sloanbj

Edmunds true-cost-to-own of an older LS460 vs new Avalon is a difference of about $3K/year. Not huge but if that much affects your budget, neither car should be for you.

My rule of thumb on car costs is no more than 10% take home pay. An older LS460 would be about $1000/month TCTO so not warranted unless you had $10,000/month take home pay. Lots of people pay more than the 10% rule and get in over their head. At the very least, they end up giving up a lot of other productive uses for cash, including long term investment, just for a car that does nothing more than any other car at the end of the day.

rudyH

I don't think you've downgraded as much as you suggest. The Avalon and ES are wonderful cars with state of the art engineering and features. They're wonderful and I bet you grow to love that car.

jzrodrigue

I'll probably get slammed for this but maybe it will help someone. I'm a 51-year-old woman so I'm not doing any work on the car myself (other than detailing it). I find the cost is affordable because I take it to the Toyota dealership to get the maintenance done. If I take it to Lexus, it costs at least twice as much. So it's not more expensive than keeping a Toyota. The tires are very expensive, but those get replaced about every 5 years. I bought a 2009 LS 460 and it's a dream in every way. I bought it as a lease end, so I paid half as much, and it was certified so there's bumper to bumper for three years. I still have another year left and I won't be buying additional warranty. Why? This is known as the No. 1 most reliable car there is. My sister and mother both have Lexus cars and have never had a single problem. So after the warranty, if it's bad luck and I need something fix, it'll be done at Toyota. So, my long story to say that if you do some things differently, you can afford this work of art...

rudyH

Why would you get slammed? I think your logic is brilliant and sound.

7milesout

Agreed.

And I'll add, I've never been around a woman that took the initiative to clean up her car. I'm strangely excited at the image of that. The Warden treats her vehicle like a mobile trash can, which is a major sour point for me.

Gbp

@jzrodrigue: I also appreciate the logic in your approach to acquiring and maintaining your LS460.

@Soldier76: Please report back your impressions of your Avalon Hybrid compared to your LS460. Thanks!

roadfrog

100%

I use Toyota exclusively for any services I choose not to do myself and also buy my parts (oil, filters, etc) from them. FAR cheaper than Lexus. Basically, they charge me the same prices as I would pay if I owned a Camry or Tundra. They have Techstream, approved fluids, approved parts and so on. The only exception would be those with Lexus warranties, and for recalls.

Also, any service work done at Toyota shows up on Lexus' service reports in their database.

rudyH

That's interesting. I have 2 Lexi, one under warranty, but I just bought a 2006 SC430 with 123k miles. I just had it gone through with a fine tooth comb but I'm going to check out my local Toyota dealer. I've never even been in one. I like. to use dealerships for service so if Toyota is up to the job, and it seems they are, why not use them? Thanks.

CRowe14

jzrodrigue:
I doubt anyone will slam you for your logic. Its very informing and is a plan for success in anyone book if I may say so! This will be the route I plan to follow for anything i don't/cant DIY. And may I also add that's it's great you tend to and take care of your vehicle!

Roadfrog:
I was not aware of this fact! Great to know! I wondered about that, simply because if there was ever an issue where I wanted to take the car to Lexus and the question of me keeping up with regular maint. became an issue, would there be a paper trail of any and all maint. if i had been taking it to Toyota. I planned to develop a folder which will keep all maint. paperwork anyways, but its nice to know things will be kept in a database.

+1 here..
My wife isn't horrible, but I do wish she'd take a little better car of her 2012 Pilot. Every 5-6 weeks I do a thorough clean-up: empty out, vacuum and wipe down. I thought it was just me but its been confirmed by a few people that speak with as well as here that their wives are the same. I thought something was wrong with me and I was being overly **** while mumbling to myself in curiosity and frustration while cleaning out the car. Its a sour point for me as well. I communicate my concerns but they only seem to resonate briefly before its back to Messy Time! But I wouldn't rather clean up behind anyone else!

7milesout

The worst is when she piles up change in the cup holder. And when I try to use the cup holder, I can't. The cup or bottle won't sit in it for all the change. Then when I clean up all her mess the bottom coins are stuck to the bottom of the cup holder with high fructose corn gue. A disgusting mess.

1BlinkGone

Simple. When the warranty runs out trade it in. End of story.

Soldier76

I have to strongly disagree with that because your looking at a particular number and not my situation. For one the transmission was seriously slipping. Every once in awhile when I take off from a stop the tranny will get stuck in a low gear and when it catches the car will jerk when it catches. Also the bags for the air suspension was eventually about to completely go because my car will have a gangsta lean when I park it for a long or short period of time. Those were 2 major things I had to consider because when I brought it to the Lexus dealership (of course they could not duplicate the problems) they told me to get the Lexus platinum warranty because just those issues alone will cost me well over $15,000, but if I get the warranty it wouldn't cost me a dime to repair. The guy who sold me the car at Wilde Lexus in Florida told me that this car cost $89,000 new in 2007, and that this is a high maintenance car. Now the true cost to own doesn't factor in anything major going wrong or if you still have the factory warranty on it. Now for the Avalon you can see that it's far from the LS 460 in basically everything, and almost the same in every aspect as the ES300h. The LS460 is in a whole other league NFL compared to high school football. For instance say if one of my heated and cooled reclining seats in my old LS460 died, it will cost almost $4,000 or more to get that fixed. Also the LS460 is future proof, its better then and have more features than 90% or more cars on the road and i"m talking about the 2007 model. It still has a commanding and luxurious presence that turns heads and have people in awe. Anything in my Avalon's interior that break will cost waaaaaaaaay cheaper to fix then that Lexus one seat. Now mind you reliability is superior in the LS460, but like anything man made your gonna have some cars or anything for that matter that doesn't last as long as others.

Soldier76

The Avalon I have right now is truly humbling to me. This car really brought me down to reality again where I need to be. The Lexus was the best car I ever owned by far and treated me like royalty every time I drove it, but I had to let it go for financial reasons as you know. The setback on the Avalon already broke off which is truly strange, but I looked online and Toyota have a TSB on it, cause the seat-backs are extremely cheap for some reason. All in all I really appreciate this car even with the minor setback in which I will bring it in Tuesday to get that squared away. Every car has it's pros and cons and the definite pros for this one is the mpg's and putting regular gas, the cons are just too many to list, but I still appreciate the car nonetheless. I know I'm gonna save some money in this car (which is really starting to grow on me)

Soldier76

That's what the salesman told me he's doing with his 460 next year when his warranty runs out. I just was thinking long term as in keeping the car, because I'm truly tired of trading cars. Since 2000 I purchased 16 cars and only owned 2. I financed all except for my 2011 Hyundai genesis 4.6 which was a lease. So I guess my Avalon is my forever on out car (I say the same thing like every year) "MUUHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAA"!!!!.........."DOH"!!!

greg3852

I looked at Avalon's before I bought my 460. I would have bought one but just couldn't find one in my area when I was looking. Then I started looking for a 460.

I wouldn't consider it a downgrade. Its a different car. It is a huge upgrade to some, so be happy you are there.