MPLexus301

iTrader: (3)

I actually just KBBed that GS 430 and current value is only $15,285. I placed an email to the dealership inquiring about the car so I should speak to them on Monday.

Any other advice, opinions, or input would be greatly appreciated.

Mr.412

$1-2K for paint??
what do you have to paint

MPLexus301

iTrader: (3)

If I decide to keep my 300 then I will want to repaint the entire car. That is one of the reasons that I think buying a different car could be advantageous. If I can buy a GS430 for say 15.5K otd and sell my 300 for even 14.5 or 15K then I am actually in a better position financially because if I keep the 300 ill be dumping 1-2K into it for paint. I will have to pay someone labor costs to swap the parts between cars but that would be it.

exodus_2

iTrader: (15)

man if my SD had saddle i would have done it already. ^^
and paint the 430 to graphite gray pearl which was only availabe for SD.
since i don't have saddle if i do it won't look so much different. ohhh don't forget about the SD emblem on the fender...

LEXUS_KID

iTrader: (4)

Keep what you have and mod the hell out of it

MPLexus301

iTrader: (3)

I know that everyone keeps saying that but I think I would rather go OEM V8 than try to do a turbo build (which is also quite expensive). The smoother ride of the V8 would be a big plus as well.

TheKoosh

no offense, but buying a car with a larger engine is one of the most ridiculous suggestions i've heard to improve fuel economy even if most of your driving is all highway. sure i've seen people on here claim 27mpg on a 430, but my 430's best-EVER highway mileage was ~23.5 and that was on a highway trip with my smaller-diameter snow tires. i'm sure as hell willing to bet that 22-23mpg is what you're far more likely to expect on the highway, and that's not a big enough gain to make any of this worth it IMO. maybe higher than that is possible but you'd have to be so gentle with the bloody throttle that it'd almost completely negate the whole reason you bought a v8... no matter what you do, it's a 3700lbs car with a 5-speed transmission and tho it gets better mileage than most v8's of its year/class i'm sure, it's no honda civic.

plus, you seem to be at the very least a little bit concerned about resale value. making drastic changes to any car is not going to help its resale at all, and in the end, a lot of people end up regretting it financially. my advice is probably counter to most people here, but if you really want to own two very-similar copies of the same car, i say just sell your existing ride and buy something nicer in general. you want 300hp and better hwy fuel economy, buy a used 6-speed 335 or g35 in the $20k range and have one car that is faster/handles better than the GS out of the box. if you must have a v8, get a used c6 corvette in the upper $20k's and get 27mpg hwy on any given day.

MPLexus301

iTrader: (3)

Hey Koosh,

Appreciate the post and you make some very valid points.

When you say that you typically only get ~23MPG how fast do you typically drive on the highway and what are the conditions like? One of the reasons that the 3.0L I6 gets such poor gas mileage is because it's such a high revving engine. Due to this it's obviously fun in spirited driving but once I start cruising on the highway it gets old when the car is revving at 3,000rpms and I am only going 70mph. From what I have seen most 430 owners roughly break even with 300 gas mileage but do a little better on long highway trips...like I said- 26-27MPG.

G35, Corvette and 3 Series are good suggestions but I do want to stick with a GS for right now. I really like the looks, quality, dependability, reliability, and overall design of our cars and have been a long time Toyota/Lexus guy.

Thanks for the post

sakataj

iTrader: (182)

y is this missing the automatic shift ****?

IF YOU DO THIS...can i trade u the tan interior from my 2001 gs430 for the black interior of the 2003 gs430 your wanting to buy?

MPLexus301

iTrader: (3)

A lot of car dealers take off the ***** for some reason. If you look in one of the pics you can see it but it looks like the RX shift **** which is not the same color as the GS wood...so we'll have to see what they have.

As for the swap....wouldn't that warrant swapping entire interiors? Carpets, door panels, dash, and everything?

TheKoosh

take a look at: https://www.clublexus.com/forums/gs-...mileage-2.html

that poll is kinda screwy because they lumped in the v6 and v8's, but if you look through the responses there are very few people reporting over 23mpg hwy. there's a few outliers (one v8 with 27mpg on the first page), but i'm not so sure about that. for me, the majority of my highway driving is at 65/70mph. the 23.5 figure i got was at about 80mph on perfectly flat highways, and i'd reset the MPG counter after i'd already been up to speed so even that was a tiny bit biased.

what exactly is your mileage now? high revs aren't the only factor, my RSX-S used to get 27mpg mixed/29mpg on the highway doing 75-80mph on average, and with a 2.0l 4-cyl and a ridiculous final drive, you can bet i wasn't cruising at 1500rpms, haha.

MPLexus301

iTrader: (3)

My combined mileage now is 19-20mpg as per the readout from the nav. I live downtown and do a good bit of city driving which eats up gas pretty quickly but highway mileage is typically like 22-23mpg though there have been some times where on perfectly flat roads at about 65mph the car can approach 29-30mpg or so. Then again this is all as per the nav and I have heard the readout there can be quite off.

TheKoosh

that seems about what i'm getting (also via the nav readout) minus the whole 29-30mpg part, haha.

MPLexus301

iTrader: (3)

Unfortunately the 29-30mpg thing has only happened twice that I can remember

I am just wondering if it's worth the extra 75HP and smoothness of the V8 since the mileage difference is negligible or better in the 430.

sakataj

iTrader: (182)

weird... wonder y they do that....

yes it would....u up for it?