ceelo

iTrader: (4)

Your car was relisted on Ebay recently. Price listed there is $13,995 so I'm sure you can get them down into the low 13's. Good Luck

lexGS4me

Niiice, thanks for the heads up ceelo! I will use this to my advantage tomorrow.

Considering they have that NYS Lemon law, think I could get away with buying the vehicle and taking it to a mechanic in the first week? Or would it be smarter to find one in the Rochester area? The thing is, I live in Buffalo so it's about an hour / hour n a half away.. I really don't know any mechanics out there. Someone suggested an inspection service but honestly, I'm not throwing down $350 to get a car checked out that I may or may not buy, you know? A lot of the vehicles on that site were classics anyway (60s corvettes, 70s chargers etc etc)

ceelo

iTrader: (4)

According to a quick Google search there is a Lexus dealership (Dorschel) that is in Rochester. I doubt the area is that big so I would imagine that the car you are looking at isn't located to far away from that Lexus dealer.

Just call Highline Imports and see if they are willing to deliver the car to that Lexus dealer to do a pre-purchase inspection, if they are then setup an appointment to have the Lexus dealer look the car over, it shouldn't cost must more than $100-$125. That is what I've paid in the past.

If Highline won't work with you on that then I would just move on and find another car....

lexGS4me

I did the test drive on Saturday... Some thoughts..

-couple minor scratches on front bumper
-couple minor scratches on rear bumper
-Mark Levinson system -- left speaker pops in and out (dealership said they would fix). Recently got new ML amp and could've been installed improperly
-could not get service records, they said it would be too difficult or something since it was loaned 2 times...
-tires have 30% tread life (needs replacing to finish off this nice Buffalo winter)

Overall, the ride felt nice. Slight delay on accelerating from a stop, is this common? Did not seem too irregular. I tried the ECT(?) regular and snow modes -- all seem to work as they should. When asking about if it had a 90k service check, again, they could not tell me what had been serviced, other than it looks clean and that it was most likely serviced regularly since it was a loaner 2 times. I asked specifically if the timing belt was changed and he told me there is no timing belt! Is it true that the GS430 has a timing chain and not a belt?

I asked how much it's going for, and he replied 15grand! Haha, I then asked him about the listing I saw on ebay (thanks ceelo) and he "checked on it" and confirmed they are now asking 14grand. I'd like to pull the trigger on the car, but only if I can get him down to 13grand with a trade-in value of $9500 - $10,000 (they OFFERED me 9-9.5k on my Scion tC, seems reasonable I guess, though I bought $500 tires a month ago). The car needs NEW TIRES, should I negotiate that into the deal?

Here's my last questions: Do I call them or wait it out til they call me? Do you have any suggestions on bringing the price down?

CK6Speed

iTrader: (1)

^^^^ The GS has a timing belt, not chain. The slight delay in acceleration is normal. Its the Drive by Wire. Shouldn't be more than about 1/4-1/2 a second under normal driving. Not sure how they could install the ML amp wrong when all they have to do is remove the connectors out of the old one, and plug them into the new one. Could be a problem with the speaker itself or the headunit side. Or, the ML amp still has a problem, or it was never really changed out to begin with.

Otherwise, good luck with the purchase.

lexGS4me

Thanks for the quick reply. If the timing belt was not changed, think I would need to get that done soon? Again, the car has 99k miles... Also, he told me it DOESN'T have one, which makes me think he's telling me **** just to get me to feel more comfortable with the purchase, when in actuality, I do research instead of taking a car salesman's word.

Does anyone care to argue the fact that the GS has a timing belt? I tried looking around for a more solid answer.. so far I will take CK6Speed's suggestion that it does.

ceelo

iTrader: (4)

Yes, the GS has a timing belt and if it hasn't been changed that is something else that should be on the list of future maintenance repairs. I wouldn't expect a used car dealership to know crap about the cars that they selling, obviously they should...but more often than not they don't.

Which is why I said to get a pre-purchase inspection done by a local Lexus dealer. They can tell you whether or not the belt has been changed and any other items that might need to be addressed in the near future like front suspension bushings and ball joints.

Its a used car with 99k so regardless of its current condition there are various maintenance items that will addressing in the near future if they haven't already been.

sakataj

iTrader: (182)

the gs DEF has a timing belt i just replaced mine.... i agree with both these guys....get a pre purchase inspection. the guy tryin to sell u the car is being shady and is apparently a moron...IF it has not had ball joints/90k maint u looking at close to 1k of preventative maintenance almost as soon as you buy the car NOT TO MENTION replacing the tires! oh fyi i hate the acceleration of the drive by wire.....but eventually i have learned to live with/ignore it

lexGS4me

Honestly, it was the salesman's uncle (dealership is family owned...) who said it doesn't have a timing belt after I asked... He sounded retarded after he fed me that bullisht, enough to make me question the legitimacy of what he said. Is it true they cannot access the SERVICE records? He gave me a history of the vehicle but that just tells me when it was leased n whatnot. I want to see if it has been 90k serviced, should I tell him no sale unless I see that or what?

BTW I didn't really care for that short delay off acceleration, but the available power when rolling is awesome! I had a lot of fun driving it that's for sure

jamjam

hey i'm new to this forum. but after reviewing a lot of for sales in this forum and other places....that sounds like a reasonable price. Have you gotten carfax for it? i would really suggest instead of doing shizzles online, that you go check out the car forreal forreal. therefore you wont waste your time if that car didn't work out due to mechanical problems or visually to ur disliking...thats just my 2cents...

lexGS4me

Please see above post..

werewolf

so

They want 14K, you want to pay 13K
You want 9.5K on trade-in
You 'need' 1.5k-2K in maintanence + tires (500-1k)

so you pay 13K and need to put in 1.5K minimum and get 14.5K in total cost for the car
You get 9.5K on trade-in so you are really out 5K on the car

I would offer 12K to start and meet in the middle. Cash is king in this economy.

ceelo

iTrader: (4)

If the car was serviced at a local independent shop by it's previous owners your more than likely not going to get service records. I don't know if Lexus dealers can pull up service history by VIN number but that would be the only other option and that is assuming it was serviced at a Lexus dealer

I know that I sound like a broken record...but get a pre-purchase inspection! You'll get a fair third party review of the overall condition of the car and what you'll need to keep in mind when negotiating price.

For all you know the ball joints could be ready to bust, the tranmission is leaking fluid, and all the rear suspension bushings are shot.

fordsvtmfl

iTrader: (13)

i would never buy a car that has been loaned out...period

lexGS4me

Really? My gf keeps telling me that, I think I'll have to reconsider this one. I'm not in a rush to get the car, my tC is holding up just fine with just 30k miles. Haha, if the deal is not right or not that great it makes no sense.

Telling me there's no timing belt was a bad move. I lost a bit of trust with that dealership.... I expect them to be at least partially knowledgeable, and to NOT give blatantly incorrect or misleading information to push a sale.

With that, I'll keep looking for my perfect single-owner GS430, I have the time to wait You guys have been AWESOME