7th Mar 2001, 14:45
I must say well done on the site and that I am (to say the least) confused to hear that the car is a death trap, cheap, falls to bits and wears out!!
My Lexus IS200 is a beauty and as I live in the channel islands where we all drive at less than 40mph, in theory my car is always "kicking out" and "pointing in the wrong direction"??
Errrrr not!.. drive her with pride and respect and one day she will save your life..
16th Mar 2001, 13:00
I have a IS 200 sport. It is an ex-demo and is a beautiful car, even though it probably has been hammered for the period before I got it.
11th Jul 2001, 06:13
I am the originator of this topic and contrary to the comments made by others, I am not a 'hard driver' and the car simply failed to produce what was expected of it. As a company director my use of the car was limited to journeys to and from work and the very odd weekend trip. In fact I traded the car in for a SAAB 9-5 - what a breath of fresh air!
What is interesting here, is that SAAB knew all of the problems with the IS200 before talking to them about a trade in.
LEXUS had to be badgered on the problems with the car and replacement parts were a joke - 8 weeks for shocks to be shipped from Japan.
10th Aug 2001, 19:57
Regardless of anything else - depreciation on IS200's is less than BMW's - so where did you get that info from?
I wish people would make emotionally free impartial reviews here rather than just total guff.
13th Jan 2002, 18:49
I bought a used IS200 Sport. This is the best car I've ever had, it's reliable, quiet, has a great CD system and is a great joy to drive. The dealership was first class.
My previous car was a new Merc and that was the worst car I've ever had, totally unreliable, had lots of build quality faults as well as mechanical ones. The dealership I bought it from need to go and take lessons from Lexus in dealing with customers and I'm glad they have now lost their franchise. I had to trade the Merc in early just to get rid of the hassle of finding another problem. I wonder if there is a lot of disalussioned BMW and Merc owners that have switched to Lexus like myself because of service and reliability. From one proud Lexus owner.
7th Jan 2003, 08:54
Everyone seems to have missed the fact that the original contributor did not have the car from new - it had 3000 miles on the clock. I suspect it may have been severely hammered before during this initial period, hence the problems. Might it have accident damage too which may have been spotted by whoever offered the contributor a low value?
BTW I have a IS200 SE and love it. My wife has a BMW 523i and I much prefer the Lexus - more character and more fun.
31st Jan 2001, 03:52
I quite agree with the above comment that this owner seems like an poor driver as these faults are synonymous with hard, careless driving and probably a lack of running in. These are wear and tear items that have obviously worn and torn prematurely down to abuse.
The comment about depreciation is quite untrue, a one year old IS200 commands almost list price, 3 year residuals are identical to the BMW 3 Series according to Glasses guide. Maybe the part ex you were offered was in line with the way you treated your vehicle?