Noob Question

[sigmamason]

Looking at a 2001 RX300 with 67K on the odo, AWD, good condition. After reading several of the postings here on the issues with the transmission, last thing I want is to be on I-75 in the mountains of TN going to Detroit in Dec with a dead tranmission.

My question is simply this: did the problems that were readily apparent with the 1999 get resolved with 2001 and later years?

I have always liked the look of the RX series, but I have zero desire to waste hard earned cash. Had great luck with an '01 Ford Escape AWD and want another SUV and the RX300 is a great fit for my needs.

I apologize in advance for this post if it is not in the right section or if this question has been asked before...

[lenore]

Looking at a 2001 RX300 with 67K on the odo, AWD, good condition. After reading several of the postings here on the issues with the transmission, last thing I want is to be on I-75 in the mountains of TN going to Detroit in Dec with a dead tranmission.

My question is simply this: did the problems that were readily apparent with the 1999 get resolved with 2001 and later years?

I have always liked the look of the RX series, but I have zero desire to waste hard earned cash. Had great luck with an '01 Ford Escape AWD and want another SUV and the RX300 is a great fit for my needs.

I apologize in advance for this post if it is not in the right section or if this question has been asked before...

I would suggest a FWD one, 2001 still has problems....

[wwest]

Looking at a 2001 RX300 with 67K on the odo, AWD, good condition. After reading several of the postings here on the issues with the transmission, last thing I want is to be on I-75 in the mountains of TN going to Detroit in Dec with a dead tranmission.

My question is simply this: did the problems that were readily apparent with the 1999 get resolved with 2001 and later years?

I have always liked the look of the RX series, but I have zero desire to waste hard earned cash. Had great luck with an '01 Ford Escape AWD and want another SUV and the RX300 is a great fit for my needs.

I apologize in advance for this post if it is not in the right section or if this question has been asked before...

My wife and I are looking at a RX 300 year 2000. Runs and looks great. it has 74k miles. The price is excellent but it has a salvage title. That does not scare me off due to the way the car runs. The person has had this car about a 1 year and stated no problems. Any ideas from anyway for what i need to look at? thanks inadvance for any help. ds

It has become very clear that the '99 RX300 has some sort of serious transaxle design flaw that results in many (probably still a minority) of them failing "prematurely" in the range or 70-80,000 miles. Toyota/Lexus has made no admission of same other than oftentimes compensating, in some manner, owners of failed transaxles outside the warranty.

It appears to be indeterminant as to whether the '00 and later models of the RX300 series might or might not be subject to these failures. The fact that Toyota/Lexus adopted DBW with the RX330 probably addressed the failure issue since factory reps have said that DBW is used to "protect the drive train".

But I can tell you that the ATF in my 2001 AWD RX300 looked and smelled burned at only ~40,000 miles and I drained and refilled it. My 2001 had no requirement for ATF drain and refill but Bellevue Lexus insisted it needed to be done every 15,000 miles, EXTREME IMMHO. But the factory rep verified that yes, the 15,000 mile term was correct.

So here I am at ~65,000 miles, checking the ATF condition upon each oil change, awaiting the coming day (soon?) my transaxle will need to be replaced/repaired.

[tmastres]

Looking at a 2001 RX300 with 67K on the odo, AWD, good condition. After reading several of the postings here on the issues with the transmission, last thing I want is to be on I-75 in the mountains of TN going to Detroit in Dec with a dead tranmission.

My question is simply this: did the problems that were readily apparent with the 1999 get resolved with 2001 and later years?

I have always liked the look of the RX series, but I have zero desire to waste hard earned cash. Had great luck with an '01 Ford Escape AWD and want another SUV and the RX300 is a great fit for my needs.

I apologize in advance for this post if it is not in the right section or if this question has been asked before...

If you usearch the transmission posts you 'll find some excellent (wwest) descriptions of the changes made to the trans between the 99 the 00 and the 01-03 (three different designs). It seems (to me) that the 99 definitely has a problem (first model year of course) in 00 they tried a few small changes to mitigate and lessen rather than eliminate the problem (and it seemed to do so and the incidents of failure lessened but did not stop). In the 01-03 years the deign was changed fundamentally, those years show much fewer failures even though they should now have sufficient miles on them to get a good comparison.

Yes the 01-03 group does have some failures in it , and the new design may make it necessary to give it a more frequent maintenance interval, but to me they are not outside the statistical norm, yet. Any car with an auto transmission will have some percentage of failures even if those trannys are generally considered "bulletproof". That said of course, it is a strike against the vehicle, I wont argue, it is a weaker component than it sohuld be. As I mentioned in another post I would only buy a 01-03 model if I were looking for an RX, and I would only buy if I got an exceptional deal.