IS300H Purchase

[nickb2015]

Hi All

I've had an IS300h Advance for 5 years as a company car. I have the option to purchase it now. 42k miles, FSH. Asking price £14.5k. I was hoping to get a Tesla under the company car scheme but the list of electric cars is rubbish. So, given the CT and IS models are no longer in UK line up, is it still worth buying an IS. I've driven the car for so long now and wanted a change. I intend to keep it 2 years. Extended warranty will be £795 and the 6 year (60k) service is due in Nov.  £14.5k could buy a 2 year old Honda Civic - and yes I know its not a Lexus. For me 100% reliability is key. Thoughts welcome.

[ColinBarber]

The IS300h has been very reliable; the 2013 models aren't showing up any common faults so you would be unlucky to run into issues in the next couple of years.

£14.5k seems about right purchasing from a non-Lexus dealer - a trade in would be around £2k less so you aren't getting a great, not to be missed deal.

6 year service is a big one - £655, although you should be able to get it as an essentials service for around £500 if you wished.

[Linas.P]

As above, I would not worry about reliability of IS300h - at just 42k miles and FLSH it certainly have long life in front of it. The deal itself is ok, but not exceptions, as well considering it is advance model. 

5 years old car is now eligible for essential service, but you can get service plan as well (making it ~25% cheaper). 

Full service 60k - 2 years service plan (minor+major) costs ~£675-695... at least that is what I generally get offered when they say "I can make a deal on service if you take service plan).

Essential Care Major - 2 years service plan (minor+major) costs £560

To be honest comparing them, full service doesn't offer much over Essential care, key Battery replacement, pollen filter replacement, not sure if differential oil is even applicable for IS300h.

As for warranty - I would have said just save yourself £795, however in October my driver seat electric motors were replaced under warranty (RC200t has basically the same seat + hinge to let passengers in) and it was £4200 claim for parts + labour. In the end of the day Lexus rarely fails, but when they do it is expensive to repair - after all it is car with ~£40k list price. 

Depends on how you feel about the car, you being only owner I guess you can have a feel on the condition. My car was kind of worn for 3 years old car (64k miles), yours may be in much better shape and I would make decision on warranty based that. 

[PWOOD]

Try a quote from Warranty Wise and see how that looks. The IS build is great like all Lexus cars so less of a concern but just one major fault could be ruinous.....but to be fair neither of my 2 Lexus cars went wrong ever so as long as you have a bit of savings to cope with the unexpected the IS is as as safe a used car bet as a thing out there. 

[nickb2015]

ok thanks all for the replies...I will try and negotiate a better price.

[paulrnx]

2 hours ago, nickb2015 said:

ok thanks all for the replies...I will try and negotiate a better price.

Plug the details of your car into webuyanycar and see what they offer for it. That would then be the target price that I’d be trying to buy my company car at. Worth a shot. It’ll be a fairly accurate view of the trade price. You’re effectively buying the car sold as seen with no warranty so trade price is about the right price to pay for it.

[nickb2015]

Ok thanks...I've had the car from new as a company car and it's been well looked after.

I will aim for £13k.

[royoftherovers]

1 hour ago, nickb2015 said:

Ok thanks...I've had the car from new as a company car and it's been well looked after.

I will aim for £13k.

Work closely with your Employer Nick. The cost of £14,500 might well be the written down Book Value and if they sold for £13,000 might constitute a loss in the Employers Asset value and possibly charged to you as income of £1500 upon which you may be liable to Income Tax at the appropriate rate.

[nickb2015]

Ok I finally made a decision. I couldnt get the price down to a acceptable level. So I have decided to give up my Lexus IS300h Advance of 5.5 years for a Tesla Model 3. The model 3 is a standard range plus - not the one I wanted but better than nothing. I will be sad to see it go as its been 100% reliable. Its very likely I will return to Lexus in the near future. 

[Spacewagon52]

Please keep us all informed how you find the Tesla. Thanks.

[talaipwros]

On 4/12/2021 at 12:55 PM, Spacewagon52 said:

Please keep us all informed how you find the Tesla. Thanks.

For some reason he didn't like it seems.

We need comprehensive analysis!