Hey everyone! Joined today because I just got approved for a loan and am ready to finally get myself a car I want! (The wife got her car first, lol.)

Anyway, I am a very inquisitive person and am mechanically inclined, though I prefer to not have to use my inclinations. Fixing cars gets expensive and I prefer to spend my money scuba diving.

...well, I've said too much, haha. Off too the FAQ and DIY sticky to get all the info I need for my imminent purchase! AWAY! *whoosh*

 

Welcome to Club Lexus, glad you could join us

 

Welcome! Hope you enjoy the car and us here at Club Lexus

 

Hello and welcome! Glad you are deciding to join the Lexus family, you will be happy!

 

Welcome my interesting feller

 

Phew. That's a lot of reading! But! Now I think I know exactly what I want.

Here we go:

2008 Lexus IS 250/350
Under 80,000 miles
Exterior Color: Obsidian/Black Sapphire Pearl/Smokey Granite Mica (In that order)
Interior Color: Cashmere only.
Luxury Package (I have an irrational love of illuminated scuff plates, and want HID's.), Nav and ML are nice but not needed.

The only thing left is the price. My max budget is $20k.

I have my work cut out for me, no? =D

 

West hollyweird

 

That's the best intro i've seen yet!!! Welcome fellow scuba diver. I scuba for work (firefighter for San Francisco) and do rescue and body recovery work. Most recently to recover airplane parts in the bay from the 777 that crashed at the San Francisco Airport. Hawaii in one week and can't wait to see CLEAR water and visibility!! WELCOME

 

One word of advice, don't get stuck thinking that if you get a '07 or '06 that because it's older it's not that great. If you find a gem of a '06 with low miles at the right price, you'll not regret it.

By the way, if you can afford the few MPGs lower mileage the 350 gets, you'll not regret it! Reading up on here you'll soon find yourself finding those with the 250 soon wishing they had the 100 extra ponies.

 

That sounds like an awesome job

 

You actually addressed the TWO conflicts I had. Here are my thoughts.

On Edmunds, they list reliability ratings for previous years, and basically the reason I wanted 2008 is because the 2006 and 2007 years had... issues. Here are links:

http://www.edmunds.com/lexus/is-350/...ml?style=&sub=

http://www.edmunds.com/lexus/is-250/...ml?style=&sub=

Now, since reliability is my NUMBER ONE CONCERN, I stuck with the 2008. Are my inhibitions unfounded? I basically want a car that I will NEVER have to take to the shop. Ever. Lexus was rated top 3 by JD Power and Consumer Reports, ergo... here I am. My last car was an Audi and though I loved her performance, let's just say that I never want to have to work on a car ever again (unless it's for upgrades, of course =P).

As for the 250 vs 350... my max budget is $20k, and it's very difficult to find a low mileage 350 for less than that. Even with 2006 being an option.

 

Well welcome to CL! You are choosing a good path my friend, especially being smart and spending on scuba diving because that alone is already expensive.

 

Anybody happen to be willing to address my concerns, lol?

 

Sure! Those listed issues are for the "cam gear grind" upon start-up issue. Basically the cam gear loses its lubrication from sitting (especially in the summer heat), and upon start-up the motor has an unappealing "grinding" noise for a second until fresh oil is tossed onto it. With that said, if you search on CL here for "cam rattle", you'll soon see this is common problem throughout the model years...not just the early '06-'07 model years. Hell, on my '06 350 I experience this problem about 5-6 times a year; but have I done anything about it? NOPE! I've read that others having had this issue, had Lexus replace the "bad" cam gears for designed ones, only to return a few months later to say they're still experiencing the issue. The issue is an inherent design flaw I think, and no matter what "designed" parts you throw at the issue, it'll come back. The cure...a fresh oil change; basically when I hear the rattle is when I know it's time to refresh the oil.

With all that said, it is actually very few of these cars that have this problem; and actually not of all of the known issues with the 2IS model, the cam rattle is the only problem I have (which I can ignore).

I purchased my '06 350 (31k miles) with sports pkg w/ NAV back in April '11 for <$21k OTD. So you can find them out there; you'll just have to be patient.

 

Welcome to CL!!!