Farewell to my IS220D

Monocle · January 26, 2018

Hi All,

After 8 years, 130k miles and a few headaches, I am moving on from my IS220D. Heading over from Ireland to pick up a 2014 GS450H F Sport on Tuesday week!

Thank you to all for the excellent help and advice I received over the years. Genuinely kept my car going at times!

I know that the car gets a lot of flack but it has served me very well and also fed my interest in DIY car repairs (not everyone's cup of tea!). Honestly, I will miss it.

(alloys upgraded since photo!)

Farqui · January 26, 2018

Hi Peter, good to see that you are staying with Lexus.

What swung your decision to choose the GS450H ?

Monocle · January 26, 2018

Hi Lee,

Ha, a tricky question!

I had been so impressed with my previous Lexus that it was an easy decision to stay with the brand. Also, my regular drive on a daily basis has swung a bit more urban than it had been so a hybrid seemed like a great option for me. Other factors such as car tax (in Ireland on the IS220D is about €1,100 versus about €300 on the GS450H) and fuel consumption (at the moment for me is about 30mpg diesel so if I got anywhere close to 40mpg in petrol, I would be savings about €1,500 per annum) really help with the finances!

I had a GS450H for a weekend about two years ago and enjoyed every minute of it. I also had a short drive (20 mins) in a IS330H around the same time and it just fell a bit short for me. Really well finished and comfortable but the extra pull from the GS drew me in.

I did think about a third gen GS (lovely looking car) but I have a history of holding on to cars for a long time so it made sense to buy a newer model.

Farqui · January 26, 2018

So this isn't an impulse purchase then.

I'm sure you'll find your GS a blast.

Crumbs, that's quite a difference in tax!

Monocle · January 26, 2018

Definitely not an impulse purchase - a long, long time saving for it

Yeah, really looking forward to it. A nice six hour drive to the ferry when I pick it up will get me well accustomed!

Shahpor · January 26, 2018

I am very jealous Peter, lucky you

That is a long time to own any car, so it is nice to see a IS220d serve you well.

At some point I too would like to move up to a GS, but I am also going to miss my 220d when it's gone.

Monocle · January 26, 2018

1 minute ago, Shahpor said:

I am very jealous Peter, lucky you

That is a long time to own any car, so it is nice to see a IS220d serve you well.

At some point I too would like to move up to a GS, but I am also going to miss my 220d when it's gone.

Thanks Shahpor, I'll keep you posted on how it goes! Hopefully I'll sell it to someone local so I can see how it ages!!!

Linas.P · January 26, 2018

7 hours ago, Monocle said:

Heading over from Ireland to pick up a 2014 GS450H F Sport on Tuesday week!

Very interesting, because GS450h in my opinion is the only car in Lexus line-up which can be considered and upgrade for IS mk2. As such this is pretty much the only car I am looking after at the moment - great engine (sadly no 2 door option). Will be interesting to hear your impressions moving to GS and best luck with your new purchase.

Rebecca · January 26, 2018

I actually miss my IS220d too. Although I had a few issues with the vehicle it was my first Lexus and I felt so proud to own it.

You certainly won't be disappointed with the GS450h. My grandad also has this model and it's absolutely superb.

I've been a passenger on several occasions and believe me this car is properly quick. Infact it feels almost as quick as my IS-F.

WetMyBeak · January 26, 2018

Rebecca, can I have a go of your ISF please?

JamieG4454 · January 27, 2018

Can we form a queue for Rebeccas IS-F then please?

ahmedali44 · February 1, 2018

Probably Have to buy a Groupon voucher to drive is-f

Middleman · February 11, 2018

Congratulations on your new purchase.

Having just joined the forum and purchased a 220D I'm just happy to see a few people who were relatively happy with theirs. Only picked my car up and was ready for putting a for sale ad up after being on here. Touch wood the car doesn't appear to have any issues and has been pampered by it's previous owners. Is it not the truth then that each and every one is a time bomb? Having come from VAG and Volvos I was beginning to believe that all Lexi had issues, petrol and diesel.

Shahpor · February 11, 2018

It is certainly not truth that they are time bombs.

I wouldn't take what is said here to heart; it is a truism that you mostly hear about the problem cars because inevitably people go on forums to ask questions when something goes wrong. I am sure there are plenty of IS220d/IS250's out there plodding along nicely.

Speaking from experience, mine has given me 28k trouble free miles and counting.

Run it properly, do the little extra maintenance tips that are mentioned here and there's nothing to suggest it will give you any trouble.

Middleman · February 11, 2018

48 minutes ago, Shahpor said:

It is certainly not truth that they are time bombs.

I wouldn't take what is said here to heart; it is a truism that you mostly hear about the problem cars because inevitably people go on forums to ask questions when something goes wrong. I am sure there are plenty of IS220d/IS250's out there plodding along nicely.

Speaking from experience, mine has given me 28k trouble free miles and counting.

Run it properly, do the little extra maintenance tips that are mentioned here and there's nothing to suggest it will give you any trouble.

On here isn't even as bad as the Facebook group where there seems to be a real anti diesel/anti electric sentiment. The seller I bought the car off was a Lexus enthusiast who did buy the IS220d because he was doing 20k+ a year. He was meticulous with his maintenance regime on the car and did all the maintenance mentioned here and in the Lexus schedule. I might replace it with a petrol or hybrid when I'm ready for a change depending on how my experience goes but I am realistic that it is a machine and machines do wear, all I can do is attempt to prevent. At the money I paid for the car if it does develop a serious fault as mentioned on here and it's not economically viable to fix I'll move on. The Volvo owners club were very good. Lots of supportive help no matter what model you owned and there are particular problems with certain engines in that range too. Kind of gone off topic here but a positive thread regarding the 220d seemed hard to come by at least on here.

Linas.P · February 12, 2018

It is not as much of the issue of the car, but more of the issue the way people drive them. Modern diesels are not suitable (at all) for short journeys and low miles. In addition to that IS220d had relatively weak head-gasket which was prone to failure, slightly weird gearbox (more suitable for EU 90MPH limit, not so much for 70MPH) and therefore these cars seen more breakdowns then other makes. At the same time say BMW320d had issues with timing belts and plastic pumps, 325d had issues with belts and turbines and all of modern diesels driven on sort journeys have issues with ERG/DPF's.. so IS220d issues are not isolated to the brand or car, yet it is as well true that it is least reliable car of the brand and the head gasket is weak on pre-FL cars, which is as well true.

Middleman · February 12, 2018

37 minutes ago, Linas.P said:

It is not as much of the issue of the car, but more of the issue the way people drive them. Modern diesels are not suitable (at all) for short journeys and low miles. In addition to that IS220d had relatively weak head-gasket which was prone to failure, slightly weird gearbox (more suitable for EU 90MPH limit, not so much for 70MPH) and therefore these cars seen more breakdowns then other makes. At the same time say BMW320d had issues with timing belts and plastic pumps, 325d had issues with belts and turbines and all of modern diesels driven on sort journeys have issues with ERG/DPF's.. so IS220d issues are not isolated to the brand or car, yet it is as well true that it is least reliable car of the brand and the head gasket is weak on pre-FL cars, which is as well true.

Funny you should say that as my other car that I still own is a 2014 Volvo diesel which i have been doing circa 8k a year in without issue. Its a Peugeot/Citroen PSA engine. I am aware of the head gasket issues with the D4D's so i suppose I took a chance as I didn't actually need a diesel but couldn't find the spec I wanted in a petrol. Mine is a sport so I'm LED to believe it has different ratios to the SE and doesn't seem to suffer from the 'weird gearbox issue' that I can see. I'll keep on top of maintenance, take it for good long run once a week to let it regen and see how it goes, have RAC cover to get it lifted if required.

Would be interesting to see the stats on how many 220ds were sold and what sort of mileages people have managed to get without head gasket problems just to put things in some sort of perspective. There are review sites online that do have some good reviews and it people are more likely to leave a bad review than a good one. Seems to me there are so many variables on why these things go wrong that it is hard to point to one exact cause.

Linas.P · February 13, 2018

As for the sales numbers over the years there were ~8500 IS250s and ~5200 IS220/200d's sold. This means there are almost twice as much IS250, yet far less reported issues with the model. The biggest issue by far is brake calipers maintenance (which is not exactly failure) which applies to both IS220d and IS250, the second issue is DMF on manual gearboxes - again issue for all manual IS220d and IS250. As far as automatic IS250 goes there are no known weakness of the model.

I am not trying to talk you out of the car (that would be late by now anyway), just want to be clear on the facts - IS220d (especially when comparing with any other Lexus or IS250) is less reliable. That is not to say it is less reliable then other diesel cars of similar age and condition, but at the same time behind the curve of Lexus benchmark i.e. "I buy Lexus because it is reliable", that doesn't count for IS220d.

As for any other diesel car, the maintenance cost is direct trade-off for any saving you can make on fuel. That usually means one would need to do 20k+ miles a year to at least break even. Now you said you will stay on to of maintenance, yet you probably going to do low miles... I am not in position to question your choice, but that is clearly not the most economical option and considering petrol car is much better drive... that is where I end.

Monocle · February 13, 2018

In general I think is220d owners for the most part were disappointed with the fuel efficiency. As a result, some were driven too gently. This in turn created issues around carbon build up as temperatures were never consistently high enough to burn it off. This then caused DPF issues and back pressures.

Also, I am an advocate for the car. But it needs care. Enjoy it!

Linas.P · February 14, 2018

I guess motorway mileage was reasonable, but because most bought it for city driving for which is completely not suitable the stated official mileage could have been perceived as misleading. Still no clue why automatic gearbox wasn't offered.