vlad_a

I had a similar experience with the 2010 Prius we traded for the RX. We got it also in August, right at the end of the model year. We didn't want to wait for 2011 and got a great deal, plus a $750 mfg rebate (unheard for the Prius).
2 years later, when I decided to get the RX450h, we found ourselves with now a 3-year-old car. That had negatively affected its trade-in value. However, some of the loss was offset with low miles due to its age. Same goes for an extra year of warranty. In the end, I traded it in, took whatever loss, and called it a day.

Now, this experience did change our mind about getting one of leftover 2012s, even with $3,000 mfg rebate. It made more sense to buy a brand new 2013, which we did.

nipponbird

Had the same experience with a Ford Falcon XR6 (Ford sold the Australian Falcon here for a couple of years). I twisted the guy's arm at the dealer till his nose started bleeding on the one's left of the outgoing model, just to lose it all when I resold the car a year later. Seems you can't win in the first years of ownership.
The best car to drive is still one that belongs to somebody else, like your dad's car and with him the gas tank is also probably filled up and the interior is as clean as a whistle.

RX330inFL

Joshua: A strange game. The only winning move is not to play. How about a nice game of chess?
- War Games (1983)

nipponbird

You guys must see the building the main car financing bankers have here. The Taj Mahal looks like a shack against it and if you ring them up they talk in a snappy style like the KGB. Absolutely a goldmine.
Car financing pushes sales and higher prices. if the ordinary guy has to pay cash, most cars will never leave the showroom floor. Of course nobody will support a storming of the Bastille, because financing is the only way to get a car. A tough system to beat, but let no-one say we never tried.
What thickens the plot is the car manufacturers who dream up new stuff to Christmas tree new releases . This can let you feel the car you bought yesterday has been relegated to the level of a Model T Ford. Nobody feels nice about it to fork out the installments on a car that's lost the edge that fast and the next trap is to trade it in for the new one with the wider infotainment screen. El biggo mistake. Far better to keep it till the return of Halley's Comet and if you have finance on it, pay it off as fast as you can. At least you will have the pleasure to smart off the clowns at the financing house and save a lot of wad in interest to boot.

airchomper

I don't understand what you're upset about, you bought a great car. If you don't want to pay for depreciation, you shouldn't buy a new luxury car. And if you can't afford it, well I guess that ship sailed but you could probably sell the car and get an old ES300 to save money.

But you probably passed over a lot of other cars when you settled on your RX, consider that. And keep it in good condition, you're in Texas which has one of the largest Lexus communities. I reckon your car probably has a super late build date for its generation, eventually people will pay a small premium for that. Check out the LS400 section, those folks go crazy for LS400s made in the final months of production. A fair price for a normal 1999 LS400 is around 8k. Late 2000s can go for twice that if they're well preserved.

You want to hold onto your value? Get your car serviced well and buy used next time.

nipponbird

Don't be too harsh on tri1@gran, we all know the feeling of pulling out of the showroom in a car that we decided on, just to see in the rearview mirror how they park the upgraded one in its place. Also the sinking feeling when our purchase is now according to the sales guy, worth less than its scrap metal value. We give him advice, because we learned the hard way. A good school is always expensive, we're just trying to help him to get the fees a bit down.