Pleb

I'm commuting next semester and need a reliable car. My budget says "get a Toyota corolla" but my heart tells me "get a Lexus gs460/350". A 2008 gs is around $10k at 120,000 miles, which isn't an issue because I've saved up a modest down payment. But I'm worried about cost of ownership. Is there a huge difference between owning an economy car vs a well maintained Lexus?

I know it's a stupid question and maybe a bit of wishful thinking, but humor me 😁

tghw

If you're on a tight budget you'd be a fool to go with anything other than the Corolla. That's my opinion. A GS may not have any problems, but if it does it won't be cheap to fix. You can do most work needed on a Corolla yourself. I won't even go into the difference in fuel costs alone.

MedicalDoc

View my 2gs thread with same name.

Pleb

That's what I was sorta needing to hear, thanks for the quick response! And I'll check it out, the 2gs is one i was very interested in but it's so hard to find in my area under 200k miles

TRD_Power

I've had my 460 since the beginning of 2014 (driven it for about 40k), and it's cost me less to maintain than my brother's 2005 Accord V6. Remember, you can always service the car at Toyota for most jobs, and same goes for purchasing DIY parts, which helps the wallet quite a bit. The Corolla will definitely cost less to maintain overall, but the GS really isn't bad... One service for my wife's '14 Cayenne S (annual maintenance + new control arm and alignment) cost more than everything I've put into my GS over the last 4+ years, so it could be a lot worse If you want to play it safe, get a Corolla, drive it for a year or two, then upgrade later on if you've got the means to do so. By then, you might even want to consider a 4GS.

MX73

First-hand experience, The 3rd gen is a great car but once it starts to break down, it does get expensive. If you know how to work on cars, then it's great and you can save thousands.
I would recommend that you get a Corolla or a Civic if you're still in school, then get a Lexus once you're out and have a job.

During my first 3 years of ownership:
-Dealership and 3rd party shop quotes $3k-6k to fix my brake issues (recommended to replace the brake booster since the MC was leaking. The MC is the most expensive component in the quote - I was able to replace myself for under $250)
-$4K to replace all the leaking seals and to perform one of the TSB on the front timing cover leak
-Roughly $2k to replace the alternator which I should be able to do but a freaking nut was hidden out of view (I'll have to double check on the price I paid. I had it replaced when they redid the seals. Would have been a $200 job.)

Luckily, the former two, I had the extended service plan to cover the cost. I'm not trying to scare you away. I love my GS but even with a job that pays well, it is breaking my piggy bank, especially when I saw the cost of the brake job.

Pleb

Yeah I was intending on going to a Toyota mechanic. I figure general maintenance would be a bit steeper, but wasn't sure if its reliability offset the cost of other repairs like trd_power was saying. It's worth mentioning the ones I'm looking at are around 100k miles, single owner and prefferably full maintenance history.

On the flip side I don't want it to become a money pit either like mx73 was talking about.

I can afford to maintain it, but I won't be able to afford to repair it. Especially around 100k miles, I'll probably relate more to the latter. I appreciate all the feed back, got lots of good info!

designo

iTrader: (6)

I owned my 460 for 9 years..... 5 years into ownership, my annual maintenance was setting me back $1600 a year.
And then 7 years into ownership, expensive parts were starting to fail.

Keep an eye out for fuel pump, ABS module and possible problems with that 8 speed tranny.

mak89

iTrader: (6)

I've owned my 2007 AWD gs350 for roughly a year. It was 2 owner, clean title, 110k miles, good maintenance/ownership history. In the past year I replaced oil, and oil/air filters. Not a single issues in the past year or 10k miles thats been put on. Don't see anything happening in near future, just doing prevent. paint. replacing all fluids, trans, diffs, engine, coolant...

Looked around at is350 but they were same price range at time for a clean one, even more. Also looked into ls460, but with heavy cars your gonna have more bushing issues at 10 years old.

I was looking for reliability, sporty for the wife, and cheap to maintain. Its checked all those in the last 10k miles. Not going to depreciate that much more and plan on having another 5 yrs. I suggest go for best ownership/maintenance history. Also if you don't need AWD get RWD as its more exhaust mod friendly.

Also go over to mylexus.com and setup an account with cars VIN so you can download ALL past dealer history reports.

XJSFan

Any car 6+ years with miles is going to get costly when the miles add up. The GS/LS though will outlast most cars on the road with only yearly maintenance required. I love the 2006 model years because they seem to be over engineered cars that Lexus put a lot of pride into... Since 2008 or so, I believe Lexus quality has leveled off and is not any better then most other cars on the road. Good luck...
.

MedicalDoc

In case ur still here:
click on this link to my thread.
You'll find prices for a lot of stuff.

verly6565

the gs350 has a serious good reliability rerecord ...since ive had my 2010 ,ive had no repairs done since 2010

gs350fan

Corollas have issues to. My ex had an 07- All under 90K
Exhaust rotted out (similar issue with the GS)
Water pump (similar)
PCM under recall
Ate belts and tensioners (sometimes even the bolt could shear off)
Various engine seal leaks (def front main), vvt seal
Other little things too,...clock went out (looks similar to ours) Issues with the console storage areas. door lock ( quoted a few hundred to repair)

I mean, i fixed many of them for her, but some were pretty high estimates. It was a very reliable car though.

Like other said though, for a USED car, with high HP, AWD, etc you will not do any better with any manufacturer.

verly6565

the lower the miles the higher the reliability

lex-ative

I have a 2006 GS 430 with close to 200K miles on it and it is a solid car. I was in the market for a newer GS (2013/2014) but after I fixed the issues with the GS....i dunno...the V8 just have a certain feel about the car that the newer models didn't give me.

As far as cost to own the car, the car has been rock solid, but certain parts are expensive. I would definitely put about 5K aside for repairs. That is still cheaper than a car payment.

So far I've replaced the rear struts (about $600), the ABS Actuator (this is one of the most common and expensive fix, especially if you are out of the recall period, about $2800 just for the part!!), and timing belt/water pump ($1000). Mind you, these works have been done just before the car hit 200K, and I had the car since it had 129K miles on it. So you have 5 years to save a grand a year. Totally do-able. Other than brakes and oil changes, the car drives as nice as when I got it.