jdotno

i currently own a 2003 Acura TL and upon graduating from physical therapy school, im set on buying my first Lexus

the car im set on buying is a 06 Lexus GS300 (70k miles) for $25k

im currently having a mechanic inspect the car

my question is how much can i expect to pay yearly for maintaining the car (tune ups, oil changes, etc.)

my current acura spends a lot of time in the shop

BinaryJay

For small regular maintenance jobs you can basically pay the same as a Toyota by servicing at Toyota. All of the records will be available for warranty purposes as they share the service databases.

With 70K miles, make sure your mechanic looks for signs of rough idle or choking when slowing to a stop (valve spring, carbon issue - there are TSBs for that but with 70K you won't be covered). I'd recommend paying a little more for a car that gives you at least 6 months of powertrain warranty to get the costly gremlins out of the system that the previous owner may have ignored.

Also make them look at the cabin air filter to make sure that nobody broke the mechanism in the past as that's another expensive job that won't really be something anybody thinks to look at ahead of time and recirculate won't work correctly if it's broken.

Thirdly, verify that the sun shade works smoothly and as expected as it's expensive to fix and seems like it's another thing that might go that nobody would look for.

And fourthly, verify that the side mirrors point downwards in reverse (with the pull down console either L or R buttons lit up) and return to their original positions when in park or drive as the mirror gears are also a pretty common boggle.

Oh yes, one more thing... a lot of people complain about rattles in the dash etc. Make sure you drive it over some rough roads and confirm that any odd noises that you hear are noises that you'll be able to live with. If you're not extremely picky, and I'm guessing you aren't since it's your first luxury brand car (well, you have an Acura but somehow most would feel the Acura TL isn't really in the same segment), it's not a big deal but sometimes it's either really bad or some people are really picky and can drive them mad. Since you live somewhere hot, and the noises seem to be worsened by cold plastics, it's probably ok.

By the way, what's gone wrong with your TL... I've always understood that they are solid cars.

jdotno

^^ appreciate it man

and you said i can have it serviced at a toyota dealer.. would it be smart to do repairs at the toyota dealer too? or would i need to go a specialty lexus mechanic

BinaryJay

Toyota technicians get the same training that Lexus ones do. There may be some exceptions with some of the leading edge technology on the latest Lexus models but for the most part there isn't anything in an 06 Lexus that the Toyota people haven't already worked on.

Same can be said about independent shops with technicians with the same training. Toyota and even independent shops have access to the same service bulletins and repair procedures online that the Lexus dealers do (thanks to government intervention).

There are some things that I will still bring my Lexus to Lexus for, but only out of some kind of loyalty for their help recently in working out a bunch of warranty issues. They have screwed up a few times but they have been fixing their mistakes and I do kind of feel like I owe them some regular full-rate maintenance patronage.