Grizzly Man

I've heard that about ROI vehicles to the extent IIRC one LOC member bought a Lexus from a dealer over there and the dealer shipped it over on the ferry. Is it the fuel price in the ROI or other market factors causing big cars to be unwanted? Fuel price is actually slightly cheaper here generally AFAIK! The main reason is road tax. Tax on my GS300 is approx £1250 stg per annum! And that's not even the highest rate - if my GS was registered after July 2008 (when road tax moved to an emissions, rather than engine size, basis) I'd be paying £2000 stg! The Irish public have always had an aversion to "big" (i.e. > 2 litre) engines, and it's getting worse. For new cars, it's really only small cars that sell in any numbers as patrol variants. Virtually anything sold in the Focus size class or bigger is diesel, generally under 2 litre. The new BMW 518d should sell here like hotcakes! Most petrol cars over 2.5 litre and over 7 years old are very hard to shift. Almost everything 3 litre or bigger and over 8/9 years old is all but worthless. About two years ago I was offered £2500 stg for my (then) 6 yr old / 90k mile / FSH / good condition GS300 w/ nav against a newer 450H - by a Lexus dealer! God knows what an independent place would have offered.... I declined! Still driving it as it's not worth getting rid of it for buttons - it's worth more to me than that.

Hi Colm, I'm a fellow GS owner in Cork! Would you be better off buying in ROI? Large engined barges are probably cheaper here than anywhere else in the world! With your apparent budget I think you should be able to squeeze into a 3rd generation 2005- GS if you wanted. I do appreciate though that there is not the same level of choice here.

Usual inaccurate press bollox. Their central claim seemed to be that there was no point buying one because a BMW 535d was cheaper and more powerful - but they only cited the petrol engine power figure and ignored the hybrid element, which puts the GS at 30 - 40 bhp more than the 535d. Not to mind that an equivalently specced 535d would likely cost well in excess of the Lexus.

I mean does they still have the spring forward anti-whiplash feature?

Good luck with them! I presume you no longer have active head rests?

I track consumption in my GS300 "properly" using an app and am running at an average of 28.16mpg over the last 10,000km on a roughly equal mix of motorway / back road / city. I would say the 450H would return roughly the same. There is definitely a considerable performance advantage with the 450H, although the 300 is hardly lacking in power either!

100k miles on my 3rd generation GS300 - still original oxygen sensors AFAIK.

I'm losing about the same, plus getting some rough idle when cold. Looking at Clublexus, these COULD be symptoms of issues with the piston rings (which seemed to have been redesigned in 2010ish) as noted above, and perhaps a blocked PCV valve. Carbon build up on the back of the valves would be highly likely as well. This seems to be becoming an issue on the direct injection 3GR-FSE engine. There is a TSB in operation in the US involving replacing the pistons - I don't think it applies over here though. The cost of this procedure out of warranty is eye watering though......more than the car's worth TBH!

If ordering online, bear in mind that the US and some other territories have different rear clusters to the UK!

I have a 3rd generation GS300 and have a few of the infamous creaks alright - from the front in winter and back in summer! :eerrrmm: I've never heard the leather creaking though, or anyone complaining of it. (as an aside: the GS leather really holds up well. My car has 100k miles and, aside from some minor creasing to the drivers bolster due to my fat arse, the leather looks good as new).

European GSs (and other Lexus?) have rear foglights whereas US ones don't (common over there). So EU GSs had had half of their tail lights 'sacrificed' to make way for the foglights. Look closely and you'll see that the inner section of the cluster comprises half foglight and half fake 'LED strips' to sort of match the outer section of the cluster. Looks crap compared to the US version IMHO. A Russian guy on Clublexus swapped his EU lights for US ones easily enough - cost in the region of £200 IIRC. edit: here's the thread: http://www.clublexus.com/forums/gs-third-generation/549841-rear-lamps-mod-for-non-us-lexus-gs.html The possibility is raised that the GS was never intended for the EU market and its launch was a last minute decision, hence dodgy foglights.

That's serious life - especially for the pads! Front pads and disks were changed on mine at about 50k miles. I'm pushing 100k miles now and have a couple of mm left on the pads and 0.5mm on the disks - so region of 5 -10k miles left. Will probably do pads next service and keep an eye on the disks.

I'm not jealous at all!!!!! New GS looks great - I hope you enjoy it!

2005 GS300. Mixed city/motorway/back roads. Average since November (catual figures, not dash): 26.4 MPG. This rises to about 28 mpg in summer.

There is a skihatch in the Mk3 GS. Are you buying in the UK or the continent? If the UK, consider Ireland for a Mk3 - they're going for buttons here. I'd be doing very well to get £4000 for my 2005 GS300 SE - if I could sell it at all!