Lexus IS200 Diesel - Reliability IS200D VS 220D?

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Wed 12 Feb 2020 13:45
Lexus IS200 Diesel - Reliability IS200D VS 220D? - Roy Brown

I am thinking on buying a IS200 Diesel 2011 model

I know the earlier IS220D gave a whole host of problems in terms of reliability, but I do not see much online for the later IS200D model

Has anyone any experience directly with the 200d? Any threads I find online are quite old, around the time these cars were produced so don't see any recent threads about their reliability...

Thanks

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Wed 12 Feb 2020 16:11
Lexus IS200 Diesel - Reliability IS200D VS 220D? - SLO76
No direct experience and few will as they didn’t sell well but as it is basically a detuned version of the same 2.2 motor that caused a lot of trouble in the older IS220 I’d personally leave it be. I’ve seen the earlier cars smoking badly and being offloaded to auction. It’s known as a weak engine in the trade and attracts few buyers.

It’s not what I’d buy on a budget but I do see the temptation. It’s a well made and handsome small luxury car that avoids the image problems of BMW and Audi. Shame they never put a good diesel motor in but the V6 petrol is silky smooth if you only do a low mileage that would make more sense with the smooth shifting auto box.

Alternatively I’d look at a Honda Accord 2.2 DTEC which is more reliable and offers similar comfort and space and can be had with an automatic alongside the torquey diesel motor. As with any modern diesel they have a DPF that’ll require frequent longer runs but I’d favour one of these over the Lexus.

Edited by SLO76 on 12/02/2020 at 16:21

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Wed 12 Feb 2020 22:48
Lexus IS200 Diesel - Reliability IS200D VS 220D? - Heidfirst
No direct experience and few will as they didn’t sell well but as it is basically a detuned version of the same 2.2 motor that caused a lot of trouble in the older IS220 I’d personally leave it be. I’ve seen the earlier cars smoking badly and being offloaded to auction. It’s known as a weak engine in the trade and attracts few buyers.

The 2.2's issues had been resolved by 2011 (actually 2009 iirc). It will be an EU5 for emissions if you have to enter any LEZ/ULEZs in the future.

That being said I am not a proponent of anybody running a modern, emission-equipped turbodiesel from any manufacturer out of warranty unless they are able to take the possible hit of any of the issues that can be common to any of those e.g. DMF/DPF/injectors etc. etc.

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