I just noticed the thread on the age of GS owners and was surprised to see that 35% of the owners fell into the 21-30 age group. Now I understand the high percentage of malicious abuse of the loaner vehicles.

 

Hey BadgerBolt, sorry to hear that. I just bought an ES350 and it has had some minor "creaks" I call them. I was going to buy the GS350 but nothing I researched was very good. Even Consumer Reports doesn't even recommend the GS350 anymore! So I paid about $6K less and went for the "higher" reliability rated ES. But if you notice, all Lexus as to internal creaks and rattles are now only rated average by CR and other sites too. We all like having Lexus' and hope that it is only the rattles and not engine or tranny issues. But when you expect no rattles and pay this much for a car, it gets a little frustrating. Good luck!

 

Its frustrating especially when the older Lexus doesnt have any rattle problem. Auto manufacturers are suppose to make cars better on every re-design, not go backwards.

 

Actually, my early build 2nd gen GS (12/98 build date) was a rattle trap. Numerous visits to the dealer alleviated much of the problem, but after 7 years of driving, there were many squeaks and rattles. No mechanical issues with the car, but the interior build quality was not great.

Alas, my somewhat early build 3rd gen GS also suffers from numerous rattles. Whenever I drive over uneven surfaces, the car makes all kinds of squeaks and rattles. The dealer hasn't been able to find a permanent fix, the rattles always seem to come back 1-2k miles after a service visit.

The GS430 has been my wife's daily driver for a couple months now. She quickly noticed all the rattles/squeaks present in the GS, especially since her previous car was rattle-free (an '06 E350).

Good luck with the repairs Badgerbolt. The GS is a great car, and has been very reliable for me. But based on my experiences (and numerous other owners on CL) the interior build quality has been dissappointing and has room for improvement.

 

Not to burst your bubble, but did you do any due diligence before buying the ES ? Search the ES350 forum, many owners have traded in or had Lexus buy back a ES350 due to a 'transmission flare'. It is apparently a design flaw that also affects the Camry. It's like russian-roulette, some cars have it while others don't. This 'flare' made my decision to upgrade to a 3GS alot easier . . .

 

I read in the ES forum that the ES and the IS have the same creaking and rattling issues. Even some LS have it.

 

^ Negative, in 17k miles my 2IS was creak & rattle free. Then again I'm in SoCal and this may be a symptom of cold weather climates . . .

 

As with you, this was my first Lexus. Traded in my Acura TL (02) which was rock solid, last year for a GS350 AWD in August. Wonderful trade. Then the cold hit (I'm in St. Louis). Main complaint was the styrofoam on styrofoam rubbing near the Nav system. Took it in, named the issue. Two days later got it back and it's been silent on that front so far. Granted it's still pretty new but my dealer seemed pretty responsive.

It's still a young car but am happy at the moment. (Negative side is that I never had to deal with this with Acura.)

 

I think it's 'hit or miss'... my 06 Acura RL had a TON or rattles... that was one of the reasons I traded back to Lexus. My GS has rattles too...and for my service visits, I've had an RX/IS/ES loaner... all of them had at least 'some' cabin squeeks and rattles. Of them the GS has been the worst, but I attribute that, at least partially, to my GS has the stiffest suspension by far. (IS was a close second).

 

Uh, what about the infamous Acura transmission issue - you never took your TL in for the recall ? I had a '02 Mdx and I fell under the recall - I unloaded it before I passed 50k miles (best move I EVER made). Any TL/CL/Mdx/Odyssey from 1999-2003 was a ticking time bomb, it wasn't a matter of IF, but WHEN the tranny will fail. Don't get me started, I personally know many folks that swore off Acura because of the Acura/Honda transmission fiasco. . .

Don't know about you, but I'd gladly suffer a few rattles as opposed to having my transmission randomly slam into pieces while doing 75 mph on a highway . . .

 

Call me old fashion, but I don't mistreat the Lexus loaners. I drive a loaner as if it were my car. Sure, I'll test the acceleration of a car I haven't driven before, but not much more than that. Generally I like to drive the car in a similar manner as my own car so I can compare it on aspects such as gas mileage, road noise, interior noise, comfort, etc.

 

Actually the 03 MDX had the redesign Acura transmission, you miss it by one year socalJD. I had a 03 MDX and sold it after 2 years. The MDX was full of rattles too among many many other problems. The worst part about the MDX's rattles is that the Acura dealer refuse to fix the rattles, calling it normal for a 12 month old car.

 

btw - what were the issues with A8?

 

I've got you beat G-Man!! I got rid of my 06 Acura RL because Acura Service told me that my new car burning 1 qt of oil every 5k mi was NORMAL. When I complained to Acura Customer Service they said their 'Tech Manual' states that up to 1qt every 1k mi was "Within operating standards". They refused to even look into it. So I called my Service Department and said, "I found a fix for my oil consumption problem"...He said, "Really, What's that?"... I replied... "I traded it in for a Lexus... "

 

If you look at the GS manual it will likely say something very similar to what you were told by the dealer about your Acura, the ES manual does about oil use of that volume being normal.

Maybe it is a Japanese built car thing, but seemed excessive to me, though do know engines will consume oil and that is why it is a good idea to check it every now and then between service appointments.