2006 Lexus IS350 & IS250 Long Term Reliability Update & Review! Over 300,000km!

What is up guys ?

So for Canadian rider here today , we're in the Lexus is 350 s the 2006 I did a video previously and this is my daily driver and I want to do a long term reliability update for you guys .

I know there's a lot of people that are interested in the car , a lot of Toyota and Lexus fan boys .

But I want to let you know my experience with this car approaching 300,000 kilometers .

So the first thing we need to talk about is the price .

So I wanted a reliable robust daily driver with a set of luxury features for a good price and that's pretty hard to find .

But these Lexus is the is 250 the is 350 are actually really great candidates for somebody that's looking for a reliable luxury coup or four door passenger car .

I really wanted something that can transport me .

I can winter drive in the winter have some luxury features .

Is going to break the bank in terms of initial cost of investment and maintenance .

So this car you can find these cars let's is , is 250 or 350 the gen two model year .

So I'm talking about 2006 to let's say 2012 , you can find those cars in a range between IC $5000 for some higher kilometer cars up to 10 12 13 14 $15,000 .

There's a large range .

And what I want to say is that I personally bought a car with very high kilometers , but it had solid maintenance records and I think that's the most important thing .

So I bought my car with 180,000 kilometers at the time I bought it about three or four years ago .

And since then , all I've done for the car is oil changes , did the consumer bulls , brakes and rotors and it's been rock solid .

Reliable , aside from some minor things like , you know , the trim , the plastic trim fades over time and starts like rotting and you got to replace $100 piece of plastic trim or some minor things like that .

Since I've had the car .

Honestly , it's been rock solid , reliable , engine solid , almost 300,000 kilometers on it , transmission solid .

If those are the two parts of the car , those things have been working phenomenally .

All I've been doing full synthetic oil changes on this .

Lexus is 350 with changing the oil filter every 10,000 kilometers .

So what I'm using right now , I'm using five W 30 in the summer and five W 20 in the winter , a little bit of a lighter weight in the winter .

And since then , honestly , guys , it's been rock solid .

This car has got a lot of power as well .

So if you look at the specs on this car V six engine , almost 300 horsepower with this engine .

So it's got a lot of power .

It's not lacking in the power department .

Power delivery at all .

And in terms of fuel economy , you know , it's not great , it's not horrendous , it could be better .

And the thing is it is using premium fuel .

So if you're looking at fuel , it's costing roughly in Canada , fuel for premium is about a buck 40 a liter and it's costing me like $80 to fill up this car .

So it is expensive .

And if you're talking about like highway kilometers , in terms of mileage , I'm getting roughly if I'm stuck right on the highway , 600 kilometers on the highway .

But if I'm doing a mix of city and highway , I'm getting around 520 kilometers on average for a full tank .

So you do need to put premium in this car .

But if you think about , you know , the initial cost of investment , very low maintenance costs other than on this car , oil changes , you know , brake fluid swaps your brake pads and your rotors , it's truly like super reliable in that sense .

Not only is it giving you that super , that reliability that you really want in a car .

That's your daily driver that I'm putting at least 25,000 kilometers a year on .

At least it's also very comfortable .

So it is an older car , but it's got a lot of great comfort features .

Right now .

Both seats are heated and cooled , which is phenomenal power seats on all of them , full controls here on the left hand side , it's really a comfortable yet sporty ride .

If you come in the car , it does feel very sporty .

It really does , but it's also very , it's full of comfort features .

It's really great when I come in this car , I feel kind of like I have this great firm suspension , but it's still soft and compliant when I'm driving over in these horrific downtown roads here in Southern Ontario .

So really , it's kind of the full package as my daily driver .

This is the rear wheel drive version is 350 is the rear wheel drive .

So it does have a little bit of fun that you can get with it and it does come with a staggered wheel set up , stock O E M for the winters .

I typically keep it 2 25 40 eighteens all around for the winter driving set up .

But honestly , it's been super reliable .

I know a lot of people you're looking for a car that has the best bang for the buck 12 .

It's not going to kill you in maintenance , especially if you got a daily driver .

So I typically drive this to work from work , winter and summer .

I only take my Audi R eight on the nice days on the weekend .

So this is really my workhorse of where I'm going around out and about everywhere I go and it's been nothing but reliable , great storage .

So the trunk is huge .

You can sell a lot of stuff in the trunk back seat is great .

It will comfortably fit two people .

It can fit up to three people in there .

And passengers , you sit in this extremely comfortable , it's fully adjustable memory settings , up to three memory settings .

If you have different people driving the car , this is an automatic car .

Um So you , you don't have the manual transmission on this option .

You can get a manual transmission , but my car has the automatic six speed , automatic , um really lots of storage compartments here , a lot of storage options .

It really is a great car .

And if you think about like , I've had nothing but great things to say about any Lexus or Toyota car , they really make quality parts .

This engine is rock solid and reliable .

Now , I love this car so much .

When my fiance was looking for a car for a daily driver , I immediately appointed her to a Lexus is 250 or a Lexus is 350 .

Now , what you'll find in the used market place is that the price difference between the two is not actually that much .

And while the engine is smaller and less powerful in the is 250 it actually doesn't consume much less gasoline .

The mileage is roughly the same .

Both of them , they both take premium fuel .

So I'd say if you can find a Lexus is 350 take it over the 250 .

Now , the one thing about the Lexus is 250 s that you need to be aware of .

And this , we can maybe do another video about on my fiance's car who also has over 300,000 kilometers and she's put like 50,000 kilometers on the car in a year , almost in her driving .

She drives a lot , she's had no problems .

The one thing is to think about is that these cars can suffer from some sludge build up in the Lexus is 250 s because it is a direct injected motor while the is 350 is injected and port injected .

So , but in order to accompany that or to maintain that for the is 250 you have to do regular synthetic oil changes with the filter regularly .

You do not want to miss out on that .

So on her car , we do it at about every 8000 kilometers full synthetic oil change .

The best kind of synthetic you can get class four if I can and an oil filter change .

But , uh honestly , they've been nothing but work horses .

I personally paid for this car at the time .

I think I bought it about four years ago now , $10,000 .

So if you look at the depreciation on this car as well , I've driven it almost 100,000 kilometers since I bought the car and more than 100,000 kilometers since I bought the car , I've had it for four years .

I could probably still sell this in the market for like 5 $6000 which is really good .

That's really great .

Um that I can sell it for that much , which you talk about depreciation on an already depreciated car really good .

The other thing is is that if I calculate all the money that I've spent on maintenance on this car , I do the oil changes on myself on this car .

You guys seen the video I put in the um the Fudo valve on the drain plug cover so I can quickly and easily do my oil changes .

It takes me no longer than 20 minutes to do out the filter and the oil change and it's super easy to do that on this car .

The good thing about this car , you can do all the maintenance on this car yourself super easy .

You don't need any kind of special tools or any crazy equipment .

I just do it myself and I'm able to maintain this car .

I think the most expensive repair I've done on this car is the AC line leaked .

It cost me like 5 to $600.01 time .

I did the brakes rotors and pads for $400 .

And then just oil changes cost me , you know , I pick up some oil when it's on discount .

A Canadian tire for like $30 oil filters 10 bucks and I just do my oil changes .

That's it .

It's super , super reliable .

I never would feel if I need to take a road trip that's super far .

Is it going to bail out on me ?

No , in terms of , if you're looking for a daily driver that can take you short distances , long distances , it's comfortable , it's reliable .

You know , it's got a good brand and Toyota Lexus .

You know , you could resell it in the future for some point .

Right .

It's not going to be trash .

Like a lot of , unfortunately , I owned a lot of GM cars like the old Impalas and Lumina .

And at the end of the year their useful life , they're kind of like $300 at the scrappers , but not this , you can still drive it .

This is after I'm done with this car , which I don't know what I'm going to be done with this car .

I can give it to someone else and they'll be able to use it .

Like I don't see myself ever getting rid of this car because I don't think it will ever die like it's going to need the regular maintenance to keep up with it .

But besides the consumable guys , I don't see this car breaking down any time soon .

I would be shocked to be honest with you .

If it did break down at like 500,000 kilometers or less , I'm already 300,000 kilometers .

I still think it's got another 200,000 kilometers to go .

I'm talking about when I really gun this car , it's got pick up , but look at this like it's a strong healthy engine .

There's no ticking .

There's no weird shifts in the trans mission .

They can pick up and go a lot of great highway passing power again , you got 300 horsepower , 300 horsepower is nothing to cough about 300 horsepower , maybe 10 years ago .

It was like a Mustang and I was like , wow , you have 300 horsepower and you're getting that with this car , you're getting the reliability of like a Honda or a Toyota in this car .

You're getting the comfort features of one of the , what Lexus has best to offer in this is class that's a little bit sporty in this car .

It really is impressive .

This is , I think if you look at some of the best cars that Lexus has ever produced , I'd say the Lexus is 250 is 350 this generation , even the newer generation slows down to some of the best reliable passenger cars that you can buy in the market .

And I'm just a huge fan of them .

It's obvious .

And I've owned German cars .

I own a 2008 Audi R eight .

I own a whole bunch of different cars .

I can tell you that this car is the one that makes me sleep easy at night .

I don't need to think about it .

I don't need to think about bunch of 12 different things that I need to change like a manos for my old BMW E 46 M three or some other things like all this thing needs is , you know , regular maintenance , just take care of it .

Well , and it's going to take care of you , which is why I love this car .

So if you guys have any questions about it , please let me know I've had the car for a while .

My fiance has had the car for a while as well .

We're both staunch Lexus lovers after our experience with these cars .

Like I see myself in the future .

If I do buy another car , it's going to be a new Lexus , it's going to be another Lexus .

Um The other thing I want to make sure if you are looking for this car , the only thing I would say is don't worry too much about the kilometers high kilometers .

Just look at the maintenance records .

Don't necessarily run away from a great deal because it has high kilometers .

I see these cars going no problem to 500,000 kilometers .

Make sure you check out the body for rust .

Rust can be an issue on these cars if you don't take care of it .

Not like the Mazda .

So let me just phrase that .

So I have a little bit of rust on the seal of my trunk a tiny bit which I'm going to get repaired .

My fiance has no rust on her car and her car is a 2009 , Lexus is 250 .

So really go ahead when you look for this car , take it out for a drive , make sure that everything is running well with it .

Look at the maintenance records .

Um and again , just make sure you maintain it .

Like when you get this car , make sure you maintain it .

It's going to treat you right .

I love this car .

If you have any other questions , guys , please let me know in the comment , comment box down below .

Give this video a thumbs up if you liked it .

Thank you guys so much .

We're almost at 20,000 subscribers .

It's pretty crazy and I know you guys wanted a long term reliability update video on this car .

A lot of you guys were interested in asking me questions on it and maybe I'll do another video specifically about the Lexus is 2 50 .

Again , if you're worried about this sludge build up on the Lexus I S 250 versus the I S3 150 .

Try to get the I S3 150 .

I think if the option is there , Lexus I S3 150 or Lexus is S 250 the 3 50 should be your choice every single time .

And if it's not , if you find an amazing deal on is 250 don't be scared , don't be scared .

There is a TSB that was issued for the car a long time ago .

If it , if it had the TSB done for it , that means it's fine .

If it hasn't , you still shouldn't be scared because if you just maintain it properly , it's got good maintenance records .

It will be fine for the foreseeable life of the car again .

Thank you guys so much .

I hope you guys enjoy this video .

Make sure you subscribe and I'll see you guys in the next one .

Peace .