I'm starting to keep my eye out for a GS for my son. Price wise I'm trying to keep in the $6k range and I've been looking at '06 GS300 which have been in that range. Looking at the '07+ GS350 the prices jump pretty good. Is there a significant difference between the two other than obviously the engine is probably a little bit bigger? Is paying a couple grand more for a GS350 worth it? Any real negatives for a '06 GS300?

My oldest son has an '01 GS300 and so far it has been a great first car for him even with 175k miles. I'm hoping the '06+ GS will give us the same kind of reliability with minor maintenance.

 

I would stay away from the 06 GS300 as they do have there issues, the major is being carbon buildup inside the engine that will require a rebuild or heavy duty internal cleaning.

07-up is best, but preferably 08-up will give better technology. RWD or AWD both are reliable! 90k miles its best to replace water pump and thermostat as those are the weak points. Aisin brand on ebay are about $100 and 2 hours labour.

 

06 GS300 uses direct injection only (the cause of major carbon build up issues). 07 and up GS350 uses both port and direct injectors which eliminates the carbon build up issues. That alone is reason to avoid the GS300. As stated above, 08 and up have more improvements.

 

Only buy the 300 if it won't need repairs. Don't be like me and buy a ****ty 300 and put money into it. It's not worth it. I wanted to buy a nice ride for cheap and fix it myself and get experience but I ended up putting enough money and time into it. I got the experience but the car is still nowhere near good condition and I could have already had a 350. It would be good condition already if the tranny wasn't acting up. Something I didn't know due to only test driving it for 5 minutes.

If you can find a good 300 for cheap it will be fine, but not for 6k. That's 350 territory.

300s go for 2-3k

 

Cut your loses, sell the car, buy a 2007-up

 

The way the market sits right now, I'd be selling it for the same 2k I bought it for. Unless I scam them and don't tell about the transmission, like the previous owner did. They wouldn't have told me the engine burns oil if it wasn't smoking like crazy.

I'm better off living with it, fixing the tranny, driving it to a million miles. It just needs a SLU solenoid I swear. Eventually I might part it out or something.