hyunelan2

From a maintenance or standout-issues standpoint, are there any significant differences between the 250AWD and the 350? Who has taken a 350 (or 250 Rwd, I suppose) through a snowy winter? Results? My heart would say take the extra 100hp, but my brain keeps saying AWD would be better.

Thanks, that is helpful to know that Toyota will do service to a Lexus vehicle. It would be pretty-lame if I have to drive 40 minutes (either north or east, I'm south of Plainfield) to get to a Lexus dealer when something needs fixing. There are several Toyota dealers nearby though, so that is a relief. I wouldn't expect a Lexus to be nearly as maintenance needy as a BMW or even Audi, but if I do need to get something fixed the easier the better. Glad you like your '06 IS350. 06s and a few 07s have been mainly what I've come across in my pricerange. I knew before this idea of Lexus ever came into my head that I wanted to spend ~$25K on the car, which would get you a fairly nice new Accord/Camry/Sonata, but if I can put 2-3 years and 30K miles on the car pre-owned and end up with something much nicer and still with warranty, that seems like the wise choice. (I have found plenty of IS250AWD and IS350 in that pricerange, btw). A bad economy is good for some things.

First post here, but not new to cars or car forums. I have been in a "new only" car buying philosophy for quite some time. Recently though, I was helping a friend pick out a previously owned car and discovered there are quite a few gems out there. I'm not sure if it's the down economy or I just overlooked the used market in the past, but there seem to be some great used cars at great prices on dealer lots right now. Originally, I was looking for something along the lines of an A4 with Quattro, a Legacy GT, or 3-series with Xdrive. Research of the all-wheel-drive vehicles lead me to the AWD IS250, which is plentiful on used lots right now. With Lexus' CPO deals at 2.9% right now, that's doubly good. I think ideally though, I would like to wait until after the snow is gone before purchasing, but who knows if I'll have that much self control. After reading numerous reviews on the IS, the IS350 also entered the picture. On used lots, these are just barely more expensive, though more rare. Without the AWD, but with 100 more hp, I'm not sure which way I'm leaning here. RWD in the winter wouldn't be new to me, but it's been a while. Since both of these cars come with the 6spd auto, how does that feel? Does it feel like it's shifting all the time? How responsive is the transmission in "manual mode?" I've driven both good and bad shiftronic cars, with the good being fun, and the bad being so slow that it's laughable the feature is even available. I don't have a CPO dealer within probably 35-40 minutes of my house, so I haven't been out to drive them yet. That, and I loathe car salesman. This distance brings up another problem/question - maintenance. One of the reasons I shied away from BMW, is their maintenance that is pretty-dealer-specific. Is this similar with Lexus? I do know that for their being a lack of luxury dealers near me, I see a ton more Lexus than BMW, Mercedes, etc. My daily work commute is a whopping 1-mile. Going home for lunch makes it 4 miles a day. Trips to grad-school (MBA, Lewis University) put about another 40 weekly miles on the car, so I could buy a car with moderate mileage and not "wear it out" too quickly. I look forward to learning more about this car, as I try not to buy one for as long as possible -ha. Thanks, Mike