Well, after nearly 5 years with the fabulous GS450h, it was decision time - keep maintaining (absolutely worth it), move into a 5 year old GS450h or look at a newer ES300h. Here it is looking lonely at the dealer awaiting to be sent to auction [emoji22]
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I have ALMOST bought a newer GS450h a few times, but other than being a bit newer/more modern/a few nice modern features, nothing got close to the one I had worth spending £20k+ for a 5/6/7 year old car.
I also looked at, and seriously thought about a GS-F, which is a dream car, but the prices, rarity (and a lot had 5+ owners) and to a tiny amount, running costs, made this less of a good option, especially as I do drive my cars and it would not be a Sunday driver or garage queen.
A chance email to the Lexus dealer replying to a generic sales email which has a stupid finance mistake in it, led to some discussion with the franchise principal and some thinking, running options and some extra negotiations as we neared the end of the month (and led towards their VIP event on this weekend).
Anyway, several cars weighed up including a quite new low mileage GS300h F Sport, a potential RC-F and a few options on new ES models.
Long story short, deal worked out, then reworked out to ensure it covered quite a few extras for me that lead to not a lot of cost for the franchise but save me loads - various cars and colours but I loved the combination of Velvet Black NON metallic paint, and the lighter interior, so sorted a deal on an ES300h MY21 Premium Edition Velvet Black with a Sand leather interior, which adds some newer tweaks but also some important stuff - 12.3" screen, wireless charging, Apple Car play, 18" wheels, rear tints, and a huge pile of other spec including heated seats/steering wheel, electric front seats and steering wheel with auto retract on exit, huge levels of safety kit and driver aids - you get the idea - it's the highest rated Euro NCAP car ever I think thanks to all the pedestrian, auto braking, cyclist in the dark etc avoidance - all of which you can adjust or turn off.
I had already driven plenty of newer Lexus, but the test drive went well and for as long as I wanted, lovely quality, superbly heavy doors, beautifully built, and now I have it and have driven about 100 miles since yesterday, it's just an amazing car to have and experience. It is NOT an Aston Martin or a Ferrari, but it's also a hell of a lot better built, will be superb to own, and is plenty quick enough on the road with the newest hybrid system - it has an eco, a normal and a sport mode for economy vs responsiveness and is averaging just under 50mpg since I bought it so far on very mixed driving.
As part of the deal, and THE most important part - it left the dealer and went to their (luckily) on site company Detailogy for 3 days for a full new car prep, single stage machine and full ceramic coating. A valeter would have destroyed the velvet black on this so I was VERY clear with the franchise director I would NOT be allowing the dealer to prep the new car.
I have also negotiated in various useful (and some gratuitous extras) to bump up value to me to include a Lexus stainless steel entry guard, a Lexus boot liner, a complete spare set of black Lexus mats (it has dark brown ones which looks superb), a Lexus flask mug and lovely Lexus pen, full tank of fuel, as well as GAP insurance and the first service covered too - this was alongside a fair to reasonable enough trade in and a good deal on the car pricing and finance too.
All in, I am extremely pleased with the car - it's simply the most luxurious and high quality car I have ever owned and, although I will miss the GS450h outright performance, and a few of the luxuries (Mark Levinson sound, rear blind, cooling memory seats, auto dipping on reversing door mirrors) there are plenty of other lovely new features alongside a very decent Pioneer 10 speaker sound system which, importantly, still has a sub and centre speaker and can play DVDs too [emoji1]
Anyway, here are some pics after it was pressure washed as it was already looking unloved (parked under trees today at work, collected in the driving rain etc).
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A short video of the car starting up
I'll keep this thread updated now over many years of (hopefully) happy ownership [emoji2956][emoji817][emoji106][emoji91]
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I have ALMOST bought a newer GS450h a few times, but other than being a bit newer/more modern/a few nice modern features, nothing got close to the one I had worth spending £20k+ for a 5/6/7 year old car.
I also looked at, and seriously thought about a GS-F, which is a dream car, but the prices, rarity (and a lot had 5+ owners) and to a tiny amount, running costs, made this less of a good option, especially as I do drive my cars and it would not be a Sunday driver or garage queen.
A chance email to the Lexus dealer replying to a generic sales email which has a stupid finance mistake in it, led to some discussion with the franchise principal and some thinking, running options and some extra negotiations as we neared the end of the month (and led towards their VIP event on this weekend).
Anyway, several cars weighed up including a quite new low mileage GS300h F Sport, a potential RC-F and a few options on new ES models.
Long story short, deal worked out, then reworked out to ensure it covered quite a few extras for me that lead to not a lot of cost for the franchise but save me loads - various cars and colours but I loved the combination of Velvet Black NON metallic paint, and the lighter interior, so sorted a deal on an ES300h MY21 Premium Edition Velvet Black with a Sand leather interior, which adds some newer tweaks but also some important stuff - 12.3" screen, wireless charging, Apple Car play, 18" wheels, rear tints, and a huge pile of other spec including heated seats/steering wheel, electric front seats and steering wheel with auto retract on exit, huge levels of safety kit and driver aids - you get the idea - it's the highest rated Euro NCAP car ever I think thanks to all the pedestrian, auto braking, cyclist in the dark etc avoidance - all of which you can adjust or turn off.
I had already driven plenty of newer Lexus, but the test drive went well and for as long as I wanted, lovely quality, superbly heavy doors, beautifully built, and now I have it and have driven about 100 miles since yesterday, it's just an amazing car to have and experience. It is NOT an Aston Martin or a Ferrari, but it's also a hell of a lot better built, will be superb to own, and is plenty quick enough on the road with the newest hybrid system - it has an eco, a normal and a sport mode for economy vs responsiveness and is averaging just under 50mpg since I bought it so far on very mixed driving.
As part of the deal, and THE most important part - it left the dealer and went to their (luckily) on site company Detailogy for 3 days for a full new car prep, single stage machine and full ceramic coating. A valeter would have destroyed the velvet black on this so I was VERY clear with the franchise director I would NOT be allowing the dealer to prep the new car.
I have also negotiated in various useful (and some gratuitous extras) to bump up value to me to include a Lexus stainless steel entry guard, a Lexus boot liner, a complete spare set of black Lexus mats (it has dark brown ones which looks superb), a Lexus flask mug and lovely Lexus pen, full tank of fuel, as well as GAP insurance and the first service covered too - this was alongside a fair to reasonable enough trade in and a good deal on the car pricing and finance too.
All in, I am extremely pleased with the car - it's simply the most luxurious and high quality car I have ever owned and, although I will miss the GS450h outright performance, and a few of the luxuries (Mark Levinson sound, rear blind, cooling memory seats, auto dipping on reversing door mirrors) there are plenty of other lovely new features alongside a very decent Pioneer 10 speaker sound system which, importantly, still has a sub and centre speaker and can play DVDs too [emoji1]
Anyway, here are some pics after it was pressure washed as it was already looking unloved (parked under trees today at work, collected in the driving rain etc).
A short video of the car starting up
I'll keep this thread updated now over many years of (hopefully) happy ownership [emoji2956][emoji817][emoji106][emoji91]
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
