Havent been on this forum for a while (life got in the way).

A few weeks ago my poor TL was involved in a rear end accident and deemed a total loss. It had 94k problem free miles.

yeah..the exhaust tip is about 1' too far forward..



At first I wanted another 3G, so I test drove a TL-S and another 06 6MT and it just wasnt the same (06 seemed slower? leather interior wasnt as clean/nice also the price was too high at 111k miles for 15k. TL-S was beat and already had a new clutch at 79k miles). I took this opportunity to try something different.

Picked up a 2007 GS350 with 89k miles for 15.8k. A little high but the price was in line with others on the market in worse condition. This one also has the Mark Levinson system and parking assist. Everything else was fairly clean save for a few exterior scratches that i can deal with.

Already obtained all the 90k service items and changed the water pump (known issue on the 3.5L. Also thank god it has a timing chain.), drive belt, and air fliter yesterday. Will need to take it in for a transmission flush sometime this week.

Hope to keep this one for a while!



haha dunno, just thought i'd share. I just came out with a sore neck for 2 days after. It was great while it lasted. Met another 'ziner at Irvine autocross too not too long ago.

 

Hey Ezra!
glad to see that you came out unscathed! poor TL, but very happy and glad that you tried something else! enjoy the GS!! very classy ride!

 

Congrats! I've always loved the 3G GS; it's so classy. Isn't the Mark Levinson audio awesome!?

 

Gorgeous and as I get older, it seems a much better choice to buy older and not pay as much. Not to mention, the 3G is my favorite years of the GS, enjoy!

 

That is a beautiful GS!

FYI DO NOT ever do a tranny flush!!! Just drain and fill.

 

Sorry about the TL but glad you're OK.

Nice pickup with the GS. Definitely keep this thread updated as you mod it!

 

good thing you didn't get an '06 GS300 oil burner... those were a nightmare and still haunt their owners... i also went TL to GS... i love my 2GS, it's a rock solid car... enjoy it...

 

Thanks! good to see you're still active on a'zine! The 3G forum has always treated me well and i'm glad i was able to contribute some.

TY! Yes! haha i drove 2 other GS350s (non ML) and they were both missing sub woofers and just had a hole in the rear deck. Neither dealer caught it.

Agreed. I noticed a trend in vehicle prices going up and up, almost seems like they want to encourage leasing vs. buying. I didnt want to spend too much out of pocket and get a new low end civic haha..

Thanks! oops...i just dropped it off at newport lexus. It seemed that people on clublexus were recommending it because people's transmissions were blowing up after 100k with the WS "lifetime" fluid. Have you heard otherwise?

Thanks and thanks! haha i dunno if i'll ever mod it other than make some maintenance DIYs... My TL was more or less stock when it got broken haha. I did throw in a F sport dry filter haha

Yeah i definitely researched a bit before jumping the gun. Not only did the 300 have issues with oil but also it only had direct injection a la IS250 of the same vintage. Carbon build up cleaning every 30k only to get worse as the car ages? Nope! 350 has both port and direct injection which helps alleviate this issue. Mine had a pretty obvious water pump leak but that's all good and fixed. Just happy i didnt have to pull the timing belt off like when i did the TL haha.

Thanks!

 

buddy had a 2006 GS430 which he wrapped around the tree (says he loved it more than the new car) and now he has a 2010 LS460. He loves his lexus.

 

Ouch, man I see so many 3Gs getting totaled/wrecked this past few weeks its like a terrible curse. Also op whomever trying to sell a 06 TL MT for 15k is smoking nice fine stuff...lol (unless its "museum" quality with corresponding miles/maintenance/upkeep or has some very interesting history behind it)

See lot of people moving on from the 3G to Lexus/Audi/CTS/etc. not surprising.

But good pickup on the GS.

If I were to be in the market for that generation of GS I'd really want to see if I can find the 08-11 GS460. Now that would be a very sporty but also luxurious sedan. Though a quick search seems like the GS460 is a bit harder car to find....

 

They're few and far between, but worth it. It's a very fun car

 

Yeah dude, was looking on a couple common sites (ebay, autotrader, CL) and there's literally 0 cars for sale!!!

Wow I wonder what the production number was...maybe was super low. But yeah reading that it can run to 60 in 5.4sec and with Lexus luxury/reliability and RWD and about 350hp....man definitely I wouldn't be selling it if I had one anytime soon!

 

Very nice, congrats and enjoy the car. More pics!

 

^^^^ +1

 

ah yeah that 06 TL was at a CarMax. It was on the way back from the TL-S test drive. They weren't sure if the timing belt was done, brake pads looked low, etc. 3rd gear was also iffy (totally forgot about that as my old TL had GM FM). I gave it a chance though since it was also abyss blue pearl or w/e they named it for that year.

As much as I liked (my) 3G TL the interior really deteriorated in its last few days. It had suddenly developed 4 large and very obvious dashboard cracks in the last 10 months (after being crack free for 4 years) and just a few weeks before the accident the cup holder lid broke off. Like it knew it was time. Everytime i thought about a 3G during car shopping i reminded myself i didnt want to deal with the interior again (nor the timing belt).

Will get more pics! it's a long week of work for me but i'll get em next week or so.

 

whoa didn't know the 3g Tl's still went for that much past 90K miles.

Was eyeing an 08 tl type s myself, @ nearly 80K the dude wanted 26K....PLEASE lol.

 

haha it was way too high. I bought my TL for 15k 4 years ago with 52k miles. That definitely put a damper on it being a potential car.


By the way I also have dashcam footage at the time of the accident. I cut out the call to 911 and the traffic break that CHP performed to let me get out of the middle of the freeway. people didn't stop and just kept going around. There was a good samaritan that stopped to check on us as well.

Oh also i guess ironically it was another Acura (integra) that hit me (also total loss. Front end was completely mangled). It was lowered and got under my car pushing that part of the frame in (you can see a crease in the door frame in the original pic). Even though the guy didn't run and also thankfully had insurance, I was glad i bought a dash cam not too long before this happened. Insurance quoted something like $8k to repair everything (quarter panel, trunk, exhaust, tail light, frame straightening)