Not surprised at all, Carmax is usually pretty good about stuff like this,

 

Are you talking about something other than the Bank Account? How much money do you have set aside in that "Reserve" Fund? Or, maybe a better question is, How much do most of the guys here in the Group suggest should be put in the Reserve Fund?

 

 

Did you look at the Maxcare warranty for the car? The one on my 2013 cost me 1500 (200 deductible) for 5 year/100,000. They usually have varying options for deductible and length to dial in cost. I took a higher deductible to save a few dollars on the longer length.

I dont know what it would cost on yours or if you can still get it applied, but it might be worth looking at.

 

Most people have that much under the mattress.

 

Or in the LS460 car seat cushions which fell out of the overstuffed pockets of the original wealthy buyer of the LS460.

 

I've always been a big fan of emergency funds for big ticket items. Your car and home can be the two biggest drainers of cash. It's funny that I do not have some kind of warranty on my car because I do on my house. My home warranty covers appliances, ac/heat, etc. For a small service fee, I've had ovens go out and replaced, new microwave, and all for no charge, that would have cost me thousands. My next car down the road, I may need to look into a warranty. I'll always have some kind of emergency fund available.

 

I think you'd be surprised how many people buy these cars and are unable to put their hands on $3,000 lol

 

Or maybe once they pay for the car they don't want to spend another $3000 on a overpriced part and service because certain things were not properly designed to last. I would much rather spend $3000.00 on a nice vacation/trip, Christmas, invest it, hobbies, house, etc then just dumping it into fixing car problems. I have never had to spend anywhere near that amount on any cars I owned, same with my family, kind of sad some are having to do it with a Lexus that should have more durable parts.

 

 

I agree with Steve. I purposefully pursued a 2010 LS460L, because I had "done to math" to determine that this hit the sweet spot (for me) in terms of balancing/optimizing cost, likely reliability, and overall amenities.

By obtaining a car that originally sold for $80K for the price of $21,600, I feel that I received an incredible value for my dollar, but that there will certainly be extra costs associated with the age/mileage of the car. The largest cost of ownership for any Lexus LS (or any other luxury car, for that matter) is depreciation, and my car, which is in nearly perfect showroom condition, has cost the previous owners around $60K in depreciation over the past 8 years (around $7500 per year). As an 8 year old car, the depreciation curve flattens fairly dramatically, with only around $2k per year of depreciation from here on out. So for essentially the same experience, I would have to spend $5500 per year on repairs to equal the annual average cost of the car over the first 8 years of its life. And that doesn't even take into account the much higher interest costs (for a much larger loan), higher licensing fees, etc.

So for me, I will try to not gripe excessively if/when things break on the car -- secure in the knowledge that I'm saving so much in depreciation that the repair costs are negligible. And to be honest, I really prefer the looks of the 2010 LS460L over the post-2013 models.

 

To put it in perspective, my 2015 LS460 depreciated $950 per month in the 3 years I owned it. So, I'm paying the cost of that steering rack repair, at the dealer, every 3 months. How much is that 2008 LS460L depreciating? It aint $950 a month lol

 

The steering rack issue is probably why the previous owner got rid of the car.

 

I was thinking the same thing.

I agree with some other here in that the older in years you go, the more likely that it will need a larger repair at some point. However, the value of the car typically makes up for it. If you're stretching your budget to the max when looking at what MY, features, mileage you can afford within that budget, keep in mind that with any pre-owned vehicle, there are very few that are in perfect condition. Chances are you're going to need at least somewhat of a contingency fund for unexpected repairs just in case, or you plug that money into a warranty in advance. I'm willing to take the risk myself but that said, we are talking about one of the most reliable luxury cars out there.

 

There is no question the Lexus is reliable, but that measure is a relative one not an absolute value. By that I mean, in comparison to to other cars in its class, its ridiculously reliable. That doesn't mean it doesn't break, it means it breaks less and costs less to fix. My 2011 BMW, that was replaced by the 2013 LS I bought in Dec, racked up just shy of 30k in warranty claims in the 4 years that I had it. That was between years 3 and 7 of its lifetime. Turbo oil lines leaked, oil return lines leaked, all the valve seats had to be replaced (which is really common on the Twin turbo V8), rear power sunshade failed, two batteries (and they're special so they're 700 a piece installed), seat motors failed, etc.

The simple fact is that these luxury cars have a lot of moving parts and a lot of technology onboard. That means more stuff to break and tighter tolerances. My daughters 1996 Honda Accord with 157k on the odometer still looks and runs like new....but its a Honda Accord.