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Help A New Buyer Please!


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Hi,

Couple of questions I'd appreciate some guidance on. I'm looking at buying a car to do me mainly for work driving, so motorway and town miles. Comfort is #1. I'm looking at Audi, BMW, Lexus and Merc, but this being a Lexus forum I'll stick to questions on that :)

I went to see a new IS250 automatic today and I've arranged an overnight test drive for next weekend, so that should help answer the questions about what car to pick. I'm not looking for opinions on what's best, thanks.

I have some lexus specific questions though, if someone could help with the answers? This is based on the dealer booklet I have shows an IS250 at £23,870 and a IS250 SE at £26,520. I need an auto, so that's an additional £1,000 on top.

1. What kind of discount off the sticker price am I likely to get? I know it's likely to be dealer specific, but a rough guide would be great.

2. If the answer to 1 is nothing, what else are they likely to give me if I push for?

3. Is the SE really worth the extra almost-£3,000?

4. Should I really bother buying brand new? There are lots of decent 2nd hand Lexus for good prices on Autotrader, such as this one (IS250 55 plate, 3000 miles, £18k) - nearly £10k less than new after 2 years.

Thanks!

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Check out my arlier post:

http://www.lexusownersclub.co.uk/forum/ind...showtopic=39968

With Lexus in the UK, you only get standard choices. I originally wanted the Base model, but it had no lumber adjustment, and I was dubious about the quality ofthe cloth - so I went the extra and shelled out the £3k for the SE. I don't regret it at all...

The leather is of good quality, soft and matt, as opposed to hard and shiny.

You also get the ventilated seats, which again in my book are excellent.

The e/seats option is naff to be honest IMHO, unless you go for the memory seats in the SE-L - it takes ages to adjust - give me a crank handle any time...

The only other thing you get is bigger wheels (17") and I think they too are worth it - they fill the arches better and makes the car look more chunky!

Have you considered the MM? The base dash feels a bit naked without it...and it's more than just Sat Nav - Bluetooth, 14 speaker surround sound, rear parking camera, 6 DVD changer, and it plays DVD Audio.

PS - go for an ex-demo, but watch out for the dreaded rattles on some early cars, and save a bundle of cash. Go on Holiday with the extra saved!!

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Ah, thanks. I checked that deal site, an IS250 SE is down to £24k odd, a £3k saving which is great. Bearing that in mind I think I might just go for brand new, especially as it comes with a warranty. Not worried about memory seats as I'll be the only driver, my wife has her own car. I agree about the leather seats, wheels and the other stuff though.

I've looked at the MM option pack and not sure if I can justify it for nearly £3k. I'm always a bit dubious of the built-in sat navs (I've never seen one that comes close to a TomTom for £500, and although it's an eyesore on the dash at least you can change it later). I don't have any real use for the DVD player short of watching it while I drive ;) and I'm pretty happy with the standard 5 speaker surround that every IS has.

As for the LS, I hate to say this flamebait but the IS is the only UK lexus model I like. The rest look awful to me. Same with the Jaguars - I like the XK style but the rest look like they should only be driven by 65 year old country gents....

So now it's all down to the test drive on Saturday!

Does anyone have any comments about the Lexus Birmingham dealership, based out by the Fort? I did scan through the dealership reviews forum but the last comment on this dealer was from 2 years ago when it was a different place (and probably a different team running it).

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4. Should I really bother buying brand new? There are lots of decent 2nd hand Lexus for good prices on Autotrader, such as this one (IS250 55 plate, 3000 miles, £18k) - nearly £10k less than new after 2 years.

Thanks!

That one is actually a base model IS250 so it would have probably cost between £22k and £23k new, so you would only be saving around £4k on that one.

Go with the IS250 SE Auto, you won't regret it. Mine's just turned over 26K miles and it still makes me smile every time I get in it. We took our 2.0T A4 over to The Lakes at the weekend and whilst it is a lovely car I'd still take the Lexus over it every time. I haven't got the MM option as I was up to my limit on the SE and they wouldn't take a kidney px to make up the difference. It just seems a bit too expensive for what it is - maybe if it was under £2k I would have gone for it. I suppose you could look at it from the point of view that the discount you can get off the new price would pay for the MM, so in effect you'd get it for free.

Oh and by the way, even the base and SE models have a 13 speaker audio set up and in my opinion it is very good, the Mark Levinson must be really superb to top it.

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Thanks all!

By the way, are you sure about the 13 speakers? The glossy brochure I have says it's 5.1 sound with a diagram showing, you guessed it, 5 speakers.

Good to know people are actually getting these discounts from dealers. Is it worth me paying drivethedeal for a printed quote to use for negotiation, or is the customer service in lexus dealers generally as good as BMW (which has been excellent for the years I've had them)?

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Thanks all!

By the way, are you sure about the 13 speakers? The glossy brochure I have says it's 5.1 sound with a diagram showing, you guessed it, 5 speakers.

Good to know people are actually getting these discounts from dealers. Is it worth me paying drivethedeal for a printed quote to use for negotiation, or is the customer service in lexus dealers generally as good as BMW (which has been excellent for the years I've had them)?

The number of speakers doesn't necessarily add up to the number of channels.

The brochures are also regularly wrong on technical details like that.

I had it in my head that it was a 5.1 system (with 10 channels) and 14 speakers, not 13 (which is the standard, IIRC).

The lexus.co.uk showcase page agrees with me, and the picture, most of all, shows 14 speakers.

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I'm planning on keeping whichever car I get for 3 to 5 years, so I'm really not that bothered about a late 06 or early 07 plate - after all, most people look at the delivery month rather than the reg for exactly this reason.

Also as Gareth says, I'd be really surprised to get much off an 06 plate. You generally only get huge discounts on end-of-line models (I got a large discount on a Focus - old shape - 2 years ago just before the new one came out).

One question, does the IS250 SE come with lumbar support? I think it's an SE auto I'm getting for a test weekend, but won't find out until Sat.

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The 07 IS is different from the 06 one, as you may have read.

A late 56 would probably be the "second generation", whereas an 07 would definitely be.

You can tell from the switches. On the 07 the boot release and fuel release are horizontally next to each other.

On the 06 they are above each other.

G

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Silly question: I did know about the different model due to the switch position, but other than moving that around what is the big difference with the 07 model?

What improvements/changes would I be getting?

It'll be a month or 2 before I make my choice and buy a car, so potentially I'll end up with an 07 anyway...

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Silly question: I did know about the different model due to the switch position, but other than moving that around what is the big difference with the 07 model?

What improvements/changes would I be getting?

It'll be a month or 2 before I make my choice and buy a car, so potentially I'll end up with an 07 anyway...

Just fixes.

The 06's had some issues with rattling, and with fuel economy.

These could be fixed by lexus, though some members found they had to take many swings at getting it fixed, and some never got a solution they were happy with.

The 07 should be free of these two dogma.

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The only differences I noticed in 06 and 07 models were:

a couple of the buttons (such as fuel cap release, and boot release) are now illumunitated, and it's not possible to turn off traction control and VSC if you don't want it active.

The basic lexus has a 13 speaker system. If you go for the MM system, then it has a 14 speaker system.

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