I was in Lexus Derby today getting my first MOT and a couple of rattles sorted before the warranty is up next month.

While I was there a salesman offered me a 59 pre-registered GS450h (effectively new) for an upgrade price of £15k. Mine's coming up to 3 years with 50k on the clock so my guess would be that you could get one of these pre-reg cars for £30k or even less. He said they were trying to shift three of them

Only downside I can see is that they don't have the MM pack so no SatNav nor upgraded sound system. This is probably why they are having trouble shifting them because you'd expect a car of that standard to have these.

Bottom line is you could get a fast,classy car that does over 30mpg but also does 0-62 in 5.9 for less than £30k if my guess is right


Malc

PS. Did I mention the service staff at Derby are great?

That isn't a bad price, but you're right that it's probably due to the spec it's that low - I wouldn't buy that if it didn't have satnav.

However, it was only a few months ago my dealer offered something very similar, either a brand new GS450h Sport for £39k or they had a 9 month old one with 6k on the clock for £28k - both absolute bargains if I'd been in the market for one considering the list price is around £47k.

[quote name='braindead' post='690003' date='Sep 10 2009, 07:49 PM']I was in Lexus Derby today getting my first MOT and a couple of rattles sorted before the warranty is up next month.

While I was there a salesman offered me a 59 pre-registered GS450h (effectively new) for an upgrade price of £15k. Mine's coming up to 3 years with 50k on the clock so my guess would be that you could get one of these pre-reg cars for £30k or even less. He said they were trying to shift three of them

Only downside I can see is that they don't have the MM pack so no SatNav nor upgraded sound system. This is probably why they are having trouble shifting them because you'd expect a car of that standard to have these.

Bottom line is you could get a fast,classy car that does over 30mpg but also does 0-62 in 5.9 for less than £30k if my guess is right


Malc

PS. Did I mention the service staff at Derby are great?[/quote]

Malc,

About a month ago I was in the dealer I use (Lexus Twickenham - not my most local but I use them thanks to the very good after sales service), and the dealership manager offered me a choice of brand new unregistered LS460 SE-L 's for £50,000, which is a discount of about £25,000.00!!!!!! Lexus are keen to get rid of the non hybrid models particularly a slow seller like the 460.

He loaned me his demonstrator for a weekend, and whilst it was very impressive with every single gadget imaginable, it felt a little too much like a car for a company chairman to be chauffeured around in, particularly given the electrically adjustable rear seats and controls for Stereo and roof mounted DVD screen. Apart from a couple of exceptions like the Maserati Quattroporte or new Jaguar XJ, this is IMO a bit of an issue with full size luxury cars.

Also given that my own GS450h like yours is nearly 3 years old, it hasn't even covered 6,000 miles and is effectively in brand new condition I was only offered £20,000 in part ex. As my car before discount was £48,000 when I bought it in October '06, its a bit too much depreciation to swallow.

I think I will buy the extended warranty for 12 months and look again next year. I am particularly interested in the new Jaguar XJ, but also Infiniti are launching a rival to the GS range next year, and perhaps there maybe some news on a GS replacement as well. Oh and then there’s that little detail about the finances as well

Regards

Keith

You can find plenty of these GS450h cars on Autotrdaer website for just under £30k. As you say the don't have MM but do have a Garmin or equivalent satnav. I noticed they are all SE models and say 2008 in the title although they are 2009 59 reg.

[quote name='Steve ( West Mids )' post='690072' date='Sep 11 2009, 10:58 AM']You can find plenty of these GS450h cars on Autotrdaer website for just under £30k. As you say the don't have MM but do have a Garmin or equivalent satnav. I noticed they are all SE models and say 2008 in the title although they are 2009 59 reg.[/quote]
Indeed there are loads of them at Lexus dealers all over the place - unless they are all advertising and competing for a limited central pool of pre-registered cars.

Think I may send some emails making silly offers. Who knows, as they get to month end.........

I've managed to find out more. A dealer tells me these are Irish Republic spec and have been bought over here and registered in the UK.

Malc