2002 Lexus RX300 Rx300 from North America - Comments

Timing belt replacement!!!

Tail light bulbs!!!

Replace 235 Michelin "Cross Terrain" tires!!

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Best car ever!!! Slow, but not a big deal.

For those who are afraid of the tranny failures don't buy into that. Most of the tranny issues occured because the owners had their rong type of fluid changed. RXs only work with one type of fluid, Type T-IV Automatic Transmission Fluid, and make sure you replace it every 30,000 miles, some of the owners haven't changed the fluid at all and when their RXs broke down,

they blamed on the manual "not require to change fluid under normal condition." Who knew

what they did to their RXs.lol!!!. Ask Toyota or Lexus dealer to have other fluids like brake, differential, steering,... change, too. I changed my tranny fluid at Toyota dealer for only 140 bucks (Yay!!!). You will be okay if you have your car service "properly." If you don't buy my story, go to www.autotrader.com and check out to see how many 150,000 miles RXs there are in U.S. More than those who have their RXs tranny issues. Good Luck and enjoy the car.

I can't agree with you on this story. I drive a lot and put a lot of miles on my vehicles in a very short amount of time. In 1999 I bought an RX300 deciding an SUV would be better than my previous LS400. In late 2001 I had 97,000 miles on the car and the transmission went. I had always done service at Lexus and had them do whatever they said needed to be done, along with transmission fluid changes. I traded that in when they finished for a 2002 RX300. I just traded it in 6 months ago with 143,000 miles and the original transmission. I asked Lexus why my 99 had it go, but not my 02. They told me 2001-2003 RX300 have a updated transmission. So stay away from 99-00, the 01-03 are better, but they still have had some go. The best bet is to buy the RX400h, an amazing SUV!

You know, I hate some of the Lexus dealers. I remembered when I had my ES300 ran a diagnosis test, they let me stay in the waiting room for an hour. They finally called me up and told me the problems of the car. I asked them what were the codes for those problems. Guess what, they didn't know. In fact, they hadn't ran any diagnosis test and just based on their knowledges, they just answered the problems that I had with the car. So the guy let me wait for another 30 minutes and decided to charge me free for test because I was yelling and screaming at them for not doing what I told them to. People at Lexus dealers are nice, but their missions are ripping off money from people, especially innocent people. People at Lexus act like Lexus cars are the best, they are low-maintenance cost, but they don't know that they are overestimate the Rx300s. Rx300s are heavy, guess what, transmissions work really hard. The tranny fluid get burned really fast. When it comes to fix, they are not responsible for that. So my suggestion for everybody out there, change the tranny fluid every 30K miles, we are the one who responsible for our cars, not dealers. Plus, change the fluid doesn't harm anything. Fluids are not wines, they are bad when they're old and not just for Rx300s, but for every car out there. I hope you enjoy my comment and by the way, I was the one wrote the 1st comment.

<For those who are afraid of the tranny failures; don't buy into that.>

Excuse me! Failing RX300 transmissions are a very well known fact. The problem is that Toyota/Lexus didn't fit the RX300 with a proper transmission. I know Lexus scavenged the parts bin for this car and much of the mechanics and electrics are the same as the Camry and the ES300. The same transmission is fitted to the ES300, but the RX300 is much heavier and must propel the rather stone-age 4x4 system fitted to this car. I guess many do towing too like me, and this seems to just kill this transmission. I paid almost $40,000 new back then. I just feel ripped off. I could have gotten a heavy duty suv for that kind of money.

Lexus is just overpriced, under-engineered junk. I don't trust them for a second anymore. Towing with that 3 litre was no funny business either. I'm now in a Trailblazer which is $3,000 cheaper even fully loaded. Looking back, I must have been insane buying that RX300.

Whoever posted the review above me was B.S. There isn't any problem with Lexus rx300 transmission according to "consumerguideauto" and "Identifix Reliability Ratings" from carfax.com.

I'm so surprised to read the above comments. I bought my 2002 RX 300 new and have put on 185,000 km and absolutely love it. Other than regular maintenance, I have not had any problems with it. In fact, I'm now replacing it with a newer model. All consumer reports gave this vehicle excellent ratings.