Jakebob

Hi,
I’m a complete newbie on Lexus and have only been driving BMW the last few years. But with prices going down on the IS 300h, I’m very tempted to get my hands on one.
However I need it to be somewhat economical to own. I’m starting a full time job in January next year, but will begin to study by the next autumn. So I’ll need the car for my 3 years of full time studies and would like to have a nice Lexus instead of a cheap corolla.

I’m looking at a 2014 model with few miles. I don’t have to finance, as I’ve got inherited money from a relative so monthly costs would be gas, insurance, service and repairs. I’m sure there are countless threads about this already, but how are these cars to service? Is it expensive to let the dealer do it? I’ve always worked on my cars myself, so I’m not completely content with letting a dealer work on my car. I guess I don’t have to ask if it’s a reliable car. That’s one of the main reasons I’ve started looking at Lexus

webra

I have done 86000kms on an IS300h. What exactly would you like to know about the economy or the car?

Jakebob

How is servicing and maintenance cost? I’m used to cheap servicing, as I do most things myself. But I’m starting to get annoyed by typical BMW problems that pops up. Some people say it’s expensive to send a Lexus to the dealer only to do an ordinary oil service.

Also, how’s your fuel economy and are you happy with the performance of the vehicle?

webra

I think modern f series BMW's are better than the sometimes troublesome e series in ownership experience. I recently drove a latest model 320d for a week in the UK....I was very impressed. My friends who own these cars seem to have few issues. But my Lexus has had no failures over the 86k, other than a leaking rear damper (fixed under Warranty) and a failed headlamp (expensive!). Fuel economy between the IS and the 320d is roughly the same, meaning very good, but the BMW has significantly better acceleration compared to the 25 year old Prius technology Lexus uses. I do think that the Lexus is quieter more of the time, except under hard acceleration. Both handle well, but the BMW feels more alive. Compared to idrive, the Lexus infotainment system is Jurassic.

In the end, it’s just a different compromise....Lexus sacrifices performance for reliability, about as much as some other makers do the opposite. If I were to look for a leading alternative to the Germans today I would look towards Korea, which is showing real promise, just as Lexus did 10 years ago.

Raghza

Try finding a car with the Lexus extended warranty. That way you only have to take your car to regular maintenances after every 15k kms and everything else will be covered by the warranty. You can also buy the extended warranty yourself, if the car has legitimate maintenance history.
The warranty will cost a little more for a hybrid car, but it also insures the hybrid components for a longer time period.

webra

I think different regions of the world have different warranties. Mine has a 10 year battery warranty, and yes, there have been failures, though rare. The extra maintenance costs compared to a normal car comes from the need to replace the fluid in the hybrid cooling system. But in the Long term it should work out to be less than maintaining a modern turbodiesel. And the 2.5 l petrol engine is unbreakable, if slow.

webra

Jakebob

Thank for your reply’s! I have an older bmw. It’s a very fresh 2007 325i with the inline 6 and 190 000km. It’s pretty quick but after driving the 300h today, i think the Lexus is quicker while driving in town with that electric torque.

I’m choosing between 300h and a 2015 bmw 116i m sport and chip tune it. Should be around the same fuel consumption and owners costs and the bmw would be about 2 seconds faster to 60...
Beemer is 1 year newer and has the award winning idrive and costs almost half the price of the Lexus.
But then Lexus is probably more reliable.

Decisions decisions.

webra

My other car is a BMW. Go for the BMW if performance delivered by up to date technology is important to you. Lexus, on the other hand, perfects old technology, so for the less fussy it might really satisfy. Parent company Toyota doesn’t even develop competitive cars anymore. They just source it from Subaru or BMW. And why not?

Jakebob

I do like a performance oriented car and while the Lexus delivered a very well rounded experience, I'm starting to think that a 1-series might be the way to go. It seems like very good value; a well equipped M sport from 2015 is only $16 000. Meanwhile the Lexus is older, has more miles on the clock and the price is $26 000. We'll see what happens, when I've driven a 116i.

roli

Personally I think the BMW 1 series shouldn't even be called a BMW. You would probably be better of getting a Clio or something.

I personally would never buy a BMW. Let alone a diesel. My mother has a 5 series F10 (and she had an E60 before) and it's one of the crappiest cars that one can make for that price point. The aluminum trim on the door edge has come off (on all four doors), the plastics are squeaky and the rubber coating has started deteriorating, the seats are uncomfortable (granted I haven't tried the comfort seats). And the so often praised iDrive is horrible. The old iDrive in the E60 was pretty good (for a 2004 vintage at least) but the one in the F10 is not. It's not intuitive (I am not saying that the Lexus variant is any better here) and the stupid decisions of the engineers are just mind boggling. For instance when playing the music from an internal hard drive or a CD you can choose the shuffle option which is normal. But when you turn off the car the bastard turns shuffle off. And when you turn it on again your music gets played all over again because the damned thing doesn't remember which songs it played previously. And this problem has been present in the E60 as well. The fact that they don't even install the f*** multimedia USB socket as standard is horrible as well.

Sure the raw performance on an BMW diesel will probably beat the Lexus. But that is a lot less important in Europe. Depends on what you want in a car of course. I drive 150km per day so I was definitely looking for a good overall car with nice fuel economy. So I bought a 2017 IS and I am pretty happy with it. I went for the top spec 2017 model because I wanted the parking camera, radar cruise control, and all of the other toys like heated and ventilated seats, ... Generally I get around 5.9-6.2 l/100km fuel consumption per tank, which is very reasonable (I don't drive like a maniac though). My 30000km service is coming up next week. I paid 230€ (actually I paid 146€ because my father knows a guy that works for the company) for the material cost (oil, filters, ...) and we will see how much else for work - serviced at the official dealer. That seems pretty reasonable to me. The battery has 10 year warranty so I am definitely not worried about that.

Jakebob

Seems like we have very different experiences concerning BMW. I have had an E87 118d chip tune and now a 325i. The interior quality has been rock solid and very reliable cars in a sense that they always get me where I want to go. And they do it quickly and in complete comfort (sports seats is a must). It’s the minor imperfections that bother me, like ticking valve lifters, grinding starter, bad reception to the fm radio etc. I also fear having a broken water pump and leaky gaskets which are common problems on these old German cars.

My experience with the 1-series is that it’s a capable and lively little sports car in a suit. It’s Golf sized and is not a car for long motorway miles. I’ve only heard good things about iDrive, so I’ll have to test it throughly, but thanks for the heads up!

Raghza

The 1-series sure does sound nice, but IMO it's not a BMW if it doesn't have an R6...
You should definitely test drive them both and then decide, whether the Lexus justifies the $10000 higher price.

No matter what you choose, post pics

specONE

iTrader: (3)

I am amazed how this North American base Lexus forum and a forum post topic about IS300h arise that we do not have here, yet it found its way to some international users and this topic is not dead silence.


and to add to the topic. Lexus vehicles are way more reliable than BMW, up keeping and maintenance. All you really have to do on a Lexus is change the oil, brake pads and tires and it will go 100,000 miles no problem. I cannot say the same thing about BMW vehicles.

webra

The dependability of Lexus' competitors seem to have gotten better. My friends with the more recent cars have had no real issues....Lexus, on the other hand, is not moving with the times and for me, sacrifices too much in performance for it’s attributes....