lyonkster

My point, as is the OP's I believe, is that the GS's have superb engines and transmissions. Unfortunately the suspension on the 2GS is not on par to the engine and transmission.

It may very well be a preplanned compromise, and these cars may still be the best package out there (most of us obviously agree, as we drive them), but there is no denying that the durability of the engines and transmissions is way higher than that of the suspensions.

Hayce

Exactly.. suspension bushes and joints are all wearable. Depending on how and where the car was used the items will deteriorate at different rates.

It's hardly unique to GS. My 99 LS400 just broke the right side lower ball joint. I'm much more "upset" about what happens when the part fails, would be great if the wheel didn't decide to head for the hills for example!

A lot of the time vibrations etc are simply down to worn tires. My LS for example had bad inner wear, the wheel literally twitched side to side and pulled pretty hard left like it had a bent rack end or something.. swapped the tires = solved.

Lukas99GS

To the OP, as someone who switched from a 2gs to a 08 GS460 I can say the 3GS is much smoother to drive, as well as quieter inside. If you can afford one I would reccomend it, it's a huge step up in terms of features, really even the new models don't offer much more in terms of features than the 3GS, but to be fair my old 2gs had 175k when I bought it and 230k when I sold it and never had a suspension issue, to everyone who hasn't changed their sway bar bushings, front and rear, doing that on my 2gs made a really noticeable difference in the clunkiness over bumps, made it so much more solid feeling, this often goes overlooked and it's very cheap and easy to do.

Brahms

I thought about buying both the 3GS and the current model year GS before settling on the 2GS. It is very hard to beat when you realize that I've basically bought a luxury beater (for $6k), for which I don't have to pay insurance beyond liability (I'll just replace the car if anything happens to it), and which still is still fun to drive. There is no anxiety with this car. If it gets scratched, damaged, stolen--I'll just get another car. Probably another 2GS, if I can find one.

I knew going into it the suspension was the car's weak spot, but IMO this weakness was more than countervailed by the car's strengths. And who doesn't love that V8?

lextout

The car is bone stock with 17inch oem chromes and just a quick fyi, just changed the lca bushings and went with a brand called febest german outfit part number (tab 177) pretty solid part that also includes the metal sleeve with bushing. This elimated the shakes between 60-70mph, also oem lbj and an alighnment. Car isnt worth selling to be honest as it makes a good spare car. one guy on here made a good point, the engine and tranny does out weight the rest of the other components on here, btw the lbj and lca bushings lasted me until 180k miles. could of maybe went more but didnt wanna chance it wearing out the new good year tires on the car and a potental catastrophe, another thing with the car being blk on blk does clean up pretty good when cleaned and but also does gets dusty quicky too, I guess we gotta give n take in this world we live in. I test drove a 3rd gen gs430 and felt a little claustrophobic in it and seats are to narrow maybe due to my large frame,i dunna know. What i did like and only liked was the smart key and push start, 2nd gen gs is more plush, better quality of craftmenshipn and also feels and looks more big body-ish. Till this day people still cant believe its a 98, timeless body style I guess.

bruceb58

My 2005 GS300 which I bought new has close to 190K. I did replace most of my front suspension just because I felt it was time. It made it drive like a new car. This car is likely the best car I have ever owned.

BTW, I did own a Corolla before and it was the least maintenance car I have ever owned. I had 230K when I sold it and only did because I got tired of driving a manual transmission in traffic.

newgsman

iTrader: (4)

I have got over 400K km on my 98 GS4 and I haven't done much more than ball joints and control arms. I did this about 150Kkm ago using all OEM Lexus parts and the car still drives nice and smooth. My car is lowered about 2", I have TRD sways and KYB shocks. I had a bit of clunking this past winter which turned out to be broken sway bar brackets. I believe they broke party due to rust deterioration. Another time I had some creaking and that turned out to be an upper control arm.

I would much rather a car creak or clunk than give no warning at all of worn parts. I do all my own work and I do keep on top of everything so that things get fixed before any major catastrophe. The noises are helpful in assuring the fixes get done. I am sure once you get all of the necessary fixes on your car it will give you many years of worry free smooth quiet driving.

IMHO a car that is coming close to 20 years old and runs and drives as well as my GS is something pretty special. There is hardly a car out there that does not have at least one or two nuisance issues. Most have many. Our 2005 Sienna is another testament to Toyota's reliability. It is now over ten years old with over 200Kkm and I have had to do nothing but brakes, oil changes and a timing belt/waterpump. The van is even still running on its original spark plugs. The only thing I noticed recently is that the steering is feeling a bit loose. This could be because I am use to the drive of my GS which has a slightly firmer steering feel or I am driving my ISF which of course is in another league...

Bottom line, fix up your car with quality parts and you will want to keep the G for a very long time. When I did my ball joint and control arms I used the 2005 version which I believe are considered slightly beefier and presumably last longer.

Paul1307

I feel very lucky. I have a '98 GS400 with 178,000 miles on it and I've never had to replace any suspension parts. I bought the car as a lease turn-in from NYC with 24,000 miles in the fall of 2000, trading a Mercedes SEC 560, my second in a row. When I analyzed maintenance costs on the Benz the average was $500/month over the period of ownership of the two of them. The Lexus? My last shop visit was for new brakes, rotors, and a master cylinder, about $1,000. Three years before that, about $3,000 for the first and only new AC compressor and clutch since I've owned the car. The AC leaked after that and I replaced the filler valve with an O'Reilly kit containing valves and caps for $10. The steering got progressively sloppy as the car aged, and about six years ago I took the service manager in Phoenix out for a test ride. I mentioned that on recirculating-ball steering systems there's a screw-head bolt that you can tighten to reduce the "valve lash" and wondered if there wasn't something similar on a rack and pinion. He said he'd look at it, and an hour or so later said he'd found a service bulletin on that, fixed it, and charged me $75. The car steered like it was brand new and remains tight six years later. To this day I don't know if there was a service bulletin or he just bootlegged the fix that I'm pretty sure adjusted the "valve lash" between the rack and pinion whether a part of Lexus' repair policy or not. I've always driven on city streets, and am fairly hard on a car, especially when it has 300 HP, the kind of acceleration that leaves all but 5.0 liter Mustangs, new Chrysler muscle cars, the odd Tesla, and Vets far behind. It routinely hits between 100 and 110 when I need to pass and don't have a lot of room, probably still in third gear until I back it off. Would I trade it for a '59 Galaxie 500 with a 390 and 12 mpg? Did I mention that I still get 29 miles/gallon at 85 mph on Michelin Pilots pumped up to 43 PSI (85% of their rated max pressure)? In town, only about 18 which is 2 mpg more than I got on an '05 RX330 I owned for a few years. Does it ride hard with tires at 43? Not at all. It's a bit noisy, tires mostly, but a bit of wind noise around the mirror, but the Nakamichi radio drowns all that out and sounds fabulous with my satellite radio plugged into it. Talk about fidelity and frequency response! That silver GS still looks contemporary at 18 and only the dealer and I know that it's 18; everybody else thinks it's only about five years old. And I've never had to replace a single suspension part, though I'll admit that a new set of shocks would probably keep the back end from dipping after a run to Costco with 200 pounds of bottled water in the trunk, or when fully loaded when I'm running back and forth cross-country. Absolutely the best, most reliable car I've ever owned, and I'm pretty sure that other than an '85 Honda CRX that I sold with 265,000 miles on it, the cheapest-to-maintain car as well. No comparison between those two. And those two Benz SEC 560s? Nice riding and stable at 130 mph all day, for sure, but $500 a month in maintenance costs? Just not cost-effective enough to be competitors. My next car? Probably one of those Tesla's that 0 to 60 are faster than a McLaren and I'll have solar power and never have to pay for "fuel."

sam12345

iTrader: (1)

If you lower your car you can't blame Lexus