Lol mine has like 43K on it now (2015) and no signs at all of anything screwy going on. All I've had to replace is consumables like tires, oil, etc. I am sure eventually some repairs (or advanced maintenance) will be needed but I doubt it will be debilitating. I bought the car because it's one of the most reliable in class.

-Mike

 

I think it cost $65 for front pads on my '15 GS350 F-Sport and the pads for the my '04 ES330 (non F-sport) were only $22.95. So about three times as expensive.

 

43k is nothing, and 3 years old is nothing. Wait until they're 10+ years old and have 100k+ miles. There will be repairs as there will be on any cars, and at that point the ES will be cheaper to maintain and repair. Its not going to be debilitating, but it will be more which was the question. The LS will be even more on top of the GS.

If somebody is just getting a new one and keeping it for 3 years then it really doesn't matter.

 

True enough, but outside of things like air ride suspension and the like, Most of the costliest things can be dealt with on these cars. These aren't MBs with 2000 dollar (ea) shock absorbers. I just don't see how a GS owner that keeps a car past 100K is really going to balk at throwing a little money at it. This isn't a car that people buy focusing on lowest possible TCO. Frankly if an ES is "good enough" for someone, by all means, they should buy that instead and reap the savings. Also, outside of air ride issues (which can be circumvented somewhat) how is the LS that much more costly? That's kinda funny considering there are a crapload of high mileage LS430s out there. IMHO most long term owners of Lexus sedans only really get rid of them because they get bored, not because the car is non viable. Hell, My dad just got a new ES 350 and he almost didn't want to get rid of his 05 ES 330... which I'm now using as a beater/backup car. I got another 40K till the timing belt needs to be done again, and by then I might end up offloading it, but it still works pretty damned good for a car that's well over 10 years old.

-Mike

 

 

I'm not disputing any of that, but the question was will a GS be more expensive to maintain and repair than an ES and the answer to that question is yes. That doesn't mean its going to be "extremely expensive", it just means it will be more expensive. I would choose the GS over the ES every time.

Remember I've had 4 LSes, one to almost 200k miles, another to around 100k miles. The LS is also an extremely reliable car but they are definitely more expensive to maintain than a GS or ES. Parts are expensive, LS460s have 8 control arms in the front suspension that need to be replaced at some point, which is an extremely expensive job at Lexus. All LS models have soft bushings and things that need to be replaced if you're going to maintain the ride characteristics of them when they're new. The 460 holds nearly 10 quarts of synthetic oil, they have two engine air filters, air filters in the seats, two cabin air filters, definitely more money to maintain than a GS or ES.