Diy Lexus Servicing Cost

[darkage]

Well my wife had a test drive in a Nissan Maxima and she loves luxury now.. bad move on my behalf :)

Was just thinking of other affordable luxury options that were more smaller manageable for a small female and Lexus came to mind. ie IS200

I do all my own servicing, have done for the last 16 years on a Datsun 260, Nissan 300zx z32, ae92 corolla and Holden Astra.. Only think I haven't done yet is pull an engine and transmission..

Just wondering if anyone can give me an idea at what the spare parts cost of these cars are like ? Is Lexus a sensible option for a DIY home mechanic?

For the Astra I order genuine parts from the UK which can be 3 to 7 times cheaper than from holden, and for the Nissan 300zx I order genuine parts from USA which is 50% cheaper.

Would appreciate if anyone can give me an idea of parts cost, and favourite places to source parts.. if its from toyota itself, or from overseas ? Also I assume alot of regular Toyota's perhaps share alot of parts with Lexus ?

Look forward to hearing from other ppl's experiences. Would love to have a more comfortable car but at the same time try not to burn a hole in my wallet..

[GGPIS300]

I have bought practically all my IS300 parts from US Lexus dealers. My entire 150k (major service, t-belt etc) came from the US for about half the local cost. The only parts I have bought locally I think are wiper blades.

Sourcing from other markets can be a bit hit and miss due to the model variances - UK should be ok, anything out of Japan or NZ will be as parts for a Toyota Altezza AS200 (NOT RS200). US didn't get IS200 so don't bother looking for 1G-FE engine parts from there.

[coconut2001]

I buy my parts from ebay (item usually from uk), japan (where stuff can be up to 70% cheaper) or I just get them here. The shipping costs from the uk for example makes the item more expensive than buying say a filter here (depreciating dollar doesn't help). Theres also a vendor on here from nz that sells parts pretty cheap.

I'd like to point out that with the is200, the oil filter is a headache to get at.

[evolutune]

You'll come out ahead if you shop around on oil and follow the specials. A spanner turned today is a dollar saved tomorrow. Basic servicing like oil and filter changes are easy as pie. A timing belt or water pump does require a bit of experience depending on how long you hold on to the vehicle and whether you'll run into major work.