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?

Added pics in the above post.

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)

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 .

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).

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.

Guess nobody knows?

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