2005 Lexus GS300 (3rd gen)

[Jimi.K.]

After leaving my sales job and handing back my company car (a 2016 BMW 218i coupe) I needed a new daily driver. For the past 18-months I’ve enjoyed reading the ‘Best smoker barges 1-5’ thread and loved the idea of a luxury saloon to waft around in.

As this would be our sole car for the time being, reliability was high up the list. At first I was thinking of a E39 BMW 5-series, but even the newest ones are now 15 years old and the consensus seemed to be that if doing significant mileage, suspension and coolant systems will probably need regular work and rust can be a problem. I also considered stretching my budget to a early Jaguar XF but horror stories of expensive diesel-related bills and questionable electronics put me off. In the end, I decided to play it safe with a Lexus.

So here it is, my new-to-me 12 year old Lexus GS300. It has 2 previous owners, a full Lexus service history (14 stamps in 12 years!), 98k miles, 4 matching Goodyear's, and cost me just £4k.

I’ve just given it its first proper wash and wax, so here are a few external photos. The looks are gradually growing on me, it's not quite as good looking as its little brother, the IS250, but the additional refinement and comfort swung it for me, and I like the fact you don't see many of them around.





I've covered 600 miles so far and am really pleased. The interior is like new, the seats are really comfortable and amazingly the leather is in better condition than the 18-month old BMW it replaces. The 6-speed CVT automatic gearbox is smooth, with reasonable kickdown, and to be honest in day to day driving seems just as good at the 8-speed ZF I had in the BMW. With a gentle right foot, I'm averaging around 28mpg in town and got 38mpg on a run from London to Cardiff last week, which I think is pretty good for a 3.0 petrol V6. The engine itself is smooth and quiet; it'll apparently do 0-60 in 6.8s, but it's hard to tell as it insulates you from the outside world so well.

The heated and ventilated armchairs:


Aluminium dials:


The tech really blows my last car out of the water - keyless entry and go, adaptive xenons, heated and ventilated seats, cruise control, reversing camera, all round parking sensors, rear blind, bluetooth, dual zone climate, auto dimming rear and wing mirrors, and electrically adjusted everything. It also has the upgraded 14 speaker Mark Levinson sound system which is brilliant, particularly compared to the stock 4-speaker system I had on the BMW!

Retro infotainment console, complete with cassette deck:


The damped secret drawer of wonder:


Only niggles so far are a TPMS warning that can't be disabled (I'm pretty sure it just needs a new sensor in one of the wheels) and a slightly half-arsed dealer wheel refurb which is starting to peel on some of the inside surfaces, although the outer surfaces do look good. I'm debating whether to go back to the dealer to try and get them to sort these. There's also a couple of dash rattles, but it looks like they should be simple to fix - I'll report back when I've had a go.

Edited by Jimi.K. on Monday 12th February 11:50

[Jimi.K.]

Register1 said:

gareth_r said:

I occasionally look at these as a replacement for my 1998 GS, but I am always confused about the gearbox. GS300s are often advertised as CVT, but all the information I can find says it's a conventional auto, and only the "H"ybrid has the CVT transmission.

What is the gearbox code on the VIN plate?

Edited by gareth_r on Sunday 11th February 19:20

Correct, they are normal auto boxes, not CVT, they are hybrids.
The CVT boxes are not a patch on the conventional torque converter boxes.
6 speed, with intermediates on 5th and 6th, so getting 8 in total.

R1

I stand corrected on the gearbox, I did wonder why it didn't seem to have any of the characteristics associated with a CVT!! A rough count on autotrader tells me over 90% of GS300s are advertised as having a CVT which seems like an unbelievable amount misinformation out there!

Register1 - are you saying my GS effectively has 8 gears?

RanchoGrande said:

Nice! I'm on the hunt for a 450h of similar vintage. They look good in silver.

Assume yours is an SE-L given the amount of kit?

Yes it is indeed a top spec SE-L. The ML stereo, sunroof, and ventilated seats seem to be the easiest way to tell them apart. I did think it was going to have radar-cruise as well, but turns out that was an optional extra even on the SE-L.

I really liked the idea of a 450h, but the small boot was a deal breaker for me. At 280 litres the 450h's boot is almost half the size of the GS300 and smaller than a Corsa or Polo!

[Jimi.K.]

I was already aware that early Mk3 GS300's can suffer with dashboard creaks and rattles. I didn't pick up on any on the test drive, and hoped that perhaps a Lexus dealer had rectified them at some point during one of its 14 services, but alas, no. When the cabin is cold the centre console was creaking like mad, but thankfully I found a helpful Slovenian on youtube to help me solve the problem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZKBRfYbHWk

I forgot to take any photos, but here's some from the video:


30 minutes graft and half a dozen felt pads later and the creaks are now completely gone and silent waftiness is restored - a very satisfying job!

[Jimi.K.]

Super Slo Mo said:

Your reported fuel economy isn’t bad, not really any different than my 3.0 diesel Merc. Out of interest how fast were you driving on the motorway trip?

Yeah, I'm really happy with the economy at the moment - although I'm not doing any rush hour commuting which definitely helps!

I got the 38mpg average with the cruise control mostly set to 75mph although there were a couple of stretches of 50mph roadworks on the M4 which will have helped bring the MPG up a bit.

As I was early for a meeting on Tuesday and had just filled up (annoyingly the only way to reset the MPG reading on the GS) I did a little experiment on the motorway to see what I could achieve at a slower speed. With cruise set to 60mph between Cardiff and Bristol I managed 46mpg!

These are all trip computer stats, so likely a bit optimistic, but even taking that into account 40+mpg on a run is easily achievable if you're not in too much of a rush.

[Jimi.K.]

For a while now I've had the dreaded tyre pressure warning light and "Check System" message flashing away on the GS's dashboard indicating one of the sensors likely had a flat battery. I'm perfectly capable of keeping an eye on my own tyre pressures, but a comprehensive browse of all the lexus forums told me that it was impossible to disable the system - one guy in the US had even gone as far as to find a schematic of the TPMS electronics and dismantled the receiver to try and bypass the system, but no luck!

Lexus quoted me £178 for a new sensor + coding, which to me seemed ridiculous particularly as my OBD2 reader told me another sensor has a low battery and will likely fail as well soon. The manufacturers will tell you batteries are non-replaceable, but some helpful guys on the UK Lexus owners club forum suggested with a little bit of work it is possible so yesterday I finally gave it a try.

My helpful local garage took the tyre off and removed the sensor for me. The back unclipped surprisingly easily revealing the battery encased in silicone. This scraped off revealing the battery.



There's 2 options here - you can either un-solder the battery from the circuit board and solder a new tagged battery in its place, or do what I did and carefully pry the existing tags off the old battery and put a standard 3V 2450 cell battery in its place.



I then used some standard household silicone to secure the battery in place before clipping the back on again. My garage fitted it back in the tyre for me and within 30 seconds the warning light had gone! No coding was required because the sensor hadn't changed.

So £10 for the garage, a £1 battery and 20 minutes work and I saved myself £167!

Virtually all new cars come with these sensors now, and many will be coming to an age where the batteries are failing so I'd definitely recommend giving this a try. I suspect it will work with most TPMS sensors.

[Jimi.K.]

Cambs_Stuart said:

I've been looking at these recently as it looks like my commute will be via the A14 roadworks for quite a while so I'm after something very comfortable, well equipped and reliable. These models appear to be fantastic value for money. How is yours going?

4 months in and the GS is still going strong. However, I've just been forced into taking a base-spec diesel Mondeo as a company car in my new job, so the Lexus won't be getting much use now.

The Mondeo is actually a pretty good drive but severely lacking in gadgets compared to the GS - no auto lights/wipers, no keyless entry, no heated/ventilated leather, no auto-dimming mirrors etc, but it is very refined, does 60mpg on a run and rides very softly on its 16" rims and huge sidewalls!

I don't actually need 2 cars at the moment so I'm trying to decide whether to keep the Lexus or not. On one hand it's a lovely, reliable car and would be perfect for family duties in a couple of years - very little depreciation to worry about if I store it for a year or 2. On the other hand though it's worth close to £4k which I could put towards a fun weekend toy like a Z4 or Boxster. Decisions decisions...

rayyan171 said:

Struggled to choose between a GS450h and an Audi A6 3.0T. They seem like really good cars and very refined, but I have read drivetrain issues with hybrid batteries etc, having to change them out and send them off to people on eBay to repair. They definitely have a better spec than their German equivalents, thats for sure, and the power of the Hybrid is really attractive. The petrol is certainly a better option than the hybrid, but just doesn't have that much power we wanted.

Nonetheless, you seemed to have found one in really great condition for its age, very nice indeed!

I really liked the idea of the hybrid, but the smaller boot and added complexity tipped the scales in the GS300's favour. It's certainly been fast enough for me so far. I didn't really consider the A6 to be honest - with complex gadget-laden executive cars >12years old I really wanted something with a top notch reputation for reliability and the A6 didn't seem as good as the Lexus in that regard.

Edited by Jimi.K. on Sunday 27th May 16:10

[Jimi.K.]

FlatToTheMat said:

OP im curious to know how the Mondeo compares to the Lexus, especially interested to hear in outright refinement and comfort?

To be honest there wasn't a lot in it. The Lexus was obviously a lot faster and smoother thanks to its auto gearbox and V6 petrol engine compared to the 1.5 diesel and manual gearbox in the mondeo. The ride quality on the mondeo was softer and more comfortable thanks to its fresher suspension and smaller wheels, but it did wallow around corners and made the lexus feel like a sports-saloon in comparison. The Lexus was marginally more refined on the motorway but not by much. The cloth seats on the mondeo were surprisingly comfortable and had lumbar support as standard which I'd say put them on par with the Lexus (ignoring the lack of leather, electronic adjustment and memory presets).

In the end I sold the Lexus to a chap who saw it on the Smoker Barges thread. Ironically, 4 months later I was offered a new job with the option to drive my own car again, so in some ways wish I'd held on to the Lexus! I considered getting another GS, but I got used to the practicality of the huge hatchback boot on the Mondeo (the lexus is only available as a saloon and doesn't even have folding rear seats) and my new job is considerably more miles than I'd like to do in a 3.0 petrol, so I went with an A5 Sportback 3.0tdi Quattro and I'm very happy so far. I'll try and get round to doing a Reader's Cars thread on it at some point.