Hello Scotty or/and other forum member.
My name is Roman, and I live in Israel.
I got my licence about 3+ years ago and got myself Scoda fabia 1.6 manual with 160K km from a driving teacher.
Because the car reaching 200k km soon, and its original clutch is on the way out, plus there is couple probblems with syncro in a few gears- i dont see a reason to continue investing in it.
I was looking to buy manual car, but there are a few problems:
Mazda Miata is hard to find and overpriced ( for example NA 1999 5-hand is around 90,000 nis- 26k$).
Honda Civic is made in Turkey or UK, and 90% of the manuals are moded by local kids.
And Corola are boring but sane and reliable. When I was lookin for Corola, some friend from work bought himself Lexus GS 300 for around 50k nis (15k$)- it's a steal compared to Miata for example.
I know its a not a manual, but If you buy comfortable and reliable Toyota why not for the better Lexus.
But becouse it's big car- I started to look for IS 250 Lexus from around 2008-2012.
It's price is around 15$, its V6 and RWD.
Is there anything special I need to watch out for when looking for one? I'm going to buy from private hands, only after full inspection (but stiil prefer to know about posible problems).
Thank you all in advence.
You may want to go to https://www.carcomplaints.com/Lexus/IS_250/
Somehow the #1 problem with 2007 one is "dashboard is melting"! And there are 260 Technical Service Bulletins!
Other years are MUCH better. What year is the one you are looking at?
Lexus IS 250 has 2.5 V6 GDI engine with 152kW. You can expect carbon 'infection'.
Be leery about oil leaks and consumption and, as mentioned before, dash melting.
When I will buy the Lexus, almost 100% (depends if the previous owners did, but I most definitely sure they didn't), I will clean from carbon buildup (by specialist) and add an oil catch can. And thank you for the info (sorry for the late replay).
You are welcome and good luck!
Great cars, but the mid-late 2000s Lexus cars tend to have their dashboard melt in hotter climates, I assume Israel gets a lot of sun. Watch out for that. Also, you might also want to look into an automatic Honda Civic. Your best bet for the Lexus would be the later the model year the better. Make sure to check out for the dash melting, if its not, have a mechanic check it out, if it passes, haggle and buy!
