Geedub

Very true. I've lived in this house for 30 years and in all that time I've never once had a car small enough to fit in the garage (well, not if I want to be able to get out via anywhere but the sunroof!) So I gave up on that idea and bought an RX 😉

I had voice recognition in my last Audi. I got fed up with arguing with it.- utterly useless...

Says in the listing that’s it’s a 1998

Having had the RX for a couple of weeks now, I find myself echoing most of Spacewagon52's comments from his excellent review, so figured I should add my two penn'rth to this thread. Comfort: It's like driving around on my sofa. The seats are amazing (and the seat heaters are welcome). Ride isn't quite as supple as my Audi A8 was, but that had air suspension, so understandable. Still very smooth, though. Audio system - mine isn't ML either, but it's at least as good as the Bose system I had in the Audi. I'm using a bluetooth-to-FM widget for streaming music from the iPhone, which works adequately. Economy: Not too bad, considering,. My A8 was V8 powered and would do just over 30mpg on a long run if I was careful. The RX does slightly less on a long run (high twenties), but average day-to-day driving is no worse. I don't do a lot of mileage, so that's not an issue. Handling/Performance: it's a bit of a bus, but easier to handle and nicer to drive than other SUV's I've tried *cough* Range Rover *cough*. Performance is fine for what it is - all fairly effortless and wafty, which is all one needs :) Keys: Far too fragile. Had to rebuild both using the kit from the guy on ebay who supplies pre-cut replacement casings. Easy job and not expensive. Like Spacewagon52, I find myself missing having parking sensors (I don't have the reversing camera either). A retrofit is on the cards. Power tailgate: very handy indeed. For such an old car, it's superb. I'd been tempted by a (newer) RX on two previous occasions, both times ending up in Audis instead. Glad I finally bought one - it was the sensible purchase for my current circumstances, but one that I'm enjoying out of all proportion to the low cost.

Makes perfect sense to me. I’ve owned a couple of Audi A8’s. Lovely cars but NOT cheap to keep running!

I've just bought an RX300 that sounds almost identical to yours. 14 years old but in beautiful condition. and drives very well indeed, Paid under £4k for it, having sold a much newer/more expensive Audi. Really hard pushed to tell the difference in age, though, other than the fact that it has a cassette player! ;) This is my second Lexus (owned a GS for a while a few years back) and am very impressed with build quality. It doesn't feel tired, despite having done over 100k miles. I bought it as I'm disabled and my mobility problems mean that getting out of a regular car has become more difficult - also needed the extra load space that an SUV provides. Hoping that the RX will last me 2 or 3 years, but at the price I paid, it's almost disposable. I'm sufficiently impressed that I would definitely consider buying another one when this one eventually dies.

There's one local to me, actually. Lovely-looking thing it is too.

Good result with the fix. Gotta say I love the colour of your GS. First time I've seen one that colour - looks well better than my own dark blue one. :D

Thanks again, guys - you've been very helpful! No ABS light and the problem hasn't recurred, but I'll get the fault codes checked out in due course. :) FWIW I'm completely sold on this car - it's even quieter than my Audi A8 was and just as comfortable. Lovely old thing. I will be in the frame for a more recent one in about a year.

Thanks - would the brake accumulator problem light the engine warning and VSC lights and not anything else though? Certainly the brakes feel fine and did even during this episode - and I'm not getting the noises that others have reported (it's one of the things I was careful to listen out for when I bought the car).

Update: Well, have driven it around quite a bit today and it's been fine, so I'm going to assume it was a sensor glitch unless it happens again (or anyone knows different).

I've only had the car 7 days and all of a sudden this afternoon the engine warning light and VSC off lights came on whilst descending a steep hill. The car went into limp mode. I pulled off the road and turned off the ignition. On restarting the car, there's no warning lights and the car is running beautifully again - a 10 mile drive back home displayed no further issues. My mood changes from panic to confusion at that point ;) This was a cheap car (albeit in lovely nick for a '98), so I don't want to spend money on it unless I have to - on the other hand I need to be able to trust this thing as I do occasionally drive long distances and it'll be a while before I can afford to buy something newer. Any ideas?

nice to know. Thanks for the welcome :)

Just wanted to add a quick 'ello and thanks for all the useful info here. Just bought my first Lexus - a GS300 mkII. Picking it up in the morning. It was a cheapie (out of necessity as my previous car just died unexpectedly with an ECU failure), but it seems to be in excellent nick and drives very well. Hoping it will be reliable for the next year-18 months until I can afford to buy something newer. I've come close to buying a GS once before (a later model that time), but got tempted by an Audi A8, which was a stunning car but something of a money pit. Figured I'd just go for it this time - here's hoping it's as solid as the reputation suggests! :)