After a few months of looking, i got this 2002 lexus gs300. Car is a sport design from Florida with 62k miles. It also has OEM HIDs which took me forever to find a car with, the self leveling feature was worth trying to find one. All the badges are taken off right now, but are in the glovebox and the blackwood has been switched at some point, but strangely I've never really been a fan of it. It does drive different from the normal gs300's i drove, but i am not sure if it was due to it being a sport design, or it having low miles. This is my second Lexus, the one i still have is an es300 with 208k miles so I'm eager to make an upgrade. No plans besides new tint and hardwired radar detector and radar jammer. The door locks and the suspension stuff have also been gone over so all that is good and the timing belt has also been changed. Sorry for the long post, here are a few pictures, i have no idea how to make them smaller.

 

Two more, sorry for the bad pics, will be taking more soon

 

That look's very clean. Any plans to mod or are you gonna keep it clean and stock?

 

No plans to modify, i have ASA AR1 wheels with snow tires Im putting on but thats it. Retint the windows and get a built in laser-jammer installed.

 

Very clean, low miles, nice find!!

 

give it time, mod bug will hit u

 

How do you know it's a Sport Design model? It doesn't have a rear lip spoiler. Doesn't have blackwood. Doesn't have sport design badges on the fenders. Doesn't have grey head lights. Are the badges in the glove compartment black chrome? Does it say "Sport Design" on the ash tray? Does it say "Sport Design" on the front floor mats? (It's reasonable to believe a car with low miles has the original floor mats. My 117k mile Sport Design does).

Just curious. I don't see a single hallmark of the Sport Design model in your pics. But I also don't know everything about these things so I am genuinely curious as to how you can tell besides "the seller told me so".

Edit: So...out of curiosity I did some more research. It seems that some of the styling queues between 2002 and 2003 Sport Design models changed. Such as the gunmetal colored headlight bezels, floor mats and lip spoiler. I notice perforated leather in the photo of your front seat and, apparently, that perforated leather was only available in Sport Design models. Also, I didn't realize the black wood in 2002 and earlier models was actually BLACK wood. In my 2003 model it's a dark stain - but not quite as dark as what was in earlier years. So I'm not shocked a previous owner opted to switch it out. I think it looks better as it sits now.

 

Yup wont take long

 

You're right on all those points except he does have the silver HU and his leather is also perforated with silver piping.. Which only comes with SD cars. It is odd that he doesn't have anything else though.

 

while i know this isnt definitive but he says all the SD badges are in the glovebox (and yes i know someone could have bought them and thrown them in there). i dont see why someone would go through the trouble to "unsport design it" unless it was a theft recovery and someone replaced all the stolen SD stuff with regular 2001+ stuff. BTW not all sport designs have grey headlights

OP easiest way to find out if it is a SD is to run the vin

 

Yeah. Per my earlier edit - looks like 2002 to 2003 was a bit of a change in the aesthetic features of a Sport Design model. So comparing it to mine wasn't an accurate gauge. Also - it's obvious the previous owner had some very specific taste in terms of how he/she wanted it to look. They changed out all the wood and debadged it. The black perforated leather is a pretty big give-away. The photos of the exterior are kinda harsh lighting - but it looks like the wheels also might be the gunmetal color that came on SD models.

 

Everything but the black wood that are present on the SD model is present. Darkened wheels, check. perforated seats, check. gray piping, check. Chromed grill (OEM not the DIY), check. Badging present, check. Like i had said, it is a verified sport design, as in i looked it up on the website and through a member here who printed out all options this car had when new, but i guess people here don't read they just look at the pictures. And 2002- sport designs had different badging, sills, and seats/wood. 2003 SD models had the dark lights, lip spoiler, BUT did not have the dakr wood and had a wood steering wheel. I wouldn't call it a sport design, if it werent a sport design. The only thing it doesn't have is the wood which again, said was removed and changed in the original post, but like i said people don't read, they just look at pictures.

 

And the radio faceplate i forgot about that, i on't buy cars without doing my research. Surprised even with the seats, wheels, radio, and information given, people didn't believe me because of the wood.

 

grey piping seats are a huge indicator of sport design

2002 to 2003 DID change, 2003 is the first SD they used the thin BMW looking spoiler and did major things with the sport design. My 2002 sport design does NOT have the spoiler. it also does not have any Sport Design badges besides the 1 underneath the radio and the different color headunit and AC / Climate control

 

nice rare find
welcome to the 2GS side of the forums