bargain bucket big boy bruiser cruiser - Lexus GS300
Discussion
Having been eyeing up various motorway cruisers recently as I'm getting a bit fed up of buzzing around in the C2 Loeb. Don't get me wrong, when you drop a cog and point it down a country road, its a lovely little go kart pocket rocket. But on the motorway its just dire. So the hunt was on for a bargain barge sub £1k to take up some of the motorway miles.
In my quest ive been to see a Rover 75, Audi A6, and finally the Lexus. The jag S type was also on my list but to be honest, I couldn't walk away from the Lexus when I saw it.
The 2000 rover 75 connoisseur V6 looked good in the pictures, but was utterly awful to drive. It floated around the road and the interior stank. Add in the simply atrocious build quality (squeeks and rattles everywhere and trim loose) and I actually said to the dealer I wasn't interested because it was awful to drive. Plus the cambelts needed doing, on a rover KV6 this is a £600-£700 job. Needless to say I walked away.
Next was a 1999 Audi A6. This drove pretty well but was incredibly grubby inside. It also looked like it had been involved in a light front end as the bumper was hanging down about an inch on one side and was held on by zip ties. Otherwise it was in reasonable condition and drove pretty well. My only gripe was that this was full poverty spec with fabric interior and that well loved 1.8T lump up front. The dash had the typical dodgy LCD module though and there was a dash light (bulb I think). But I checked all the lights and they were good.
Today I went to look at a Lexus GS300. I think the owner ticked every option, and they all worked well, including the sky light. It even has an original Lexus moulded boot tray. The passenger and rear seats may have been used once or twice. They looked new. Even the drivers seat looked very good indeed with very minimal cracking to the bolster. Its a 92k miles car, 1998 with every single service stamp from the main dealer it was bought from new (18 stamps). Everything works and it drives very well! And super quiet and comfy. MOT until April '17
And what did I pay? The grand sum of £700.
More pics when I pick it up later in the week! Here's a few from the advert
In my quest ive been to see a Rover 75, Audi A6, and finally the Lexus. The jag S type was also on my list but to be honest, I couldn't walk away from the Lexus when I saw it.
The 2000 rover 75 connoisseur V6 looked good in the pictures, but was utterly awful to drive. It floated around the road and the interior stank. Add in the simply atrocious build quality (squeeks and rattles everywhere and trim loose) and I actually said to the dealer I wasn't interested because it was awful to drive. Plus the cambelts needed doing, on a rover KV6 this is a £600-£700 job. Needless to say I walked away.
Next was a 1999 Audi A6. This drove pretty well but was incredibly grubby inside. It also looked like it had been involved in a light front end as the bumper was hanging down about an inch on one side and was held on by zip ties. Otherwise it was in reasonable condition and drove pretty well. My only gripe was that this was full poverty spec with fabric interior and that well loved 1.8T lump up front. The dash had the typical dodgy LCD module though and there was a dash light (bulb I think). But I checked all the lights and they were good.
Today I went to look at a Lexus GS300. I think the owner ticked every option, and they all worked well, including the sky light. It even has an original Lexus moulded boot tray. The passenger and rear seats may have been used once or twice. They looked new. Even the drivers seat looked very good indeed with very minimal cracking to the bolster. Its a 92k miles car, 1998 with every single service stamp from the main dealer it was bought from new (18 stamps). Everything works and it drives very well! And super quiet and comfy. MOT until April '17
And what did I pay? The grand sum of £700.
More pics when I pick it up later in the week! Here's a few from the advert
Having seen the other 2 cars (priced at £899 and £799) I literally couldn't believe my luck when I started looking around the Lexus. Its such a nice car and genuinely a nice place to be. Not only was it cheaper than the other two, and cleaner, it was much much better spec and the build quality was as good as modern BMWs, mercs and Audis.
Very happy bunny!
Very happy bunny!
You've just got to keep an eye on eBay, autotrader and gumtree. Chances are there'll be something good up if you are savvy about how to search. Generally I did a none specific search and just limited the results via price, mileage and distance, then its a case of trawling through the pages of st to fid the diamond on page 136 or whatever. I've written about the condition of the other 2 in the write up.
f1nn said:
You'll not go far wrong with that for 700 notes that's for sure!
0a said:
Disgusting value for money, a great way to remove some miles I am sure!
I know, I feel like I've robbed the man! He seemed happy with the sale price though! It was on eBay and sold on Saturday, but the guy who won it didn't want it in the end (I honestly can't think of a single reason why he didn't want this for £700) I contacted him after and said id give him the final sale price as a BIN subject to inspection. So a deal was struck today! I guess if nothing else it saves him the grief of dealing with any more eBay morons!ETA: If you buy a second had car for £10k and keep it for 10 years and sell it for £3k then you lose £700 per year in depreciation.... Therefore even if I keep this for one year and its scrapped, I'm still winning, and very comfortably as I do so...
Edited by Ambleton on Tuesday 19th July 22:43
For my own amusement today I rang up Lexus at Milton Keynes to find out the cost of the 100k mile service.
This includes the following:
Spark plugs
Oil filter
Oil
Air filter
Pollen filter
Top up of all other fluids
Brake and tyre check
A stamp on the service book that says Lexus on it.
All for the bargain price of £595... Hahahhahaha, bless em.
I then rang up my local trusted garage who would do all the same things for £175. In my mind that makes the Lexus stamp in the service book the most expensive thing in the service...
Or I could do it myself for about £70...
This includes the following:
Spark plugs
Oil filter
Oil
Air filter
Pollen filter
Top up of all other fluids
Brake and tyre check
A stamp on the service book that says Lexus on it.
All for the bargain price of £595... Hahahhahaha, bless em.
I then rang up my local trusted garage who would do all the same things for £175. In my mind that makes the Lexus stamp in the service book the most expensive thing in the service...
Or I could do it myself for about £70...
Right, ive booked my train to go collect the car tomorrow eve. I'm expecting about 2 hours of the most uncomfortable journey, followed by 2 hours of the most comfortable drive back.
My train leaves at 5.30pm, just in time to hit rush hour on Friday evening heading into central London (joy) then across London on the tube (satans armpit in this weather) and then another train out of London into Surrey.
My train leaves at 5.30pm, just in time to hit rush hour on Friday evening heading into central London (joy) then across London on the tube (satans armpit in this weather) and then another train out of London into Surrey.
Well the time is nearly upon me! Where I leave the office and head to the train station to begin my voyage. The weather is cloudy, warm and incredibly humid, perfect for travelling in rush hour on public transport into, and out of the capitol.
Ive donned my shorts, charged up my mp3 player and arranged to meet the seller at the train station at the other end.... I'll try to update regularly.
I'm hoping that I'm not wedged into small space with my face squashed into the armpit of an obese, American tourist with a shirt wetter than the front row of a Justin Bieber concert and the odour of a dead body washed up at low tide on a particularly warm day.
Ive donned my shorts, charged up my mp3 player and arranged to meet the seller at the train station at the other end.... I'll try to update regularly.
I'm hoping that I'm not wedged into small space with my face squashed into the armpit of an obese, American tourist with a shirt wetter than the front row of a Justin Bieber concert and the odour of a dead body washed up at low tide on a particularly warm day.
It's just amazing what you can buy for under a grand these days. Looked after, that car will do 250k with ease. Iirc it has the JZ (yo) motor too, they are an engineering masterpiece.
Great shedding! I look forward to more pics.
As for the cassette, I think he means the cassette for the cd changer, not one of those you need a pen to rewind!
Great shedding! I look forward to more pics.
As for the cassette, I think he means the cassette for the cd changer, not one of those you need a pen to rewind!
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