lesz

Accidentally double posted. Mods can delete this one.

lesz

Good catch. That is correct. It is definitely not an UL car. As you said, the UL car would have the pano roof, 18" wheels, and the driver's seat thigh extender (and other features).

jgscott

iTrader: (1)

One other thing someone else said. I would steer away from the light Interior Leather and Seating, is going to look Old and Worn real Fast. Dealer do Leather Touch up to make it look new. In about a month you will see the wear and how Bad is really is when the cover up to Sell wears off. Just another FYI.

Again..... get a Nice 2013 - 2014 U/L with 60k or lower that checks out, and you will never look back. IMO. The J starting VIN #'s were still all Built in Japan.

vetdoc

I went and looked at the car today and drove it. I realized when I saw it it wasn't ultr luxury package. It had 17 inch wheels and interior was not the ultra package. The salesman at the BMW dealer didn't know what I was talking about lol. The car was clean ,but the white didn't look like pearl it was pretty dull. The car drove well smooth ride very quite, seriously lacked the power I expected, average pick up from a stop. My 2013 Hyundai with V6 3.5L engine 286 hp would blow this car away as faar as power and acceleration, dissappointing.

Well while I was contemplating on wether to make a much lower offer than I had anticipated the salesman came back in the room and said the car was sold! WTF He said another Dealer bought the car an hour ago and he just found out. What a circus! So I walked out without a new car, but my overall impression I was not wowed. It didn't feel much different then driving a top model camry to me. It may have just been that prticular ES I don't know, or maybe I need to look again at the GS. I'm a bit confused and dissapointed at this time!

vetdoc

Yea the 17" wheels tipped it off for me ,even though I'm not completely up on the ultra package I know it has 18" wheels.

vetdoc

Tahnks for all your suggestions. I need to drive another ES to compare it to the ES I drove today.

jgscott

iTrader: (1)

Yea you may want to Drive the ES350 again. LOL! As stated before I think Lexus underrated the 268 hp ES350 rating.

2013 ES350 0-60 Times = 5.9 Seconds https://www.zeroto60times.com/vehicl...-60-mph-times/
2013 Hyundai Santa FE w/ V6 3.3 Not 3.5 = 7.2 Seconds https://www.zeroto60times.com/vehicl...-60-mph-times/
(if you have a AWD Santa FE even slower)

2013 - 2015 GS350 is a 5.7 - 5.8 0-60


Rented many Camrys and had Loaners from the Toyota Dealer I service my cars at. The ES is far Superior in ride and everything else over the Camry. Just to help you the ES350 is the Toyota Avalon minus a lot. There is no Toyota that compares to the GS. Just trying to help you put things into perspective.

Sometimes a Dealership ride with a Salesperson is distracting and you don't really drive the car too hard with them. I looked at a ES 300h with a Lexus Salesperson before I bought my ES350. I had a thread here asking 300h Owners if they felt it was Slow. So when I took the test ride with the Salesperson, he acted as if we were in a LFA when I got on it. for 2-3 seconds. Sales Manger asked me what did I think when we got back? I handed Him the keys and told Him His Sales Guy was ridiculous and walked out. He called me to apologize but it was too late.

vetdoc

Thanks jg. I definitely need to drive the ES again. The sales guy didn't let me take it out on the highway. Once I saw that it had 17" wheels and wasn't the ultra package I was pretty deflated before I even took it out. The prices on used cars at the moment is sky high, 2014 ES ultra with mileage in the 50K running 21500 and up! The salesman said this is the highest price he has seen used cars in 10 yrs. I'll just keep looking and expand my location search

jgscott

iTrader: (1)

Yes your best thing for the long term is to be patient. You will learn more than just rushing out buying one only later to wish you gotten something else because you did not know. When I'm looking for a car that I don't know everything about the 1st one I was going to buy, I'm normally so glad later on I did not.

If you want a ES350 U/L there a lot out there. I would not worry about a Car Fax issue on a 2013 - 2014 as long as it was not Major, and it was repaired correctly. For example my 2013 ES350 U/L had a bad Carfax. Showed Moderate. Found out someone slid, clipped a brick structure mailbox in the driveway sideways. Heavily damaged the Front Bumper nose and Headlights both sides. The car was going about 5mph. The repair cost was major costly for just a small mishap, including new HID headlight. The advantage to me was on my Black car, it had a new Lexus Bumper painted factory paint with no chips and looked new. The New Headlights looked like Diamonds.

There is a nice 2013 - 2014 Lexus ES350 U/L out there you will find you want. sooner or later. I also would not be discouraged if they wont discount it much and its asking price is in the ballpark you want. I would get it knowing you likely will not spend much on repairs in the future. Also you can service the car at the Toyota Dealer for the same service for far less than Luxury car Dealer service cost.

vetdoc

Hi jg
Whats really crazy is my indecsion on the ES350 and the GS350. I know the ES is easier and less expensive to maintan especially tires abnd brakes, but whenever I see a GS I really like the looks. I love the GS Fsport even though I haven't drivn one yet,but I know it's the hardest and most expenssive to maintain. I'm only drive maybe 5000 mi a year anymore so I have to take that into consideration when worrying about tires and brakes on the GSFsport. I probably wouldn't need new tires or breaks but every four years at worst, considering the amount of miles I drive each year. I haven't seen what a GS with the luxury package looks like, or how it drives compared to the GSFFsport. I know you have the GS /luxury. How would you compare the ESand the GS overall since you had both at one time?
Thanks











g

jgscott

iTrader: (1)

I said this in a previous post:

If you want to feel like you are driving a BMW buy the GS. Beware you are going to be buying gas, putting on expensive tires every 30k and doing 20k short life F Sport Brake jobs, more maintenance cost, and no back seat room. With that, the GS is a Fine car!

The ES is so easy to drive, lots of room, great gas mileage, low maintenance cost and rides and drives like it's on a cloud. If you start looking ES350 look for a low to mid miles 2013 or 2014 ES350 Ultra Luxury Package. Those were the best 2 years IMO. The U/L leaves nothing to be desired, and you will not look back. BTW: the ES350 268hp claim rating is likely way underrated. by Lexus. Take it both for a intown and highway drive and see what you like best."

I didn't want the GS350 F Sport. I wanted a GS350 Luxury Package car only that was Loaded with Options. Lots of extras and the Dark Wood Interior, Rear Pass Entertainment, HUD, Adjustable AVS Suspension and others in my GS Sig. I've done some Mods to my GS and still doing, as I did on my ES. Performance Mods, Intake. Exhaust, Custom Trunk sub and Amp, Door speaker upgrades, and more. My ES and my GS both out ran my friends like for GS and ES's. I've been working on doing some Performance Tuning Software, have set of Ported Flow benched Heads, with Ported upper and Lower Intake, Headers and so on. I will likely put my Zex 150 shot Progressive Nitrous kit back on, that I had installed on 2 others Lexus I had. With that my Personal reason for my ES350 was one thing. My GS350 sleeper setup is another.

Ill try to narrow down for you some more. They are two totally different cars. If one was blindfolded on a test ride. ES would Win every time. Riding and driving. I had the ES and GS at the same time for a few years. Notice my 13 GS Luxury Edition has 37k, I drove the ES all the time. I think you should go take a Test Ride on the highway and in town in both. Just so you know the 13 -15 GS is kinda hard core suspension. The model past those years were more ES Suspension like. Don't put too much into what I'm saying. I like the ES350 better. There are a huge Ton of GS F Sport Fans who hate the ES lol!

Again, go to a Car lot, drive 2 13-14 ES350's and 2 13-14 GS350's of the year you want to buy. I would like to see what you think? There are Pro's and Cons to both. The 4th Gen GS Forum would definitely not agree with me favoring the ES. You may not like the ES either. lol! I really don't see anybody unhappy with their GS or ES.

FYI: The ES350 U/L or equipped ES350 with the 18" wheels will drive and feel a little different. (also switch it to Sport Mode when you test drive.)
The 2013 - 2015 GS350 will be tighter and stiffer suspension than the 2016 on up. From 2016 to 2020 every 2 years the Suspension got softer and softer. Why I said to make sure you drive the year you are going to buy. Even if a Dealer is asking 4k more than you want to spend. You can still test drive it and ask what their best price is?

oreguyd

Just my experience but if you gassed it and the car didn't preform as suspected, than your intuition was right. Something more may be wrong? For a car with a non-turbocharged 6 cyl. that takes regular gas, this car accelerates very well and can take hills with little effort. But what really makes the difference is it's reliability and feel of the road.

vetdoc

Ok jg very good info and I apprediste it. I'll check out some dealers close by to test drive a couple of ES 2013-14 and the same for a couple of GS Fsport and j GS with a luxury package and no sport mode. I really need to familarize myself a lot more with both these cars before I make any decesion on buying one.
Thanks again

vetdoc

Hi oreguyd
I think youre right the ES I drove probably was'nt right . I'll take out another one and the GS and compare'
Thanks

st1800

From my recollection of going through the same process 4 years ago, and ended up with ‘14 ES 350 UL, the GS was pretty nice, lots of options, but I think there were a few more things to go wrong. The GS F Sport was pretty rough riding, and I didn’t think that would serve me well for the next 5-9 years. If money was no object i would've bought an LS.