Sorry to hear that some of guys are getting the run around.

I guess I got lucky with last 2 purchases.
06gs 430. Looked a pictures. Flew in to Milwaukee from nyc . Didn't even drive the car. It was at a jeep dealer.
Me and my wife had a blast driving it back. Stayed in Chicago for a night , hung out and drive home the next day.

LS 460 was also great. Got it from RI.Lexus dealer. Drove my Gs to trade in. I was in and out in about 2 hours. They even took care of the registration and everything. In 2 weeks I got my permanent registration card and all. Didn't have to go to dmv .
Wasn't really worried because I got extended warranty.
A month later I had all control arms changed at my dealer, warranty covered it all.

Those two purchases made up for the Lincoln Mark viii I bought over eBay 3 hours away from home. That was before my GS430
I barely made it home , after a long 3 hour drive home, 15 minutes from home the fuel pump started acting up and almost got me stuck on a Whitestone bridge going 3 mph. Dealer wasn't helpful.

 

My recent CPO purchase experience was pretty good. It does pay to check for problems before driving the car off the lot, especially if the purchasing dealer is hours or more away from home. I found one problem before leaving the dealership: the door of the small front storage compartment (where the ashtray would be) wouldn't open when pressed. After the first attempt to repair the door it would only open intermittently. The second attempt finally fixed the problem.

As I drove home during the evening, I discovered that some of the buttons surrounding the nav screen weren't backlit. I notified the selling dealer, but really didn't want to make the 175-mile trip to deal with it, so the nav unit was replaced by my local Lexus dealer under the CPO warranty (it was over a week until my car finally showed on the Lexus database as a CPO vehicle). The replacement was an epic story in itself because it turned out the disk drive needed replacement too, because of compatibility issues. That was botched up too, because, despite my specific instructions to make sure my current map version was on the new disk drive, it wasn't. So now the dealer will have to order it, and my car will be in their shop for the third time. Oh well, at least it's free.

Also, make sure *both* key fob batteries have been replaced and the key fobs programmed before you leave the dealership. In my case, one of the batteries was dead. Fortunately, my local dealer replaced it for free.

If the car came with the preferred accessory package, make sure all the components are there. I was missing both the cargo net and the rear bumper appliqué. I didn't care about the latter, and the dealer dent me a new cargo net.

If it's a CPO vehicle, as implied before, make sure you have both fobs with the keys. Also make sure you've a complete set of manuals, first-aid kit, and tool set. Finally, ask for the most recent map update before you close the deal.

 

I originally negotiated the price from $31,899 to $29,899 plus nav map update and some goodies.
Dealership - "No. we can't. We did not make money on the car".
They think am a fool to believe them.
So I offered them $29,500.00 without nav map update. Sold.