Yesterday I was walking around the local Lexus dealers used car lot while my wife was shopping at the neighboring shopping center. They had an 05 RL with 53K miles for $27,995. Sure made me feel bad becasue I owe more on my 05 RL with 36K miles. Admittedly I put little down on my 41K purchase (with tint) and thought I did pretty well on the price. I don't feel like I did so well now. Fortunately this is a great car so I will just have to enjoy it that much longer. (Just don't like feeling stuck.)

Those that leased should be proud of themselves.

 

I tend to agree. I rarely buy new cars, not worth it to me. I got a 1 year old CLS w/Navi @7500 mi for about $8-9k less than a new one, and I am kinda shopping used RLs now, off and on. I plan to pay $30k or less for a lower mileage RL someday. generally Acuras are very safe bets as used cars.

BUT, you got the car you wanted and that used car is out of warranty, so add at least $2k for a warranty and there is the risk of the car's history. and I'm not convinced leasing one is advantageous either.

I say, enjoy the great car you got. there will always be cheaper prices.

 

Wow...if the prices keep falling like this, even I may be looking to score a great deal on an RL. I need a nice cruiser for longer road trips.

 

The car clocked some good mileage and is two years old. Based on your numbers the dealer is asking about 68% of purchase price. That's actually pretty good if you could sell it for that yourself.

Don't feel bad. Cars are the biggest money pit next to boats. Expect to loose 50% after 3 years (give or take 5%). If you took out a loan for 5 years then you'll probably be upside down until about year 3. At that point depreciation starts to slow down and reaches a crawl after about 8 years. You'll hardly loose any money between year 8 and beyond if you take care of the vehicle.

I still say the smartest thing to do is buy a car coming off a 3 year lease. Probably taken good care of, wasn't sold because it was a lemon, and will cost you 50% of a new one. Even has some warranty time left on it! So why don't we all do that? I guess we like the smell of new leather.

 

Don't worry, be happy!!!

 

<<TOILET>> = RL Resale Value

 

(Prays that the 4G TL is fugly so I'm not tempted to trade down)

 

You don't have to worry about it if you plan on keeping the RL like I am. It's a great car, and the prices dropping will give other people that wanted one an opportunity to own a marvelous automobile.

Seems like we stress over the fact that our cars is not worth as much as before, but remember due to low sales volume; RL's will always be rare on the streets (my neck of the woods). It's not the fastest, prettiest, or most expensive luxury car, but it does handle the job.(takes care of me) With minimum worries.

 

Depreciation usually levels off 3+ years and later. I am going to own my RL for awhile so no worries here.

If you are concerned, you should get a RL coming off lease next year or another luxury car. Just keep in mind that cars over $50K tend to follow the "The higher the price the harder they fall (depreciate).

A couple of my friends got stiffed on their CLK430's a few years back.. nice car but when you lose 60% after 2+ years, makes you wonder why everybody leases BMW and Mercedes..

 

Is it possible that if the launch of the next gen RL is a true flagship (and they keep the RL name) it will raise the resale value of the 2nd gen?

They way I'm thinking is if the next gen is a big hit, it will make ours a little more "noticeable" and thus increase the value. Some consumers might think, wow, this new RL is amazing but I can't afford it. I wonder what last year's model was like? Then they'll actually look at them and this might increase the demand?

I don't know.......just a thought.

 

You're probably overreaching dude. In fact, refreshing a model usually has a negative impact on older gens not a positive. But even that is also minimal.

Also, that influence is usually only on "young" used cars (i.e. 3-4 year old cars). When the car really gets old (7-8 years) then it all evens out. The cars worth 10 percent what it cost new no matter what the factors are.

 

Most model re-designs always lower interest, demand, and value for the previous, now older design. sure there are some niche small volume collectible cars that may be the opposite.

My problem has always been ending up with an extinct car, ie., 95 Legend Coupe, and now the 2003 CLS coupe. I had a Prelude too.
Somehow I missed out on the Vigor, RSX, Integra, NSX, or that 1st Acura SUV.

 

I bought a Mitsubishi 3000GT Spyder (hardtop convertible) in 1996. Got it as a 95 dealer leftover/demo with 3k miles. Sticker was $62k. I paid $35k. Sold it in 2006 with 52k miles on it for $16900.

They cancelled the concept after only 2 years of production and ended up only making about 2000 of them. They quickly became collectables. Talk about getting lucky! It was my cool "weekend" car for 10 years and it hardly cost me anything

 

I recently bought a 05 RL /w 17.5k miles at $33k. The guy that I bought from was pretty upset how much the price went down. I remember him saying "I thought japanese cars are suppose to keep resale value, my son's TL did better"