- Doors and Seats
4 doors, 5 seats
- Engine
3.0i, 6 cyl.
- Engine Power
138kW, 264Nm
- Fuel
Petrol (91) 9.3L/100KM
- Manufacturer
FWD
- Transmission
Auto
- Warranty
3 Yr, 100000 KMs
- Ancap Safety
NA
1992 Lexus ES300 review: Used car guide
The Lexus ES300 has prestige and Toyota's reputation for quality, writes DAVID MORLEY.
Buyers in the market for a second-hand medium-sized sedan are likely to have a wide-bodied 1990s Toyota Camry on their shopping list. And why not? Toyotas as second-hand cars have earned a reputation for being long-lived and durable, and it's generally accepted that anything with a Toyota badge is unlikely to let you down.
But not all the Camrys from that period came with driver or passenger air-bags, or ABS. The V6 version was a better performer than the four-cylinder Camry, and therefore is the engine of choice.
To get all these safety features in a second-hand V6 Camry means buyers will be looking at fairly late-model (and therefore more expensive) cars.
But what if there was a way to could get all this and more in a second-hand car for around $10,000?
Forget the Camry badge; the vehicle we want is a much-overlooked member of the same family as the Camry, the V6-powered Lexus ES300.
Pilloried when brand-new as being a Camry with leather trim, the ES300 combines Camry underpinnings with a swoopier four-door sedan body and the all-important safety gear. The earliest versions of the ES300, from 1992, had ABS and a driver's air-bag, but from 1993 onwards the passenger air-bag became standard.
It might not have represented good value for money when new, but the ES300 was a $70,000 car (rising by another $10,000 in 1995).
To justify that sticker, Lexus piled on the extras, and you'll find leather upholstery, a CD stereo, wood-grain trim, adjustable steering column, power driver's seat and genuine attention to detail in the way the car was screwed together. Alloy wheels were also part of the deal and, if you're lucky, you might even find one with a power sunroof (most ES300s had them).
Driving an early ES300 was never a racy experience, but these days that's less of an issue because the true beauty of the thing is the value of its standard equipment and its reliability.
The steering can feel light at first, and there's an apparent lack of self-centring that can be cured by a wheel alignment, but the handling is generally surefooted. There is some body roll but the ride quality is up there with the best of them (assuming the suspension hasn't lost its composure).
The catch is that at this price (and given their age) most ES300s have covered their fair share of kilometres, most of them having covered about 200,000 km.
However, that's not the problem it would be with lesser cars, because the Toyota V6 and four-speed automatic gearbox are capable of clocking up 400,000 km, maybe even more, with regular maintenance.
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The shock absorbers will be suspect by then and should have been replaced, and drive-shafts typically need replacement at about 250,000 km.
The timing belt needs changing about every 100,000 km, so budget a few hundred dollars if you're unsure when it was last done (most should have a little sticker on the cam-belt cover saying when the belt was changed and at what mileage). It's also a smart move to replace the water pump (which is driven from the cam-belt) while you've got it apart, although not all mechanics agree on this - some will say they've never seen a bung water pump on a V6 Toyota engine.
The V6 may leak oil, but shouldn't smoke from the tail-pipe on start-up, nor ticking noises when the engine runs. The transmission should shift smoothly and find gears quickly and without a big clunk. Be wary of a gearbox that doesn't shift from first to second at full throttle.
Make sure all the electrics work, because they can be fiddly to fix and there's a lot of them. Make sure too there's no damage to the headlights - they cost about $500 a side to replace to make the car roadworthy.
There are plenty of ES300s out there with owners that have taken the conservative approach and serviced the car to the letter of the handbook. But even a multi-owner, slightly scruffy example is likely to fare a lot better than most old, high-mileage used cars, and the ES300 is one example where the Toyota heritage is cause for celebration.
What to pay
Untidy cars are available for as little as $7000 from private sellers, and those in good condition sell for about $12,000, even from dealers. Shop privately and aim somewhere between those two figures and you're going to get maximum value.
The competition
Mitsubishi's upmarket Magna from the same period, the Verada, is even less money. The Mazda 626s, Nissan Bluebirds and pretty much anything else aren't the long-term proposition that the Lexus represents. Only the ES300's second-cousin, the Toyota Camry, gets anywhere near the same level.