I tried looking up the VIN on the Lexus Drivers site, but it would not recognize number. Anyone else try this? If so, did you have any success?

 

The second Gen IS is a very solid car, actually built in Japan and shipped here. It was designed and sourced prior to the economic bust of 08, and in my opinion, was one of the last truly solid vehicles made with little corner cutting.

 

No history as it was never “owned” in the system… (yet)

See my post above yours



Joe Z

 

I'm pretty certain this guy bought it from auction. This IS F definitely not a 48-state US-Spec car. It had to originate from Guam or Hawaii.

 

Gotcha, thanks. I just thought that it would have been put into the system by Lexus. Showing what was installed at the factory vs at the port. Unless all that is input at the time it's offered up for sale by the dealership. IDK what to think.

 

Dealer displays have maintenance done and it shows up in carfax and TMS national history.

 

Per the owner on a fb post.

 

that would explain the shift **** situation. Those ***** used to get stolen a lot back in the day and most dealers were taking them off even when cars were sitting in the showroom. It probably got lost after all those years and they just threw one in when they finally sold the car.

I’m tempted to buy this thing and offload my car but I suspect it’ll bring serious money.

 

I don’t think it’ll be as high as expected. I think to see top dollar, people need to list these on national platforms and wait. BAT is difficult because it’s hard to secure a loan for an unknown amount, and people have 7 days max to work everything out. You can’t just book a flight to go see it and bring it home, because you still haven’t won it yet. I’ve seen two nice, decent mileage ISFs on BAT sell for lower than I expected. I’d wager this is going to be 37-41 simply because of the venue. On FB and autotrader, maybe it could have pulled closer to 50. We shall see.

 

I am not sure what statistics have lead you to your conclusion that BaT isn't on a National Level or capable of realizing the maximum amount for any given listing. They only accept the premium, hard to find, specialty and exotic vehicles or one of kind Unicorns like the ISF being discussed. It's mileage being under 5,000 is the only reason it was accepted. And the seller has probablly been waiting for it to run for a minimum of 6 month. They have proven time and again that no other online or specialty auction like Barrett Jackson can consistently generate sale prices that exceed expectations and often set the bar with record sale prices while charging the lowest auction fees you'll find.
Very few of the buyers or sellers are going to need a bank to finance their vehicle. Most of the sale prices are far beyond what the book values are, so the loan value is not going to be a good representation of the value anyway. But when u win auction, it's customary to complete the purchase within 48 hours. If your credit is good enough to finance one of these vehicles, the bank will be happy to give you their maximum loan amount in advance, so a buyer can bid according to their cash down and maximum loan amount to come up the maximum they can bid on it.
There are numerous examples of vehicles that went through a big Pebble Beach Auction house and didn't reach a reasonable sale price and then they were listed on BaT and were able to break all expectations. And it's obvious why, anybody can monitor BaT for their dream vehicle, it's much easier to find a specific vehicle online, The. have several days to kick the tires and research everything about it. If this ISF went through any other auction, the history would be a big red flag, and it would be hard to convince a buyer it wasn't a problem in the short time they have before it will get sold. But on BaT, it's been thoroughly debated and buyers can get the most reassurance as is possible before making their bid. And if they win, the bank can expedite payment to the seller within the 48 hour time frame.
The only 2 issues I have with BaT, they always achieve sale prices beyond what most average guys can afford or justify for their listings. And the other problem is their too busy. A 6 month waiting list to run your vehicle puts it to far down the road for most sellers to find it convenient. These are both issues from a certain aspect, but obviously they are not problems from another aspect.

 

My experience is based solely on watching ISFs that are listed on BAT. A 7-day auction style listing may easily see less traffic than something posted online for a month or longer. The issue is time. With these cars, getting top dollar comes down to finding that one right buyer. ISFs are becoming collectible to a select few, but they aren’t quite collectible yet. So the masses aren’t yet willing to dump 50 plus on an almost 10 year old vehicle… but I garantee you there is someone who would on this vehicle. The question is, will that person be on BAT in the next 4 days?

Ive bought and sold 33 vehicles in my life. Never had I even heard of BAT until one listing was shown on this forum.

Im also one of the few that paid for a 13 plus model year, and I searched for a long time before finding a clean, No wreck, low mileage car. I eventually bought one on this very forum. I’m the exact guy who would consider this car, but I never knew about BAT.

The low mileage of this specimen is not why it was accepted. Many ISFs have been listed. Recent history shows an 08 with 33k miles bidding for 28k, an 08 with 63k miles bidding for 24, an 08 with 54k miles bidding for 22.5, an 08 with 26k miles bidding for 22. The cream of the crop was a 14 with 4600 miles bidding for 44.7k. We anticipated that would break 50k for sure (there’s a thread on it). I’ve seen 14s sell in the 50s in a lower market, but not on BAT. It’s failure to bring top dollar blew my mind. I did consider buying it myself.

 

Have offer from carvana $25k check
Money in the bank check
Watching this auction, you betcha.

 

@dwoods801

What happens if the sellers minimum is not met on the auction…?

Just wondering how it works

Joe Z

 

They can set a reserve and it won’t sell.

 

If the reserve isn't met, it’s a quick goodbye to all interested parties. I would expect they would contact the high bidder and the seller and try to negotiate a deal. However they have become so overwhelmed with buyers and sellers that their attitude is now, the seller should have lowered the reserve before the end of the sale if he didn’t need to get that much for it. And the high bidder should have big more if he was willing to pay more. This is a terrible attitude for an auction house to have. For obvious reasons. I am surprised they still allow the seller to set a reserve because it would reduce the amount of sellers who clearly are clearly wasting everyone’s time. Only listed so the owner can stoke his ego watching pep talk about his car, and bid on it, but they have no intention of selling it. They only charge a fee to the buyer of a completed sale, I dk t believe they charge a “no sale” fee.