olga1

Thanks for all your help guys. In the end I went for neither of those, and I am now a fully qualified member of this forum :)

I probably could have waited a bit longer, but I fell in love with a particular one, as it was a red colour and had cream seats :) 07 reg, 95K miles, SE version, no dents, scratches, however worn drivers' seat, which I only noticed when we gave the car for valeting and leather cleaning. Otherwise no faults and drives like a dream :) Bought at a dealer and got 3 months free warranty - the one they usualy sell for inflated prices.

'Dealer Warranties' see my post no.2

Yeah, I read that, hence I am not so much worried about the dealer warranty, as the product they sell has to be "fit for purpose". However, you have no such thing with private seller, hence I would prefer to buy from trader. Of course, there are good private sellers around, so I don't rule it out completely.

I no you have been looking for a while , but don’t rush into

buying one, have a look at a few to gage what sort of condition you can expect

for your money, in my opinion the condition and mileage would take preference over

the year of the car, as mentioned perversely you can pick up a private plate.

Hi, thank you. It is not so much about the plate, but the age of the car.

As for caring cash around with you, most people will except

a bank transfer, normally takes between 5 mins and 2 hours to go through.

Yes, I know, but the private guy wasn't so keen. He also gave me quite tight timeslots to come and see the car, knowing I am 150 miles away, was a bit dodgy, generally I am not so keen now...

Just looking through auto trader , have you seen this one,

looks nice with lower mileage than the 2 you are considering.

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201242488940599/sort/default/usedcars/price-from/8000/price-to/11000/fuel-type/hybrid/model/gs/make/lexus/onesearchad/used/onesearchad/nearlynew/page/2/postcode/da68jw/radius/1500?logcode=p

Lol, thats the one I was going to see today, too. However, I prefer cream seats, but we will still see it.

There are a lot of silver cars, which I don't want and a lot of black ones with black interior.

good luck in your search, the wait will be worht it.

Thank you.

No warranty on a £10k car, I would walk away just based on that. Also sounds very odd that Lexus would pass on a Lexus used car, I can understand them passing on other marquees straight away, but not a Lexus (unless there was something very expensive wrong with it - hence no warranty offer)

HI, sorry, I have phrased it wrong, dealer does no standard free warranty, you know some of them offer free 3-6 months, this one doesn't, on any of his cars. Dealer looks genuine, paperwork also did. The car looks good, he has shown me all paperwork, all service history, gave me the number to Lexus Swindon, where he got the car from, told me I can call them and ask about the car if I want, for example about the last service.

Lexus passed it on, because it is 100K miles, I know other dealers do it too, like Mazda. He said he buys all his cars from them, he had about 20 of cars for sale, 5 Lexuses.

Hi again

As I wrote before I am looking for a GS 450h with a budget of 10K.

I now have found 2 and I am torn, don't know which one to chose, maybe any help, please?

Option 1

----------

57 reg

SE-L version

Dark blue metallic (I love the colour)

101K miles, last service 96K, intermediate, so in about 5K miles (some 9-10 months for me) I will need to do a big one

FSH, all done at Lexus

Seller: trader, but no warranty (I can buy one from him, though)

He bought it directly from Swindon Lexus, who got it on part exchange and also serviced it all the time

Car nice and clean, seats in great condition, back ones haven't been used at all

I have seen it today, but not drove

Two new tyres at the back, new brake discs in front

Bad points: a small dent above the rear wheel, two stone chips on bonnet, quite badly painted over, lookes like tippexed, some marks on a dashboard, like something was stuck on it and left a bad mark, front tyres worn, especially on the insides, so looks like tracking needs to be done or there's something wrong

Price £10K

50 miles from my home

Can pay by debit card (easy for me)

Option 2

-----------

09 reg!

SE version

Black metallic (I also like it, but prefer blue)

106K miles, last service 98K miles, the full one

FSH, half done at Lexus and half in Halfords, last in Lexus

Private seller

150 miles from my home, so when I go, I would have to buy it there and then

have not seen it yet, only on photos, looks good there

that person has kids, so not sure how the back seats look like in real life

Bad points: one spoke on wheel missing, apparently some small stone chips and dents (could not see on photos), don't know what else as have not seen it yet

have to pay by cash (I am a bit worried carrying that much cash)

Price £10.5 K

I am planning to see the other one soon, but I need to decide. How does it look on paper? One side of me says go for the 57reg, as it is from a trader and HPI checked, higher spec and all done at Lexus, the other side wants a newer car! Especially that I now drive a 59 reg one, so 57 is a step back. Up to £10K I have only seen one 2008 car and no 2009s so far, apart from this one, so it is cheap.

Help, please!

Hi, these middle spokes are just plastic and are held on by two 10mm nuts from the back of the wheel so as long as the two mounting lugs on the rim are OK its no problem. Lexus sell the spokes for about £30 each which seems a lot for plastic.

Thank you Tony, that helps a lot!

Hi , I hope I have attached the specifications from thespecification list.pdf 2006 GS sales brochure.

Thank you so much! That's what I have been looking for!

So it means that there IS a "no-letters" model, and it doesn't have sat-nav and leather seats. Frankly I haven't seen even one of those, so all the ones I have seen have been at least an SE. Which is good news, as that's what I want :)

I was worried that I will end up buying a non SE wchich looks like an SE but doesn't have something I want that I wil only realise later, for example rain sensing wipers, parking assist etc.

The 450h engine is direct injection and so sounds awfull when 1st started from cold, mine is no worse after 160,000 miles,the sound only lasts fo a few seconds but dont be put off ,its normal.

Thanks. The one I have seen had this strange (or different to mine) sound for much longer (15-20mins?) Wasn't very bad, but certainly strange.

However, I will not buy this particular one, as it had only 1 key, so I keep looking.

Some users complain about creaks from the dash and seats but mine is fine, overall I am still thrilled with it after all these miles.

Yes, that's what I read. I hope I won't get one of those as any creaks, especially from the dash, drive me mad.

Hi, a SE gets almost all the toys but a SE L is the full monty by adding Adaptive cruise control with Pre crash safety and sunroof.

Thank you! In that case then I don't need an SE-L.

All I need now for complete happiness is to know what the "no-letters" is lacking from the SE :)

As far as I no they only make a SE and SE-L 450h model. untii you get to 2012

Aaah, so all those advertised in Autotrader that do not state anything (just say GS 450h 3.5), that actually means they are SE?

Brill!

Good luck finding one,don't think you will ever regret it, everybody raves about them.

Yeah, so I read :) Thank you, I am only hoping I won't end up with a duff one on my budget.

I don’t think there is such a thing as a duff

one

Well, I read the forums, and there were one or two :-) Acceleration problems, rattling everywhere and something else, can't remember now. But really only tiny percentage. With my tight budget it might be just my luck :(

And also it does not help that I do not know the model exactly then don't know what to look for and how the engine is supposed to sound. I will just have to trust the make, like I now trust Mazda. Got mine a year ago at 2.5year old and 93K miles and it is running like new (they were all motorway miles done by the previous owner).

However, this one will be older due to budget, I think the newest i can find (with difficulty) would be a 57 plate.

Hi, a SE gets almost all the toys but a SE L is the full monty by adding Adaptive cruise control with Pre crash safety and sunroof.

Thank you! In that case then I don't need an SE-L.

All I need now for complete happiness is to know what the "no-letters" is lacking from the SE :)

Good luck finding one,don't think you will ever regret it, everybody raves about them.

Yeah, so I read :) Thank you, I am only hoping I won't end up with a duff one on my budget.

Hi all, I am new here, and I am looking to buy a GS 450h.

However, I am very confused about the available models/trims.

From Lexus website I found out we have:

3.5

3.5 SE

3.5 SE-L

3.5 Sport

3.5 F-Sport

3.5 Luxury

3.5 Premier

Is there a website stating the differences?

TBH I am only interested in the first 3, as I think the rest are over my budget :)

I 'd like to know what's better in SE / SE-L over the first one with no letters at all.

I searched everywhere, found tons of other info, but not this for the 2006/2007/2008 model.

Most likely I am gonna go for the 2007 if I find the right one. It has to be within £10K

I have seen a 2006 SE today and frankly just what I want, but I was wondering what's NOT in the one without letters.

Can someone please point me to the right place?

Thank you!