So I'm planning to find a rwd 2013 ls460 on the east coast.
Trading in my Gs350 AWD '10

Would a 2013 be good? Or should I wait for the new generation to come out for the price to come down more? Hmm

 

Depends on your needs....I have a 2010 and in the same boat, have been itching for a 13+ for a while.
If you can afford to wait (since miles don't impact the reliability of the LS much), I would wait. Why?
With the low interest rates over the past couple of years (Fed bumped the rates today!) tons of luxury vehicles were leased. All you have to do is look at the books of BMW Financial, Daimler Financial to see that leased units increased significantly on their books. What does this mean? There will be a TON of leased returns hitting the market in 2016-2019, assuming most are 36-39 month leases. Supply = demand....more supply should lower demand which lowers prices.

I would think the combination of a glut of supply, combined with the new LS announcement, should lower the price further. Right now you can get sub-50k mile 13 LS460's right under $40k....I've found them as low as $37k in the northeast. If you want to buy now, these are absolutely spectacular cars for the $$$.

If you can wait, I'd speculate these could be in the low $30s by this time next year when the 14's start flooding the market.

 

You're going to have a hard time finding a RWD LS on the east coast, in fact just yesterday I saw the first 13+ RWD on the road I've ever seen...assuming the AWD badge wasn't just missing. Any of them that exist were either special orders, or cars people bought in warmer markets and then sold or traded after moving here.

As for price. Every year you wait they will get cheaper, but that's another year without one. If you waited 5 more years they'd be dramatically cheaper...but do you want to wait 5 more years?

I would just find the right car now and negotiate as good a deal as you can now.

 

RWD's are very hard to find in the east coast......... Let alone a 2013 RWD LS460.
Good luck on your search.

 

There isn't much 2013 LS' at the moment around

 

How far do you think I have to go to find a rwd lol

I settled on a AWD GS '10 and regretted the decision. Found out about all the vibration troubles if its lowered thanks to the AWD system. Had to live with the 5 finger wheel gap lol. Not this time! I'm going to get that RWD

 

No vibration issues with my AWD LS, and the wheel gap isn't any different like it is on the GS that I've seen.

I'd say NC and south to find a RWD one.

 

Plenty of RWD models south of Washington DC. In fact, its difficult to find AWD models here in NC!

 

2013 is a really good year according to CR.

 

looking at that chart, 11' has the best score?

 

You can't look at CR ratings and compare a car year vs year, the ratings aren't designed that way.

What their rating means is that compared to other vehicles of that year in that category this is how the vehicle is performing. So its possible for one model to have very different ratings in a category from year to year while that specific vehicle is exactly the same, what changed was the average issues across all vehicles in that segment for that year.

So what that says is that compared to other 2013 vehicles the 2013 LS does well, and compared to other 2011 vehicles the 2011 LS does well, but say a 2009, that vehicle lags behind other vehicles from 2009. Data about 2012 vehicles don't have any bearing on their rating of a 2013, or a 2011 for instance. You can't for sure say that a 2011 is more reliable than a 2009 using CR's data.

 

I purchased a '13 AWD back in April and it's been great. Just a beautiful, spacious, capable, solid vehicle that I look forward to driving each day. A few minor issues to sort out during the first 2 months of ownership, but overall the AWD drivetrain impresses. I plan to run the car 200k miles and trust that it will get me there with consistent TLC and strict adherence to maintenance schedules. Brakes feel a little odd at first, but once you get used to them, they're fantastic. Mine seemed to drift right at the beginning, but we changed tires and perfected the alignment, so it tracks straight now.

Whatever you do, make sure that you a) get a pre-purchase inspection to rule out undocumented damage and b) thoroughly review the vehicle's service history at drivers.lexus.com to learn what maintenance might be needed (brakes, tires, battery, etc..) and/or any issues that the previous owner may have encountered. If you already have a good relationship with a Lexus service adviser by way of your GS, it really will help down the road. With what '13's are going for now (under 40k in many cases), I think that they represent outstanding values. Unless you get a bad one, I think you'll be very happy with it overall. Either way, good luck to you!