tromly

Go for the 04, there's virtually no difference in the cars, the o4 should be worth more, the miles make no difference. Good luck with whatever car you choose !

Yes

you can still get a lexus extended warranty on the '04. it's too late on the '02.

Scott R

Thanks for the additional comments. Here's another update from me...

I was super-close to buying an '02 BMW M3 convertible (silver/black). I think the price was very good, but I'm the type that likes to have lots of time to research and think about things, and I was feeling a bit rushed on the decision. There was also an '02 BMW 330 convertible (red/tan) that I wanted to take a look at, so I took a chance at losing out on the M3 to buy myself an extra day. I drove 1.5 hours to go see the red BMW and drove it for 10 minutes, then brought it back to the lot, and then the car overheated and coolant flowed out of it. The price on the 330 was cheaper, of course, but the overheating issue was obviously a concern. The folks at the BMW forums told me not to touch the overheated 330, though I think they were being a bit too cut and dry on the matter. Meanwhile, the M3 got sold. My daily searches for SC430's were depressing. Nothing anywhere near me that was appealing or in the price range I wanted to be. The silver '05 was/is still available, though, but I think the problem for me was/is that I'm not in love with silver as a color.

With all the drama going on, I felt physically and emotionally drained and had just about decided to not buy anything. I've got some bills I should pay off, and a convertible is a luxury I don't really have to have. This is probably still what I ought to do but, wouldn't you know it, today a newly listed SC430 popped up in my searches. It's nearby, is reasonably priced with reasonable miles, and is probably my favorite color combo (black/saddle). So I may try to go and take a look at it today or tomorrow (crappy weather today). I figure it might be good to look for signs of leakage with the roof on a rainy day, but I don't know if that's ever been an issue with the SC430. FYI, this is an '02.

Yes

i've never hear of a leaky roof on an sc. that's more of a rag top thing. i've never heard of any hardtop convertibles leaking in general.

Scott R

So to recap the extended warranty discussion...the general consensus seems to be that I shouldn't spend my money on a 3rd party extended warranty, correct? And is that mostly because everyone thinks that the 3rd party company won't honor the claims or because the SC430 is so reliable?

As for my car choices...I've currently got an '05 silver/saddle SC430 w/53K miles for $26.5K (bottom-line price) and an '02 black/saddle SC430 w/66K miles (asking $22K, so hopefully I can get it for $1000-2000 lower). The silver '05 has a stain in the rear leather (discussed in this thread) which should be fixable, and a scuff on the front left fender, but the black '02 looks like it may be flawless. What seems more appealing to all of you?

Yes

as far as warranties, it's better to have it through lexus because there's no deductible and you know you're not going to have any hassles. some third party warranties are reputable. some are not. i'd recommend doing some research online if you're going to go with an '02. find a highly rated company with a reasonable price. don't just go with whatever the dealer tries to sell you. they double the price.

of the choices you posted, i would go for '02 if you can get it for under $20k. i'd offer 18 and negotiate from there.

Scott R

I saw a recommendation in another thread to check the VIN with Lexus to get more detailed information (assuming they had it serviced by Lexus), so I just called my local Lexus dealer and gave them the two VINs I had. They faxed me over detailed reports. Interesting stuff. Here's the latest entry from the silver '05:

- Work declined at this time. Vehicle being towed in. Customer states that it feels like the wheels are going to fall off. They didn't feel like they had any control over the vehicle. Customer traded car in inspected car for possible loose rims, found wrong tires on car. Non runflat tires and the right front tire bubbled and blown out. Also found other tires bubbled in sidewalls and plugs installed as well. The car also has three ver [the sentence is cut off at this point]

Any thoughts as to whether this is anything to be concerned about? By "wrong" tires, I'm thinking they just mean non-runflats, as opposed to wrong sizing, but who knows. Is wrong sizing even possible and, if so, would it cause any damage (e.g., to the suspension) or is it fixed by replacing the tires?

On the black '02 I see two entries about a dead battery, and a few entries where the customer requested that the dealer try to buff out scratches.

Yes

that's one of the goofiest service reports i've ever seen. the customer had a blown out tire and didn't know what was wrong? my guess is they were over 80 years old. which would explain the scratched fender. it's probably fine mechanically. but personally i wouldn't want to mess with the stained leather or a scratched fender. you know they tried to buff it out. so if it's still there, that means paint work. which can be expensive. and devalues the car.

tromly

Sounds like the black 02 is the one for you, try for 20,500 and get a hose on it , if you're concerned about any leaking issues. Never heard of a roof leaking problem, you'll love that saddle interior. Good Luck

tromly

I agree with the goofy service report, run-flats were an option on the car, just because you have an all-season tire doesn't mean you have the wrong tire. Stay away from this car and that particular Lexus dealer, they should be ashamed of that report.

Scott R

Haha. Well, that just so happens to be my local Lexus dealer. I'm thinking that I'd probably avoid Lexus dealers in general, but I will say that I used to bring my '99 Lexus RX300 to that dealer and thought they were actually pretty decent.

Edit: Oops. Nevermind. That was the silver one. The silver one wasn't brought into my closest Lexus dealer.

Scott R

I've never worked on cars so I wouldn't be able to do any of that myself. Just out of curiosity, what could I expect to pay someone else (parts and labor) to do each of those things and what would you all say are the order in which do each of those (i.e., which offers the biggest bang for the buck vs which offers the most subtle improvement)?

farkas

iTrader: (5)

I think that if you are coming from driving an RX300 and now driving the SC430, the above mods would not interest you for quite awhile. The SC430 is a wonderful car just like it is with no mods. The mods just make the car more personable to you as a car lover. They all enhance the car but are not needed to enjoy the car....well in hind thought, runflats have to go!
Also if you are looking at bottom line priced cars, you are going to have to deal with stains, scratches and maybe questionable service histories. If you want a cream puff, you are going to pay more for the car as in this case, the person would have pampered the car to perfection. Only in very rare occasions will you be able to find that perfect car and then the person will know what he has and you will then pay. The best advise I can give is find a car that fits your likes and if it has a good service history, buy it and deal with the small details. It is sort of like bonding with the car!

Scott R

Farkas, I may not have mentioned it before, but the RX300 was actually my wife's car which I recently "inherited". To make a long story short, I'm more into sports cars than SUV's. I bought a new '07 Mazda RX-8 which I absolutely loved in terms of handling, but I had to sell it when we decided to sell our house and move back home to CT (from PA). After settling, we got my wife a "new" (used '07) Mazda CX-7 and I took her RX300. Now it's my turn and I decided I wanted a convertible. I'd ideally like something with back seats, sports car handling, and Japanese quality. I think I've settled on the SC430 because I love the styling, but I realize that it may not have the "sports car handling." So I am interested, though, in improving that aspect in the future.

Anyways, back to my current situation...I took a look at the Black/Saddle '02 w/66K miles. They had it at $22K, but raised it to $23K before I got in when they (according to the sales woman) realized that the car would need new tires. They would honor the $22K for me (since I had called her the minute it first got listed at $22K) but wouldn't come down on the price at all. The car was beautiful looking and this was my first time test-driving an SC430. My wife seemed to enjoy it, but my daughter wasn't with us so I tested out the back seats by having my wife push her front seat up as much as she could squeeze into, then sitting in back to see how bad it was. It was pretty bad. But we decided that it wasn't a deal-killer since we still had her CX-7 if we needed to take long trips.

The car itself had a good number of very fine scratches, which I came to conclude was probably going to be typical for a black '02. It also had some small chips in a few spots, but I figured those could be touched up. They said they would touch up the nicks and try to buff out the scratches, and they were going to put on a new set of tires. I asked that I be consulted on/approve the tire choice (I started up a new thread about that here). I ended up putting down a deposit, so it looks like this may happen.

I'm still second-guessing whether I should have checked out the silver '05 or, in general, waited for another white to pop up, since those colors (especially on an '02) would probably show fine scratches less than black. But the black/saddle combo is probably my favorite color combo, the price was reasonable (especially when factoring in new tires), and it was a local dealer (as opposed to driving 2+ hours to get to), and that was worth something to me as well.

farkas

iTrader: (5)

Congrats on joining the Lexus crowd!