I'm looking for an 04-06 with the Custom Luxury package and SmartAccess package.
It must be:
Under 60k miles
Never smoked in
Never lived in a road salt and/or highly corrosive climate
No accidents or paint work (besides bumpers)
1 owner (2 max)
Everything working with full service history
Mercury Metallic (silver) or Mystic Gold Metallic (gold) exterior (would consider other light exterior colors...but not white!)
Cashmere, Ash, Ecru, or Saddle interior

I might even settle for a modern luxury with all the above at this point....but those don't seem to be easy to find either. They are all black or white in color.

 

From my research of cars for sale nationally in Autotrader last winter, the colors in decreasing popularity were were:

- Black (by a large margin)
- Mercury and flint (tie)
- Whites (chrystal and moonlight)
(large gap in percentage)
- Blue
- Gold
(large gap in percentage)
- Cypress
- Black cherry & briarwood (both very low percentage)

Also, remember that cashmere and ash were not available interiors in the CL and UL trims. Only black, ecru, and saddle (rare) were offered.

 

That is what I have found too in terms of colors. I did not know that ecru was the only light color available on CL. Thanks for pointing that out.

 

I just happened to stumble upon my '06 CL when I went to the dealership to look at two CPO '06's (one ML and one CL) and a '05 (ML).

The salesman was extremely knowledgeable, and took the time to point out the difference between the ML and CL package. As soon as I saw the extra leather trim and the suede (alcantara) headliner on the CL, I was sold.

The black '06 CL I ended up with was priced less than the silver '06 ML with similar mileage and in the same condition, so I don't think dealers always price CL cars higher than ML cars.

Good luck with your search!

 

The first time I sat in a UL with the black semi aniline leather and extra leather trim I knew I wanted a CL over a ML or Premium.

 

What he said.

 

I found an 06 ML with smartaccess that meets all of my criteria. It might be as close as I get. Its near West Palm Beach. Anyone live near WPB who could go check it out for me? I'm waiting back on some questions from the seller before I move forward. I'm about 5 hours away, so its not like I could just stop in and take a look at it.

 

here is one forsale
http://www.cars.com/go/search/detail...&&aff=national

 

Wrong color.

 

That's a ML, not a CL because:

- It's missing the headlamp washers
- Missing the additional leather trim on the lower dash
- Interior color appears to be Ash, which was not available on the CL and UL.

 

It took me 6 months to find my CL. I bought it back in June of '09 and it had 7500 miles on it. I had to make some compromises, however. I wanted a mystic gold one with all the options including pre-collision and 18" chrome wheels but had to settle for my second color choice of Moonlight pearl with painted 18s and no pre-collision. I never even saw a CL with a pre-collision option during the entire time I was searching. I also had to ship the car from Colorado to Georgia. It had originally purchased in Florida and always kept in climate controlled garages and never driven in the snow. I do wish I had gone to CO to look at it before buying it because the bumpers had some scratched that I did not see in the pics so I had to have them painted. But other than that, the purchase went very well.

 

And what is your budget? 2004 with less than 60K will probably be a little harder to find, with prices probably in $22-26K range for the criteria you're looking for. I would say increase about $1K for each year newer.

You're probably not getting above for less than $20K.

 

My budget is realistic numbers. I'm not expecting to spend under $20k. If the car is worth the money, I'll pay for it....let's put it that way.

 

There are quite a few on ebay, did You check them out?

 

^^^
Unfortunately, there are none on EB that meet his mileage, location, color, and trim level criteria.

Is this the ML in WPB?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Lexus...t_31475wt_1167

... or this one?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/2006-...ht_4591wt_1167

Here's a nice looking cypress / ecru CL, but the miles are higher than you want and it lived its entire life in MN:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/2004-...ht_3924wt_1167

Don't limit your search to just the southeast. One of our members in Alabama recently found a car in the Chicago area that had spent its life in Florida. Also, a lot of us northerners have winter beaters and our LS430s never see salty roads.