MercLurk

Ya if I were you I would just get an IS its such a great car it wont disappoint you.

So in the end its all personal choice, is the Benz really worth it to you?? For me I wouldn't have a C43 as a daily driver, I would love to but costs wise its just not practical, that's why its the fun weekend car :)

PS. I got my 92 ES300 5-spd in Columbus, OH, Hows the weather down there :D

The weather was nice this weekend, 68 degrees on Saturday... That means it was 0 degrees with a -20 windchill about a week ago, and yesterday it got up to 68. Ohio is crazy and usually freezing and some type of wet. It doesn't compare to the MN tundra though.

I have a 2003 IS300 which I love. It is a fun car to drive, and incredibly reliable. However, there are a few things I do not like, and they may relate to your questions.

I have the 5 speed manual transmission, and in my opinion it's a really lousy transmission and clutch. I've driven manual transmission small cars since the late 1970s, and this one is by far the worst shifting one I've owned - very difficult to shift smoothly, and the shifter itself feels sloppy. My impression is that Lexus offered a manual transmission in the IS300 as an afterthought, and didn't really do a "Lexus quality" job with the design. However, aside from not liking the way it shifts, I have had no trouble with the transmission. (I complained about this when I bought the car new, and the dealer let me drive a couple of other new ones to show that they're all the same way.)

I think you really need to watch out in terms of snow and ice, although I can't say how it is with snow tires. My car is TERRIBLE in any wet or slippery weather. It is by far the worst car I've ever had in that area - very difficult to even drive in rainy conditions without tire slip. I have to suspect that it's partly due to the sport tires you have to use on this car - but I'm on my 4th set of tires now, each one a different brand, and it's had wet weather traction problems with all of them. In my opinion, you'd be happier with either front wheel drive or all wheel drive in that respect.

As to repair costs, it's hard to say since the car never breaks!!

Thanks for the info. This is good to know, going into potentially buying a car, what current owners like/dislike about it. So the trans isn't that great huh? I know what you're saying about sloppy shifts... I've driven quite a few manual cars and none really pop into mind as being "great" shifting. Off the top of my head, here's the manuals I have extended (more than 1 drive) experience driving.

1991 300zx n/t 5 speed

1995 Eclipse gsx awd 5 speed

1992 VW Corrado VR6 5speed

1992 Camaro Z28 5speed

2003 Mitsubishi EVO 5 speed

2002 Acura RSX-S 6 speed

1996 Honda Accord 5 speed

2003 Honda S2000 6 speed

2004 VW GTI 5 speed

2002 BMW 540i/6 speed

So that's quite a few different types of manual transmissions. Of all those, I'd say the bimmer 540 was the smoothest/easiest/best shifting of the bunch. The camaro or accord were probably the worst. I've never driven a toyota/lexus manual. I rode in a supra TT manual a few years ago, but I didn't get to drive it. I would think the RWD setup would make the trans shift easier, as I've found to be the case with rwd cars.

You have more experience than me, by a couple decades I imagine, so I wonder what cars would you say, in your experience, had GREAT manual transmissions?

I guess I'm keeping my ever-plummeting-in-value benz for now. It's getting me from point A to point B. I can't deal with it being worth like $10k in this market. The car was $58k brand new in 2000 (have original window sticker) and now it's worth 1/6th of that, I bought it for $14k about a year ago. It's really so much car for the money. It'd be really nice to have it working 100% and I'm just going to have to dig in and find a way to DIY some of the maintenance on it.

The IS300 is a nice car though... I am searching for a manual IS within 25 miles of here to go test drive and I will post back here with my impressions after that.

Im comparing a C43 AMG to a ES300 and they are in two different class', so if they were more evenly matched I don't know probably the Lexus at that point :D

Thanks-- I see you own a fleet of cars and must be doing pretty well financially. If you were a single guy in an entry-level job pretty much, with ONE car, and the desire/ability to only own ONE car, would you take the benz or the lexus? I'm thinking just on maintenance costs and fuel economy alone the lexus is a no brainer. I'm after the luxuries I guess... I don't want to own 3 $5000 cars each serving a different purpose, I'd want ONE $15,000 car that is as new and fresh/ option-loaded as possible.

My V8 AWD benz (same 4.3L as your C43 I believe, except in a larger body and AWD) gets a staggering 15mpg on average city, maybe 19mpg highway if I drive slow. And 9 our of 10 of my commutes are all city driving. I'm thinking I just bit off more than I can chew with this car and did not get it properly inspected... only to find numerous suspension problems and ac/electrical issues that all need hundreds if not a $g or 2 dumped in to it. I have read that the 4.3L is pretty bullet proof, but the trans can be quite a money pit if it's not perfectly maintained from the start. I'm going to run it through the winter and decide come spring time if I'm going to try to dump it and get an IS manual, or just bite the bullet and keep throwing $ into it.

Hey, that gives me an idea. Maybe we should have a "sticky" in General Discussions where all the Mercedes bashing could be done in one place.

But seriously, if you search the forums (not just the IS forums) for "Mercedes" you can find plenty of past threads and posts from people like me who have switched from Mercedes to Lexus and from people who currently own both.

I guess I should have searched for "bash" heh. I did the search for Mercedes and got alot of thread results that were mentioning the name, not necessarily comparing the two. I see your sig says you were an MB owner, now a Lexus owner... I guess I'm wondering about differences between the E class and the IS.

Hello,

This is my first post. I am considering an 03-05 Lexus IS300 manual. I currently drive a 2000 MB E430 4matic. I'm looking for any Lexus owners on this forum who have gone from MB to Lex and care to share their story. What did they notice going from MB to Lex? Who on here has experience with both?

Granted I have a tried and true pre-2003 MB. 2003-2005 is when MB quality went really downhill, but I'm still kind of fed up with my car. It's heavy, bulky, not very fast, the 4matic front suspension is rough (even with new shocks I got) and I was expecting more comfort and less problems.

MB is INSANE to get worked on. I'm not a mechanic. Lexus/Toyota must be atleast a bit cheaper to maintain and repair.

I miss a manual car. The benz 5spd automatic trans I have is a shame. It shifts horrible and I had the car dealer serviced with new trans fluid and filter. I used to have an eclipse GSX/Evo and ended up totalling the EVO so I got away from speed and turbos and went for somethin more grown up, like an AWD V8 benz... Now I'm bored of it, i don't want to drain my paychecks to keep everything working.

I didn't see a sticky thread for Noobs. What are the common problems with IS300's? What goes bad? What has been recalled?

I'm looking to spend $15-17k on an 03-05 IS300 manual with less than 60k miles and documented service history from a private owner. Does that sound feasible?

My reasoning for getting a 4matic was the snow/ice conditions we get in Ohio. Do you guys find that the rwd IS300 is fine with snow tires? Kind of off-topic, but here's a question. Which would perform better-- a RWD car with the best snow tires? or an AWD car with summer tires? I assume the AWD car... But I have an AWD with all-season tires and I'm sliding around alot just like a RWD car... So it makes me think the tires play an even bigger role than the drivetrain.

Any current/former Benz owners who've gone Lex -- Please share.

Thanks.