the same question shows up here every few days so let me put it in one place. i do remarketing for a lender, meaning i sell off lease and repo cars into the auction lanes. flagships are my least favorite thing to sell and here's why.
a 2021 S580 4MATIC stickered somewhere around 117 to 125k with a normal option load. clean ones with 25 to 35k miles trade in the lanes right now around 57 to 62k. G90 is worse, a 2021 3.3T that was 75k new is a 36 to 40k car wholesale. the LS 500 holds best of the bunch, maybe 55 percent after three years.
the buyer pool for a 100k sedan is tiny and most of them lease new. the second owner is a different person. he wants the badge, he's scared of repair bills, so he pays less. and the options that built the sticker, massage seats, the Burmester 4D, the rear executive package, add close to nothing on the used side.
if you're buying used, all of that is good news. if you're buying new, lease it and hand it back.
confirmed from the buying side. my 2020 G90 3.3T had a 72,900 sticker. i paid 38,500 with 20k on it in 2023 and the salesman told me it had been on the lot 94 days.
the lease side is the mirror image. my A8 residual was set at 51 percent for 36 months and Audi still subsidized the money factor to move them. that's how a 90k car ends up at 1,100 a month, somebody else eats the drop.
so is the LS holding value because it's the better car, or because nobody is scared to fix it?
because nobody is scared to fix it
that one. dealers bid on what they can retail with a warranty and a straight face. a Lexus with 60k is an easy sale on any lot in the country. a German V8 flagship with 60k goes to a specialist store or back through the lanes a second time.
this thread is why i stopped looking at new ones. the gap between a new S580 and a three year old one is a lot of money for a warranty and a smell.
for what it's worth, the curve flattens around year five in the numbers i pulled from edmunds. the second drop is way smaller than the first.
