Hello guys as you can see i am new to these forums but i do want to purchase a Lexus very soon. (I come from a land rover) I am currently looking at a 2003 Lexus IS 300. The guy is selling it for $1250 but is negotiable. was wondering if its worth the purchase? It does have some rust and from what i know of no lights on the dash. says an older guy drove it. The car does 212K miles on it. Any common issues i should know about? i know these cars for being reliable but i want to be sure. Any help is appreciated, thanks guys.

 

Seems to me like a too low a price for a Japan made Toyota product. Wonder if their are things you don't know about? I would pass unless you could see all the records including timing belt, brakes, etc.

 

Welcome to CL.

I had a 2001 IS300 for almost 6 years. The basic design was extremely reliable, but had some quirks in the way that the climate-control and the automatic transmission worked. You often have to keep re-setting the center climate-**** to outside air because the system wants to default to recirculate under a lot of different conditions....often at time when you don't want recirculated air. The automatic transmission cannot be shifted into first manually....apparantly this is a safety feature, due to it being a very short gear, which allows high engine RPMs very quickly. Regular downshift buttons are on the front side of the steering wheel spokes (the upshift buttons are hidden, on the rear of the spokes, where you have to access them solely by feel). The 5-speed automatic transmission has electronic sensors that keep it in the low gears when cold, so, to keep engine rims down, especially in the winter, you have to keep your speed down until it warms up a little and allows upshifts into fourth and fifth gear. The chrome-ball shifter on the transmission (real polished metal, not plastic) gets very hot in the sun and very cold in the winter. Other than that, an excellent car...it had a reputation for being almost bulletproof.

 

The guy tells me he did the timing belt and water pump a couple of years ago. I'm not sure how many miles that is but i will ask him. The guy is a mechanic which is selling it for a customer. The guy selling it says that the customer was an older guy so he didn't beat it as much. What is the interval into replacing the timing belt and water pump for the 2jz engine in this car?

 

Thanks man i appreciate it. I just want this car to last me for a while because i do plan to buy a newer Lexus IS250 next year. I live in Illinois so winters do get harsh sometimes and i do drive about 10 miles to school everyday so i hope this does it as a decent winter driver

 

Its an old car, and as any old car it will require certain maintenance and repair - and it wont be cheap on a Lexus. With such small budget you should get a cheaper car, so when it breaks the parts are cheaper.

 

How often are the roads plowed around where you live???? I'd seriously think about putting winter tires on it, worn all seasons are going to suck in the snow with this being RWD.

My suggestion is to put it up on a lift before you buy it, see how bad the rust is. A car can look decent body wise until you crawl under it and find something like a hole in the floor, rotted out subframe(the Lexus SC is bad about rotted out front subframe), rotted out rockers, etc.

Also make sure you do a VERY thourough test drive, interstate, make sure it gets up to operating temp. If it drives tight, runs great, shifts great, doesn't make any weird clunks when you go over bumps, I'd say you have a winner. Also look for evidence/receipts of that timing belt change being done. Don't believe the guy on the timing belt change unless he has documentation to prove it(or pulls off the timing belt cover for you on the front of the motor so you can inspect the belt, takes like 5 minutes). Also ask him if he replaced the idler pulleys and water pump when he did the belt, you are supposed to do all of that at the same time, a lot of people will cheap out and just change the belt.

Anyways, $1250 seems stupid cheap for this car. One this cheap I'd expect to have been either wrecked pretty hard, major mechanical problems, serious rust, trashed interior, or a combination. BTW you need to check this car out and plan to buy it tomorrow, cause if it is a keeper, somebody else will buy it within the next 24-48 hours at that price.

 

I'd dispute that, my old SC300(same engine as the IS300) hasn't cost me any more $$$$ than any of the other cars I've owned in terms of repair costs. Shop around online for parts, don't go to the dealer, find a good independent mechanic. These aren't very complex cars, if your guy can work on Toyotas, he can work on a Lexus.

What will get you in terms of cost, is the fuel economy. The 2JZ-GE has a serious drinking problem, expect 15 to 20 in town, max of 25 on the highway, and it uses premium fuel($0.60 cents more a gallon where I live)

 

Simply not true. I had a 94 GS300 about 15 years ago, and it was certainly costly to repair. Compared to something like Corolla or Civic parts are very expensive. You can always buy aftermarket parts, but they are unreliable. This car can easily leave you stranded often and you'll get $1k repair bill each time.

 

He said it does have some rust, he said the interior is in decent condition, but from what he tells me the car runs and drives good. he seems like an honest guy but i will make sure tomorrow his claims are true. i just want to last me till at least January or February when i plan to buy a new IS250

 

Absolutely......couldn't agree more. My IS absolutely s**ked in the snow with all-seasons. Even the traction-control and snow-mode for the transmission (which limits engine torque at start-up) didn't help much. With all-seasons, I do NOT recommend a first-generation IS as a winter car...though it might (?) be slightly better with dedicated winter tires.

 

I have heard many people tell me (Not just this forum) that these are very reliable. I've been doing quite a bit of research as well. My current car (2003 Land Rover Discovery) Is super unreliable (I've already put about 6k into that piece of ****) and is a gas guzzler (10 city 14 highway) so i'm kinda used to dealing with a foreign car. I do hate that land rover though (hence my name)

 

40,000 miles in my SC300, I've had to fix the following:

A/C recharge, replace a line that was leaking, $200
New brake pads, new front rotors, new brake fluid, $400
Replace clutch hydraulics, $180
Replace driver's side window motor(did that myself, part from dealer was $150)
Replace front door speakers, $100, did that while I had the door apart for the window motor.
Power antenna quit, replaced with aftermarket one that hides in the trunk

I've had great luck with my 2JZ powered Lexus, sorry you had bad luck with yours. Mainly what I'm talking about with Lexus, unlike lets say a Benz from that era, there are no $2000 a corner air struts, you don't have to take it to a specialist, the wiring/electronics are rock solid, Any used car is a gamble, if somebody kept up with the maintence on this 212,000 mile IS300, it should be rock solid as far as the engine/transmission go IMO. Also unless you get REALLY lucky a $1250 Civic is going to be a pile, I find the cheap econo-boxes are usually just beat to hell or neglected to death by people who don't know how to take care of their stuff.

 

They are reliable but things do go wrong, and Lexus parts are expensive. The car is very old, you don't know whats been done to it in the past, how many unreliable aftermarket parts are in it, etc. With $1,200 budget I would go for an older Civic or Corolla.

 

I didn't say I had bad luck with my GS, but when it needed repairs they were expensive. Even basic things like wheels and tires are costly, then you have expensive suspension parts, expensive power steering system parts, expensive cooling system parts, etc. When you buy a 200k mile premium car for $1,200 you're going to get what you paid for.