In a couple months the missus and I need to decide if we're keeping our LC500 or not. It's been a fantastic car, but we may not buy out this one.
I/We have had a lot of performance cars over the years. I've never had a higher end luxury/performance German car though, such as a Merc, BMW, Audi or Porsche. Have a great hook up through Audi, a high school friend/exchange student that boarded with us is a President with Audi North America,Micha Diepenbrock, and have considered getting an R8 that way. Almost did it, but the Lexus LC500 was 1/2 the cost pretty much. There are TONS of AMG, BMW M, Audi, and Porsche cars in $$$ striking distance should we walk from the LC500.
My issue is, everywhere on this forum and others, it seems the current sentiment is "German cars now have shit reliability across the board". IE everyone shouts out warnings to people requesting advice on buying such a car when its warranty has recently expired. There is also the "to get a nice interior, you must purchase one of these cars, all others have shit interiors" mantra. So, in order to get a good car with nice interior, I have to be prepared for potentially brutal reliability issues and costs once my warranty is up. IE keeping such a German car has huge inherent risk, at least according to all the forums.
When exactly did this happen with higher end German luxury/performance cars? I remember 15 -20 years ago when I couldn't afford such cars, but reading everything I could find about them, so many stories of rich Arabs buying AMG/M cars and driving them for 100s of thousands of kms and never doing one bit of maintenance even sometimes skipping oii changes, and just driving said cars until they died, which was usually after insane milarge and use. Where did that reputation go, and wtf happened - why is the reputation now the inverse of this?
The missus has really had a pull to join the "one of us, one of us" crowd and pick up a newer used low KM Tesla S P100D. Me, not so much, one of the great new 911s, various amazing AMG, and even some of the model Ms out and coming out shortly, is what I have my sights on. What am I getting myself into though long term, should we plan on keeping such a car. Is it 100% best option to 2 or 3 year lease, and then just not give AF about reliability/warranty expiration issues? Or is the Porsche 911 get a pass on the shit long term reliability issues the AMG/M seem to have reputation wise (based on the last model 911 reliability, as the new one just came out this year and there is no real data on long term obviously).
I know there are TONS of drivers on Beyond that drive such German/Euro cars, mods and long term members. Am I worrying to much about forum talk, opinions, and reputations, or is really something to this "crap reliability long term" deal. The LC500 has been, and is, a fantastic, and reliable, summer car. Great, albeit a little odd interior, amazing looking body/lines, good performance, and one of the best sounding stock exhaust out there, I'd put the car up against anything on that score. I/We do like to change things up frequently, and again, I've always wanted, and never have had, that AMG/M/Audi German car - and I want it for next summer season. Plan on buying some other vehicles/etc shortly too, but this is the primary question and concern, as the others have all pretty much been decided, and cost much, much less (ie a Miata or BRZ/86, updated GM Truck, etc).
Budget, 80 to 140k, purchase or lease...Advice?