Who has one? Thoughts? Upkeep costs?   Insurance bend you over?


I've been in the market for a new sporty car for a while, and this has always been #2 on my list. I think it is making a move for #1.  

It would be my daily driver. The one obvious drawback I can see with that is during the winter - RWD.


I have no intention of buying a 'tuned' car. I don't want to race it in any way.

Nothing?

Nice cars. I really like the fact that they have the 2JZ engine and RWD. I personally would have a hard time not throwing a turbo + supra internals into it.

Nice daily drivers. Good friend has one. Nice interior, reliable. Only complaint is they are slow. That engine combo and rwd really needs more power. But if you dont want or need the power then it serves great as a simple comfortable daily driver.

You think they're slow?  I guess just about anything would be an upgrade from my current vehicle, so maybe it's relative? It does seem that the 215hp or so is a bit low.

I have a 2002 IS300. Owned it since new. Its my daily driver. 167K miles on it now. Insurance isn't bad on it.  One of the most reliable cars I've owned. It is a bit down on power compared to what's available these days, but it has a decent amount of torque. 0-60 in the 7 second range. You can get one with an auto or stick.

Completely different engines.  2JZ-GE and 2JZ-GTE don't have anything in common.

Not exactly true i have a supra bottom end on my stock motor in my turbo IS.

To the op: Finally a topic i have some  experiance on I have 2 is300's one is my daily the other is my weekend fun car more on that one later. The IS was my kind of "dream" car when i was younger I bought mine with 20k miles on it 5yrs+ ago. In that time i havent had a single problem with the car i did all the normal service intervals lexus reccomended and it has really paid off in the long run. Its still a great looking  (you can do minor mods to really set it off) car super reliable and you dont see a ton of them on the road everyday which is something i also like. Go over to my.is or clublexus.com all the info you could ever want.

If you have enough time and money you can always make your IS300 engine bay look like this   . Its a work in progress i'm currently running a t62 turbo at about 18-19lbs making around 480whp . In the future i hope to be closer to 600whp. Got any questions or want info feel free to shoot me a pm .


Here is my daily:


THe weekend toy

Another turbo IS300 owner here.  It's my daily, and has been boosted for roughly 60K miles.







I pay $67/mo for full coverage, and i'm 27.


You'll have a hard time finding one that is clean, and unmodded with a manual tranny.

If I were in your shoes and I positively didn't want to go turbo with an IS300, I would look very hard at the IS350's.


The best IS series forum= MY.IS

I forgot to add my insurance is low to i pay 180 for both cars a month. Up keep on the stock one is almost nill i never had anything brake or go wrong just did the reg service.

star- whats your set up how much boost you running?

I'm running a TurboEast kit with a Garrett T04E 60-1@10psi, tubular manifold, 38mm gate, GTE bottom end and HG, GE head with 1mm OS SS valves, HKS 264 exhaust cam and cam gear, stock VVT-I intake cam etc...