Looking at a 2008 LS460 - questions with maintenance
04-25-17, 06:06 PM
#31
Lead Lap
When I was looking for my LS460 a complete service history was paramount. I truly hit pay dirt in that it was a one owner who did a full synthetic OCI every 5000 miles and had all major service done in addition to never turning down any recommended servicing.
As he is/was a VP for Wells Fargo, I would not be surprised if the car and its maintenance was part of his compensation package. Mechanically, it truly is/was in fantastic condition and aside from backing into a mailbox causing a dent just to the right of the "L" on the decklid, it was darn near perfect. He did somewhat undersell what was involved in getting the dent fixed, but I would rather be that than it having been involved in an accident or there being a hole in the service history.
Upon sale, he provided the entire paper copy of every service that was done at Hendrick Lexus in Charlotte and there was not a single hole with full synthetic oil changes being done every 5000 miles and of course having all recommended services being completed.
I was very blessed that I literally looked everyday for almost a month for a sub 90,000 mile Souther LS460 and just so happened to be the first person to call about the car within 15 minutes of him listing it on AutoTrader. He wanted $17,000 and was able to get him down to $16,500 cash. He said that for not the dent, he would not taken a penny less than $19,000 and upon meeting him, he showed me at least 15 offers all for asking price. Makes sense considering thanks to Lexus's website you can easily see the service history.
As he is/was a VP for Wells Fargo, I would not be surprised if the car and its maintenance was part of his compensation package. Mechanically, it truly is/was in fantastic condition and aside from backing into a mailbox causing a dent just to the right of the "L" on the decklid, it was darn near perfect. He did somewhat undersell what was involved in getting the dent fixed, but I would rather be that than it having been involved in an accident or there being a hole in the service history.
Upon sale, he provided the entire paper copy of every service that was done at Hendrick Lexus in Charlotte and there was not a single hole with full synthetic oil changes being done every 5000 miles and of course having all recommended services being completed.
I was very blessed that I literally looked everyday for almost a month for a sub 90,000 mile Souther LS460 and just so happened to be the first person to call about the car within 15 minutes of him listing it on AutoTrader. He wanted $17,000 and was able to get him down to $16,500 cash. He said that for not the dent, he would not taken a penny less than $19,000 and upon meeting him, he showed me at least 15 offers all for asking price. Makes sense considering thanks to Lexus's website you can easily see the service history.
04-25-17, 07:04 PM
#32
Lexus Fanatic
i purchased my car from carmax last year also. They have been good on their words. Only thing i can reccomend if going the carmax route is to take the car to lexus for a pre purchase inspection. Because carmax claims they do a 160 point inspection on the car but i highly doubt it. A week after i bought my car i took it to lexus to get a full synthetic oil change. ( did not trust what oil carmax used) the services rep threw in an inspection. They discovered that all 8 fromt control arms were bad. If carmax really did that 160 inspection than they would have known that. Took it back to carmax. And they did replaced the all the arms free of charge. And used oem parts
Last edited by UDel; 04-26-17 at 09:56 AM.
04-25-17, 07:20 PM
#33
Lexus Fanatic
@GHARP57...I'm with you. If Carmax has one that is the right color combo and comes close to my budget I would definitely look at going with them. I've been looking and so far that's not the case, mostly because of the color combo. I don't know why so many of the Silver have the charcoal gray wood trim. I'm guessing that's the only color you could get with the gray interior. I'm looking for either Silver, White, or Maroon but I like the mahogany colored wood trim. Of course with Carmax you are paying a premium price and that kind of kills my budget.
@qtrung909...I'm sure prices will definitely drop with then new LS comes out, especially since it's a complete change. I'm not sure I can hold out that long though. I'm without a car and I'm having to borrow one at the moment. However, I don't want to make a rash decision because of that either.
Thanks for the heads up on the recalls. I'll make sure to checks those out and see if I can find out how to contact Lexus with the VIN to see if the recalls have been done. I didn't notice anything like that on their website but will look again.
@qtrung909...I'm sure prices will definitely drop with then new LS comes out, especially since it's a complete change. I'm not sure I can hold out that long though. I'm without a car and I'm having to borrow one at the moment. However, I don't want to make a rash decision because of that either.
Thanks for the heads up on the recalls. I'll make sure to checks those out and see if I can find out how to contact Lexus with the VIN to see if the recalls have been done. I didn't notice anything like that on their website but will look again.
As far as OP question I have looked at a couple Carfax's lately and many LS's don't have much of a service history with the Lexus dealer even under warranty, some don't even have the manufacture date listed or were first imported/sold under a Lexus dealership. Some have big gaps in maintenance. Makes me a little nervous but then again my car had big gaps in maintenance if you ran it on a carfax because I did most of my own work after about 60K miles and some places where I had it serviced were not on the report I got on my car when it was totaled out. Just because it is serviced at a Lexus dealer does not mean there was great care taken of the car, many dealership mechanics including Lexus mechanics are pretty rough with cars and don't treat them like how a owner would baby their car when working on it, I have seen and heard of some pretty shocking things at Lexus dealerships so just because it does not have a consistent history at the Lexus dealership does not mean it is something you should skip or it still was not properly taken care of.
04-25-17, 07:50 PM
#34
Instructor
Thread Starter
I have the same issue, looking at a 09 or 10 LS460 with 47K miles for under $22K but it is silver with grey leather/grey wood trim which I don't like. Not nuts over silver but I can live with it but I would prefer a different interior color/trim like black/tan with the brown wood. I guess I could live with it if it turns out to be a good buy.
As far as OP question I have looked at a couple Carfax's lately and many LS's don't have much of a service history with the Lexus dealer even under warranty, some don't even have the manufacture date listed or were first imported/sold under a Lexus dealership. Some have big gaps in maintenance. Makes me a little nervous but then again my car had big gaps in maintenance if you ran it on a carfax because I did most of my own work after about 60K miles and some places where I had it serviced were not on the report I got on my car when it was totaled out. Just because it is serviced at a Lexus dealer does not mean there was great care taken of the car, many dealership mechanics including Lexus mechanics are pretty rough with cars and don't treat them like how a owner would baby their car when working on it, I have seen and heard of some pretty shocking things at Lexus dealerships so just because it does not have a consistent history at the Lexus dealership does not mean it is something you should skip or it still was not properly taken care of.
As far as OP question I have looked at a couple Carfax's lately and many LS's don't have much of a service history with the Lexus dealer even under warranty, some don't even have the manufacture date listed or were first imported/sold under a Lexus dealership. Some have big gaps in maintenance. Makes me a little nervous but then again my car had big gaps in maintenance if you ran it on a carfax because I did most of my own work after about 60K miles and some places where I had it serviced were not on the report I got on my car when it was totaled out. Just because it is serviced at a Lexus dealer does not mean there was great care taken of the car, many dealership mechanics including Lexus mechanics are pretty rough with cars and don't treat them like how a owner would baby their car when working on it, I have seen and heard of some pretty shocking things at Lexus dealerships so just because it does not have a consistent history at the Lexus dealership does not mean it is something you should skip or it still was not properly taken care of.
BTW: I don't get why they went away from the brown wood trim on the Silver LS460. I love Silver but I don't like the black/gray wood trim in the '07+ LS. I had an '04 Silver with gray interior and the brown wood trim. That combo I really liked. The Cypress Pearl I just got has that same interior....I'm just having to get used to the darker exterior. It's funny, when I bought it I told my wife she shouldn't miss my car because there are very few Cypress Pearl. I had never seen one before and then sure enough about two weeks after owning mine I can across a replica of mine in my neighborhood.
Last edited by caverman; 04-25-17 at 07:55 PM.
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