Dave748

Ye that does look nice, I saw a car in the Lexus showroom that had orange, yellow looks a bit chav but the orange looks expensively sporty. I'll order some fabric DECALS too to make it look that bit more classy. Any other little things I can do to make it look that bit more sporty'er or exclusive or generally awesome? I'll probably get the windows tinted down a bit too, but not too much.

Well, I'm just happy I held out and got exactly what I wanted, already looking at what calliper paint will go best with the Blue. I'm thinking orange as yellow is a bit too bright and I had red callipers on an old car.

Well it's actually even more awkward than I said, the real price is £27147.89 I didn't fell the need to add the pence. The listed price was £29995, there is a reason why it's so awkward a price though and not set by me set by the dealer. Basically they wanted rid of it, been a demo they wanted the space for the new facelift model to come in so I threw them my top offer and said that's it take it or leave it so instead of been stuck with it they gave me it at the exact cost price as it was a smig over my top offer but for the difference and the price I couldn't really turn it down. Very happy.

Neither of those two, it's Lexus in Cambridge.

Well I didn't want to say as I didn't want to jinx it until it was a done deal but I've paid the deposit to secure it now so it's going no where. I managed to get the exact car I want: Blue, IS300H F-Sport, Premium Nav and Full Leather 65 plate, 7K miles on the clock form a Lexus dealer so Warranty, Assured etc. all in for £27,147 Personally I think this is a good deal and worth the money.

Good idea however, unnecessary, all ye of little faith!!! I've landed my self a corker of a deal so good I can hardly believe it myself.

Well I'm not particularly looking for an ex-demo, as long as it has Lexus FSH and I can get a topped up warranty I don't care where it's come from, the dealers in this case are just going to have to take a loss to compete or risk keeping the car for longer than they want it as it only continues to devalue further, that's not my problem. I just want a car at a deal that I'm happy with and I'll do what ever it takes to make that happen or do as my last post said. At the end of the day to me it is only a car and I'm not going to break myself paying over the top for a car I don't think is worth the money no matter how good it looks or how nice it is. Yes the Lexus is nice and I do really like it but there are plenty of other cars about and if I can't deal on the Lexus I want for a price I deem to be reasonable then I'll just have to move on. I guess this is the one down side to the exclusivity of the Lexus, not many used to choose from.

Raynnas you've probably got a point about most of what you have said but in the end my budget is my budget and my requirements are my requirements, as I have only just stared looking I'll stick to those for now. If later down the line I still can't find what I'm looking for then I may consider adjusting either one or both to broaden my options. If after that I've got to my limit of adjusting my budget and requirements then I may have to make an even more drastic decision. Maybe get a cheep run around to last me for a while till I can save more money to adjust my budget/requirements further or maybe even look at a different car entirely. If dealers can't meet my requirements then my money stays in the bank and if they can, great they've got a deal and really that's the bottom line regardless of everything else.

I totally disagree with this, instead of looking at only the main Lexus dealers have a look on auto-trader and other used car sales sites. Apart from the colour which is the only bit I'm struggling with I've found loads of F-Sports that perfectly fit this criteria. Yes these cars are 37K brand new but taking into account the 20% VAT that someone has had to pay to get the car brand new in the first place that's £7400 off a 37K car as soon as they drive it off the forecourt. This would make the value of the car only £29600 brand new second hand, then you add the mileage and age into that mix and you end with around 24 - 27K. Also have a look at the WhatCar depreciation tool, matching what I've seen from the used F-Sports on-line and what this tool says they almost perfectly match up. Steve, This is exactly the kind of evil genius life hack I was hoping to get on here, You sir are a legend.

I'm after the IS300h F-Sport in Blue with Premium Nav and Full Black Leather, low mileage (approx 17K or below) and preferably a 15 plate. My budget is loosely around 25K depending on the car and the deal I get, I'm expecting a good deal paying cash and buying fast with no hassle. The above are essentials and anything else is just a bonus, I'll be looking hard at all dealers and used car sales companies and jumping on the first one I see that fits my criteria.

Well thanks for the advice all it's been invaluable in aiding me to make a decision but it was easy once I sat in that car. I won't be able to buy for about a week but I'm on the hunt now for the F-Sport with the colour and spec I want. I have found a few but the one's I have found are way over priced, just hoping that the one comes along or I can barter down the ones that have over priced their cars by buying fast and in cash.

Hi Ian, I get what your saying and I'm fully aware that it's the dealers job to try and sell new cars and that's fine, I get that but I'm a very hard sell and once I'm set on a budget or an idea of what I want that's it. The sales guy had a real good crack at me, showing me all the numbers and figures but for the car I wanted brand new it doesn't matter over how long you pay it or how much you initial put down etc. I'd still end up paying about 40K for a brand new car that's a fast depreciating asset. Taking into account that as soon as I'd agree to pay and drove it off the forecourt that's an instant 8K gone just in VAT not to mention that the first years depreciation is the steepest in the life time of the car. It's a personal thing too that I just don't like monthly payments, even if it was 0% APR I'd much rather, if I can, pay something off in one go and then it's done. For me it's even more complicated still, having my own business and been a self employed contractor I have to consider how taking that amount out of my business at once will affect my divined taxation limits for the year. Also I have to consider the fact that at any point if one of my contracts ends and I can't find a new one for a while having a second large monthly payment hanging over my head on top of the mortgage with no money coming in is not something I want. And one more thing, the sales guy may have hinted that the facelift model will be out soon so I'd rather wait till it is as I believe it may drop the price of the current model. Nop, I know what I want and I know how I'm going to pay for it and how much. Yes it may mean waiting till the right one I want comes along but that's fine I'm happy to do that. Considering that you can get 15 plates with less than 10K miles on the clock (practically brand new) for between 22 - 25K which is about 12 - 15K cheeper than brand new, it's a no brain'er.

Hello Everyone, Sorry, I know some of you have been waiting to see what my verdict is of the car, I just wanted to have a really good drive of it and show it about to a few different people to see what they thought too. I've drove it for quite a while, it was an hour and a half from the dealers home, some motorway, a tiny little bit of town and mostly country and B roads. This most defiantly is the car for me! How do I know? Well until I sat down to write this post I completely forgot I was supposed to be choosing between the BMW and the Lexus and instead all I've been thinking of since I got home is shall I have the F-Sport or the Premier? Listers Lexus Cheltenham. The service was great, couldn't fault it one bit, sat me down got me a nice coffee and a biscuit that I didn't even have to make myself. I had a chat with the sales guy Ben who was very knowledgeable and gave me a summary run down on all the payment options. He showed me around a stunning looking Blue F-Sport (the exact one I would choose if I get an F-Sport) and quickly ran me through a few of the features. Before I knew it I was in the car with the keys ready to go. I was expecting to be there for quite some time so it was really refreshing that they just wanted to get me on the road and let me loose to have a go myself. It’s probably a very good idea as I have probably worked out a lot of the stuff myself that he would have had to have spent showing me. The info System. Before I left the dealers I was sat in the car not going anywhere for about 25 minutes messing about with the Info System, your all right, it’s defiantly not the most intuitive interface and I thought the map looked a bit crappy and basic too. Not sure if it’s any different with the premium navigation package but it did the job and got me home. I found navigating the system quite cumbersome, as a professional IT consultant I really should have found it a lot easier so I can’t Imagen how hard it would be for someone with not much IT experience. It took me until I had been driving for 20 minutes to work out how to select the DAB radio instead of FM and it wasn't until I got home that I finally worked out how to shut up that bloody woman’s voice on the NAV system. It’s not as bad as I thought though; I was expecting it to be a lot worse than it was so not a deal breaker and I’m sure I’ll get used to it. The Ride. Sublime, silky smooth, silent, comfortable, in ECO mode driving conservatively, as I do most of the time. Sport mode, a fair bit of lag when you smash your foot down but apart from over taking in real life it’s a rare event. After driving diesels for the past two years it felt amazing. Economy Like everyone’s said it depends how you drive it. I drove all the way home from the dealers conservatively; the drive consisted of some motorway, a tiny bit of town and mainly B roads and country roads. It took me about an hour and a half and I got about 46 mpg which I thought wasn't too bad for my first go. After a cuppa I took the missus and my mum who’s visiting out in it for a spin, don’t know why I bothered! They just went on about how safe it was and how fast it was and that I will probably kill myself because it’s a 2.5l engine. I tried to explain to them that just because it’s a 2.5l that doesn't mean it’s a racing car or even that fast of a car by today’s standards. They couldn't believe a car costing that much didn't have a reverse cam or auto dipping full beams. On the plus side they thought it was a very smooth and comfortable ride but I soon got bored of them and kicked them out at home. I then drove the 17 or so miles to work, my normal daily commute in the rain and wind in ECO mode very conservatively and got 55.5 mpg which was about the same as what I got from my 2.0l diesel but driving not so conservatively. I then reset the clock, stuck it in sports mode and drove home, shall we say, not so conservatively and got 23.5 mpg, hence totally depends how you drive it. I found the CVT gear box a bit strange to get used to, it revved high a lot of the time and although once it’s moving, it really moves, but the lag is irritating and not something I'm used to. It rolls well with the corners and sticks to the road like glue, my last car had horrendous under-steer even a low speeds so I was a bit nervous and probably didn't push it anywhere near what it’s actually capable of. Summary Like I said, this is the car for me, it’s such a nice place to sit, so comfortable and, well, I can’t really find the word to describe it but it just feels good, another league from the sparse, clinical BMW interior. The F-Sport looks amazing in the blue, such a shame you can’t have it without the sport suspension and with all the features of the premier, but, as I went through town I got quite a few double takes from people having a look at the car, a BMW or an Audi wouldn’t even batter anyone’s eye lids. My mind is made up; only thing left to do is choose between the F-Sport and the Premier now. I'll probably still have more questions but hank you everyone for the replies and information you've given, I'm just sorry to say that your Lexus’s are going to be that tiny bit less exclusive because of me.

Well maybe it's been pure coincidence that I haven't seen many around, or maybe it makes sense due to the fact there there is a BMW and an Audi dealer a stones throw from town but the nearest Lexus dealer is over 60 miles away. It's irrelevant anyway as I wouldn't buy an Audi regardless of there commonness due to the fact that I simply find them dull and boring.

Yes I eliminated the Audi early on, not long after I created this thread actually. The reasoning was that I found the exterior and interior of the Audi, boring to be honest. Nothing about it made me feel like I wanted to own it. I felt like the inside was bland and minimalist, rather like the BMW but I preferred the exterior look of the BMW and like I said found the exterior of the Audi just as boring as the inside. Also there are so many Audi's around it's ridiculous, another would be nothing more than white noise in my work car park. Same could be said for the BMW but if I had to choose between the two it would be the BMW. I actually looked hard today in work for a Lexus and then I looked after work through town and in the public car parks. I didn't see a single one, I have only seen one IS300h since I decided I may buy one and usually it goes that once you start looking for a particular car you see them all over the place. Not in this case, that's an attractive property, though, not the reason why I would buy the Lexus.

I'm thinking of buying a premium IS300h but love the front grill of the F-Sport, would it be easy to change the premium front grille for the F-Sport one? And also, where the hell would I get the grille? Looked all over the place for it but can not find it anywhere online. Ideally I'm costing up modding a premium to the look of the F-Sport. Wheels will obviously be the most expensive part but the Grille is very striking too, if I could find one.

You're right if it does cost that, really not worth it. It's the little things that make the premier feel just that little bit more special like the auto full beams. I'll have a good chat with the dealer on Saturday anyway and get the low down all the differences so I can make my mind up.

I guess you can't have everything but I also like the Black that's a mirror like effect, don't know what it's called but also looks good, then just wheels and front grille. Tried searching for the parts, wheels are over £700, each and literally can't find the F-Sport front grille anywhere.

Thanks, looking forward to the test drive in 2 days time. One shame is I love the mean look of the F-Sport but want the spec and drive of the premier. I was thinking of trying to work out how much is would cost to make a premier look like the F-Sport. As far as I can tell looks wise its a front grille and some different wheels but I bet your talking 1000's, also like the blue despite the misuses moaning but not seen any premier in blue yet.

Yes, yes I am, I'm stating to think I may have taken my choosing of a car bit too seriously. I just like to really research things before I make a decision.

Yes, it is a bit strange that this would be a premium feature on a car that's so highly spec'd in other areas even at the standard model especially as it's also safety feature. As I'm buying second hand I can wait for the right model I want to come along with the right spec. My only real concern is the efficiency right now, I know someone who said they used to have a Lexus and had to get rid of it because it cost so much to run, hence the hybrid I'm going for, but I'll have it for a day so even though I know I won't get the best out of it until I learn how to drive it, it will give me some idea.

Hi Guys, Thank you all of you for your comments and information, all very relevant and very useful. I have posted an almost identical post in the BMW forums but not had anywhere near the response from that forum as I have from this one but the ones I have had have been relevant. One guy told me his brother has the same Lexus that I'm looking at and said he thinks it's the best car he has ever owned so that's encouraging. I don't think I need much more info now I just need to have a go in one, someone near the top mentioned the auto full beam, is this standard? also the auto headlights on? What about Xenon lights? Or is this just certain trim levels?

Thanks but you really don't need to sell me on the spec, I know to spec a BMW to anywhere near as close to the Lexus it would be about 10K on top of the standard. I'm not buying new but almost new so I'll be looking for the model and colour I want and if I decide to go with the lexus and I'll jump on it when I see the one. Just been showing the missus the Lexus, I do like the look of the blue F-Sport with the dark alloys but she said it looks too much like the blue Lancer I just wrote off. I hope not since this car will be about 4 times the price.

OK thanks for the info, I read somewhere, it may have been an old post and changed now, that you can't enter Post Codes into the Nav system. Is this true and if so how do you set-up the Nav, by address? I Imagen that's a long and painstaking exercise if you do.

O dear, this is a bit of a shame, I was swinging more towards the Lexus but the informant system was one of the things that I was most looking forward to. I know a lot of people will say my priority should be the car but we all have our different tastes and priorities. Also the servicing interval is much shorter than the BMW thats, I think he said 16k or 18k but I can cope with that and will likely get a service package. I'm back to 50/50 Lexus/BMW now. :-(