I have a 2007 RX350 that's passed the 110k mark. While it has life in it I'm worried about a few things in it and kind of want to upgrade to the newer RX350 for it's features and to for once have a car that isn't 10 years old.

Doing some research it seems the newer generations seem to suffer from leakly timing chain covers. How big of an issue is this? How important is it that it gets repaired and if it does get repaired, what are the chances that issue comes back?

Also in the 2007-2009 models I know people have complained about the waterpump. Is that still an issue? Have the improved the design to prevent failure?

 

Also the suspension might be different:
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/rx-...d-threads.html

 

These are among the most reliable vehicles being built, however, all vehicles have their quirks and a few weak areas.

The leaking timing chain cover is a relatively rare occurrence and actually a very small leak. However it is very expensive to repair as the engine must be removed. The leak itself appears to be more of a nuisance and a minor mess as opposed to catastrophic oil loss, which is what happens if you have the tow package and did not replace the rubber oil cooler hoses with the upgraded metal ones and the rubber hoses fail.

Water pump is not really an issue with these vehicles.

However they do have a few other quirks such as leaking rear shocks, and the earlier ones had rear trailing arm bushing issues.

The third generation has regular shocks in the rear, not struts like your vehicle. Lexus did this to increase cargo room as struts are taller and intrude more into the side cargo area. However, shocks are cheap to buy and easy to replace.

It depends on what year vehicle you are looking to get and how many miles it has. They did a mild refresh around 2013, I think.