strikeraj

I am also one that got an IS350 and loving it.
I am in Canada and rwd is still good on snow as long as you have good winter on.
IS350 AWD (not sure about 250) has that stupid hump on driver side of the transmission tunnel that get in the way of my leg, which I hated.

Bichon

IS250 AWD has the same hump.

kolyan

I considered G37/G37S when was shopping for a car. They have AWD version too. When I saw a reasonably priced IS350 I got that.

Aspect

That's a lot of mileage. I hope the prices are even lower than $10k... for that mileage there are IS250s up here going for less than $10k in Canadian dollars. Then again I don't know the market for them in your area, just my $0.02.

gustervon

I noticed that hump right away and that alone would have me leaning towards a RWD. I am capable of driving in snow therefore I'm not fully set on AWD.

I am not one to make a decision I'll regret or experience buyers remorse. I feel I can get 3-5 years out of a 2006, I just want to make sure I'm not missing something... I'll keep my eyes open and see what turns up.

wireeater

I just upgraded my DD (03 Jetta) to a 06 IS250 AWD. I have a high HP RWD car so I wanted something with AWD because I commute almost 100 miles a day and sometimes get stuck in storms. VA doesn't see A LOT of snow but we get enough. I usually owned Subarus but was tired of them and the overpriced resales on them. You don't get much for your money and the reliability is negligible.

I found a 1 owner 2006 that had just been traded into the Ford dealership that I purchased my 2016 Mustang GT from. It had 134k miles on it. It had service records a mile long on it. It was owned by a woman, it was city driven with about 12k miles per year. The biggest deciding factor was, I did do my research before buying it and called the Lexus dealership she always took it to for service. From the day she purchased the car in 2005 until she traded it in Jan 17, she took it to the same Lexus dealer every 5k miles for either service check ups, detailing or oil changes. There were over 38 records on the carfax. Then I pulled them up in the LEXUS site using the vin to read the actual notes of what was done.

Out of the 38 times the car was in there maybe 4 times for warranty service. Once for a battery, once for the Nav screen, once for wheel bearing and the biggest factor was she DID have the CSP performed in 2014 which consisted of engine teardown, new pistons, rings, valve reseats, carbon clean up. That is the biggest thing you need to worry about. The car has already fell out of the 9 year CSP warranty so if this was not performed by the previous owner you may have issues. The IS350 does not have the same issue because it has port injection as well and I don't think it had the piston ring issue.

I got mine with the NAV/Woodgrain, AWD and talked them down to $8500. To me I felt that was a fair price. I searched nationwide for the same year, features and mileage on cargurus and all were around that price range. There were very few IS350 in my area and all were near 200k miles for more cost.

Does that mean I still can't have issues, not really but at least doing that research I had total confidence that the car was well maintained and that is the most import thing for a older, higher mileage cars. A well maintained car can run forever in the right circumstances. The car idles and shifts smooth enough that I can never tell if they are operating. As far as the hump... I have never even noticed it was there while driving. Cosmetically the only issue was the rear corner bump, she backed into something. Boiling water, I should be able to pop it out.

Moral of the story, do your research before buying. Stay away from the smaller, shady lots that buy auction junk. But you can find a nice 250 as well.

gustervon

Our situations seem very similar. How many miles did your Jetta have on it? I am not lusting over quick off the line speed as my old Dakota R/T satisfied that need long ago. I am more searching for a well built/refined car.

One of the IS250s I have access to here is 132K miles AWD, no carbon cleanup under warranty for $10,500 from a smaller dealer who buys auction cars. What turned me off, the other day I took my kids to see the car and put them in the back seat for sizing then I asked the guy showing me the car if we can go for another ride with them in it. He told me no because he just washed it. I was a little shocked and lost my desire to buy from them. Buying from an actual dealer in Denver is sounding more and more appealing.

You mentioned you were able to pick yours up for $8500...that seems even more promising. Curious, was that your out the door price or did they tack on license and registration fees? Either way $8500 - $10000 seems like a pretty decent bang for my buck in my opinion.

Thank you so much for sharing...

gustervon

On the Lexus site... when I am looking up service records. How is the CSP warranty service listed or is that just it? I have been unable to locate this item under warranty repair in the few I have looked up, but then again that probably means it was not done.

I would attempt to use the lack of warranty repair for this issue as a bargaining chip, but I don't think a salesman would go for it.

wireeater

My Jetta had 115k miles. It was base, 5 spd and just a completely soulless, boring car. It was given to me a few summers ago. I used it as a DD but it was so miserable driving it that I found myself always jumping in my "weekend" cars, commuting to work. I wanted to find something that kept me from doing that. Sometime a little more stylish, my lux, and I always loved the 2nd gen when they came out but clearly I was quite a bit younger and not career advanced and would have never been able to own one. Found this one and was like, HEY, if it's right why not.

They had it listed for 10500. I used the little dent as some bargaining. I went there on a lunch break and looked it at. I started at "i'm not even going to bother coming back after work unless you take it down to 9500 and repair the dent". When I got back to my desk 20 minutes later he already left a message saying he would do it. So I went back after work and then told him I like it but I want to see more off the price before we talk because I know what they most likely paid for it and I checked online averages. I got him down to 9100 then I told him forget about fixing the bumper, just take it off the cost which got me to 8500 .

This was the first time I've actually haggled for a car. Usually I'm just a dummy and pay whatever the asking price is on my new cars and sign up for everything else. This time I skipped all that nonsense. They tried selling me a warranty for 2500 which was 2yr/25k miles. I was like man, I will blow that away in a years time and didn't feel like it was a bargain at all. I did end up getting the bank gap insurance instead of with my insurance and I paid for the dealer maintenance plan which gives me a bunch of discounts (have it with the mustang) when it's service there, parts, and money off on next purchase, etc. So that was about 1k added on top of the 8500. Their processing fees are 600, they wouldn't budge on that. By the time it was said and done, I put 2k down, got a 4% 36 month loan and I was still under 9k after all taxes, titles, fees, add-ons and interest. I will cancel gap probably in a few months as I will be doubling the payments. Once KBB is well over what I owe, canceling it which typically they refund you (or reflect on your loan).

I would be a littl hesitent to buy a car if they wouldn't let you drive it. No salesman would ever do that if they wanted the sale, or they were trying to hide something.

Usually with the CSP, the owner would first have to throw the codes which would then have Lexus open up a case I believe. It's not just something you could take in and say FIX IT. You had to have the symptoms first.

This is what mine looked like.

DATE: 08/08/2014
102245 MILES

SERVICE: ENGINE DIAGNOSIS
DESCRIPTION: ENGINE DIAGNOSIS ~ ~C/S CK ENG LIGHT AND VSC LIGHTS ON---RAN VERY ROU GH AFTER STARTING----WHILE STARTING,NOTICE BATTERY LIGHT WAS BLINKING-LOSS OFPOWER ON ACCLERATION. CALL XXXXXXXX AFTER DIAGNOSE ~ ~VEHICLE RUNS ROUGH. CODES P0300 P0304 P0305 P0301 P0302 CASE NUMBER 142120503 OP CODE 2717DD 24.8 ~ ~DISASSEMBLED ENGINE. INSPECT VEHICLE AND CONFIRMED CONDITION R&R PISTONS, RINGS,VALVE SPRINGS, RETAI NERS, LASH ADJUSTERS,DECARBONIZED CYLINDER HEADS,V ALVES AND BORES

bbaugher47

@wireeater. What part of VA are you located?

wireeater

I work in RVA but live about an hour NW.

bbaugher47

Love the rva. Maybe come on down once cars and coffee gets kicking back in ths spring. Not many Lex there.

wireeater

Yep. I actually went to the C&C this past weekend in my Mustang. It's usually about 3/4 Mustangs then a little of everything else. Surprisingly with the weather there was still a decent turnout but it was the first one I have went to in awhile.