CleverName

As the OP is looking at used, the cost analysis is moot... Depreciation is already marked it down to a reasonable figure.

Updates are costly, but when putting it in perspective, it really is small change... I can spend that much on drinks and a good steak dinner in one night! An update is good for a whole year or more. And not being able to change things while moving has been bypassed on my unit so it is a non issue as well.
I have an extended on my car, so the Nav. is fully covered...another non-issue.

It's the advanced features of a fully loaded Lex that make the car worth owning, otherwise you'd be better off buying Toyota at half the price and mount your $100 Garmin on its dash.

If I were faced with choosing a Nav when buying new, I could easily listen to this debate. But for used?.... get it and enjoy.

Best of luck OP,
V

Kurtz

iTrader: (1)

Heh... make up your mind... did you cut the wires to bypass the lockout, or is your warranty on the nav valid?

Can't have both.

And while one map update isn't THAT big a deal for cost... over say 8 years of ownership that's $2400 more in map updates at retail price. Versus the free ones on the Garmin that come 4 times as often.


If the features were actually advanced I'd agree... but the OEM nav makes a Garmin from 2003 look advanced. That's a major problem. (how outdated, feature-wise, the factory systems tend to be is one of the reasons listed in that news article I posted why many avoid the OEM systems)

Last big thread I listed at least 10 useful features the Garmin offers that the OEM system (06-09) lacks... the 2010+ system adds maybe 2 or 3 of em from that 10.

MBTC

Actually on a used car, although the depreciation is less of a concern, I would personally consider a built-in nav system to be a liability because of the risk of high repair costs.

The extended warranty is a good thing to have in a car with nav (during the ext warranty period, assuming you sell the car before it ends), but extended warranties are not free in themselves, so the scenarios are:

1. Nav breaks, warranty period is still valid and covers it - great that you have no unexpected costs, but bottom line is you pre-paid for the repair when you bought the extended warranty and ext warranties arent cheap
2. Nav never breaks - you're still out the money for the warranty unless you have some other major repair that justified the cost
3. Nav breaks outside the ext. warranty period -- double whammy. Paid for the nav system, the extended warranty, probably several map updates, and now likely out thousands more for the repairs. Would likely be hitting the $5-10k range for total cost of ownership of just *the nav system alone*, opted for over a $100 Garmin that has lifetime map updates and does a lot more.


The notion of "half price" for Toyota is not even close to realistic -- the problem is that a Toyota with features I wanted was close to the price of an entry level Lexus. Once you equip something like a Toyota or Honda with leather, decent stereo, a v6, and other things like moonroof / bluetooth, etc, you can expect to see the price come near or exceed $30k, and I can get an IS250 with all of these features standard for a couple of grand more. Not to mention at the end of it all you're either driving a Lexus or a Toyota. Which would most opt for?

... and make sure one of the following is true:
(1) the nav is covered under warranty and you have a good plan for dumping it before the warranty expires
(2) you keep a nice stash of "just in-case" money in case the nav system fails out of warranty. You might have good luck here, it might never fail, but it will suck to get caught with this expense if you can't cover it with front pocket money.


No offense to those who opt-in on built-in nav systems, some have good luck with them but I've known others that did not, so its important to take a look at two numbers: what is the minimum it's definately going to cost, and what is the upper range of cost it could potentially hit, worst case scenario?

Kurtz

iTrader: (1)

Not to mention Toyota doesn't even sell any comparable cars. All the toyota cars are driving the wrong pair of wheels... (ditto Honda... and even Acura)

MBTC

True. I'm one of those who can live with FWD if the price makes sense, but last year when I started pricing the IS, I was suprised how quickly Honda/Toyota/Nissan start to approach the price of a base model Lexus, yet the base model IS had all the features standard that drove the price of the others into the same range. Every time my practical side tried to talk myself out the Lexus purchase, all I had to do was think about whether I wanted to pay low 30's for a car that looks and feels like a 25k car, or did I want to pay same for a car that looks and feels like a 40k car. No regrets at all.