FatherTo1

Congratulations on your search and zeroing in on an LS. That budget should give you plenty of options and I would suggest the 2013+ for the upgraded interior. The 2007-2012 are nice, especially 2010-2012 in terms of reliability, but the 2013+ will stay fresher longer since it resembles the newly redesigned LS in some ways.

We have a 2013 SWB with air suspension and reclining rear seats and 4-zone climate control. If I were to do it again, I would try to find an ML, non-air suspension, L, AWD. We use the power side-sunshades often but don't really take advantage of the reclining rear seats as often as I thought we would, and the upgraded rear ventilated seats (and vibration/massage) are too weak anyways. On family road trips, I feel the extra legroom of an L and increased trunk (instead of rear seat upgrade) would come in more handy. There is an abundance of rear seat leg room for the passenger behind the driver's seat in our SWB. However, the front-passenger foot well is a little shallow and when I position the front passenger seat for my 5'9" self then the rear legroom behind me is simply adequate but not impressive -- and is less than the rear driver-side legroom. Also, when you do use the reclining rear seat you'll lose legroom as the seat cushion slides forward. Although the reclining rear seat option is neat to have and the package makes the feature list more impressive on paper, you really need to pair the reclining rear seats with LWB. I do enjoy having the added versatility of air suspension and rear seat upgrade but must admit that the extra rear legroom of an L would have more practical benefit and be more useful everyday as opposed to the seldom utilized reclining rear seats. As a side note, my wife still sits in the back with our daughter and the wife often puts her purse on the floor and it always reminds me how nice it would be to have additional rear legroom. She still has plenty of legroom because I put the front passenger seat all the way forward and the wife is short, but I still desire an L if there was a "next time". From a driving perspective, I initially didn't like the extra length of a 2011 460L I test drove but am willing to accept that tradeoff in hindsight. Test drive the two wheelbases yourself and let us know what you ultimately decide on for your family. Happy shopping and hope you find exactly the color and combination you're after.

All said, I still love our 2013 LS SWB and still smile every time I get in the car. As someone else posted before, the LS is so well-insulated and feels nice and warm inside even when parked outside during Winter. I didn't pay much attention to it until I went out to lunch in a friend's Chrysler 200 and I wondered why it was so cold in his car, I flashbacked to shivering mornings getting into my beloved 1991 Honda Accord and waiting for the heater to get warm.

lizhekb

clarence88

If looking at a 2013/14 AWD, would it say air suspension on the options list? Where can I find that info to confirm what a certain car has on it?

Dave144239

It should say it on the options list, but the easiest way to tell when looking at a car is to check the center console. If you see the extra button that says HEIGHT HIGH, then it has air suspension.

The first pic shows a car with air suspension, the second pic, without.

clarence88

Thanks for visuals . It certainly does not. That is on all the F sports from what I have seen.

Seems like I am better off without them based on what I have read in regards to issues.

Dave144239

Yes, the air suspension comes with all F-Sports - no getting away from it if you want that package.

clarence88

With that said, would it diminish the need for a warranty? What does the air suspension actually do for the ride? The car I am looking at has AWD and 19" Rims if that matters.

Dave144239

Personally, when I decided on no air suspension, I didn't bother with any kind of extended warranty. As to the ride, better to check out some reviews:



I believe this is the regular suspension -

Shad034

Just two my cents on the air suspension part. I recently picked up a 2013 F Sport. I was looking for 2013-2014 at around the same price point as OP. I wanted at least 2013 for the new design. In addition to price and year, I specifically sought air suspension as well and F-sport was a nice addition in the one that I found. Air suspension is awesome. I love the ability to move from wafting in Comfort to stiffening things up for more aggressive driving.

Cars break, that's just a thing that happens. The Lexus does it a heck of a lot less often than my traded-in BMW. I'm of the mind that if one is looking for a luxury vehicle with all the toys, you have to be prepared to pay to play. All that being said, my non-scientific research prior to buying (reading forums and web pages) led to me see that most of the complaints about air suspension failures and control arms were largely on the older models and had been fairly well addressed by 2013.

So my vote is for air suspension. F-Sport vs Luxury is a personal decision, but go one way or the other. Don't buy base if you can avoid it.

EDIT: ML audio is awesome and it seems to be pretty common on the 2013+ ones in my area. Blind spot monitoring is really nice as well, I highly recommend it.

SW17LS

Having had a SWB fairly basic 2015 and a LWB fairly loaded 2017 with air suspension, I would agree to get the options you want from the start. Not having certain things didn't bug me at first but it did over time.

I've only put about 40 miles on my new car with the air suspension but so far I like it. I would also say get the LWB if you can, the car does have a lot more presence in the LWB version.

UDel

The air suspension is probably the biggest worry and money issue with a used LS, I would not bother with a warranty if the car does not have it, even if it did I would just go aftermarket and switch to non air which would still be cheaper then paying for a warranty but I can see where many would not want to do that. AWD can be a issue too because of control arms, there are cheap aftermarket control arms available for RWD LS's, but not AWD's at the moment

Shad034

For me, I was actively avoiding AWD. The HP is less on the AWD cars (360 vs 386 RWD). Something to do with the different exhaust routing that needs to be done with AWD. I should note that I live in Southern Nevada and have zero need for winter driving thoughts. AWD might be in your "needs" depending on your location.