drvinh

For the past two weeks, I been reading this forum and today was ready to go shopping. I live in small town so I drove 100 mile to nearest city to find the 06 LS430 ML with 27K miles was sold. Night before spoke to saleman and was told it was still in stock. When I got there, another salesman had said that it sold 4 days prior. I scrambled around town at local dealerships, but didn't find anything I like. Really selection is minimal in Midwest. I guess I have to drive 250 miles to Memphis or Dallas to get good selections. I am using craiglist, ebay, lexus websites, autotrader.

My questions is how are people in smaller town getting deals on their LS430?

I looking for a low mileage 05 or 06 LS430.

thanks ahead.

JBLover

Unfortunately you may need to travel to get a LS you want. About 6 years ago I had a dealer do the same to me with a civic Si. They sold it, but still called me to come in to test drive it. After they took a copy of my drivers liscense they said, oh we already sold it. Trust me, with a big investment like an LS just take you time, call ahead and make sure you find exactly what you want and then just travel the little extra distance to get it. It is worth it, I love my LS!

caddyowner

Suggestions:

- Check cars.com which is usually filled with dealer listings from newspapers.

- Some towns have a local classified-only paper that lists more private party cars. These are usually better for finding a pickup truck, but sometimes a LS may show up there.

- The best tool I've found to search craigslist is http://craiglook.com . I seach locally and nationally daily.

- When searching www.lcpo.com , don't enter a zip code to get a national search.

- Consider buying remotely. A member may be willing to go look at a car for you in a distant city. They can tell you if the car is as advertised, looks good, and drives OK. If the car is nice you can fly out for a personal inspection or hire a professional inspection service prior to purchase. Remember to send the member that looks at a car for you something for his / her trouble, even if you don't buy the car.

Jabberwock

I know how you feel. You have to take some risk when your local market doen't have the right cars. I live in Dallas and bought my car from a Lexus dealer in Chicago. I made them a good offer over the phone and gave them $5k credit card deposit to seal the deal. I got the sales manager to agreed to hold it for 7 days until I could arrange to fly up to Chicago. He also agreed to refund my money if the car had been misrepresented in any way. I would only trust Lexus to hold up that promise. But even for Lexus not many dealers will agree to this kind of deal since it holds the car in limbo for a week.

I was not comfortable laying out 5k sight unseen but I used a credit card and felt a little protected by that, and they would not have held the car for me without the deposit. Admittedly I think I got lucky when we got to the dealer I was more than a little nervous that the car would be crap. They had the car parked inside, it had been fully detailed, it looked like it was glowing with spotlights on it as we walked up. It was absolutely immaculate inside and out. It looked brand new - totally mint. We took a 5 minute ride and quickly came back in to give them the check.

I was pretty confident in making a long distance purchase as it was a local trade in Lexus CPO 06 with only 14k miles. I figured how bad could it be messed up in 14k miles? The pictures on the web site were detailed and looked very good. The car had been purchased at that dealer, and maintained there, and the original owner had just been traded in on a new 460. It looked like it had spent most of its life inside a heated garage.

Unfortunately we saw lots of 04-06 LS 430 with 40-60 k miles on them that were heavily worn and smelly.

If had been an auction sourced car, I might not have made a deposit sight unseen.

Anyway good luck in your search. Have patience and you will find the right car.

gomezra04

Try CARMAX or definitely Dallas. My husbands Uncle goes there to buy his cars and gets really good deals. Got a nice Infinity and got a great deal!!

Jabberwock

Sewell Lexus in Dallas does a very nice job on prepping their CPO cars. Prices are fair not low but reasonable. The other Lexus dealers in DFW are OK but not as good as Sewell in the quality of the car prep. I would have bought from Sewell but they never got a really low mile car in with the options I wanted when I was looking.

drvinh

Thanks for the advice. I guess i have to do some traveling. I have 2 cars that each about 3.5 hrs drive away. I need some input on pricing.

One in Oklahoma located at a chevy dealership. gray 06 ls430 with 17500 miles asking $32500. standard options only (no Nav or anything). This is a local car trade base on autocheck.com. How much should I offer for this basic ls430 assuming clean condition? Edmunds got trade-in with mile adjustment- $26,701. Private party- $29,869. Dealer retail- $32,259.

Other car is at lexus of memphis. green 05 ls430 with 16700 miles Not CPO asking $29,990. standard options only also. was a corporate lease from miami that dealer bought at auction. How much should I offer for this basic ls430 assuming clean condition? Edmunds got trade-in price $21,247 private party $23,835 and dealer retail. $25,953 certified $28,700. I don't know why the lexus of memphis don't offer this as a CPO.


How much should I offer for each thanks.

Jabberwock

I think I paid $33K drive out for my 06 premium CPO with 14kmiles in Sept 09 for comparison. Not a lowest possible price to be sure but I wanted a very low mile mint Premium only option car and I was prepared to pay for it. They had been asking 34.5k, I think plus the dealer bs fees that they typically tack on - processing, prep, paperwork, yada, yada

Low mile cars can be a wonderful deal.

The Oki car I'd offer 30k drive out (plus tax, tag, title only) for it. Maybe its a late 06, check manufacture and service date on it - is it completely out of warranty?

The Florida car - hmm - Miami could mean some rust if the car was not garaged. Salt air is corrosive if a car isn't washed, waxed and garaged. Also - there is a reason the Lexus dealer cannot CPO a car, and its typically not cost or other BS they may tell you - more likely its a previous accident, bad service history or high mileage. In this case it cant be milage and its too early I think for bad service to be a reason - unless there is no service history on the car.

irek2002

Come to Dallas. That's where I got mine, and the market is full of them, all for decent prices.

honeygee2

In my humble opinion I would be looking in the South Florida area. These cars coming off lease down here are amazing. Almost all are CPO. Ft lauderdale, Palm Beach and Naples areas are great plaes to look.

Ay-nako

iTrader: (25)

+1 it took me almost 4-5 months to find a perfect LS, of course I lost some I wanted but in the end I didnt settle and I got what i wanted!

KILLERGS4

sometimes you have to buy sight unseen, when I found my LS430 ULTRA Crystal White w/ Saddle Interior, I knew we had to jump on it. make sure you buy from reputable dealer. I got mine from http://www.ambassadorautosales.com/ and we live in Maryland.

tromly

Be prepared to travel to Texas or Florida, best states for pre-owned Lexus !! I buy all my cars on Ebay, fly and drive the car back, easy transaction !

rcpeters

I wanted a green 2001 LS430 with Nav and low mileage, searched for several months, including all local dealers (Los Angeles area) and all over the U.S. Got lucky one day and found a local independent dealer I had never heard of, had one he had just obtained from a local Lexus dealer. (one owner) Paid about low book for it and it has been a great car. In my search, I only found one or two green cars, Missouri and Chicago areas. Prices were too high.

Next, I wanted a Blue with Saddle 2002 SC430, low mileage, never saw one in my area anywhere. Finally bought one on Ebay from a wholesaler back in PA. Paid with cashier's check up front, fly back and drove it home. Price was again about wholesale. Great car no problems. Previous to this, bid and lost out on one or two back east.

DDLexus

i agree with the traveling. I went to Atlanta, Dallas, and Oklahoma City to find my car. Just because the car looks good online doesn't mean it doesn't look like crap in person. I tried to buy a UL from Sewell, but the car was not in the MINT condition advertised by the dealer. Wasted trip, but i was prepared to walk away (always buy roundtrip tickets). I found my LS at a GM dealer in Oklahoma (Vance). PM me if you are looking at one of their cars.

Cheers.