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!

Bullcrap - rear caliper seizing is a well known issue with the GS - probably the most common after 'squeaks and rattles' and 'dodgy xenons'.

Rear caliper was changed on mine before I bought it. BTW what are the symptoms of the caliper sticking? I sometimes think I hear a slight dragging noise from my car but not sure if it's only my imagination!

Now that is a mint car! I presume the pics were taken in a petrol station as that is its natural home?! :winky:

Very useful information - thanks OP! My rattles seem to come from the dash area in winter and the back (rear blind I'm guessing) in summer. Although my winter rattles don't seem to have appeared yet this year - or maybe I just don't hear them any more!

Looking on American forums, this seems to be a big issue (probably the biggest) with the GS. I've also had it myself. Now, while some people claim the ballast (big money to replace) is the problem, my reading is that it is the bulbs themselves are the cause. It seems that the OEM Philips D4S bulb (cat. no. 42402) is a bit suspect and is prone to early failure. There is further evidence for this in a recent Toyota service notice in the States regarding xenon bulbs on the Prius (same bulb with different fitment) which basically says the above and that any issues are not due to the ballast. Note that Toyota/Lexus are now using Toshiba bulbs rather than Philips. Regarding your second set of bulbs - I'd imagine "cheap ones from eBay" is the problem there! First thing to do is what you said above - swap your bulbs side to side and see if the problem moves. In fact, when I did this, it fixed the issue! Guess one of my connectors was a little loose! Do you have your old bulbs still? Might be worth putting them in to see if they're ok. If you want to get new Philips bulbs - from memory there are some reputable selling apparently genuine Philips 42402 for approx £70 a pair (much cheaper than that and I'd be suspicious). A previous thread here put the Lexus dealer cost at £165 plus VAT plus labour IIRC! Last I checked I couldn't find any definitely genuine Toshiba (Harison) bulbs around.

Can you link that auction for me? Just want to see if my brochure is the same. (My 2005 one is your usual brochure, but the 2008 one is very comprehensive).

I have both the original (2005, UK) and facelift (2008, Ireland) brochures! Let me know exactly what to check and I'll have a look.

I'd be very surprised if you could pair two devices at the same time. Could you use the FM transmitter function of the Highway to listen? Note that (I *think*) the pre-facelift GS only uses headset profiles for Bluetooth, i.e. low quality. In fact, I think they only brought in A2DP (streaming music profile) in the 2011 model (for a tech-oriented manufacturer, Lexus can be a bit backward sometimes!). Check out the Vaistech site - they do a number of (expensive) media integration products for Lexus cars. I know they do satellite radio, not sure about DAB. There are other companies offering cheaper integration products but I've never been able to track down reliable info whether they actually *work* or not. In determining which product to use, you'll need to know the navigation generation your (potential) GS has - and this is NOT always the same on both sides of the Atlantic. Easiest way to find this out is to look at the nav startup page on the console screen at compare it to the pics on the Lexus map update site. My 2005 GS300 has the Gen 3 TNS600 system for example. I am not sure when exactly the Gen 5 and Gen 08 systems came into use. Note Gen 4 was only used in the US.

What I know..... 1. No. You need to 'hold' the stalk in the 'half on' position to flash the indicators. 2. I believe so (there MAY be some facelift 2007 cars however). However, you may be able to fit a third party unit which would add DAB, aux etc. 3. Yes. 4. I don't *think* the sunroof-ACC link is automatic (could be wrong). ACC definitely not standard on any 450H (although a LOT of the SE-Ls will have it alright). 5. I think there *may* be a limit - the LS460/600h has ACC as standard, but the premium pack adds "full speed following" for ACC - I'm guessing this means limit free. So ACC on the GS may be limited. 6. No personal experience but I'd be surprised if it was that good - although it may not be far off. Remember at that speed you will be running solely on the 3.5L engine.

Premature demise of xenon bulbs in the Mk3 GS seems to be a well known issue - seems the Philips bulbs used are the problem. Lexus have now moved to Harison bulbs instead. As said, you can pick the bulbs up much cheaper online and they're OK to fit.