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I know there are people who lease cars and don't do any maintenance. So sometimes lease returns are not the best conditio cars.
This is a mentality I've never really understood. I've always been extra cautious with maintenance and care on my leased vehicles to ensure I don't get dinged at the end of the lease.
A fair concern. Personally, if your plan is to keep it for 150,000 miles or more, I'd walk. But less miles and normal driving (non aggressive) I'd say OK. Remember there's a factory drive train warranty that depends upon proper maintenance schedule kept. As mentioned, hooking it up to tech stream will show many historical events but not sure about oil. Point is, if all other things show as would be expected, you're probably safe. You could hand write oil change records (cook the books), don't put them in website.That'd cover you for premature engine failure. But it's a hassle. If this car has a rare combo of features that you've been searching for, that's a good reason to buy it. Best wishes.
This is a mentality I've never really understood. I've always been extra cautious with maintenance and care on my leased vehicles to ensure I don't get dinged at the end of the lease.
And that my friend is why those lease returns that are for sale definitely needs to be researched. IT is always best to do the homework on all used vehicles.
I'd like to think documenting service records would be appreciated by the next owner of the car. How hard is it to record and save service history? I know that most people could care less if the next owner sees records or not. It would be a plus for me to see a stable service history when buying a used car.
My GS was a lease return - leased from April 2012 through April 2015. Between 25k miles and 43k miles, there was no documented maintenance on the carfax or lexus drivers (see screenshot below). Even at 25k miles on the service history, it was unclear if they changed they oil because they performed the '15k Light Service'.
Its quite possible that my GS didn't have an oil change for a long time - but i figured the previous owner did get the oil change once in that time but went to a local spot that didn't report it. Nonetheless, I bought it and it still runs like a champ
@CottageChz Here's what my GS's history looks like before/at CPO (very unclear if oil was changed based on the data since the 10k service!):
Thanks again for all the input guys. I am no longer pursuing this car because the dealer is difficult to work with, and there’s something weird going on with one of the seats’ leather, on top of the unknown oil changes.
@AJLex19 your car’s info on the Lexus site is about as vague as this one. Glad to hear it has worked out well for you!
@charley95 I agree; that info is nice for future owners. Personally, I keep all my receipts and would absolutely present them to a prospective owner if I sold private party. I wouldn’t give them to a dealer because who knows who they’d give them to, and they have personal info on them. Perhaps on my next GS I will log the info on the Lexus site.
@swfla I kinda agree with you on walking, because I DO want to keep the car long term. I’d like to drive this car til the wheels fall off, would love to get 200k+ miles. I take care of my stuff and would love to get some serious longevity out of this car... they are certainly typically reliable enough to do that. Would have done that with my previous GS had it not been totaled by a careless driver.
@CottageChz I bought my '15 GS350F at 9K miles so I can't comment on that. But my '17 RX350F I got at 42K miles. No service history between 15K and 42K miles. Runs like a champ as well.
This is a mentality I've never really understood. I've always been extra cautious with maintenance and care on my leased vehicles to ensure I don't get dinged at the end of the lease.
Many Lexus dealer doesn't show the maintenance on Carfax, how do you tell if maintenance is done or not unless Lexus shares that info.
Many Lexus dealer doesn't show the maintenance on Carfax, how do you tell if maintenance is done or not unless Lexus shares that info.
On the Lexus drivers website you can see any work that was done at a Lexus dealer. They log it all. You just make a username and enter the vin. Great tool for used car shopping. Other car manufacturers offer a similar tool.
On the Lexus drivers website you can see any work that was done at a Lexus dealer. They log it all. You just make a username and enter the vin. Great tool for used car shopping. Other car manufacturers offer a similar tool.
05-15-20, 07:01 AM
