Gs430 - Rattle And Hum

[marcus wright]

Hello there,

I thought you might be interested in my experiences to date with my GS430 (current model).

I have owned 4 Lexus GS models over the last 10 years (two of which have been new) and only visited the dealers for servicing until I bought a used April 2005 GS430 at 6 months old (for £38000). I buy them because they have been extremely reliable, well made and specified- and probably because I am a bit of a perfectionist and their marketing appealed!

However, this particular car has been to the dealer 18 times other than servicing since then as follows:

09/11/05 - refurb wheels / pain front bumper (dealer said they were spotless when bought car over phone, they weren't so they agreed to refurb) / headrests came away from plastic backs, replaced

23/12/05 - refurb wheels again (dealer had them painted and they bubbled)

18/01/06 - mirror glass discoloured and replaced / aircon treated due to bad smell

27/02/06 - smell returned, aircon treated again

23/03/06 - drivers door wouldn't close properly, seal replaced

31/03/06 - smell returned, aircon treated again

11/05/06 - smell returned, aircon treated again - dash out / fitted new set of alloys (I funded two)

29/08/06 - rear brake calliper siezed, replaced / driver seat would not stop creaking, replaced

28/02/07 - passenger seat would not stop creaking, replaced

09/03/07 - dash rattle, taken out for factory mod to be applied

30/03/07 - dash rattle, centre console replaced, more work required and booked in for 13/04/07

Plus 7 times for diagnosis. I should mention that everything above other than the two new wheels I bought as part of a deal with the supplying dealer has been covered under warranty.

The alloys and bumper painting were just preperation issues, so no problem there until they had problems refurbishing the wheels! There has been only one mechanical failure (the brake calliper) however, nearly all of the other faults have been with the internal packaging (aircon / seat and dash creaks). The dealer has said that there have been quite widespread seat and dash problems. If you think about it none of the faults are particularly serious as far as function goes, but the experience of driving the car that one would expect has been consistently disappointing.

The reason I write is that I am very surprised that Lexus do so well in reliability surveys and wonder if they include other than mechanical failures?

I also wonder what others thoughts are about the interior rattles on this model and if anyone knows any more about what causes them, how they can be solved and if Lexus actually have a widespread problem with quality?

Best regards,

Marcus.