By now, there’s nothing to say about the Lexus LC 500 that hasn’t already been said. It’s a masterpiece, a wonderfully made, drop-dead gorgeous grand tourer that satisfies the senses and makes all the right noises. However, something strange is happening to late-model examples in the second-hand marketplace. Just when you thought auction flips of new cars were over, this Lexus we first saw nearly a decade ago is turning conventional wisdom on its head.
Outside of the absurdly rare 2021 LC 500 Inspiration Series convertible with its butterfly-inspired Structural Blue paint, the historical pattern for Lexus’ flagship GT has been one of slow yet steady depreciation. Values never fell off a cliff like they did on much of the competition, but by and large, they slowly started settling since day one to the point where you could pick up an early car for new Mustang GT money. However, a strange pattern started to emerge earlier this year for 2024 and newer examples.
See, 2024 was an important year for the LC 500 because that’s when the model finally ditched the irksome trackpad infotainment controller found on earlier models, instead adopting a quick and user-friendly touchscreen. That update ditched the CD player, brought in more physical shortcut keys, and offered a great wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto experience. At the same time, 2024 also saw updates to the sound system, tire spec, suspension, and overall tuning, making these models arguably the most desirable of the bunch. That’s not just my opinion, the market has taken notice.
If there was a singular early inkling of where things would go, it might’ve been the sale of Aerosmith drummer Joey Kramer’s 2024 LC 500 cabriolet on Cars & Bids back in March. This blue-over-blue-and-white Bespoke Build car sold for $9,640 over the price on its window sticker and at the time, that would’ve been easy to write off as star appeal. Hammer prices on Bring A Trailer hadn’t quite caught up, so this very well could’ve been a complete fluke.
As it turns out, it wasn’t. Four months later, with the LC 500 officially out of production, a Nori Green bombshell dropped on Cars & Bids. This 2026 convertible with 2,700 miles on the clock had a sticker price of $119,980 when it rolled out of the showroom, but a hammer price of $157,000. According to the Carfax and the auction result, someone bought this car new, drove it for five months, and pocketed $37,020 before accounting for taxes and running costs.
Merely eight days later, a 2026 LC 500 coupe with only 699 miles on the clock hit Bring A Trailer. Spec’d in blue over blue-and-white, such a quick turnaround shows signs of financialization, a potential flip that boldly succeeded. This LC 500 may have stickered for $114,200, but it sold for $150,500. That’s $36,300 over MSRP, and this particular example marks the emergence of a pattern.
Every single 2024 or newer LC 500 successfully auctioned on Cars & Bids has sold for above its sticker price when new, along with seven out of eight successfully auctioned 2024 or newer LC 500 models on Bring A Trailer since June. Coupes, convertibles, Bespoke Build cars, regular order cars … it hasn’t mattered. The market has moved on these late cars, sometimes to huge effect.
Take a look at this 2026 LC 500 Inspiration Series convertible, identical to the press car I recently reviewed, just with a different number on its serialized console emblem. Unlike the 2021 Inspiration Series, Lexus made 550 of these 2026 cars, so they’re more than five times as common. This example was listed on Cars & Bids with only 100 miles on the clock, and at first, this $122,045 car failed to meet its reserve and sell through. However, the owner and the high bidder eventually reached a price they both agreed on: $172,500, or $50,455 over sticker price. An enormous result, but one under conditions that make it an outlier. Fortunately, similar cars have since surfaced to produce a bead on actual value.
This otherwise identical model—with the exception of a dealer-installed $25 set of key gloves—with 396 miles on the clock sold for $152,500 on Cars & Bids, or $30,430 over MSRP. Still an incredibly wild result for a mass-produced new car in an era when mass-produced new cars typically aren’t flippable, but not 50 grand up.
So why is this even possible now? Well, the LC 500 has officially done its production run, so you can’t just walk into a Lexus dealership and order a new one. That’s a significant hurdle, because if you want a reliable modern luxury grand tourer that makes a tremendous noise, a used one is now your only choice. It’s not the fastest thing on the market, but it’s wonderfully made and has an excellent track record of reliability. However, this recent red-hot 2024+ LC 500 market sucks for the rest of us who were just hoping that LC 500 prices would continue to come down, and it might drag values of older models up if this trend continues. Still, it is quite strange that the end of LC 500 production has moved the needle on the market this much. Maybe it’ll turn out like the original NSX, where we all wish we bought one when they were cheap.
Top graphic image: Bring A Trailer
Toyota/Lexus’s lazy and anti-consumer allocation process means you could never order the spec you wanted. It was take whatever is on the lot or wait until one gets loaded on a container. Or put up on the secondary market.
If you had enough money to buy a new LC500 and wanted Nori Green over brown but couldn’t find one after 2 years of waiting; I bet you wouldn’t balk at paying over MSRP for one with sub 1k miles.
Also like Nsane pointed out, the LC500 has been hyped on the Internet ad nauseum over the last ~2 years. When Throttle House proclaims they would choose a LC500 over a 911 and Doug Demuro puts out five videos about how it will be a forever desirable modern classic, this is what happens.