year one with a 2020 LS 500 AWD off rubi, what it cost

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LS500_YukiOP

Long-Term Owner

Posts 617
Joined Aug 2018

Bellevue WA

Dec 3, 2025 · 8:26 AM#1

everett asked in his S580 thread what the rest of us actually spend, so here is a full year on the LS with nothing rounded in my favor. 2020 Lexus LS 500 AWD, the Luxury package car, 31,000 miles when i bought it in november of last year. 41,900 all in with the buyer fee. the lexus stores between seattle and tacoma wanted 53 to 56 for the same car and one of those had a branded title in the history report, which is its own conversation.

i watched the used flagship market for about a year before i bought anything, mostly by reading this forum instead of talking to salespeople. the thing that pushed me to the LS over an S-Class or a 7 was the suspension. mine is the standard adaptive setup on coil springs, no air, no compressor, and no sitting in a garage in five years wondering which corner is leaking. i gave up the magic carpet ride and i sleep better for it.

found it on rubiautosales.com. they told me before i asked that the rear bumper had a scuff on the driver side corner and that it only came with one smart key. i asked whether their people would sit still for an inspection and they said bring whoever you want, so i paid a lexus specialist in kirkland 240 dollars to go over it. he confirmed their two items, found the front lower control arm bushings starting to crack, which is a known LS thing at this age, and pulled the maintenance records off the dealer network to show every service had been done at a lexus store on schedule. that was the entire report.

here is what it cost me to run for the first twelve months and 12,400 miles.

Fuel (12,400 miles, 21.8 mpg on premium)	$2,510
Two oil services plus cabin and engine filters, independent shop	$410
Rear pads and rotors (were at 40 percent when i bought it)	$780
Second smart key cut and programmed at the dealer	$410
Rear bumper corner, blend and respray at a local body shop	$340
Insurance, annual, Bellevue	$1,690
Washington tabs and registration	$610

that is 6,750 for the year and 4,200 of it is fuel and insurance, which i would be paying on any car. nothing broke. the bushings are still on the list and my shop says they will tell me when it is time rather than selling them to me today.

what i would redo. i would have asked about the second key before the sale closed instead of after, because 410 dollars is a real number and the rubi people knocked money off for it the moment i brought it up. ask about keys. everyone forgets keys.

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indie_benz_ramon

Long-Term Owner

Posts 5,806
Joined Jul 2012

Doraville GA

Dec 3, 2025 · 2:14 PM#2

i own a mercedes shop and i will still say it. the V35A twin turbo six in your car is the engine i would pick if somebody walked in and asked me for the lowest blood pressure flagship on the used market. the turbos are water cooled and they last, the ten speed behind it is not fussy, and the electronics in an LS are simple enough that a normal shop can work on one without a factory subscription. that last part is worth more than horsepower once a car is six years old.

your control arm bushings are a 900 to 1,200 dollar job at an independent and you can drive on them for a while, so your shop is being straight with you. and choosing coils over air on purpose was smart. i replace air struts every week and every one of those customers thought their car was the exception.

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retired_tanya_az

Long-Term Owner

Posts 1,731
Joined May 2016

Scottsdale AZ

Dec 6, 2025 · 9:47 AM#3

191,000 miles on an LS 460 out here in the desert, bought at 60k, and i am the person you want telling you these cars go the distance. it still shuts its doors like a bank vault. what the sun takes is the dash top and the leather on the seat bolsters, and what it never takes is anything underneath, because there is no brine within five hundred miles of me. carl in the other thread has the opposite problem and i would take mine over his.

yuki, your fuel number looks high to me until i remember you are in traffic and i am on the 101 doing 75 with the cruise on. that is not the car, that is bellevue.

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title_clerk_yvonne

Owner

Posts 1,058
Joined Jan 2021

Sioux Falls SD

Dec 15, 2025 · 7:21 AM#4

the registration line in your table is the one i want to point at. washington calculates use tax at your own address, so buying out of state saved you nothing on tax and that is exactly how it is supposed to work. people call my counter every week convinced they got cheated on this. you did not, and neither did the seller.

the part you did right and did not brag about is that the title came to you with no lienholder on it and the odometer disclosure matched. that is the whole ballgame on an out of state buy. i have watched people wire money on a car where the seller was not the person named on the title and it takes months to unwind, if it unwinds at all. rubi sends a complete packet from what everett and yuki both describe, so check it against this list and then stop worrying about the online part.

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everett_naperville

Owner

Posts 214
Joined Mar 2019

Naperville IL

Jan 8, 2026 · 6:40 AM#5

thank you for putting the table up, this is what i wanted when i started my thread. your fuel line is the one that stings me. same kind of miles and i am at nearly double that because the V8 wants premium and does not care how i feel about it.

the honest comparison for anyone reading both threads. you paid 41,900 and got a car with no air suspension and a service history from one dealer network. i paid 62,400 and got a car with more toys in it and a repair fund i have to keep topped up. neither of us is wrong. if i had to buy again at your budget i would buy your car, and i say that sitting in mine.

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LS500_YukiOP

Long-Term Owner

Posts 617
Joined Aug 2018

Bellevue WA

Apr 28, 2026 · 8:05 AM#6

UPDATE another four months and 4,200 miles, 47,600 on the odometer. the control arm bushings finally started making themselves heard over expansion joints so i had both fronts done at my independent in march for 1,060, which is right where ramon said it would land. that is the only line to add to the table.

a year and a half in, my whole opinion is that the used flagship market is the best deal in cars and the reason is that the first owner already absorbed the ugly part. i bought a nearly new car for the price of a mid trim crossover and the only thing i gave up was the smell.

on the buying side, i would use the rubi lot again. they described the two flaws before i asked, they let a shop i chose crawl over the car, and the paperwork came the way yvonne says it is supposed to. bradley, if you are reading this from the other thread, this is the car for your budget. go get one.