was 12 hours away and the other car was only 8 hours away. I debated on that for a while because I honestly did not want to travel further than 8 hours away. But this car was so stunning to me that I had to see what the dealership would do. I placed an inquiry and later that morning during business hours I had a phone call from a salesman come through. He immediately sent me a walk around and interior video of the car on the third floor of their parking garage.
My interest was peaked, I sent him the offer I placed on the other car and asked how much they could beat the other dealership by since this one was older and had more miles. They immediately offered me 2K more for my trade in than the other dealership. As well as undercut the original offer by taking an additional 3K off of their asking price. I sent them a deposit and removed my deposit from the other car in GA. With work being crazy due to the Coronvirus i had to ask them to hold the car for 2 weeks. They weren’t thrilled as it was approaching the end of the month but I told them I wasn’t purchasing the car until i had a chance to drive it and look it over in person to make sure it was up to standard.
Thursday April 30th I worked all day from 7am-7pm, then packed a bag and jumped in the SUV to make the 12 hour drive overnight to Miami Florida from New Orleans. I arrived at Lexus of North Miami at 10am the next morning and the car was our front waiting for my arrival.
The car was immaculately kept. I had done my own research on the car and found out who the original owner was and what the history of the car was before I took it over. Car had full maintenance records performed at 2 of the Lexus dealerships in Miami and no issues whatsoever. So after the test drive I felt very confident in the car and made the purchase. Saturday morning I drove the car back to New Orleans and couldn’t stop smiling and staring at it when I would stop for gas, food, etc.
Everywhere I pulled up the car turned heads, which is what I wanted the car that I selected to do. I am so happy that I chose this car over the other options out there. Even though I never wanted to own a black car because of how ridiculous it is to keep them clean. When I look at it I know i made the right decision to select this one. And I’m happy to be a part of the F community.
Beautiful car, that's the first color I wanted but I couldn't find one near me. those forged wheels looks good to. Seems like who ever owned the car modded it tastefully. I guess its dropped but still keeps the adjustable dampers/struts that the stock car came with.
how's is the ride? those are 20s?
Its amazing you made that 12 hours drive with the stuff going around these days, I know my wife would just freak out. Also welcome to CL.
The 2016 doesn’t have the adjustable dampers, but it rides smoother than the Chevy traverse that I traded in for it and had to drive to Miami in.
The wheels are 20’s which I wouldn’t have bought 20’s for it, but they fit the profile of the car perfectly. It was worth the drive but I wasn’t looking forward to driving there. But the drive back could have been longer and I wouldn’t have cared at all.
Being from Gwinnett County and living in Atlanta my whole life, I know exactly which GSF you were talking about. There were a couple right next to each other that were advertised with smaller dealers that seemed to have a shadier side to them. I was lucky enough to find mine also in Gwinnett at a Toyota dealership only 5 minutes from where I grew up. I ended up going to take a look at the car on a Sunday and had no idea that the dealership opened until 12 (it was 11). I saw a janitor cleaning up and knocked on the door to ask him a question. He gave me a sticky note and I put my name, number and interested ASAP about the car. That's how I was able to get my 2017 GSF. The GM even came over after we signed the paperwork and said, "Man, thanks for buying this car. We were getting calls all day every day from all over North America about this thing."
I did the exact same search daily. Scour the internet looking for something close enough to buy sight unseen, which always pleases the wife when you mention you're going to spend a lot of money without seeing the car. Congrats again man, those wheels look great!
Being from Gwinnett County and living in Atlanta my whole life, I know exactly which GSF you were talking about. There were a couple right next to each other that were advertised with smaller dealers that seemed to have a shadier side to them. I was lucky enough to find mine also in Gwinnett at a Toyota dealership only 5 minutes from where I grew up. I ended up going to take a look at the car on a Sunday and had no idea that the dealership opened until 12 (it was 11). I saw a janitor cleaning up and knocked on the door to ask him a question. He gave me a sticky note and I put my name, number and interested ASAP about the car. That's how I was able to get my 2017 GSF. The GM even came over after we signed the paperwork and said, "Man, thanks for buying this car. We were getting calls all day every day from all over North America about this thing."
I did the exact same search daily. Scour the internet looking for something close enough to buy sight unseen, which always pleases the wife when you mention you're going to spend a lot of money without seeing the car. Congrats again man, those wheels look great!
Thanks bud, i know which two cars you are talking about because I saw those two as well. But I could never get the dealership on the phone to talk about the car. They just kept emailing me about it. I did find it strange that they had two cars, the exact same color, with the exact same photos minus the odometer pics. They aren’t that far from the one at BMW and i planned on getting the lesser mileage one if the Caviar F fell through. I still feel like something shady is going on with those two cars because i was seriously interested but they would never talk to me.
Congrats! I too look at autotrader daily for the black GSFs, saw this one as well, beautiful rims...did u get the stock's too or did the original owner sell them?
Thanks bud, i know which two cars you are talking about because I saw those two as well. But I could never get the dealership on the phone to talk about the car. They just kept emailing me about it. I did find it strange that they had two cars, the exact same color, with the exact same photos minus the odometer pics. They aren’t that far from the one at BMW and i planned on getting the lesser mileage one if the Caviar F fell through. I still feel like something shady is going on with those two cars because i was seriously interested but they would never talk to me.
Congratulations on your F as well.
If that's the one on 78 (stone mountain hwy) then I saw them too. Believe one has 28k and one had like 90k miles. I actually bought my truck from that dealership. They're your standard used car dealership
Congrats! I too look at autotrader daily for the black GSFs, saw this one as well, beautiful rims...did u get the stock's too or did the original owner sell them?
I didn’t get the stocks, either he didn’t trade them in with the car, sold them, or someone at Lexus has them. Lol
05-06-20, 08:38 AM
New to me 2016 GS F
