Buying A Gs300 Mkii

[LennyLexus]

I know we have a buying guide for the IS, but I couldnt find anything on the GS so i'm posting this ;)

My uncle is looking for a GS300MKii, SE or Sport, 98-present, ideally with nav.

What sort of things should we be looking out for?

What are the model differences between the years?

Whats the Sat Nav like compared to the IS (cd based)?

Got a budget of around £12-16k, get newer private or a low mileage older one from a Lex dealer?

PS my uncles already got his private plate to hide the age L300 *** (*** = his name) ;)

[ColinBarber]

There is a guide. Have a look in the knowledgebase under the series II GS:

http://www.lexusownersclub.co.uk/knowledge...ge=index_v1&c=3

There is also a list of the changes made at the end of 2000. Worth getting a facelift model if possible. Should be able to get one within the budget.

The Sat Nav part is basically the same however it has a touch screen so you can enter addresses etc much more quickly. The screen also controls the heating and audio and you get a fuel computer as well.

Haven't written the model history yet but basically in 98 the S and SE were available. In 99 the sport came along and the SE got 17" wheels. End of 2000 the model had a face lift and the sport was discontinued. Then the S model was just named the GS300. A year later the GS300 was dropped leaving only the SE until July 2003 when the sport made a comeback.

[LennyLexus]

Thanks Col.

One more questions, how difficult is it too add AV?

i.e if he doesnt get the nav and wants to add an after market system, will an aftermarket HU work with the factory amp, or do the amp and speakers need replacing too?

[ColinBarber]

I think the speakers are active which may complicate things. Worth posting that question on the US forums - there aren't many GS owners that have a modified stereo system in the UK.

[Rodders_UK]

Speakers aren't active, but they are an odd impedance (2ohms) - the front crossover is tuppence worth of inline capacitive crossover.

Door speakers are cased in plastic echo chambers, standard size is 4 inches. I took out the speaker cases and got 6 inch speakers in the front and back doors no problem.

If you don't have NAV, I would have thought that swapping out the amp and HU would be very straightforward. Pretty much impossible with Nav, however, as the system uses a proprietary serial bus type interface to control the audio from the touch screen.

I have schematics if you need them

[jdmparts_guru]

swapping the stock radio should be very straight forward, since it is not connected with other electronic parts.

You probably need to replace the entire set, i.e. incl. the CD box, but this should not be too difficult.

Probably SteveAudioX can help?