Today's Nice Price or No Dice GS 300 is that rarest of all things: an interesting Lexus. Toyota's luxury brand makes great cars, but let's be honest, rarely do they stir the loins. Let's see if this straight-six sports saloon's price gets us all stirring.
According to estimates by the Louvre Museum, somewhere between 20,000 and 30,000 visitors stop to see Da Vinci's Mona Lisa each day. That's claimed to be around 80% of the total number of people who visit the museum daily, making you wonder who makes
up that 20% that goes to the trouble and expense of visiting the Louvre only to avoid saying howdy to Leonardo's whimsically smiling lady friend.
No such issue arose with the 1998 Volvo V70 Art Car we contemplated last week, as it brings its art to the people, not the other way around. The canvas underneath the art seemed solid, and a manual swap brought some fun to the picture, as well. A $2,999 asking price sealed the deal and earned the artistically endowed Volvo a Bob Ross-worthy 70% Nice Price win.
Read more: These Are The Worst New Car And SUV Deals Right Now, According To Consumer Reports
A Hard Act To Follow
In the late 1980s, the three biggest Japanese automaker brands began work on the introduction of luxury brands targeting the U.S. market. This came as voluntary export restrictions between Japan and the U.S. started to erode corporate money-making. The more expensive models from Acura (Honda), Infiniti (Nissan), and Lexus (Toyota) would offer higher margins and hence capture greater profits.
Lexus entered the market in 1990 with a clean sheet halo car, the LS 400, and its more affordable sidekick, the ES250, which was a reworked version of the Camry. Within three years, the company reinforced the lineup with a coupe version of the LS and mid-sized gap-filler dubbed the GS. That GS was notable for not just being right-sized and bringing key aspects of the larger LS to a slightly lower price point. It also offered celebrity styling with its bodylines having been penned by none other than Italdesign Giugiaro. A four-door saloon with long-hood, short-deck styling, that initial GS set the stage for each new iteration to come all the way up until the line's discontinuation in 2020. None of the following generations had the provenance of the first in their body designs, but the overall looks remained pleasing enough.
Give It To Me Straight... Six
That's just the case with this 2000 GS 300 Platinum. A second-generation car, it lacks the first generation's slick Italian suit bodywork, but it does have retro-looking blobular head and fog lamps that were all the rage back in the early Aughts. That look is replicated in the tail lamp treatment, although it's somewhat spoiled by the squircle lights in the boot lid being faded to nearly clear by the sun. That, and some minor wear on the factory alloy wheels, appears to be the only aesthetic issue of which the car suffers. On the plus side, there's an incongruously big wing on the decklid, lending the car a bit of sportiness and probably making it easier to judge where the rear bumper is.
Under the GS's hood is a 3.0-liter 2JZ straight-six offering 225 horsepower and the same number in torque. Based on the under-hood shot in the ad, that's all in great shape (it looks like it's been recently detailed) and appears to be complete. According to the ad, the car has a modest 138,000 miles on the clock and comes with a full service history from since it was new.
One Owner
This being a Platinum edition means it's a bit fancier than the average bear, featuring added wood trim throughout the cabin and special badging on the factory floor mats. The owner is keeping those in the trunk, allowing us to enjoy the satisfying vacuum tracks in the cabin's plush carpet from a recent detailing.
There is some wear evident in here, though. Both the driver and passenger seats show crazing and some fading in the leather upholstery. The center armrest is also losing the battle against elbow intrusions, and that has actually cracked through. Everything else seems solid—and why wouldn't it? This is a Lexus, after all. It's very old-school, though, with no center stack screen for infotainment or navigation. It does rock both a cassette deck and a CD player, so your grandma can bring her music along for the drive. Updates include what the seller describes as "a tasteful window tint," and "upgraded low beams for better visibility." This is, so far, a one-owner car, so the seller should have all the deets on that service history for any prospective second owner.
A Safe Bet?
It's pretty easy to dismiss Lexus sedans as being boring, but in this day and age, isn't there some comfort to be found in simple competence? Once hailed as one of the most reliable and cheap to operate cars on the planet, Lexus sedans like this still offer that sense of quiet opulence in their assured reliability. This one, with its clean title and further assurance by its seller of dependability, comes with an $8,000 asking price. We willl now need to discuss and vote on that for the value proposition it provides.
What's your take on this GS 300 and that $8,000 asking? Is that a deal for some old-school dependability and swank? Or is this just a dull-as-dishwater sedan that needs a cheaper price tag to engender any enthusiasm?
You decide!
Nice Price or No Dice:
Phoenix, Arizona, Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.
H/T Bill Rice for the hookup!
Help me out with NPOND. Contact me at robemslie@gmail.com and send a fixed-price tip. Remember to include your commenter handle.
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