kitra

I'm new to this forum. I've always have driven European cars and those of American steel. This is my first experience with Toyota/Lexus. Just bought a CPO car with 49K miles, Car Fax is good. Dealer maintained, 5K oil changes. No repairs documented, just services. Some road rash on nose but otherwise seems to be a very clean car. CPO is good until 6/2020. Dealer sold me an extended platinum warranty good until 6/2025 for $3025. Does anyone think that the 5 year extension is a worthwhile expense? Just wondering if I'd be better off with the cash in my bank or theirs? BTW, I was really interested in an IS 350 but their prices were significantly higher yet the GS 350 also seemed to be a good size. So the GS 350 in white is in my driveway. Original retail was $60,100. In service date of 6/2014. Hope I'm not going to be sorry driving Japanese engineering.

teezee1000

Congrats, how much did you pay if you dont mind me asking? I think the extra warranty is good since the mileage is almost out on standard warranty.

18017

You'll be disappointed if you like paying inflated maintance costs and fancy poor reliability and build quality.

welcome

kitra

Paid $31K. They applied CPO for just short of 4 more years. Looking at original window sticker. Major options are BSM with folding mirrors ($700), F-Sport package with Cold Weather Pkg ($5695), Intuitive Park assist ($500), Navigation w/12.3" screen ($1735), cargo net, illuminated door sills ($435), trunk mat, wheel locks. Total $60,157. The extended warranty for 5 additional years was an add of $3025 more so a $34K total investment.

GXGSAm

And you didn't mind the frequent visits to repair shops and then selling the vehicle and immediately buy similar brands over again and start the same trend over and over again - simply because you have the money to spend and you don't care how you spend it.

Welcome!

kitra

My SAAB cars have been outstanding, especially my current 9-5 I still have. Only 135K miles (14 years old). A couple of DIY timing belts. one wheel bearing, water pumps done with the timing belts due to ease while in there, one heater control valve. Rest are normal wear, belts, hoses, tires, bulbs. Amazing seats in both the SAAB and Volvo. I also like the unique "spare heater" feature in the SAAB which with hot engine and parked, an electric pump can be turned on via the HVAC to circulate the coolant and heater fans on low to keep waiting passenger warm. The ergonomic interior design of SAAB's are hard to beat. Super easy car to service yourself. SAAB car is still perfect - just thought I'd try a Lexus this time since I can't buy a new SAAB.

shurik74

iTrader: (5)

SAAB... sounds so familiar to me back to 90's in Russia before I moved to US. These cars were popular, somehow did not survive a competition...

OP... congrats on purchase, welcome to Lexus club!

kitra

I'm trying to learn how to operate the electronics. I assume my Lexus is missing some other fancy option packs such as the ML sound. Doesn't have the lane assist and crash avoidance which some Lexus's do have. Whoever had it must have run down the freeways to put close to 50K miles in 2 years. Not sure how I did on the price but buying from the Lexus dealer and car CPO is nice.

GXGSAm

I believe the price you paid for the setup you got on your GS is about average, it could have been higher if the ML and other options were there. My 13 GSAWD Lux was $31k two years ago but it was not a CPO. It had 16k plus miles back then so I was not concerned with warranties - to this day everything was regular maintenance. The only change I made so far on the vehicle is I changed the 18" chrome wheels with 19" light weight staggered wheels about 10k miles ago, no issues to this day on my daily commuter around SoCal!

Sevn86

Congrats and welcome!

puffdaddy

Congrats on your new ride!I have the same optioned car, and color, but a '13. I think you will be very happy for many years. It has really grown on my over my past year or so of ownership. It's been 100% reliable so far. My warranty is up in December, and I'm not the least bit concerned about being without warranty.
With yours being CPO, I think you didn't need the extended warranty. These are very reliable cars (in general, always exceptions), so the 4 years that it came with should be fine. You don't drive many miles a year but the sound of it, so the additional years seem unnecessary. If you are going to have something fail that is not wear related, I bet you would see it occur during the CPO period. The dealer warranties are WAY overpriced and a high profit margin item. I personally don't think you will get a good ROI.

kitra

Thanks PuffDaddy. I signed up for extended warranty but have 30 days to cancel - they say. I am nuts on maintenance so my cars never wear out, I just get tired of them. Today, I took my SAAB 9-5 on some back roads and did some fun corner carving. It's got Bilstein struts on all 4 corners. I need to part with my SAAB and start driving the Lexus. I'm sure I will like the features of the Lexus. I'm not sure what expensive option package is not on mine but I've lost all of my high frequency hearing so the ML sound system is a waste for me. The collision avoidance stuff would be nice. My Wife's Jeep slams on the brakes if traffic stops and has Radar cruise control so it will pace the car ahead. I don't think my Lexus has that.

Dallasguy1

Sweet ride and welcome to the forum, I have ML sound and I keep bass on full and hardly hear any on FM radio on HD so I donno wats the difference really on ML and regular sound. Yeah when I play MP3 sound is definitely nice. Keeping an extra warranty is nice but coming from a Bmw I know Lexus is a walk in the park for me. Good luck.

kitra

Thanks for the welcome. I need to start driving the GS 350 and suspect I will love it. I was seriously considering a BMW 335i but talked to many owners that told me they are very expensive to keep running. I like to work on my cars and BMW looked hard to work on.

kitra

First is the Xenon headlights don't auto level. Never realized how great the auto-leveling Xenon's on my old SAAB were until I drove a car that doesn't seem to have them. Driving downtown, every time I cross an adjacent street with the hump, the headlights would raise with the body and light up the interior of the car in front of me. My 14 year old SAAB the lights adjusted and never even bounced. I had no idea how good that system is until driving this newer Lexus that doesn't seem to have this feature.

Second, very numb steering. The car has very little road feel plus the steering is very sensitive and doesn't seem to track on-center. Likes to drift so I'm always correcting. Certainly can't take eyes off the road for more than a second or two. Wondering if toe-in is incorrect or set near zero for efficiency?

Third, the road noise is crazy. I noticed the road noise during the test drive but now driving on highways and town, the road noise is excessive to me. The Dealer said the road noise is caused by the F-Sport package and the 40 series tires. The current tires are Continental's with 70% tread. I heard the choices for 19" tires is very limited. They loaned me a ES-350 and it too had road noise but less than my car. Would I give the car back if I could? NO!

What I like is everything else. And the build quality seems very good. I am certain I am going to enjoy and reliability and will likely get hooked on the car once I driver it a while. I've only put 150 miles or so on it thus far.