[s]Not so[/s] Retro Daily advice

OH has a '02 RX300 (3l V6) on LPG as her daily, done 180k+ now but doesn't really show it internally, its exceptionally comfortable.

Things to look out for:

VSC and check engine lights - these seem to come on randomly but luckily don't put it into limp home mode if they have one, simplest fix so far was to clean and check the seal on the fuel filler cap.....lights can be reset by disconnecting the battery or pulling the ECU fuse. Never got round to reading codes yet so don't know if you can use a cheap scanner or not.

Rot! Not sure if this is applicable to the later ones but look out for rot underneath, especially at the rear round the fuel tank, spare wheel well and rear beam, I didn't and hers was hanging, have spent may hours fetching rust off, welding and rust proofing. Check for rot creeping out from the plastic mouldings between the rear arches and the door mouldings and also that the water drains in the lower rear quarters aren't blocked.

Rear tracking needs to be spot on or the handling is compromised badly, if its out the adjusters will be siezed and need to be cut off/ out, the rear axle and suspension has bushes everywhere, bushes aren't available so you will need to replace the complete assemblies - these are mega money from Lexus (£180 for a rear track control arm and i needed 2 + another £70 for the adjusters), there is one place that makes pattern parts but you may need to import them yourself

Front lower wishbones have bushes that wear/ break up too, pattern wishbones are available and a quick change - you don't even need to drop the bottom ball joint is just unbolts from the arm.

Cambelts have a big service mileage and are simple if time consuming to change, IMO a V6 Omega is much more difficult, change the water pump at the same time, you may have to do a slight modification with a dremel to one of the guards to get the pump in and out without too much swearing

Autogear box - on the forums everybody seems to recommend using the genuine oil to prevent bad things happening, its not cheap unless you get it from the states! From internet reading people do seem to report hassles with using other oils even those to supposedly the same spec. You can only change about half of it at a time. I've done ours for peace of mind as I didn't know when it was last done, buying the oil from the states and paying shipping and duty it was still cheaper...

Towbars are hard to get, the official Lexus tow pack comes with a transmission cooler - there were some issues when towsure made their own bars so they stopped doing them. We had to import one from Poland, there is a transmission overheat warning light fitted as standard but its never illuminated when we've been towing the caravan and its been up some pretty big hills.

Its got a big gross train weight so if you are towing commercially you may need a tacho.

Standard factory sound system is good but has no aux in and its intergrated so you wouldn't want to change it. Despite having the buttons and the screen SATNAV is not a factory fit - its a paid option, not sure if new updated map discs are available.

Insurance isn't cheap but neither are replacement genuine parts.

We get between 18 and 25mpg doing stop start or on a run and about 19mpg towing, as I said its on gas so it doesn't really matter, 70l tank fits in the spare wheel well

IMO they are way way nicer to drive than the Merc ML she was fancying prior to this. Powerwise they are OK, if you boot it ours will go reasonably well(for a 2 ton 4wd anyway), when towing I found it was easier to drive as a semi manual and make it use kickdown otherwise it would try to hang onto a gear too long and loose speed on hills. Haven't driven the obvious rival of a similar age range rover recently enough to make a direct comparison, however, personally I would say the '03 plate (3l V6 auto) Ford Maverick that our Lexus replaced was just as comfortable to drive, more powerful, a better towcar and did more MPG, however it was noisier on the motorway and had a much lower GTW which was important for us.

The Lexus will sit on a tarmac motorway on cruise control at 70 and other than tyre noise from the snow tyres its silent