Hey Scotty long time fan. I’m from Canada but we recently escaped to the US Heartland and bought an 03 Lexus GS300 with 230k miles for 2900 cash, runs and drives good. We replaced the timing belt because we had no idea when it was done last but otherwise how long can this car last if we baby it and what should we look out for?
God bless you
under 3k isnt much at all for a car. If it runs & shifts okay then yeah you did well. Give the body/ suspension components a look for any rust or excessive ware/play in like your ball joints, wheel bearings, etc. Keep an eye on the oil and coolant for the first few weeks of driving to make sure its not leaking or burning them. If not then id say you did well.
Thanks for the info. I hit the frame all over gently with a hammer and it felt very solid, put it up on jacks and checked for any play but there wasn’t any, my mechanic said he suspects they did a lot of suspension work on it because typically these cars have issues before 200k km with ball joints. It also looks like previous owners replaced all 6 spark plugs which is really nice, car still runs extremely smooth and shifts good but I’ve only been driving it for a few days now, I feel a lot safer with a new timing belt as I found a marking on the engine that said it was last changed at 96km so it was way passed being replaced.
If it runs well, yes you did.
good deal!
people are trying to sell cars with blown engines down here for $3000
Dang you are one of the lucky ones to get one such good of a deal. As long you don't have problems in that particular vehicle, I think you should be fine.
Deal.
