TexMexLex

Saw one of these on the road today and was extremely impressed with the car in the flesh. Would obviously have to drive it, but thought it certainly stood out in terms of appearance. Many of the current Lexus's seem to look better in the flesh than in photos. The metallic blue was really flattering.

I was thinking of part exchanging my 11 month old GS450H SEL for an RX, as I now need more boot space. Unbelievably, the best P/EX price I have been given by any Lexus dealer is £26k! The car is the top spec ACC/PCS model and has only covered 6000 miles from new. This means the value has fallen by more than 50% since June last year. Several dealers have told me that the GS 450H is difficult to sell, and that is reflected in their offers. Probably absolute tosh, but if true, I'm not suprised people aren't buying them if the thieving gits are offering customers less than half price after 11 months! Think I may well just buy a roof box, or off load the car before it's value halves again. Anyone else got a similar story to tell??

As a recent convert to Lexus, although I sympathise with your pain, I think this is par for the course for any med/large exec car. These sort of cars fall pretty rapidly in value over the first year or two and since you have to factor in the dealer margin, it is very expensive to change cars in a short period. I had a "desirable" A6 diesel which - to cut a long story short - I got rid of in just over a year as I wasn't happy with it, and I got about 50% trade-in just over a year later. The irony is, you would probably not get not that much less a year later, but feel much better about your trade-in value. Unless you have something that is really in demand (which are becoming rare these days), there is a certain logic to maintaining a 3-year replacement cycle. (Although, of course keeping you car for as long as possible until it falls apart is really the most cost-effective motoring!)