whats up people
I'm currently in search for a Lex . ive been in the VW world for the past 6 years with a 03 20th AE GTI love the car , did a decent amount of moding to it.i use to go to local meets here in ny ,but its time to move on. ive always liked the IS model , but when they changed the body in 14 i fell in love with its look and the F edition. So tonight im going to see if i can take one home its a 14 is250 i think its F edition with 50k miles. If i dont make a deal tonight i will be eventually in one. Is there anything i should be looking for when purchasing. Also are these cars DIY friendly? i do most of my repairs on my VW i love working on my car especially upgrades.

 

Nice, that's exciting hope the search and buy process goes nicely for you and welcome.

I havnt had to do much of anything but that engine has been around a long time and is tried and true. Same concept with my 350, nothing SO modern that you'll constantly be needing a shop for basic repairs and maintenance.

Coming from VW I imagine you'll be coming into a much smaller world of performance mod options.

Heres a tip which may help your search, drivers.lexus.com you can lookup all maintenance history for the car done at the dealer via VIN. A lot of stuff that doesn't show up on carfax and other reports. There you can read notes made the techs, or complaints from previous owner, etc.

 

unfortunately no deal was made last night the original price that i negotiated with the sales person and making sure that all fees would be included with that price other than tax. he confirmed price with a manager . when it was time to seal the deal a manger came by then it quickly became a addition equation lol sales person had told the manager he got the ok with another manager he didnt seem to care. he added 3 different fees and i told him not a chance that was not what was agreed. Not really sure what happened and why the change at last minute. i guess it wasn't meant to be. im going to be patient and not rush into anything i want to make sure i get the deal i want. And thank you for that link it will be useful for sure.
side note, ive noticed at least in the tri state are here in NY a high percent of these cars have accidents reported or damage. i thought that was kind of strange. also i don't plan on doing any modifications other than a big maybe air ride and wheels. i don't know yet, i definitely dont want to mess with the car to much. maybe k&n air intake.

 

So i finally found one and its exactly what i was looking for originally. Its a 2014 IS250 "FSport" trim. Black on Black with 50k on the clock. I put a deposit on it and now I'm just waiting for them to put 4 new tires and send the 125point inspection paper work to someone. lol i forgot who they said, i think something about the loan. I'll be only financing 6 or 7gs i plan on paying this off by next March.

Once i pay it off i plan on doing a few things mostly cosmetics. I want to put Air Ride, wheels. and MAYBE a subtle body kit. I think im going to stay away from exhaust (if i do exhaust are there any that are low sounding or can i remove something from the stock exhaust to give it a little more of a subtle grumble) and engine, maybe like air filter. i read that tires wear quickly, there's a bushing that stops toe wear and not going through tires quickly.
Is there anything else that I should know of where i have to upgrade the stock part to correct a oem known problem?

Im a little nervous about the digital cluster even thought that was my favorite part and one of the main reason i went with the FSport trim. Are they know to be problematic? or any of the digital instruments?

One thing i thought was kinda cheesey was the analog dash clock that reminded me of the old infinity dash. I feel they should of did what infinity did and made the double screen. I almost went with. Q50 for that reason and it has way more power. That was a little disappointing, Lexus changed there body style and made it super sexy and aggressive but wad skimpy on the power. Im trying to stay away from speed anyways lol.

Once i pick up the car i will post pics. Im going to have a busy week doing research on this car now. Im having second thoughts on selling the Vdub. I was thinking of keeping it for my daily, i dont know if ill be able to afford 3 cars, especially since at the moment im the only one with an income until wife finishes school.

 

I haven't seen anyone's digital dash break on this forum. You'll find that once the novelty wears off, you never move the center tach. The standard view is the best for sport driving with a nice big central tach and large, easy to read speedometer in the middle.

 

It's DYI friendly for the most post, but there are few mods outside of lip kit, suspension and intake/header/exhaust

 

Lexus went with a more reliable screen vs the Germans that decided to put massive screens for the tach. That part honestly shouldn't fail. Definitely upgrade the bushings to minimize/eliminate inner tire wear.

 

I mean... it's a TFT display. It's not exactly bleeding-edge tech, as we have had those in cars for a long time now. I suspect it will last quite a while. Just enjoy the car.

 

Exactly my point lol.

 

awesome that put me at much ease.

 

heres a few shots i picker her up friday night

 

Congrats, hope you'll love it! As for mods, look up lower control arm bushings for the tire wear, and most axle-backs are reasonably quiet if you want some more sound. Don't delete resonators unless you want rasp but removing secondary cats may give more volume without messing up the tone, unless it's going to mess up local emission standards. You can get the bushings for around $83 shipped from Japan from megazip.net.

 

Congrats and enjoy your new ride first before doing any mods/upgrades

-but definitely do the bushings since this is the perfect time to do it with new tires.

 

Congrats! And yes, I second the bushing upgrade. The sooner you do it, the better.

 

what did you upgrade it with?