Just saw a second hand RX330 selling for a good price. This is in Australia by the way, with the Japan built RX330. The thing I found out about the RX330 here in Oz, is that they are all MCU38 so AWD. There is still the 2 variants being the Sports and Sports Luxury. If we decide to go ahead with the car, what are some of the common things to look out for?

I have checked with our local transport register and the Australian delivered RX330 do not seem to have any safety recalls but have not been able to see if there have been TSB's called for it. The year of the RX that we might be getting is the 2003 RX330 (I believe the US got this car as the 2004 model).

I know of a couple of things, namely the gearbox apparently being a bit rough here and there and that there was a TSB in the US for the software to be updated. Is there something like a sticker that can be seen to have been applied to the car to see whether or not that TSB has been carried out? Is there anything around the gearbox that I should check out as well? I will be getting a vehicle check by the "experts" to ensure that it is "tight" and in darn good nick.

Anything else I should look for? I also know of the rattlies syndrome that seems to plague these vehicles from the back. I will be going through that with a fine tooth comb to see if I can sort that out.

The 330 is in our price range, the 350 is not. I'm also not sure if the 2003 model had bluetooth or not. The RX330 I drove the other day did, so it might be something that was applied to the Australian delivered vehicles. More research on that one I think.

Can the later model (i.e. 2005) RX330 NAV unit's plug directly in or is it a waste of time?

 

What kind of mileage/km and what is the price?

 

draco, in the US, the 2005 330 was the first year with bluetooth. The 2004 330, which was the first year of the 2nd gen RX here and was sold beginning in mid 2003, did not have that feature available. My 04, delivered in September 03, was from Japan but they started building them in Canada in September 2003.

The only other major issue with the 330 I can think of is moisture in the headlights. I had both of mine replaced early on (16K) and did not have a problem after that. I'm not sure how you can see if the tranny TSB was done other than to ask if it was or request it be done. Lexus sometimes places stickers on driver's door frame but I don't believe I got one when I had the TSB done.

Good luck.