bargain bucket big boy bruiser cruiser - Lexus GS300
Discussion
I hereby hand in my PH membership card...
I don't like admitting to this, but the Lexus is currently at the local garage for the following works:
Cambelt
Primary tensioner
Auxiliary belt
Water pump
Wheel balancing
Tracking
Full service
The cambelt was only changed 35k miles ago, in 2004, which makes the cambelt 12 years old, 6 years beyond its recommended interval!
The cost of all these works is almost exactly the same cost of the vehicle, but to be honest, its well worth it in my opinion. The garage are taking their sweet time about it too and have made up various excuses.
In the mean time I have been using the C2 to travel the 57miles each way to work every day. Its a fun little car, but its like being in a washing machine on full spin and gets pretty tiring....
Over the course of the week, ive averaged 39.2mpg in the C2, which is pretty shocking really as the Lexus gets 31.6mpg and is almost twice the engine capacity, 50% more cylinders and almost twice as heavy!!
Whilst ive had the Citroen, the garage has given my wife a Smart ForTwo (mk1) to use. The engine is pretty awful, the gearbox is a very slow 6spd sequential, but it is hilarious to drive! And quite fun really, in an odd sort of way!
I don't like admitting to this, but the Lexus is currently at the local garage for the following works:
Cambelt
Primary tensioner
Auxiliary belt
Water pump
Wheel balancing
Tracking
Full service
The cambelt was only changed 35k miles ago, in 2004, which makes the cambelt 12 years old, 6 years beyond its recommended interval!
The cost of all these works is almost exactly the same cost of the vehicle, but to be honest, its well worth it in my opinion. The garage are taking their sweet time about it too and have made up various excuses.
In the mean time I have been using the C2 to travel the 57miles each way to work every day. Its a fun little car, but its like being in a washing machine on full spin and gets pretty tiring....
Over the course of the week, ive averaged 39.2mpg in the C2, which is pretty shocking really as the Lexus gets 31.6mpg and is almost twice the engine capacity, 50% more cylinders and almost twice as heavy!!
Whilst ive had the Citroen, the garage has given my wife a Smart ForTwo (mk1) to use. The engine is pretty awful, the gearbox is a very slow 6spd sequential, but it is hilarious to drive! And quite fun really, in an odd sort of way!
With the lexus now my daily hack and commuter vehicle shes covering nearly 600 per week. It soon makes it grotty in this weather!
The other thing that I thought would be quite handy was some reversing sensors. I've never had a problem reversing cars, but the Lexus is a big old bus, and frankly I have no idea where the back is. Ive found myself kissing a few other bumpers very lightly whilst reversing, so I ordered a £10 ebay special kit....
Job one was to just have a look and see how tricky the job was. Issue number one, you take power from the reversing light. In the lexus you cant access the bulbs from inside the boot, you have to remove the entire light cluster....
As soon as I ascertained which cables I was after (in this case red with blue stripe and black with white stripe) then it could go back together and I could splice it in within the boot...
Next up I had a look underneath. The rear crash bar was right where I planned to fit the sensors, so I had to put them as high as I could on the bumper before the crease to avoid a clash. Whilst down there I looked for the closest penetration into the trunk. Suprisingly, the closest accesible one was the one in the wheel well, so I chose to use it...I marked out where the centres should be and drilled pilot holes...
Then the full size holes...
A little more poking with a normal large drill made cavities in the polystyrene for the sensor body and wiring...
All in place!
Next job was to route and wrap the cables into a bunch...
Through the grommet ant route under some trim to a void where I was fitting the box...
Splice in the power cable...
At this point I connected it all up to check if it worked! It did so I ran the speaker cable under the boot carpet and in behind under one of the rear seats, tucking the cable under various trim until I got to the front seat. I have placed the speaker underneath the drivers seat, which seems to work well.
I now need to take her down to the local car wash place. In the summer, I'd happily wash her myself, but for a fiver, my local hand car wash can do it for me, while I sit in the car with classic fm on....
The other thing that I thought would be quite handy was some reversing sensors. I've never had a problem reversing cars, but the Lexus is a big old bus, and frankly I have no idea where the back is. Ive found myself kissing a few other bumpers very lightly whilst reversing, so I ordered a £10 ebay special kit....
Job one was to just have a look and see how tricky the job was. Issue number one, you take power from the reversing light. In the lexus you cant access the bulbs from inside the boot, you have to remove the entire light cluster....
As soon as I ascertained which cables I was after (in this case red with blue stripe and black with white stripe) then it could go back together and I could splice it in within the boot...
Next up I had a look underneath. The rear crash bar was right where I planned to fit the sensors, so I had to put them as high as I could on the bumper before the crease to avoid a clash. Whilst down there I looked for the closest penetration into the trunk. Suprisingly, the closest accesible one was the one in the wheel well, so I chose to use it...I marked out where the centres should be and drilled pilot holes...
Then the full size holes...
A little more poking with a normal large drill made cavities in the polystyrene for the sensor body and wiring...
All in place!
Next job was to route and wrap the cables into a bunch...
Through the grommet ant route under some trim to a void where I was fitting the box...
Splice in the power cable...
At this point I connected it all up to check if it worked! It did so I ran the speaker cable under the boot carpet and in behind under one of the rear seats, tucking the cable under various trim until I got to the front seat. I have placed the speaker underneath the drivers seat, which seems to work well.
I now need to take her down to the local car wash place. In the summer, I'd happily wash her myself, but for a fiver, my local hand car wash can do it for me, while I sit in the car with classic fm on....
Well I managed to bin the lexus yesterday on the way home from work. It suffered only minor damage, but enough not to make it economical to think about a repair. I was accelerating out of a village up to NSL around a long sweeping bend and the back unexpectedly just went in a huge fashion and I speared off into a farmers field. I had enough momentum to clear a ditch at the side of the road and punch a hole clean through the hedge and barbed wire fence into the field.
Having evaluated everything I was incredibly lucky and must have hit the sweet spot. Any faster and I'd have caused more damage to the car, possibly firing the airbags. Any slower and I could've gone into the ditch or stuck in the hedge, and if I'd hit the ditch sideways I would almost have certainly rolled it!
After locating and speaking with the farmer, who didn't seem to care at all apart from wether it was the field with sheep in (it wasnt) I threw everything that had fallen off in the boot, used a couple of zip ties to secure the plastic under tray, opened up the gate and drove home!
The lexus looks like it just bumped into a hedge, but if you look at the hedge you think a juggernaut hit it at 100mph plus!
As I was evaluating the scene and taking photos, I saw a bmw and a merc do almost exactly the same thing! Just walking up and down the road you could feel it was very greasy and slimy under foot.
Having evaluated everything I was incredibly lucky and must have hit the sweet spot. Any faster and I'd have caused more damage to the car, possibly firing the airbags. Any slower and I could've gone into the ditch or stuck in the hedge, and if I'd hit the ditch sideways I would almost have certainly rolled it!
After locating and speaking with the farmer, who didn't seem to care at all apart from wether it was the field with sheep in (it wasnt) I threw everything that had fallen off in the boot, used a couple of zip ties to secure the plastic under tray, opened up the gate and drove home!
The lexus looks like it just bumped into a hedge, but if you look at the hedge you think a juggernaut hit it at 100mph plus!
As I was evaluating the scene and taking photos, I saw a bmw and a merc do almost exactly the same thing! Just walking up and down the road you could feel it was very greasy and slimy under foot.
markirl said:
Considering all the work you have done on the car and considering how cheaply you could probably pick up the body panels you need, would you not consider just repairing it?
I did have a look on ebay, but the bits I need:2x wheel arch liners
Under tray
Front grill
Numberplate
Front bumper
2x fog lights
1x headlight
Add into the fact it needs new discs all round and some other work on the brakes, it all adds up to probably about 600 quid in bits
Even in a saleable state its probably only worth £750. I'll probably get £300+ if I sell it as it is as spares or repair as the 2jz engine is worth a fair chunk.
Luckily my parents have had 3 cars since september, with one sitting on the drive, so they've offered me the worst of the bunch for whatever I eventually get for the sorry looking lexus.
The Lexus has now gone:
In true fashion of bangernomics though I have worked out all the costs. I bought the car in Late July 2016.
Full Table Below:
Purchase price = £700
TAX for 18months : £245*1.5 = £367.50
Insurance total for 18 months = £948 (circa £630/annum)
Air con recommission = £138
Full Major Service (including cambelt, tensioner, waterpump) = £703
MOT = £40
Reversing sensors = £8.99
Clear side repeater lenses = £7.99
Other sundries = £60 (paint for wheels, other works)
Brake pads rear = £28.99
4 Nexxen Tyres = £288
Sale Price = -£250
Total = 3090.47
Fuel average over lifetime in my ownership is 30.12mpg at an average fuel cost of ~118p/l
Total mileage covered – Almost exactly 33,000
33k miles at 30.12mpg works out at lifetime 1095.6 Gallons, 4980.7litres so circa £5,880 in fuel
This means total lifetime spend on the lexus:
£8,920.47 (including fuel, servicing, tyres, tax and insurance)
27.03p per mile (including fuel, servicing, tyres, tax and insurance)
9.21p per mile (excluding fuel)
5.23p per mile (excluding fuel, insurance and tax)
In true fashion of bangernomics though I have worked out all the costs. I bought the car in Late July 2016.
Full Table Below:
Purchase price = £700
TAX for 18months : £245*1.5 = £367.50
Insurance total for 18 months = £948 (circa £630/annum)
Air con recommission = £138
Full Major Service (including cambelt, tensioner, waterpump) = £703
MOT = £40
Reversing sensors = £8.99
Clear side repeater lenses = £7.99
Other sundries = £60 (paint for wheels, other works)
Brake pads rear = £28.99
4 Nexxen Tyres = £288
Sale Price = -£250
Total = 3090.47
Fuel average over lifetime in my ownership is 30.12mpg at an average fuel cost of ~118p/l
Total mileage covered – Almost exactly 33,000
33k miles at 30.12mpg works out at lifetime 1095.6 Gallons, 4980.7litres so circa £5,880 in fuel
This means total lifetime spend on the lexus:
£8,920.47 (including fuel, servicing, tyres, tax and insurance)
27.03p per mile (including fuel, servicing, tyres, tax and insurance)
9.21p per mile (excluding fuel)
5.23p per mile (excluding fuel, insurance and tax)
My mum has donated me her 2007 Citroen C4 1.6HDI.
less than half the tax
2/3rds of the insurance price
1/2 the fuel.
I've brimmed it 3 times so far and averaged 55.7mpg. Overtakes are a thing of the past, but other than that it's not too bad and it's saving me a fortune in running costs.
less than half the tax
2/3rds of the insurance price
1/2 the fuel.
I've brimmed it 3 times so far and averaged 55.7mpg. Overtakes are a thing of the past, but other than that it's not too bad and it's saving me a fortune in running costs.
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