Thread: final showdown: lexus or bmw?

Originally Posted by Song0330

This is a followup to this thread

After a month and a half of research, heated debate on car models with my friends and car experts, getting financed, and looking for the perfect car, I've finally found 3 candidates for a manual transmission full-leather 2004 Lexus IS300, all of them at the top limit of cash I want to spend.

Now that I'm only a simple phone call away from buying this car, I'm getting the pre-big ticket purchase thoughts. Since this is going to be a long-term committment car (will own it for the next 8 years or so), I'm re-reading all the reviews and all the small, minor flaws keep popping out (lack of cup holders, rear seat doesn't fold down, dash is too cheap-looking, no trunk space, etc). The other cars I had considered were an older (2000-2003) 3-series BMW and a 2001 BMW M3.

So I guess this is the final showdown. One of my main concerns is reliability and repair costs. Someone told me that BMWs require repairs more often than Lexues, and the repair costs are huge. Can anyone verify this? I'll take other comments on all 3 cars as well.

Ummm, are you aware that there's such things as reliability reports? J.D. Power and Consumer Reports? BMWs are notoriously less reliable especially in such a long run, I would look at historic reports for all of BMW 3rd series of the same run. At the same time, even though I haven't checked lately, Lexus has been going down in quality as well, so you will want to compare the data.
Good luck.

Originally Posted by rushnrockt

Ummm, are you aware that there's such things as reliability reports? J.D. Power and Consumer Reports?

Yes, JD Power ratings for both IS300 and 3 series (for mechanical quality) are 5 of 5.

Originally Posted by Song0330

Can anyone verify this?

You can:

http://www.jdpa.com/news/releases/pr...asp?ID=2005249

http://www.lexusofnashville.com/en_U...scPage_1.chtml

http://autos.yahoo.com/consumerrepor...used_cars.html

I had an Rx300 for about 5 years.... That thing was the best vehicle i've ever owned. I never had to take it to the shop for problems, the only thing is, if your going to get service done at the Lex dealer, expect to pay for quality.

oh no, my seats dont fold down in my multi thousand dollar, leather interior car... now where am I going to stick the pieces of wood I wanna bring home from the hardware store!!!!

ahh!!!

and as if it doesn't have cup holders!!!

I'll admit, thats a MAJOR reason not to buy the car!!!

Buy a Subie

Subaru Legacy GT -

0-60 in 5.2sec, AWD, easy to install a carputer in, easy to mod engine if you want to do that... ths list goes on.

Oh, it has 4 cupholders

legacygt.com

Originally Posted by jon102034050

I had an Rx300 for about 5 years.... That thing was the best vehicle i've ever owned. I never had to take it to the shop for problems, the only thing is, if your going to get service done at the Lex dealer, expect to pay for quality.

i drive a rx300 everyonce and a while, frankly i find its sloppy on the pickup and not a very fun car to drive but besides that its a very comfy ride and defenatly lexurious lol

id defenatly take the bmw, its the ultimate driving machine

The thing definately didnt have ANY pickup, but it was a smooth ride.