Getting A 2000 Es300 Millennium Edition

[jamn]

Hi Guys,

First post. My dad will be picking up a 2000 ES300 sometime next week. The ad for the car mentioned that it is a 'Millennium' edition. Is there anything special about that or is it simply because it's a 2000 MY?

The car has 160,00km (we're in Canada), is there somewhere that I can find out the recommended maintenance items for this millage?

Thanks

[jamn]

Guess nobody knows?

[steviej]

The car has 160,00km (we're in Canada), is there somewhere that I can find out the recommended maintenance items for this millage?

www.lexus.com

when you register as a new owner, you can request an owners manual and a supplemental owners manual. The latter has the schedule you are looking for.

However, I do believe that the schedules are also downloadable from that website.

steviej

[amf1932]

Hi Guys,

First post. My dad will be picking up a 2000 ES300 sometime next week. The ad for the car mentioned that it is a 'Millennium' edition. Is there anything special about that or is it simply because it's a 2000 MY?

The car has 160,00km (we're in Canada), is there somewhere that I can find out the recommended maintenance items for this millage?

Thanks

Better grade of leather

Different interior wood grain color

Different design of alloy wheels

Special badging that indicates 'Millennium Edition'

Special paint color

[SW03ES]

Alan's got it, its purely a cosmetic package.

[jamn]

Thanks guys. I'll be sure to post some pics and impressions when we pick-up the car next week.

The last 'luxury' car my dad owned (also used) was a 1990 BMW 750iL. Hope the Lexus proves to be a much more reliable car.

[SW03ES]

It will lol

[JokeDog]

I too be getting a 2000 ES300 at 102,000 miles that's equiv to your 160k km. just wondering how much it cost you/dad? ^_^

[anthonyiez]

just hope that you don't ever need anything special for it like a wheel or emblem. lexus has discontinued supplying most of this stuff. i persoannly wouldn't buy one for this reason. that goes for platinum editions and coach ones as well.

[jamn]

I too be getting a 2000 ES300 at 102,000 miles that's equiv to your 160k km. just wondering how much it cost you/dad? ^_^

This car has had ALL its services performed at the dealer and is in excellent shape, except for a couple rock chips on the hood. He paid $10k (Canadian $$ of course).

[jamn]

just hope that you don't ever need anything special for it like a wheel or emblem. lexus has discontinued supplying most of this stuff. i persoannly wouldn't buy one for this reason. that goes for platinum editions and coach ones as well.

I wasn't aware of this. The biggest issue I see then are the wheels, I don't think he cares about the emblem. If anything happens, perhaps Ebay might be of assistance or other local markets. I don't have any experience in these special editions, but think that ruling out a potentially good car because it may be hard to obtain a replacement wheel seems odd. In my 14 years of driving, never hit anything with my wheels (knock on wood) and neither has my dad in his 30+. Though, now having said that, I'm sure in 2-months I'll be scouring the net of for a used 2000 ES Millennium wheel .

[SW03ES]

just hope that you don't ever need anything special for it like a wheel or emblem. lexus has discontinued supplying most of this stuff. i persoannly wouldn't buy one for this reason. that goes for platinum editions and coach ones as well.

Where did you hear this?!?

[amf1932]

just hope that you don't ever need anything special for it like a wheel or emblem. lexus has discontinued supplying most of this stuff. i persoannly wouldn't buy one for this reason. that goes for platinum editions and coach ones as well.

I wasn't aware of this. The biggest issue I see then are the wheels, I don't think he cares about the emblem. If anything happens, perhaps Ebay might be of assistance or other local markets. I don't have any experience in these special editions, but think that ruling out a potentially good car because it may be hard to obtain a replacement wheel seems odd. In my 14 years of driving, never hit anything with my wheels (knock on wood) and neither has my dad in his 30+. Though, now having said that, I'm sure in 2-months I'll be scouring the net of for a used 2000 ES Millennium wheel .

An auto manufacturer is required to manufacture parts for a period of 7 years, so it could be difficult to get the special replacement wheels that were originally equipped with this model.

[anthonyiez]

just hope that you don't ever need anything special for it like a wheel or emblem. lexus has discontinued supplying most of this stuff. i persoannly wouldn't buy one for this reason. that goes for platinum editions and coach ones as well.

Where did you hear this?!?

local lexus dealer i've buying parts from since lexus was born. it took me 2 months to find a coach wheel for a 99. customer had to have the coach wheel even though it was cheaper to buy 4 nice condition used regular es wheels.

[backwoods lex]

Mine is a 2000 and it is labeled a platinum edition. Is that a U.S./Canada thing where the package has different names? Sometimes delearships will do shady things like putting decals on cars that do not belong there. I remember seeing a cavalier once with a vtec decal. Overall, with 160K miles, the ES has been very good to me.

[jamn]

I tried to upload pics but I can't seem to do it at the moment. Anyway here are some impressions.

First impression of it is very good. The major flaw is the body, as you will see in some of the pics. The hood is pretty chipped up with rust showing through; not sure if it's worth getting it painted just yet. I suppose the guy must have driven a lot in rough terrain or on long highway trips. The interior is nice. The leather seats are not at all glossy, but a nice matte (as they should be from what I read). On the drive, the car is really smooth; both the engine and suspension. The seats however do not hold you well even in moderate lateral loads, but they're powered/heated and comfortable. It has decent pickup in 1st and 2nd (though I only went up to 3.5k rpm). I like the lighting of the Lexus instrument panels, they have a nice glow.

In the last couple months the previous owner changed: oil, spark plugs, coolant, brake fluid, all brakes (including rotors I think), and a rusted out heat-shield. That bill was $1.5k. The timing belt was changed at 122k km, so it should have another 80k km before we do it again.

I read on the web about Toyota's infamous oil sludge problems. They extended the engine warranty to 8 years due to this problem. I'll be making sure that my dad takes it in for a change every 8k km as recommended. Ideally it should be at the dealer (~$50 with some other BS inspections) so they have records of it and can't dispute anything if something were to go wrong. On a similar note, for some reason the records from the dealer show that they put 5W20 while the owner's manual states 5 or 10 W30 (depending on weather). Maybe this is something to due with the sludge problems??

(Edit: Added Pics)

[jamn]

Added pics in the above post.

[SW03ES]

Looking good!

Only thing I need to tell you is that is not a Platinum or Millenium edition. Thats simply a standard 2000 ES300. If the owner represented it to you as a platinum edition or millenium edition then he misrepresented it to you, I hope you didn't pay more because of it.

[amf1932]

Looking good!

Only thing I need to tell you is that is not a Platinum or Millenium edition. Thats simply a standard 2000 ES300. If the owner represented it to you as a platinum edition or millenium edition then he misrepresented it to you, I hope you didn't pay more because of it.

You're correct......it's a standard ES300.

[jamn]

Thanks guys. The ad did state '2000 ES300 Millennium Edition'. However, this did not influence my dad's offer because he did not know what the Millennium edition contained; he liked the car no matter the name. Though I guess he could have used this as a bargaining chip to lower the price even further.

Any clue why the dealer was putting in 5W20 oil?