vlad_a

Man, they put so much fuss into this scandal.
And Toyotas accelerate by themselves, yet we're still buying them.
I'd rather have some EPA number stated incorrectly, which has little relevance to real world conditions anyway.

I love seats in my Audi - at least they're designed for someone taller than 5ft: none of the Japanese vehicles I owned had lumbar support in the right place.

JDR76

We looked at the Q5 back in '13 when we were looking for a new ride for my wife. We really, really liked them but in the end, the cargo area was too small for our needs so we went with the RX, which we ended up being very happy with.

5gears-IS

iTrader: (5)

Supporting a cheating car company is like accepting and supporting a cheating wife.......I am sure you would be against it.

To top it off they are now being accused of cheating on their gas vehicles.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/...nomy/75101432/
But that's my two cents......

gadgetman1

It was a no brainer for me. I love any Audi, but I feel pretty certain that Lexus didn't stay at the top of the heap by just doing nothing. I feel the Lexus dealers are a bit better to deal with than Audi & certainly more plentiful. Audi has made great strides in reliability, but just a few short years ago, they were not above #5 in reliability. One other thing to point out is the availability of parts for the Lexus. There are more of them, parts are more durable & they are cheaper. A Toyota product is typically easier to work on than an Audi, but not always. That should be a secondary note. You decide, but I don't find it exciting to get a $3000 bill for service work on a used car. All that driving excitement stops at that point. Good luck & let us know what you decide.

ColAngus

Bah! The requirement was to produce a car that passed that test, and, they did it. There's a slight, slight argument that they didn't cheat. The test was BS and it didn't represent real world, so how evil is it to find a clever tuning option that helped them get through it?
Everyone is sitting so high on so many horses with Slacktivist notions regarding carbon reduction without realizing the horrific number of barrels of oil that their mere existence depends on. Depends on.

(I'm not taking shots at you, I am just pointing out another person's $0.02)

vlad_a

If by cheating you mean spending $100 on a handbag and claiming its MSRP was $1,000 and it turned out to be $500, which has no effect on my bottom line, then whatever.
These scandals are always political in nature. When Priuses started accelerating by themselves, just as government was helping "Big 3" from failing, I went ahead and bought one!
I will not have a government dictate which car I drive by manipulating public opinion. At the end of the day, it just means I get a better deal Now that does improve my bottom line.

I'm surprised everyone here forgot what a scapegoat was made out of Toyota mere 6 years ago. How many frivolous lawsuits were thrown at it?
Was Ford fined billions of dollars when people were really dying from Explorers turning over because [correction:] Firestone tires blew out at factory-recommended 24PSIs? Now that's a killing spouse, not a cheating one.

5gears-IS

iTrader: (5)

It is what it is, I am sure the experts on this subject know what they are talking about. I personally will never ever buy an Audi, this before the scandal and now even more after this mess. My Boss has own a few Audi's A6, A7 & A8 and they have all turned into money pits after 45k miles. He still likes Audi and currently owes an A6 supercharged but he can afford whatever repair on them as he is rich.

ColAngus

*Firestone.
And I think Firestone wore the worst of that. My view was that 100% of rolled over Explorers killed everyone inside and that seemed a little unreasonable.

easye

I may just end of looking at a 2016 or 2017 RX350. This car is supposed to be a long term solution for my wife.

Lot of good points to think about.

vlad_a

My bad - Firestone! Corrected.

vlad_a

That's a no-brainier, then, Lexus of course. She'll love it and you will have a piece of mind of having one less thing to take care of.
No carbon-deposits to clean every 40K miles with direct injection, no turbo failures, no oil consumption... all those fine things associated with a used German car ownership.

easye

Only bad thing is the price.

If I went 2017, I would want Pano Roof, no Nav.

Is Premium or Luxury packages worth it?

What could I be looking at our the door?

vlad_a

It's hard to tell what your numbers are going to be. You may want to check out 4RX forum.
I'd forego the Luxury package and get the Premium, unless higher lumbar support is important to you. Looks like they have 4-way adjustability in the Luxury package.

easye

Thanks.... I feel like I am just screwed in my timeframe.... I really wanted to buy a $30-$35k Lexus RX350, but I really like the 4th Generation Model. I need to replace my wife's car, but feel like I am in a bind now. I guess technically, I could buy the 2013, ride it for a few years and trade it in for a 2017? Is it worth buying used and trading it in 2 years later?

vlad_a

I had calculated that our RX450h depreciates $5K each year for the first 8 years. I did not expect the depreciation to be that linear.
Considering I needed to invest at year 4 into new tires and brakes, savings buying used may have been offset by that.
Then there may be some tax implications. Each state is different in how it collects the sales or property tax.
In some states, it is beneficial to drive older cars as the property tax is calculated each year on their value, while OH charges sales tax upfront and deducts value of a trade-in vehicle only on new purchases.

As I mentioned in one of the posts above, check out Subaru Outback. It will fit right in with your budget and it has more features than the RX, never mind a superior AWD system.