What Did I Buy: Bmw Or Lexus?

mustang · October 17, 2007

I haven't updated my website (www.harego.com) to give a full explanation but I will soon. But in a nutshell...

The IS250 is such a beautiful car and incredibly exclusive. The dealers are a world apart from BMW and I only had one extremely minor (I'm nitpicking because Lexus dealers are generally of very high standard) with one dealer. With BMW however it was the other way round, I only came across one dealer who was genuinely very good, though still not as good as Lexus.

The BMW has certain qualities that I like such as torquier engine, lower (I hope) running costs (not including depreciation). The Lexus however has so much exclusivity it's unbelieveable. One would think that car costs £100k since there are so few on the road, and despite many of you talking about rattles, I have more confidence in Lexus's reliability than BMW's. Some examples of prices are £23k will either get you a 2 year old IS250SE + auto/mm (cost new £31k) or a 2 year old BMW 330iSE + auto/nav (cost new £36k with options), so despite the BMW being vastly more powerful, it's shredded a lot more of it's value, and these incidentally, are dealer prices. Perhaps the private seller got a few thousand less in each case.

So why did I choose a BMW 325iSE + auto/nav? Firstly, it was the price. There was no way I could get an IS250SE + auto/mm for the price I was looking at; if I didn't want the mm then we have no problem. But with nav.. that's a different story as mm is an extremely desirable option. Secondly it was the dealer; he was a maturer person, polite, professional, and honest. Compare this to the other BMW dealers who had younger sales people who wanted to make a quick buck (reminds me of Audi).

I'm glad the Lexus is more expensive, because although I dont have one, I still want it to remain exclusive, and I will still admire it from a distance. There are some other things I liked better on the BMW such as ride and handling/ the sportier kickdown on the gearbox, larger boot and a little more space in the rear of the cabin. But all of these things would pale into insignificance if I were behind the wheel of the Lexus. But who knows, I may change my mind once I take delivery.

Good for all of you for having an IS, it's a truly splendid car. And many thanks for your help and views over the last few weeks. I'll continue to visit here as I'm still a Lexus fan, just without a Lexus. Many people say I'm a BMW-lover. It's not true. I just love good cars and BMW and Lexus make some of the best, they just have a different focus on the same subject.

EDIT:

It's 5:30am on the day after getting the BMW. And my thought remains as above: I still desire the Lexus and if I was willing to spend the extra money, that would have been my choice. But nothing will give me the same pleasure as the day when I got my 330Ci Sport Convertible. This got me thinking: before I bought the Convertible, it was the car I desired the most. Eventually, when I realized I had to buy a 4 door car, I started looking around, and the Lexus was the car I desired. But it was a little out of reach, so I had to buy the car that I had no desire to.

So if I need to convince anyone which car is better: I still think BMW is the better car (for my circumstances) but the Lexus is definitely the more desirable car, and that includes the treatment you get at the dealer.