standingpi

corradoMR2

Tough to answer your question since when buying a 15-20+ year old car (even a Lexus), it will be on a case-by-case basis and depend on how well it was maintained.

Check out the SC, GS, and LS forums if you haven't for specific owner feedback on what to look out for. Happy shopping!

Och

iTrader: (3)

Find a second generation GS300/400 or a 98+ LS400 or even 2001+ LS430. These cars are old, so prices should be within the same range.

MedicalDoc

Mileage on them?
We need more info.

xCWolf

I might be biased but I'd say the sc400, mostly because that's what I wanted and bought. Also, all those engines should last north of 250K

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

a 23 yr old 2 door coupe.
an 18 yr old 4 door sedan.
a 22 yr old large 4 door sedan

they're so vastly different it's hard to say - depends on what you want. they all drive nice but the sc300 is probably the most fun, the ls400 drives like a comfy boat and the gs300 is somewhere in between. treated well they should all go 200k mi. without major issues.

about safety, i personally wouldn't want to drive anything that old. there's no guarantee the airbags will work, no parking sensors, no blind spot monitoring, no rear view camera, no automatic braking, etc. but for their day they were definitely safe cars. all of them susceptible to cloudy headlights which is a pain or expensive to fix.

best of luck.

Fizzboy7

Generally, the newer the better. But each car is going to have been treated differently from it's owners. Look for accidents, repair histories, wear and tear, and the mileage count. While Lexus/Toyotas are built to last longer than most other brands, you are taking a risk with the age. Also consider a newer, lower mileage Toyota or Honda.

Aron9000

At this age, buy whatever car is in the best condition and has been the best maintained(the two usually go hand in hand). Miles aren't THAT important on a Lexus IMO, IE if one car has 75k on it and another has 150k on it, but the 150k mile car is a lot cleaner/better maintenance records, go with that car.

Keep in mind all the cars you are looking at have timing belts. Ask when the last time the belt was changed, look for a sticker under the hood. If you don't see a sticker indicating date/miles changed, assume it hasn't been done. Cars this age should be due for their 2nd, maybe 3rd timing belt service depending on miles(on the 2JZ-GE inline six cars its due every 60k miles).

Also in this vintage of Lexus, I'd just buy one with the V8 motor. More horsepower, similar gas mileage. You are tricking yourself if you think a 2JZ-GE(ie GS300 or SC300) car gets good gas mileage, they don't. Take it from somebody who owns one, its 17-18 in town, 22-23 on the highway, almost the same numbers as a V8 Lexus but with less horsepower. There is an exception, the 2JZ cars are very mod friendly, if you want to do a massive 500+hp turbo build, there is a huge aftermarket for that platform

standingpi

Johnhav430

Two things, two cars are 6 cyl, one is 8. Next, how much DIY can you do, and for what you cannot DIY, is there an indie that you can take the vehicle to and supply parts. I think this is like a trick question on the SATs, where there is no answer, it just wants to see how a person would formulate one...my .02 Since neither year, nor price is given, I would say d, none of the above.

standingpi

Johnhav430

These prices are so low, if you could get 2+ yrs out of any of these cars, it would be worth it. With the info provided, I'd go for the 2000 simply due to taking 3-4 years off the age. The 1998 GS400 was car of the year, so a 2000 GS has pretty nice underpinnings.....if any of these cars are northeastern cars or cars in the rust belt, and one were not, I would then gravitate to the one that was from the non rust belt state...

jgscott

iTrader: (1)

Funny no one else ever mentions it.

But...... at these mileages, considering engines are all ok, which likely they are for Lexus's motors. I would be really looking at more the Suspension components. Ball joints, control arms, bushings and other. Those could be a key. And could be costing $1k - $4k to replace and fix if shot.

All equal I would got for the GS.

UDel

I would go for the GS, it is newer and has the best combo of room, power, handling, pretty easy/cheaper to work on, they sold the most GS's. I would look for a 2001 GS430 though, it had the improved ball joints and the V8 power is just on another level then those 3 choices.