Friday 18th December 2015

Shed Of The Week: Lexus GS300

Big barge done the Japanese way for Shed's festive favourite

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Christmas time, mistletoe and whine. That's the festive menu Shed is looking forward to this year, along with (he hopes) a new pair of trainers to help him escape the clutches of Mrs Shed as she tries to corner him for the annual snog.

Styling inoffensively Japanese

Shed knows it's going to happen, and is resigned to it. His only comfort is knowing that, once the foul lipstick-smearing event is all over, he'll be free to enjoy the laid-back Christmas lifestyle in front of the box with a cigar-flavoured vape in one hand and a giant mince pie in the other.

It is in this relaxed frame of mind that Shed has selected the final SOTW of 2015, a festively wafting Lexus GS300.

What do you get for your one thousand English pounds? The GS300 could be seen as Japan's equivalent of the Jaguar S-Type, an interloper trading off the reputation of its bigger brother. Viewed in isolation, however, the 300 has a lot going for it.

This early example of the second-gen 300 looks like a car that is maturing nicely. The start was shaky, lukewarm pressers complaining about its ride and disappointing lack of Lexusness, but remember that the LS400 was in its pomp at this time. Any addition to the range was going to suffer in the comparison.

Condition looking pretty good for a car approaching 18

But with 220 in both hp and torque, an eight-second 0-60, top speed of 140mph+, a brilliantly screwed-together leather-lined cabin and the PH Holy Grail of rear-wheel drive, the 300 ticks plenty of Shed boxes. Admittedly the handling won't blow a warm gust of pleasure up your trousers, but for cultured, well-built and luxurious drifting (straightline rather than full-lock) at a bargain basement price you could do a lot worse. By buying a Mercedes of the same vintage, say.

The front under-valance (is that even a thing?) looks like it's been nibbled by a few rough tracks, but better to have nibbled plastic than nibbled metal. Generic gen-2 GS botherations are few and far between, and may or may not include moisture in the headlights, non-functioning rear-door actuation of the interior and 'door open' warning lights, plus rattling dashes and sunroofs. Lexus rattles are not the same as ordinary rattles. They're pretty quiet. For some people that makes them extra annoying.

The wood! The leather! The grey!

Timing is by chain. The one on this sub-80K mile car should be good for at least another 10K miles, or more if you're the type that fancies a flutter and has full trust in Toyota's engineering integrity.

Odd Lexi (not just the 300) have been known to smell a bit musty and have damp passenger carpets. On earlier GSs at least, if you ran the AC on full blast with the windows open until you could see water dripping down from the nearside wheelarch, but water didn't appear, your HVAC evaporator drain was blocked. That problem wasn't exclusive to the 300; the IS got it too.

The official fix involved lowering the transmission to access the drain. The Shedly fix was to jack up the car, shove a mirror on the end of a stick up there to locate the drain, and then use a bent bit of wire to sort it aht.

Mmm, gold lettering

Now, the ad does have that dreaded phrase 'sold as seen' in it, but it's reasonable to expect that 'sold as seen' means something different when it comes from a vendor like this, a top-end multi-franchise dealership where customer expectations are going to be high and trade-ins that most of us would happily buy and enjoy are treated with snooty disdain. The seller's website is studded with quality marques and, despite some redundant apostrophes that will get PH grammarians searching for their comfort blankets, it looks professional and polished. So we're thinking their castoffs could be good buys.

Talking of which, goodbye until next year. Have a very merry Christmas.

Here's the ad.

Grey Leather Upholstery with Grey Carpets, Electric Glass Sunroof, 17 inch Alloy Wheels, Cruise Control, Climate Control, PAS, ABS, 220 BHP, 3 owners, service history with many original receipts and old MOT's, 3 x keys, part exchange to clear, sold as seen.

[Goofnik]

Toyota MZ engine, right? Fairly heavily over engineered, though not as much as the more modern (and current) Toyota GR engine which sees regularly duty in Manhattan taxi cabs (Avalon Hybrid) for 500,000 - 1,000,000 mile duty cycles before being retired. Regardless, if properly maintained it's hard to find a Toyota MZ that won't go at least 300,000 kilometers.

I've always had big respect for the Lexus GS. It isn't sporty like a 5-series, but if you want to go from A to B in comfort, and being isolated from the outside world, it does its job without failure, every time. For a lot of people, that's all they really want and need.

[HeMightBeBanned]

Never really felt the love for these

[Elesmart]

To me, these are the ultimate bargain barges. I owned a gen 1 at shed money for a year and I really did fall for it. It was so well put together and didn't have a single rattle or squeek.

Not the fastest off the line but once you got the weight moving it would happily pick up pace. I'm still tempted to try the gen 2, GS430. Great shed and it shouldn't let you down. Watch out for sticky brake calipers though.

[J4CKO]

Borrowed a GS430 once, that was quite rapid, decent shed if not needing all the consumables replacing and no imminent issues.

[2smoke]

It seems unfair to call this a shed.

[The Don of Croy]

Quick - get it into the Barge 1 - 5 Large thread...it'll be gone by lunchtime!

[MadDog1962]

Although (to my own eyes) the GS is the least attractive of all Lexus models, I have to admit they're a very comfortable (and not exactly slow) form of transport. Plenty of waft factor here. I've ridden in many and alway been impressed by the comfy seats and excellent levels of refinement.

Good shed. Great alternative to a BMW 5 Series. Probably much more reliable as long as it hasn't been abused.

8 out of 10. Good work.

[patmahe]

Every now and then these pop into my head and I think I must remember these the next time I'm changing car. Then I usually forget and buy something worse and get a pang of regret when I see one next

Inconspicuous, reliable, comfy, barges and at least it's different.

[dbdb]

A good shed all-in; it should be reliable and rust resistant whilst having respectable performance and comfort. Sure it is a bit boring, but then so are Mercedes and this should be a much better quality car than a Mercedes of a similar age.

[ohit]

These are fantastic. Last forever. Hopefully nothing wrong with it (i.e. from poor maintenance) given it's "sold as seen".

[Quhet]

Yes please, I've always liked these for some reason. There's a beige old man specced one near me which the owner has had for ages it's always looked like a brand new car and is obviously well loved.

This one's a great shed and would be a perfect accompaniment to my 197. This for motorways, the Clio for everything else!

[SuperHangOn]

Comfy, reliable motoring and a smooth six for under a grand. Great shed.

IIRC the brake booster or abs pump is the killer job on these but I think they can be rebuilt. Like any car, I would expect a spend on general suspension/steering parts - to leave it groaning, creaking and crashing would defeat the object.

[andymadmak]

Interesting comment in the article about the Jaguar S type, because in fact the basic design of the GS300 was penned by Giugiaro at Italdesign and it was offered to Jaguar as a modern interpretation of Jaguar design cues.

http://www.carstyling.ru/resources/studios/1990_It...

Edited by andymadmak on Friday 18th December 10:29

[V8 FOU]

No. not a pleasant car IMO.

Good luck with this dealer too. Tried to buy a Maserati, test drive was "up to the roundabout and back if you want" - all of 1/2 mile! Never 'phoned back etc etc

[velocefica]

I've seen far better examples for less money.

It is being sold by a dealer so it's probably at least £500 overpriced, he probably picked it up for about scrap value.

[Jex]

For a rather obscure reason, I needed to compare a second generation GS300 with the following contemporary models in the early 90s:
XJ6, Mercedes C-Class, Rover Sterling, Ford Scorpio and Toyota Camry. They were all quite similar, but two stood out. The C-Class was definitely the worst value - certainly not the top of the class and smaller and more expensive than most. The real surprise was the Camry - on a par with the others at a much lower price. Not surprising that they were marketed as Lexi in some countries. None in the classifieds though. Where did they all go?

[Motorrad]

Great car for less than a grand. I'd have one in a heartbeat for my commute.

Much better than grubbing around in a crappy diesel to save tuppence 'ha'penny.

[AC43]

I got a gen 1 as an upgraded hire car when I went to San Francisco in the mid=90's. Really enjoyed tooling about in it. Spanked it up and down the hills to the south a few times and, with enough practice, could get the tail out. Happy days.

[Burwood]

V8 FOU said:

No. not a pleasant car IMO.

Good luck with this dealer too. Tried to buy a Maserati, test drive was "up to the roundabout and back if you want" - all of 1/2 mile! Never 'phoned back etc etc

and given it is a dealer what's with 'sold as seen' all about. The car must still be roadworthy and reasonable quality

[Safety King]

My Uncle runs a 170k mile 2001 Gen2 GS300. Lovely car to waft about in. He has converted his to LPG aswell as he does a lot of mileage. Was such a good car that I used it at my wedding when I had a fallout with the guy driving the Phantom.