Hey everyone, my current lease expires on Oct. 31st and I'm stressing out about what route to go for my next car. I'll start with a quick backstory that will better explain my upcoming decision:

I've owned a range of cars from an IS350 to an 680 whp CTS-V. I'm currently leasing a 2018 Mercedes C43 (tune/exhaust) and my return date is coming up quick. When I leased the C43, my plan was to buy a nice truck (Sierra Denali or something similar) when my lease expired as my girlfriend and I would like more space for our dogs and our long road trips through national parks, but life had other plans. As we are all aware, Covid has dramatically changed the used car market. The used truck that I wanted to buy went from roughly 42k to nearly 60k in the past year. My realization that I would be paying a 40%+ markup on a used truck has lead me to look elsewhere until the market cools down.

CarGurus has a used car price tracker that helped eliminate trucks and SUVs from my vehicle search as they are both up 40%+ over the last year and a half. That left me with coupes (not enough space), convertibles (not practical), vans (hell no), wagons (didn't find any that I loved), and sedans as a temporary vehicle solution. With sedans being my best option, I researched everything from Infiniti to Mercedes, but chose Lexus as my best option for the combination of reliability, resale value, practicality, and appreciating less than some other brands over that past 18 months.

This leads me to my current dilemma, what Lexus sedan fits my needs the best? My driving is split pretty much 50/50 between city traffic and highway. I drive roughly 14,000 miles per year total with a 3-4,000 mile road trip every summer. My intention is to hold on to the Lexus until the truck market returns to some kind of normal (call it 18 months to 24 months). The IS is too small and the ES isn't exciting enough. I would like to keep the price under 32k as this is a temporary car and I don't want to get killed with negative equity when it's time to trade it in.

Must have options
2013-15 GS350: F-Sport package, Mark Levinson, dark interior.
2013-14 LS460: standard length, dark interior

I'm aware that the GS350 is less expensive to maintain and that some LS460s have air suspension and possible control arm issues. If cost savings wasn't such a deciding factor, I'd go LS in a heartbeat, but I have to keep reminding myself that this is not a long term vehicle. Are there any maintenance concerns that I need to be aware of with a used GS or LS in the 70,000 to 110,000 mile range? I'm open to AWD as an option, it it trouble free over 100k miles? Am I correct thinking that both of these cars should be rather inexpensive to maintain for roughly 2 years? Is it possible to get an LS with Mark Levinson, but no air suspension? What would you buy in my situation?

Thanks in advance

 

I've had both, I much preferred the LS. But, what sort of car do you want? They are VERY different cars. The GS is small and nimble, much firmer riding with a tight rear seat but its a lot of fun to drive. The LS is a much softer and looser larger car that really is just a boulevard cruiser with really no sporting ability whatsoever.

If your idea of motering bliss is soaking up miles of interstate in one of the softest quietest cars you can buy, then the LS will be for you. If you want to have a car that you can put in Sport + mode and have a great time on a twisty road that also is pretty comfortable on a highway trip, then the GS is the better choice.

The air suspension may have the potential to be problematic but it improves the car a lot IMO, I've had a SWB LS460 without it and a LWB LS460L with it.

 

I bought a 2012 LS used 5 years ago. Best car I've ever owned. It had 70K on it then and it has 135K on it now. Only regular maintenance and brakes/rotors. It's a very stout car and if you get it with the air suspension, it has a 'sport mode' that definitely firms up the suspension quite a bit. It's not f-sport firm, but for that size car it's great. I think only the 2007-2010 had those air suspension and control arm issues. I love this car. I have the AWD model and no problems whatsoever.

Get the LS!

 

Funny, I'm thinking of buying one of those Models in that Year range (maybe a bit older) as well...for though, I wanted the LS07/09 ever since it was released, so now that I kinda got the $$$ to finally buy one after all these years, I'm a bit Privy to the LS model.

But with the GS being Discontinued, I guess the GS will be kinda of a Collector's item among Lexus fans, so I dunno, you can't really go bad either way.

But Personally, I would pick the LS

 

My opinion. I'm basing this on your comment, "I would like to keep the price under 32k as this is a temporary car."

No car holds it's value. Right now with the market turned upside down in most everything, cars especially are crazy priced. If you want a temporary car, regardless of the excitement, get an ES. I'm pretty sure you can get a nice 2018 with bells and whistles for your price. If I were going to buy another Lexus, it would have to be a 2016 or 2017 LS460 because it offers the full screen. But since that's not in your budget, the ES will temporarily solve your issue. Good luck.

 

Why not just buy out the C43 lease and keep it (for now)? Or check to see how much you could sell it for if you buy out the lease.

As for GS vs LS, it really comes down to what Steve said up above. I was looking at the GS four years ago (although I wanted one with the Luxury package, not the F Sport), but what I really wanted was a luxury cruiser, so I went with the LS.