sweet interior

and talk about young im 18 in two months driving an old mans car

 

hoonunya, there are plenty of older folks on CL as well... they aren't just as prolific posters as the whippersnappers

I'm 42 and have had an LS400 or LS430 as my daily for several years. I started to modify the LS430 like I did my older GS400 (and to some extent my LS400) but backed off for the most part. No need for that when she sits outside, goes to the grocery store and gym, lots of road trips. I enjoy the luxury ride plenty without the extra looks I'd get with it scraping the ground.

 

hoonunya,...... hahaha.......it is good that you are young at heart

 

Congrats on the purchase. Rare find for sure, and good for you. Welcome to the forum.

 

Someone mentioned getting the GS for the "sportier ride" equating really to "they could not afford the LS"... that was me. I was all ready to settle on GS350AWD because I just could not pull the trigger and load on another $25K for the LS460 that I wanted. Then when I saw the prices of LS430 (which I actually really loved and wanted back when it was the current model) and how affordable they were... fahghetaboutit. New GS, I'll get a nicely used LS instead. Haven't regretted it since. For me, the GS was definitely a compromise of new and affordable.

Someone also wrote about the minivan passing them... I'm 38 and no slow driver. I've brought the baby up to 100 mph (with no passengers in car) and this thing is smooth and still quiet at 100. I'll tell you, on local roads, those minvan moms are BAD... they usually pass me because I'm so busy cruising with the radar cruise. ZOOM, they're off to their soccer games.

The irony of the LS is that the truly rich, who are usually the old, buy these things new and barely use them, then when it comes time to sell, a young whippersnapper like most of us comes along and buys them to mod to abuse later on. Really is the "circle of life."

 

congrats on purchase and welcome!

 

That is the reason why they are such amazing value.

Lately I am finding out used Bentley is the same way, rich people buy them and put very little miles on them, and they don't worth much after 5~10 years. A 5~10 years old mint condition low mileage Bentley sedan cost the same as what we are paying for our used LS430, very tempting.

The catch is, Bentley are not reliable like a Lexus, bummer

 

Serious? But that would be going from an "old folks" car to a REALLY old folks car... I'll keep the LS, the Bent's seem too "square" for me.

 

I'll give you three years tops and you'll be in a 460 LWB.

 

You might be off by about one year... I might get a 2009 LS460L-AWD but in 2013...

 

Interestingly I've been thinking about an LS460 in ~2013 or a Bentley, depending on their prices. Nice to see I'm not the only one thinking this way

I would keep the LS430 though, regardless. I love the fact that someone can buy a car, care for it well, have it depreciate then let me buy it for less than half it's value 3 years later in as new condition.

 

i've looked at a couple of bently,, But with Simone from AM IDol being an owner of a $300k Bently, Kinda changes my mind...While in Bangkok, I saw many LS430s being driven and thought they were the most classy car on the streets.

 

That's interesting concerning the auction quote. I worked for years with Honda and we took our very best cars to the auction. Just because a car goes to auction doesn't mean it has issues. Dealerships take most of their cars to the auction simply because they can't afford the floor plan. So, some of the better and most expensive cars go. The interest per month is a killer for the dealerships. Just my 2cents.

 

I agree there is no reason to avoid an auction car. Many dealers auction cars that don't fit their type of dealership because of brand, or price range and there is nothing wrong with the car. Certainly there are many cars that are "dumped" at auction by dealers who receive an abused car in trade, but these are fairly easy to spot if you know anything about cars. I am a "hobby dealer" and have bought more than 15 cars at a large New England auction over the past two years and every one of them has been a good car. My wife's 04 LS430 was an off-lease Florida car and has been completely trouble free. Many lease companies send all their off-lease cars to the auctions, so do not avoid a car solely based on it having been through an auction. Just my 2 cents...

 

I readily admit that I have never worked in the auto industry in any capacity. Most of my perception is based on when I was looking for a car 8 years ago. I would look up good deals and check them in Carfax. Too many times I would find that a car had been sold at auction several times in a 3 or 4 month period. Sounds suspect to me.
Within the last 6 weeks I was looking at 4 Lexus dealers within 100 miles of me (only for 2004-2006 LS430's). 3 of the dealerships had almost entirely local cars with no auctions. The 4th dealer (and largest) had practically no local cars and almost all cars were from Fla. auctions. I do not understand why that dealer would send all of his cars to the auction and then buy other cars at auction. I do not understand why 3 dealerships would have almost all local cars and another would have esentially none. How can there be 2 business models that are 180 degrees apart.
I think it is a good thing I'm not a dealer because I would work to get a reputation of having the best cars on my lot. Those would be the last ones that I would send to auction.
But again, I readily admit that this is my uninformed opinion and may have no correlation to reality.

I'm back in the saddle (leather) again. I went ahead and got my 10k service (at 8800 miles) at the local Lexus dealer. I wanted a "real" Lexus dealer to bless it. I had been taking my LS400 to a Toyota dealer (same owner, both dealerships) for the last several years.
I remembered the Lexus shop was high, but oil change, rotate tires and inspect etc for $155 is robbery.
WooHoo!!!