Kaius88

Test drive the ES.... if you sense problems like flare and tranny stuff, BUY IT immediately with all the goodies ($5k discount, 100k warranty, etc). Drive it for a week and bring it back. Have then replace tranny. Drive it another week, have them ackowledge the problem and get a brand new ES in exchange.

ES350Bob

Kauis,

Well, got to hand it to you, you sure are creative in your thinking, making lemonade from a lemon you know is one beforehand----ending up with a new car...LOL

omarg

pure genius! Never mind what I said. Do that!

e-man

If you can get past the status issue, my vote is for the LS. I wouldn't worry about the fact that the car is used. First, have the dealership run the VIN and show you the service history for the car to make sure that the car has been well-cared for. Second, remember, the person who drove this car was someone who could afford a $60k car and is the same person who most likely traded their relatively new car on a brand new $70k LS460. I'm not knocking the ES, but I truly believe the LS is in a league all its own. Hope this helps.

e

wstr75

Well, its a non-issue now. The car sold yesterday. Seems the dealership has a hard time keeping an Ultra package ES 350 in stock. It is interesting how the dealership has plain jane ES 350s as loaners, the level above plain jane there are several available for sale, but seldom do they have an Ultra available for sale (sitting on the lot).

The idea of buying one of the plain jane loaners with 30K miles and putting a Garmin Nuvi 660 on the dash is appealing. A guy at my church who drives 40K miles/year buys RX 330 plain jane loaners and trades them in at 59K miles. He claims it is the cheapest and most comfortable miles anywhere. I normally keep a car out to 120K miles, but when I tally-up the annual costs, I'm not necessarily coming out that far ahead of what could have been done with a Plain Jane and flip more frequently strategy. Any thoughts?

LexBob2

Do the loaners have any additional warranty on them when they're resold? They're probably driven pretty hard, so extra coverage would be important, IMO

Kaius88

I agree...i definitely treat a loaner like "someone else's" car and not my own. I slam the gas and brake just for the heck of it...because it's not my car. I put regular gas in it, and I screech the tires just because it's fun to do it with someone else's car. I'm doing it with my loaner right now. Serious. So please do consider extra warranty.

toneman

Call me naive or ignorant, but I can't quite understand how one could justify an attitude like that towards treating something differently because it's not his/hers; would you be just as understanding if a Lexus service tech shared that same attitude--e.g., romp on your car while driving it to/from the service bay...just because it's not his car?

Sorry if you feel differently, but to think that it's okay to "abuse" a car just because it isn't yours is stupid enough...but to openly admit and justify such actions to others? Well I'll let others decide as to what they think about that...

Kaius88

Naw man... its not like that. Everyone just has a tendency to be less careful with stuff that is not theirs. I mean if you spilled coke at the theater, you wont make as big of a deal as if you spilled coke on your favorite couch at home. As for the car, I dont think i was "abusing" it, I was basically just driving without "new car paranoia". I'm pretty sure the service techs are rougher on the cars than the owners. When i had my alarm installed in my old car, the techs had my speakers blasting full volume and I could hear it a block away. I normally dont turn my speakers up fearing speaker damage. Same idea... people are just not as kind to loaners as their own cars. That's the way it is.

toneman

Okay, I think I understand what you were trying to say; maybe "abuse" wasn't the right word to use, but your description of how you drove the loaner car came pretty close to "abuse"...especially the part about screeching the tires. Your theater/Coke analogy isn't quite valid, since I don't go into a theater w/ the mentality that I'm gonna spill Coke, let alone not feel bad if I did so--which even if I did manage to spill some, it would have been an unintentional act...whereas you flatout stated that you would treat a loaner car differently than how you would treat your own car. See the difference? Just because someone else might not take as good care of your car than you would shouldn't absolutely excuse you to do the same to a car that's not yours...after all, two wrongs don't make a right...although I imagine that there are a few who would rather believe in "an eye for an eye".

Sickwitit

Human nature I do understand your reasoning.

omarg

I saw a poor loaner ES350 bein abused on youtube. 140 on some highway in cali. Soo sad. The only cars its ok to "abuse" are test cars at taste of lexus type things. Otherwise treat the car as if its your own. Good karma man.

SDLS430

Due to my accident I have had both. Overall I think the ES350 fits me a better. The LS430 is smoother, quieter, and larger in every way. Other than that the ES350 a better car because it has modern toys. The NAV is newer, the bluetooth has more fuctions, you can play DVD-A and DVD-V, better gas mileage, lower to insure, lower to own(for me), easier to drive, and more pep it can't be beat.

Sam