bsmuv

I'm looking at buying a 2001 GS300 w/43k miles from a Toyota dealership for 28K is that a good price?. Should I buy it or should I pay more and go to a lexus dealership? It's still under the original warranty, can I get Lexus to certify it if I get it from the Toyota dealership? This will be my first Lexus.

Help

bsmuv1@yahoo.com

bluelex

well bluebook is about 29k so i guess its priced well 4 a dealer but the market is low right now fro what i c so i would pay so much, mayb look 4 an older model with the same miles and pay much less. but its up 2 u , good luck...

Letsride

I would also shop around a bit!!

Lettuce

iTrader: (1)

I got my 00 GS3 w/48k miles and certified for 26K, with Nak, and HID's

whitelotus

Mileage is a bit high, too, for an '01.

But.... NEVER pay sticker price! If it's still the one you want after some shopping, you can go in with cash or your loan pre-arranged and get ready to play hardball, baby! These days they are not willing to let a sale go, especially when you have money in hand.

Good luck!

bsmuv

I just got back from the Toyota dealership. The price for the car tax, tags, title..out the door is $28890. His price was $27880 but that's before tax, tags and title. I've already been preapproved for a loan I wonder how low can I get him to go? The car is very clean...one owner. Yeah, I thought the milage was high also, but was thinking I could deal with it.
I'll be looking at another 2001 GS300 tomorrow.. the price listed is $27,900 w/ 42K miles.

So can I get the car certified by lexus if I buy from a toyota or other dealership? Also, should I get an extended warranty since these two cars are close to the 50K mark?

Thanks for your input thus far I really appreciate it. As I said before this will be my first Lexus purchase and I want to be smart about it. I'm making a serious upgrade here..from a Honda CRX to a Lexus

bsmuv1@yahoo.com

whitelotus

One thing you have in your favor is that it's a Toyota dealer; this was a trade-in. They'll want to sell the car as quickly as possible, since there's probably not a lot of people looking for a Lexus every day. Kelly Blue Book for the trade-in is about $24,000, so you know what they paid for it, and likely they haven't put more than $500 into reconditioning, so there's your starting point. (If you don't buy that, call ANOTHER Toyota dealer and ask them how much they'd give you on trade for an '01 GS3 with 43M.) So you see there's a lot more room to negotiate on used cars than new ones.

One of my favorite techniques (this is so mean, but it works) is to waste as much of the salesperson's time as possible, test driving, asking questions, making them run the service records if they have them, etc. so he is invested in making a sale. If he lets you walk out of the dealership without buying, he's just wasted his whole afternoon. Soooo, you have a better chance of dealing the price down. Just remember, you can always RAISE your asking price, but once you make your initial offer, you can never lower it. And make him deal on the actual price of the vehicle, not the price including tax, tags, and title. (Same goes if you're trading in the CRX, make sure you negotiate those two agreements separately.)

As far as warranties go, it wouldn't hurt to call around to see what it would cost you to get an extended service contract. Do a search, there are a couple warranty threads around here somewhere. The only way to get it "certified" is by buying it from a Lexus dealership, but that doesn't really mean a whole lot IMO, so I wouldn't get too hung up on that point.

No one can tell you what the right price to start at is, but if it was me, I think I'd tell him I was looking at a similar car from a private party for $24,000. Betting you can get him down to $26,000 at least. If not, gotta be prepared to walk away if you think you can do better elsewhere.

Negotiating is the fun part so no fear. They need you more than you need them - and they know it.

Geez am I long winded, but I've negotiated two used vehicle purchases in the last 6 months, so I've thought about it a lot. Hope it helps! You're making a nice step up, you won't regret it.

Blue98Gs3

iTrader: (1)

I would definitely look around. I bought my 98 GS300 with 34k miles on it for 18600 from a private seller! good searching!

whitelotus

That's it, I'm moving to Texas.

Yeah, I've bought my last two cars from private parties, it's definitely the way to go if you know what you're looking at.