New Is250 Owner

[mike5im5]

Hi all,

Having sold my beloved S2000 for sensible reasons (expanding family), I've just put a deposit down on a 2006 IS250 SE with reasonably high miles (91k). Reason for choosing the Lexus was the reliability reputation compared to other cars I could afford.

I see there are a lot of owners on here with engine problems (mainly IS220 owners).

Are the issues with the early cars (circa 2006) only to do with the diesel enginer or should I have some concerns with my is250 petrol?

Any recommendations/checks I should have carried out straight away?

I'm a believer that money is well spend on keeping a car in tip top condition so have no qualms with regular services with a main dealer. We've got a nipper on the way in the coming months so having a dependable motor is my main aim here.

Anyway, thanks in advance for any advice. Happy to have joined your community!

Mike

[normski2]

Hi and welcome.

The engine issues are pretty much all to do with the 220d. You should not have those concerns with the 250. The 250 auto is a splendid piece of kit all round. Please tell me you are looking at the auto. Auto road tax is £280 and manual is £460. I assume you have FLSH with the car?

The only issues I have read about with the early 250's was some excessive oil burning and something described as 'piston slap' on start up. You may want to check these out. Hopefully you'll hear from some early 250 owners.

You may have some issues with Iphone integration as Lexus were a bit slow making things talk to each other. Sat nav if you have it, will not have full postcode entry.

Expect fuel consumption in the region of 27 - 38mpg. I get 27 - 30 around town and short journeys. Up to 38 on a decent run.

[mike5im5]

Thanks for the quick reply!

Yes it's an auto with FLSH. So that's good news.

It's the SE, without the navigation pack unfortunately. However I find the Iphone navigation options as good as most OEM units these days. No need to update maps either. There's also a parrot car kit for the Iphone, so just looking at a way to put music through the OEM stereo. Assume there's a AUX port?

My other reservation with the IS was the lack of folding rear seats. Seems very strange they decided not to have this on a saloon.

[bobbyc]

Hi Mike

I have a IS250 Se 06, manual (yes the road tax is that bad).

It is a great car and so refined compared to similar BM's and Audi's. To date I have not had any issues (other than a vsc warning light coming on at the weekend, however I am sure this was just the fuel cap not being on correctly because it went off after 25 miles and I have not seen it since).

I also get about the same mileage as quoted above and do notice the difference by using premium unleaded, however I apprepiate that this is a personal choice and has caused much debate over the years.

At the miles quoted I would ensure it has the full lexus service history and don't be afraid to call up the last garage to service it because in my experience they are only too happy to help.

Servicing at a main lexus dealer is quite expensive (I just got quoted £1035 for a 3 years service plan), however as you say there is not point buying one of these and not looking after it, and if you are close to a couple of dealerships you can play them off against each other.

Over all they are great specd cars and you will start looking for excuses to drive them because it is such a nice car.

Hope this helps

[normski2]

There should be a 'jack 3.5mm port' in the armrest and a power source. There was a USB added in the facelft 09 version.

Folding seats would have been good...never did it on our versions.

Be wary of the boot 'mouth' too...its not exactly huge by common standards. Just something to be aware of.

There were dash rattles reported on early models too....just remembered that. You can ask Lexus to give you a full report on its service history...if they did it all. They can't always tell you but I found them helpful to the extreme.