Need some help guys. My wife has fell in LOVE with the pearl white GS's but the catch is she wants one with the brown or caramel (I call it baseball leather). I saw one in a 03 GS300 but my only stipulation is NAV and a V8. Is there something special about these or were they a limited edition. If so what years and the terms I should familiarize myself with. Any years to be leary of? Thanks for the help guys.

 

it's called saddle, and it only comes with the gs300. nav and ML is also your only option.

 

saddle comes in sport designs, they usually have a gun metal colored thing on the fender that says sport design and floor mats that do as well.
But difference between 400 and 430, easiest way to tell is from the taillights on 400 amber and clear part is in the middle on the 430 its on the bottom, if they changed the tails than look at the steering wheel, if its wood its a 430.
some sport designs have wood steeringwheels as well

 

tail lights, steering wheel, exhaust tips (430 r bigger), headlights (green tint on 430s), the engine cover, the windows say lexus instead of Toyota (they can do all the little **** but they probably won't change that). 430s dont have up/down shifting steering wheel, so tranmission saying D, 4, 3, 2, L instead of D, M, 3, 2, L...Im sure theres alot more but those should be able to make it easy without digging any further.

 

Only the 2001 GS didn't come with Eshift, all other years did.

 

check this out. I search on ebay for a 01 gs3, they all have e-shift.


http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/2001-...3A1|240%3A1308

from my understanding. 98~00 GS300 does not have eshift, 98~00 GS400 has e-shift, 01+ GS300 have e-shift, 01+ GS430 does not have eshift.

you can get more info on the early 2gen gs and the late 2gen gs:

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/gs-...-analysis.html

 

Then someone must have changed your steering wheel. The 2GS models that came with E-shift: 98-00 GS400, 01-05 GS300. The 2GS models that didn't come with E-shift: 98-00 GS300, 01-05 GS430. Maybe it's a 98-00 GS3 and they changed the windows. Maybe you have a special edition 01 GS3 without E-shift.