The Mondewoe will be going soon, I am going to pay the man in the scrap yard extra so that I can press the button on the crusher.
The replacement may be an L reg GS300 Lexus with 131,000 miles on the clock. It belongs to one of my supervisors who got it about 3 years ago for about 6.5K. He is looking for about 4K, I know it has only had minimal work done on it and has never let him down at all. Everything still works in it and it looks to be in fine condition. He is one of the best practical engineers I have ever worked with and know that he has looked after it well, oil changes at 5000 miles etc.
Question is; what is it worth and what problems can I expect.
All the best folks
Bill
|
£4k is rather too much I feel.
Decent reliable cars, but you are entering the 'wear out' phase and parts are very expensive - so budget for them.
|
|
How deep are your pockets - a friend gave me a lift in his (automatic) and claimed that he got 200 miles to the fill (about 17 to the gallon). What is your supervisor getting?
|
|
Great car,parts can be a bit pricey,but there are many aftermarket/2ndhand suppliers.Change cambelt etc.Who cars about fuel consumption,its a luxery car.
|
|
Dunno - nice 2nd hand "biggies" can seem a v. tempting buy, but there is the regular kick in the wallet to consider - if you want to use it on a daily commute you can get sick of standing around in petrol stations emptying your pockets into them fairly rapidly (now if I was retired...............).
|
I get about 25mpg from a LS400 so 17mpg seems poor for a GS300 unless its used exclusively in town.
The official fuel consumption figures for the 1993-97 GS300 are:
Urban: 17.7mpg
Extra Urban: 32.1mpg
Combined: 24.8mpg
The fuel tank is 80 litres so you should be able to get about 350-390 miles per tank and maybe a bit more on a motorway.
|
17-19mpg is usual on the new GS, so seems perfectly acceptable for the old one. Obviously you can get this to 25+ at constant speeds above 40.
Take a look also at Toyota Camrys - the 3.0 ones have similar spec levels to the GS, and a bit cheaper on parts (but still going to be heavy on petrol). Honda Legends go for ridiculously low prices as well - no image.
|
You might want to find a Nissan QX. Similar size to the Lexus (although I concede not as nice to sit in and ride not as smooth).
QX uses a V6 (2.0 or 3.0) with four cams (chain driven), 24 valves, very smooth and quiet and very smooth auto box.
In May I bought my late 1998 QX from a Franchised dealer; just under £5k for a one-owner car with 27k miles and FSH, full 'proper' one year warranty, year's MoT, tax and a tank of petrol. The tyres were near the limit (the originals) so I spent £250 on a set of new NCT5's. So far I've done 7k miles in it and think it is superb - although I do conceded that it has absolutely no image and no-one seems to know what it is. The main reason I bought it is that being FWD it has loads of room in the back for three kids and a large boot.
I get 26mpg in mixed 'suburban' driving and just about break the 30mpg barrier on a long run. I am highly delighted with my car; I bought it as a 'stop gap' after selling my BMW '7' - but I now intend to keep it a few years.
Parts prices (Nissan dealer):
Oil filter £8
Air filter £15
Pollen Filter £28
Fuel filter £11
Catalyst (pattern) £120+VAT
Back exhaust box (pattern) £55
Back shocks (OEM) £46+VAT
Mintex discs/pads are available at reasonable prices.
I should add that I haven't needed any parts yet - but I did price up common items before I bought the car. I did consider a Toyota Camry - but they cost a bit more than QX's and there is less room in the rear; Toyota parts are also a lot more expensive than Nissan (as are Lexus !!!).
HTH
|
|
Have you logged onto the Lexus owners club site? They're very friendly and very enthusiastic (although I fear some of them wear their baseballcaps reversed!).
|
"17-19mpg is usual on the new GS, so seems perfectly acceptable for the old one. Obviously you can get this to 25+ at constant speeds above 40."
Sorry, but that just ain't so. You'd be hard pushed to get less than 25 even around town on the new GS, and I regularly get over 30 on my 98 model (first year of the newer shape).
Utterly fantastic car.
|
|
|
