I own a Lexus GS300 with 217,000 miles on it. It’s running fine from what I can tell, but it’s burning oil at this point and I think the repair may be more extensive than a pcv valve. I am thinking about selling it for cheap to start paying towards another car, but I am wondering how much longer my Lexus will last. I only need a car for the next 5 years or so. Thanks!
Lemme get out my crystal ball… Eeenie, meenie, chili beanie the spirits are about to speak…
Not even a great mechanic can predict the remaining life in your car even after inspecting it thoroughly. We out here blind and deaf on the interwebs can only give a complete wild donkey guess! 
That said, if the car is “burning oil” as you say, it is certainly on the steep part of the downward slope. you don’t say how MUCH oil you are burning… a quart every 500 miles, that’s bad. It’s on its last legs. A quart every 1500 miles, don’t worry, you have a long way to go yet.
3 Likes
How long it lasts depends on maintenance and how many miles you drive. If you do 5000 miles/year, it might also 5 years. If you drive 25,000 miles/year, probably not.
Are you going to change your avatar to Bullwinkle? Maybe just for a week.
2 Likes
A Lexus still running pretty good at 218K, provided the oil burn rate isn’t more than one quart in 750 miles , I’d guess the engine should be good to 250K if the routine maintenance schedule is maintained. The transmission is probably the bigger big-repair-cost risk, assuming this is an automatic. If this car uses the viscous coupling method for the AWD function, that could also be the eventual show stopper. But like I say above, if the routine maintenance on all that stuff is kept up to date, conservative driving style, good chance you’ll get the full 250K.
Your increased oil consumption might be something simple too, like a leaky valve cover. Very common source of small oil leaks that don’t result in much oil dripping on the ground.
Yep… it’s pretty much all been said. That model has a known problem… probably the intake valves. It’s too bad you didn’t notice it w/in 9 years. Still, it might be worth an inspection, even though there’s no warranty at this point.
That said, I hope you are saving for the new car. 217K is an excellent life. At 16K a year, no car with this mileage is likely to last 5 years. How much do you think it can be sold for? Dealers are getting as much as $8K for similar cars (less the new head cost). A new Lexus will cost $1200 per month, so if you can squeeze out 4 additional months, you’ll be money ahead. That would be my choice, but you’ll have to decide.
This is all assuming the car is in decent running shape and you like driving the car.
Where are you getting some of these strange things you post ?
2 Likes
Ok… that one I got wrong. I thought the figure that came back
was high. It’s only $600 to $700.
Gotcha. I think after looking everything over I’m just going to keep it for a year and then sell it for a little bit of money. I’m assuming it’s still going to run well for a year, but I don’t want to worry about it beyond that, so I’ll go after something low mileage.