I have been a Lexus owner for 17 years, when I bought the first LS400, and have loved them all and especially appreciated the reliability. Almost 3 years ago I bought an 06 GS300 right after they came out. In just a couple of months I will be out of warranty (owned for 3 years) and have just started having issues.

Last month it went into the dealer with some odd tire pressure indicator issue (lost track of a wheel?). I am going back in tomorrow because there is some error with the VSC so my dash is lit up like a Christmas tree. So now I am a bit worried. This was the 1st release of the 3rd gen GS and I got it early in the release. Do I have other issues that are likely to appear? Do I need an extended warranty or should I get rid of the car?

I have no stomach for a car that will cost in repairs to keep. Does anyone have an opinion about issues that seem to be coming up I should start worrying about? Was this just a bad coincidence that I have now had these two issues?

I appreciate the thoughts.

Chris

 

I bought my 06 GS in March of '05. It has 37k miles, so my warranty has already expired. Other than the 'gas pipe recall' I received last week I haven't had any problems.

 

If you plan on keeping the car for the long term, then getting an extended warranty may be a good idea. Although Lexus reliability is good, it's not perfect and the '06 GS was the first of a brand new design. My '06 GS430 has been free of any major issues, aside from numerous rattles that drive me crazy.

Maybe this is a sign that you should upgrade to a GS350.

 

the car comes with 4 years / 50,000mi warranty, so you should have another year or 13k miles, whichever comes first...

 

Thanks for the correction lexuslover. I guess I just assumed the 3/36k, I should have known better.

 

I thought that was the case but in another thread they were saying 3 years. That is a little better, but I have 44K on mine now so am still close to running out.

To make it more fun, I just started that car and no more VSC messages or lights! I love an erratic problem......

 

here are my thoughts; vehicles these days have alot more electronical components attached. reliability and long term usage will be diminished. glitches are bound to happen but be concerned about continuous electrical problems. just my opinion.

 

Trade in a trade up!

 

maybe you can get everything fixed now (assuming you can replicate the problem) and see how it goes for the next 6000 miles...

we decided to keep our RX for a few more years (prob until 90k miles), and at 49,500 miles, i had like 5 or 6 things fixed that were bugging me (all kinds of TSBs and other annoyances, nothing major). the dealer did a couple thousand bucks of warranty work and all is good. the car is at about 68k now and still running great, so my advice is to the do the same on your GS while you still have time and see how things pan out.

 

My gs is at 44k and it has been doing great

 

I had the same kind of issues with my infiniti. It was an 03, first time ever model that was purchased in july of 2002. I will never buy a first year model again. You will usually have teething problems. Theres a difference between engineers looking over a car, as opposed to releasing the model to thousands of consumers.

 

My 06 has had some small issues... the latest was the VSC light going on... and the code said it was a problem with a 'valve' of some sort. Unfortunately the 'valve' is on national back order...and it won't be here until the 9th of Feb. I've already had the loaner for 3wks...so it will be another 2 before I get my car back. I was enjoying the 08 RX350 at first...now I'm just missing my car.

 

The tpms losing a wheel could simply be a new battery for the tire sensor, just like any other battery, they need to be replaced after its useful life. Have you had to replace the smartkey fob battery ? Do you have Nav, ML or AFS - these are neat toys but could be costly to replace if they fail ? IIRC, you can get a Lexus platinum 0 deductible 7yr/100k extended warranty for < 1700 if you want to hold on to you GS for another 3-4 years. Then again, nothing wrong with trading in for a GS350/460

 

I got the car back today and guess what..... they didn't find anything wrong. No codes at indicted anything. No code for a lose gas cap. Nothing.

It might have been the battery and if so, I sure hope they replace all sensor batteries and not just the one. Otherwise this will be a real pain each time one goes out.

Yes, the fob was the first PITA about a month ago. I bought a package of them off ebay for one goes out the next time.