1998 Lexus GS300 from Australia and New Zealand - Comments

Absolutely nothing has gone wrong with this car. Superbly built. Leaves the reliability and quality of my two previous BMW's (328i & M3) for dead!

Service costs are half that of my previous BMW'S.

Does everything asked from it.

Extremely comfortable to drive. Not a high performance sports car, but very good all round car.

I Think this review was written by a Lexus Dealer.

I have just bought a Lexus GS3000 with 140k miles on the clock. I am very impressed with the car, but I would like comments about the 'ride'.

It seems to 'roll' more than my previous cars (BMW, Volvo, Mecedes). Especially on minor roads. Is this normal? Do I just need to get used to the car?

It depends on the degree of "roll" you are experiancing. The GS300 is more of a luxery sedan than sports sedan; your previous BMWs were, I'm sure, set up for more spirited driving, because that is more of what BMW offers in thier vehicles. I wouldn't consider it terribly abnormal to be experiancing a much softer ride than you are used to, and with that comes more body roll. If you are experiancing a lot of roll during normal driving, especially on one side more than the other, take it to a reputable service center for a quick suspension check. My 2000 GS300 has a very cushy ride that I've grown accustomed to, and frankly, while its not as sporty as my Acura TSX, I love it. VERY comfortable on long trips. Don't be too alarmed, just try to get used to it and enjoy it for what it is ;-)

"This comment was written my an Lexus dealer"

You don't have to be a Lexus dealer to realize that buying unreliable, and expensive to fix German cars for performance that SLIGHTLY surpasses Japanese cars (Prelude, Maxima, IS300, GS300) is not very bright. I've had a BMW 325i 740i, and a 2001 c240 Benz. The 325i was more or less reasonable as far as reliability and maintenance goes. But the 740 and the Benz, I wanted to set them on fire in the dealer's garage! $800 service visits and catalytic converters that run close to $2000 is unbelievable. I finally bought a 2000 Gs 300, and swore never to own a German car again... "German cars watch out!" - DAMN STRAIGHT.

"This comment was written by a Lexus dealer"

I have owned BMW's, Mercedes and now a Lexus, and the only person that would make the comment above is someone who has either never owned a German car or they have only purchased new ones, done 30,000Km and then traded them in. My previous Mercedes was a C200 and my 90,000km service was a little over $11,000 with the replacement of the gearbox (not under warranty), which is apparently quite normal for the 5speed auto.

I have just serviced my GS300 at a total cost of $160, and the last 2 services were $160 and the major $410 with a gearbox service with new filters, gasket kit and fluid.

It now has 170,000km and drives like it has done 50,000km.

I also own a 300E-24V with 160,000km and my specialist has advised me it needs a new engine, and the gearbox is on it's way out and that I may as well throw it in the bin. I don't have time to list all the problems it's had since 90,00Km with head gaskets etc, but in total I have spent about $20,000 (still a better car than the w208 C200) the best thing about the car is the drive, I would rather take the Merc on a long trip and it does handle better.

(by the way the w124 & w126 were meant to be the most reliable & best built Mercs ever, I find this very scary)

The only advantage in my opinion in owning a German car is in the drive, I agree with the above comment about the handling of the GS being ordinary, although with the stability control on you can just floor it into a corner with no problems anyway.

A friend of mine has a Ls400 with 540,000km original motor, original gearbox, need I say more.

I would like to note that I am very, very hard on my cars, and some of my friends and family make comments like "you drive that car like you stole it" so I am sure that other people have owned Merc's and BMW's with far less problems than I have had. I will be interested to know how long the GS lasts.

The only real promlem I have with the GS300 is the fuel consumption, out of a 75 litre tank I can only do between 280 and 300km and that's almost running it dry using 98ron (the worst I ever got was 240km out of a full tank around the City). My LX470 didn't use much more than that, but if you drive with a lead foot the consumption easily goes upto 40L per 100km. Lexus claims the average fuel consumption should be 8.9L per 100km, i'm doing about 20L per 100km, although I can get about 700km out of it on the freeway.

17:16

"I Think this review was written by a Lexus Dealer."

I think that comment was written by a BMW owner.