Yeah I know Emmons prices their cars $2-3k above other dealers but that's b/c they only sell cars that are in excellent condition, no accidents and have extensive maintenance histories. All of their cars are near mint condition. I looked at a lot of cars in their inventory numerous times before I bought my 4GS.

That 07 IS has a junk title from the state of GA, same as salvage or rebuilt.

JUNK The vehicle is incapable of safe operation for use on the roads or highways and has no resale value except as a source of parts or scrap, or the vehicle's owner has irreversibly designated the vehicle as a source of parts or scrap. This vehicle shall never be titled or registered. Also known as non-repairable, scrapped, or destroyed.

It also was serviced in Mar of 2017 at a Lexus dealer and the mileage was 119,346. The listing says 119,501 miles. So its been driven 155 miles in 5 years? Major red flag.

Also noticed this from a Lexus dealer at 96,741 miles. So all 2006-2011 IS 350s and 2007 to 2011 GS 350s need their camshaft timing gear replaced under a recall.
REPLACE CAMSHAFT TIMING GEAR ON IS ~|~SAFETY RECALL DLG REMEDY NOTICE - CERTAIN 2006 TO 2011 MODEL YEAR IS350, CERTAIN 2010 TO 2011 MODEL YEAR IS350C, AND CERTAIN 2007 TO 2011 MODEL YEAR GS350 VEHICLES - 2GR-FSE INTAKE VVT ACTUATOR GEAR

At 90k miles the rear shocks and struts had to be replaced which would cost at least $1k to fix. Also the timing cover was leaking at 90k miles and needed to be resealed. From the notes on another car you sent me, paying out of pocket to reseal the timing cover would cost you $3,795.54 at a Lexus dealer. Probably about $2,500 to $3,000 at a reputable independent mechanic.

ABSORBER, SHOCK/STRUT (REAR) - REPLACE ~|~ CUSTOMER DENIED SERVICE - NO REASON STATED

RE SEALED TIMING COVER ~|~ FRONT ENGINE TIMING COVER IS LEAKING -- PRICE ON VC GASKETS, O-RINGS, SEALER,OIL PUMP O-RINGS,-- NO PRICE NEEDED FOR TIMING COVER PART!! ~|~. ~|~89966 1270 RE SEALED FRONT TIMING COVER

Do you see a pattern here with these high mileage Lexus cars? When people own 11-15 year old cars with high miles they don't do regular maintenance and replace or fix failing parts b/c it's not worth it to spend thousands of dollars to maintain the car b/c they are going to get rid of it soon anyway or they just plain don't have the money to fix stuff like timing cover leaks. Some of the 350 engine cars from 2006 through 2011 start to need major expensive repairs once they get up around 150k miles if they haven't been religiously maintained and had full synthetic oil changes every 5-10k miles. That's probably still the case today with Lexus engines. High horsepower, high compression engines (and even normal engines like Toyota's 2AZ-FE 2.5L 4 cylinder) need to have oil changes every 5k miles otherwise they will develop problems once the miles start piling up. They released the brand new 350 engine in 2007 and had issues with it through 2011. I think they worked out most of the bugs when they released an updated version of the engine in 2013 with the 4th generation GS.

Here's a video from The Car Care Nut. He is currently a master technician at a Toyota dealer in the Chicago area. In this video he looks at a customer's 2011 Camry with the 2.5L 4 cylinder that has not been maintained well and had irregular oil changes. At 166k miles the engine is completely shot and can't be fixed b/c of oil burning, carbon buildup and damage to the cylinder walls.


I've seen a bunch of high mileage IS 250 owners that posted here about having problems with their catalytic converters or having to replace them. At 1:25 of the video he mentions how one of the side effects of oil burning is "the catalytic converter goes." That's an expensive repair. Prob around $2,500. I'm guessing if you pay $9k cash for a high mileage car you won't have $2500 to replace a cat or $3800 to reseal a timing cover. And you won't be able to get an extended warranty for a car with that many miles.

He says in the video that he is going to tell the customer that the car is not worth fixing and the customer will then sell the car. You could end up with a car like this 166k miles for a low price like $7k or $8k and end up getting a nightmare car that will ruin you financially and leave you without a working car.

 

I actually have a bit more than 9k to spend for a car(around 20k). I didn’t have any knowledge about these cars until then.One of my friends bought his son an 08 GS 350 with 120k miles from a repo auction for 5k(this was about three years ago) It still runs till this day. That’s why I wanted a GS so bad. Some people have all of the luck.

I kept hearing all of these “wonderful” stories of people owning Lexus’s with high miles and their reliability. I even read about a journalist owning a Lexus with a million miles.

I’ve definitely learned a lot now. I’m guessing one of my best options is take your advice and go for a newer car(most of them look like crap these days) I don’t know what happened to the designs. All of my relatives drive a Toyota that’s why I don’t want to buy one. I’m starting to lean towards a Mercedes or BMW(Yes, I’ve heard the horror stories on those too) But from what I’m reading now it seems like Lexus isn’t that much better than them.

 

Oh no that's an even worse idea lol. A used Mercedes or BMW is definitely worse for your wallet than a used Lexus. No one should own any German brand car past the new car warranty which is usually 50k miles or without an extended warranty. I didn't mean to give that impression that all Lexus cars are unreliable. I wouldn't own a GS 350 myself and spend time on a Lexus forum if I didn't think they were the highest quality cars in the world. In fact I will probably never own another brand of car for the rest of my life. It's just a high mileage (more than 150k miles), low priced (less than $10k) Lexus car that hasn't had regular maintenance and oil changes is usually a bad idea for someone who doesn't fix their own cars.

That repo auction car for $5k is not realistic now b/c of the chip shortage that has raised prices so much. That same car would probably sell for $10k at auction today b/c dealers are so desperate for cars to sell. Then they would turn around and list it for sale for at least $15k.

Your instincts are right the 350 engine is better than the GS 300 or IS 250. But it should be a 2007 or newer, preferably less than 90k miles, never owned in a cold weather snow state like the Northeast or Midwest due to rust issues, and have good regular maintenance records on the CarFax or a good maintenance history on drivers.lexus.com.

That's why I recommended that Emmons car b/c it's a 1 owner, low mileage (5,400 a year) car that has an immaculate maintenance record. It was probably owned by an older person who hardly drove it and took it into the Lexus dealer for oil changes every 5k miles. That is literally a unicorn car that is very hard to find these days. And yes you will pay $3-4k more upfront for a car like that but it will save you lots of money and headaches in the long run especially if you plan to keep the car and want to run up the miles past 200k. It will also have better resale value if and when you sell it.

When I bought my 2013 GS 350 it was the same situation. An older lady from Alabama owned it and did all of the recommended maintenance at Lexus. It only had 34,700 miles on it when I bought it last July. That's only 4,300 miles per year so I knew it was in near mint condition. I paid $27,590 + tax title and license fees but I financed it so my payment is $486 a month.

If you buy a Lexus brand new and do all of the recommended maintenance on time and change the oil regularly (like every 5-10k miles) like the Emmons car then yes they can absolutely last a long time and most can last 250k miles, but you are still going to have to replace parts that wear out bc normal wear and tear on a car means stuff starts to need to be replaced around 100k. Like transmission fluid drain and fill needs to be done every 60k miles. Spark plugs need to be replaced at least every 100k miles. Water pumps should be replaced every 90k miles. This is true for all brands of car.

The Lexus cars you were sending me and the Toyota in the video were all the same story. More than 150k miles and poor or irregular oil changes and maintenance. Better to stay away from those kinds of cars.

A well maintained Lexus with regular oil changes and maintenance will be MUCH MORE RELIABLE than any used German brand. Those cars are almost guaranteed to drain your wallet. You can watch tons of videos on YouTube about BMWs and Mercedes with more than 60k miles being major headaches.

Most people who buy a new BMW or Mercedes or Audi are usually high income people who lease and want to change their car every 3 years so they don't care about reliability. The German carmakers know this so they use a lot of cheap plastic parts that aren't meant to last more than 60k miles or so b/c they want customers to keep buying or leasing new cars every 3 years.

The difference between Lexus and the Germans is that a well maintained Lexus with consistent oil changes won't give you a lot of problems and will last a long time whereas even a well maintained German car will start to have major problems around 60-80k miles. The Germans don't build their cars to last 200k miles while Lexus does.

 

Here's a video from Scotty Kilmer about how terrible BMWs are. Not only are they unreliable but they are hard to work on so mechanics hate them. Hard to work on engines means higher labor charges (aka more money) for fixing them. This one has only 71k miles and is already having cylinder misfire issues.


Here Car Ninja (a mechanic who specializes in German cars) is unhappy b/c of how hard BMWs are to work on. 2001 7 Series with only 80k miles but has major engine issues.


Car Ninja "More German Car Problems" X6 with bad valve seals, Car Ninja says "I lost count how many I've done"

 

Video from Scotty Kilmer about how difficult and complicated Mercedes cars are to work on bc they have so many sensors and electronic modules. Also how expensive they are to maintain and only highly qualified mechanics can work on them. This one had air suspension failure starting at 70k miles, a very expensive fix. Also notice his own personal car in the background - a Toyota Celica. He recommends that people stick to Toyotas and Lexus bc they are the best made cars in his 50 years as a mechanic.

 

Scotty on how Audis are a "pile of junk." Only 87k miles and this one has burned so much oil that the engine is dead. Says this is not unique to A4s but most used Audis.


Another video on why used Audis are so cheap - b/c 1. the reliability is terrible and 2. maintenance and servicing is very expensive (this is true for all 3 German brands)


The great thing about Lexus cars is that a lot of them are bought by older retired people who don't drive the car hard, don't get into accidents, put very low miles on them and have enough money to take their cars to the Lexus dealer for all of the oil changes and maintenance. Those are the most desirable cars so that's why they command the highest prices on the used car market.

 

Yeah, I’ve watched a lot of Scotty Kilmer videos. He’s actually the main reason for me wanting a Lexus.

I just can’t find any decent ones in my area and I would like a car within a month.

I’m tempted to buy this 3 series until I can find a good 350 or be able to finance a new car.

It’s under 90k miles and it’s Carfax record shows it’s been serviced pretty well in it’s history. I heard the E90s are pretty reliable if you take care of them.

 

So are you looking to keep the price of car to $10k at most? And keep whatever car you buy for a while like up to 200k miles?

If your budget is $9-10k then that's going to be a problem bc due to covid and the chip shortage prices for used cars have gone insane. $10k cars now are $4-5k before covid - for $10k you are mostly going to get poorly maintained, high mileage Lexus or a German car around 80k miles that is probably already started to have serious problems or is on the verge of that.

Have you considered an Acura or an Infiniti? The 3.7L V6 in Infintis is a good engine and as long as they don't have a CVT and have had good maintenance you should be OK. Acuras and Infintis are below Lexus in reliability but are still way better than the Germans.

As for the 2011 328i first red flag is that it had 4 owners. Most people who have a good reliable car don't get rid of a car so often so obviously this thing had problems. The first owner sold it after only 3,900 miles!

Then it has 2 recalls that haven't been fixed. A PCV heater and the blower motor wiring. Notice that these recalls were not announced until 2017 on a 2011 car. That means BMW didn't know about these parts failing until lots of owners started reporting the failures around 60k miles.

 

Jacer sent you a PM to continue conversation

 

Hey Jacer you need to clear your inbox of messages. It's full so I can't reply to your PM