Thank you for the welcome. Was a fan way back. Then I thought Lexus got a bit “old”. When I left Acura, I considered the current gen GS, but really fell in love with the styling of the Cadillac CTS Coupe. My kids were of driving age and my car served primarily to take me back and forth to work, so a Coupe worked so I went with the AWD V6 CTS Coupe (trying to be practical).

About a year and a half later the call of the V was too much to resist, so I traded in my ‘12 V6 Coupe for a CPO ‘12 V Coupe with only 9,800 miles. It had every option available in the color and interior combo I would have chosen if I ordered it. The V was my DD during the non-winter months. It has summer tires and while I could put snow tires on it, it’s my toy and I don’t want to subject it to Michigan winters. The Mustang also is not real winter friendly.

My job allows me to take advantage of good long term rental rates so for the last few years I would rent any car from Hertz to get me through the snowy months. Have driven Camrys, Kias, a Jetta and a Jeep Compass.

Over the last year, I began considering retiring the V to truly being a toy. It’s a relatively rare car and still faster than 90% of the cars on the road despite being six years old. It’s also immaculate. So I started toying the idea of leasing something to drive as my Primary for most of the year. During the summer I still have the V and Mustang available to me.

I thought of just leasing a Fusion or AWD Taurus and had begun to look into that. Just before Christmas I saw an article about some great end of year lease deals. When I checked into it further, they were primarily for Mustangs, Camaros and Challengers. Not really options since they would present the same challenges that I already had. I then saw the Lexus RC come up. While polarizing for most, I like the current edgy design path Lexus has taken. So I thought an AWD RC might be an option. After all my first non-V Caddy Coupe was an AWD model and it got me through a pretty bad winter the one winter I had it.

My Oldest son is in his final year of college and he works part time, in between classes at a Cadillac/Lexus dealer, so he connected me with someone there. They put together a decent price for a 10K mile lease (knocked over $9,500 off of MSRP) with only the first months payment, and registration. I picked it up a couple days before Christmas. It obviously doesn’t have the raw power of the V or even the Mustang, but it will do fine for my commutes and it does handle pretty well, although it’s been bitter cold and snowy, so I haven’t really gotten a chance to play with it. Mine is white.

I attached pictures of it, along with a couple of my V and Mustang.

Sorry for the long explanation.

Welcome!I too have a 2012 BMW X5. It's a diesel and mainly my daily driver. But I try to get the RC from my wife whenever I can (she doesn't like driving the X5).Of the 27 vehicles I have owned 7 were BMWs an 5 have been Lexus.

Our X5 is our second. I’ve been pretty happy with them. Great driving vehicles. Doesn’t feel like an SUV. Admittedly though we haven’t experienced any major issues which are known to be notoriously expensive.

I just saw the second part of your question. My lease terms are 3 years and 10K miles/year.