zombeezISF

iTrader: (1)

Approaching the 100k mark on my ISF. Yes, I drive A LOT. Everyday. Lola has been amazing to me over the years and I love her. She is my daily driver. I can't be that guy that saves driving the IS-F on only pretty days. Everyday is an amazing day when I drive that car.

But I'm having a hard time trying to figure out what to do now. I had purchased the extended warranty to get me to the 100k mark. I'm at 93k now. She's going to be paid off probably in the next 6 months, give or take.

I've had a couple issues over the years, NAV gone bad, DVD player shot, little things. Thankfully under warranty it was covered. I do recall gawking at the receipt when got her back after replacing those things and remember being glad I had the warranty to cover it. I don't know how comfortable I am about holding on to her after the warranty period is over.

So I started thinking about my options were:

1. Don't worry about the warranty after it expires, pay her off and just keep her.
2. Buy another extended warranty (25k) from dealership, bleed out the nose in cost for it and wait till I can find a used RC-F in a year or two.
3. Try to sell her now, go invest into the RC-F, and deal with another car payments for another 5 years.

I can afford to keep her and maintain her. But I'm not a fan of paying out ridiculous dealership prices to fix or replace IS-F specific things on this car (another NAV, DVD player, etc).

Just wanted to get some opinions from other actual owners. What would you do if you were in my shoes? Have any of you reached this level mileage with your F and had any issues?

Thanks for any comments in advance,

norma

93MSB

iTrader: (8)

The nav screen can be fixed fairly cheap:
$10-15 if you want to try and repair the original screen cable
$50-60 to buy a replacement screen off eBay

Not sure about the DVD player, I haven't seen any other posts from owners with that issue

In my experience a paid off car is cheaper to own

kzlflash

iTrader: (1)

When you say the Nav was shot and the DVD player was shot, was it only isolated to the Nav and DVD player? Or did everything else not work either, like the screen for the radio, AC controls, etc.?

I vote for option number 1, unless you have the money to burn. I would just drive the car to the ground cause I wouldn't want to make car payments for another 5 years. But I guess it really depends on your financial situation, age, etc.

NYKnick101

Looks like the only thing that went bad was interior items as opposed to power train. If your not too mechanically inclined, for peace of mind, I would just get the warranty. One less thing to worry about.

HOWEVER, think about the cost of the warranty compared to the average cost per item you had repaired. Or could have had repaired away from a dealership and see if its worth it. For a Nav screen and dvd repair over the 100k you owned the car, I would pass on the warranty.

Also ask your self if you forsee your self driving the IS-F for another couple years. Yes? No? Maybe?

ISFjimmy

iTrader: (5)

Save the money you would have been spending on the car payment (after paying it off) and use that as a car rainy day fund/mods

Sylvan

iTrader: (6)

Keep putting the car payments in a separate account to pay for any "fixes" that pop up in the next year or two and that will turn into a decent sized fund that you could drop that and trade the ISF on the RCF and have tiny little payments going forward.

PDP180180

iTrader: (3)

Mine has only just passed 50K miles, I own it in it's entirety, and I have no warranty whatsoever.

The car was out of warranty when I bought it, but apparently I can start a new one with Lexus anytime.

Regardless, I don't intend to get it. I put aside money every month for the car. If it doesn't go wrong after six or so months (hasn't so far), I use some of the money for mods.

Warranties can be overrated in my opinion. Recall work is covered without a warranty, and mechanical failures can be tricky to prove (some warranty firms will blame you/how you drive etc).

With proper care and servicing, you should get at least another 100K out of it.

Just pay off the final payments and keep enjoying the car.

That's my opinion anyway.

Cheers.


Peter

calteg

This. Sounds like the OP is being pennywise and pound foolish.

You're scared of a $1,000 repair bill that MIGHT happen sometime in the vague future, so your solution is a $700/month car payment EVERY MONTH for the next few years.

My extended drivetrain warranty covers me to 180,000 miles, and cost me $1,000 through my credit union. They wouldn't have offered it to me unless they thought it would be a money making proposition for them...I think that speaks volumes about the projected reliability of the IS-F

zen

iTrader: (6)

I'll go with number 1.
save your money, the warranties may be helpful when something broke and you feel you are covered, but you are actually paying for it.
Lexus warranty is like health insurance, it's depends on years and mileage, the warranty premium goes up as the car ages with high mileage. I don't think it's worth it.
As for the DVD player, mine was replaced and I think it was around $700. Lexus sent the unit to a 3rd company which they fix/refurbish the DVD player after I sent the old unit to them. It's also covered for 1 yr.

LOWFAST

I agree with keeping it for the long haul. I think the IS-F is a very striking design that has held up well, in my eyes it still looks current. Save the $$ for the car payment into a rainy day fund for repairs or to go toward a down payment once it is the "right time." Also along the way if you start to get bored with the F you can always divert some of those rainy day funds to mods that make it new and fresh. Ours currently has 49k on it and is driven every day, rain, shine or when we were up in Wisconsin, even snow. We will keep it well past 100k unless life dictates otherwise.

786

keep it, car will likely be faultless if you maintained it up to now. i really wouldn't worry at all.

fearnight

You do understand how warranties work, right? The person you are buying the warranty from is making a bet that during the warranty period, they will never have to pay more to fix your car than you pay them for the warranty.

Sure, it doesn't always work out in their favor, but they wouldn't offer them at all if it didn't tilt in their favor most of the time. They wouldn't offer them if they were scared they would lose money.

When I bought my 2010 ISF w/ 76k mi, I was shocked to see they threw in a 1 year/12k mi warranty for free. I had never seen that before when buying a used car. They also of course pushed a multitude of extended warranty packages well into the 100k mile mark. I thought to myself ... they must be confident enough in this car and the Lexus/Toyota product that I'll never make a warranty claim.

vbb

iTrader: (3)

What's up girl! Haven't seen you on the boards in a long while... glad to hear things are still going well with you and "Lola."

The correct answer is this:
Look, you're about to have a paid-off car that you still enjoy immensely and still drive every day. That's MUCH better than strapping yourself to another high car payment for 5+ years. The minor things that may come up on your car outside of routine maintenance will easily be less expensive than a new car payment. If you feel really worried about things, yeah, go ahead and get another warranty, but I would probably skip that as well. Keep enjoying the car, and if you're so inclined, maybe look to getting something else as a cheaper daily driver to split up some of the driving time on the ISF. I drive my 2006 Titan as a "bad weather and utility" ride which makes the time behind the wheel of my ISF even more fun. I'm much more likely to upgrade my daily than to get rid of the ISF.

Good luck in whatever you choose, and maybe I'll see you at a future MD/VA/DC meet.

DrRick

i think the word you were looking for is 'debate' not debacle....