Learn me- is300.

Particularly, the automatic versions. Since c-list has literally no manuals under 5k. Found a lot with "savage title" not salvage, "savage". Must be a vicious car. I'm reading about the automatics being upgradable and pretty good for track day use. It's apperently the a650e?

Also, I've always read about the Japanese "altezza" being a great handling car. And I know they used it in various GT series. The 2jz is, of course, the most bastardized engine ever. What about diffs?

In rough shape but..... https://miami.craigslist.org/mdc/cto/6051853860.html

I loved mine. I used the "manual" mode of my transmission once on the day I bought it and once when I was instructing my wife in autocross, so not much feed back on that for you.

I think it's safe to call it a reliable e46.

I'm in Portland, Or. so Miami is a bit of a trip...

Trackmouse wrote: I'm in Portland, Or. so Miami is a bit of a trip...

That would be a bit of a drive. I need to get to your area of the country though, never been.

They get terrible gas mileage. Reliable a gravity. Still look good after 15 years

I had a 5-speed/LSD one for the better part of a year. Biggest things I remember are oddly poor gas mileage (like 20MPG on premium), uncomfortable seats and the world's worst CD changer (it would devour discs and quit working if you hit a bump). Fun to drive and made nice noises though. Awesome chronograph gauge cluster. Mine needed the timing belt service completed while I had it which wasn't fun or cheap.

I had a BMW E46 330 a few years later and really cost of ownership was about the same, though the BMW got better gas mileage and had much better seats. I never knew E46s were supposed to be unreliable, that's news to me. The BMW cooling system service is about the same cost and level of effort as an IS timing belt service so that's kind of a wash, and both cars have suspension bushings and so forth that can wear out so really they are pretty analogous from a cost/maintenance perspective.

To sum it up I would say that I preferred the IS in concept but the E46 was the better car to live with. The IS is a really uniquely pretty car that looks great if you study it closely in person, very unique Japanese styling touches. I would have another but not as a daily driver...and I'd immediately junk the awful seats in favor of Recaros.

Some of these are near challenge price around me. Found a savage title'd one for 2900$.

grover wrote: In rough shape but..... https://miami.craigslist.org/mdc/cto/6051853860.html

That one is actually pretty nice compared to the neglected junk near me!

I had one try and race my FoRS uphill getting onto the Ross Island Bridge. He was unhappy he couldn't close the hole and prevent my merge or the SRT4 that was ahead of me from merging.

So he made sure to drone along next to me with his "custom" exhaust after the lanes opened up again. It sounded horrible and was slow when he tried to drop a gear in the automatic.

The SRT-4 (a pristine burnt orange example oddly, as most are pretty thrashed anymore) I was following, changed lanes, dropped a gear and took off, "flatbill" the Lexus tried to give chase.

I continued to cruise across the bridge with a car full of people at 40mph because I'm not a child.

I always thought they had potential, like a 4-door Supra, but they required so much work to make them live up to that potential that it just wasn't worth it compared to an M3 or M5 of similar vintage. Especially when you factor in the number of "flatbill" wearing mouth breathers who "improved" them with VIP styling or other car customizing trends. You do find the occasional creampuff that has been owned by someone who wanted a nice car to drive and simply drove them.

In reply to Stefan:

Yep, that is why 60% of them have salvage titles now. They started getting really cheap right around the time drifting became a fad, as such most have been sloppily modified, beaten on and wrecked much like 350Zs and other Japanese RWD cars of the time. Nice ones are still expensive because they are pretty hard to find.

Weirdly enough despite being a FWD 4-cylinder the Acura TSX of the time has significantly more performance potential and it's much easier to find unmolested examples, I would have one of those before another IS300.

I've always wanted one, still do. Nothing of use to offer.

In reply to Stefan:

What is it about the Ross Island bridge that causes this?!?!? I have been in a similar circumstance at that merge from I-5 southbound and had nearly an identical experience, except it wasn't an IS, it was Chevy truck. Also nearly been killed in a head on with a guy on a ninja that lost a wheelie...

I had one for several years and gave it to my BIL for cheap. He still has it. Dead reliable, like a hammer. It is now getting into some exhaust issues due to 17 years of Canadian winter. The alcantara seat option is great. Loved them.

It gets poor mileage, runs 15.5s in the quarter. The motor is heavy. I autox once and it wasn't particularly rewarding. The CD player only plays factory recorded discs, thinner recordable discs get stuck. It does sound really good though.

It's a really nice car, but not fast, unless you turbo charge it and make 1000hp.

The Sportcross version is unique. I always wanted one of those.

In reply to Trackmouse:

No idea. I avoid going across the bridge and the west side in general as it is just full of putzes. Had to go to Washington Square to go shopping with the family (new phones, etc.), so I girded my loins and dove into the fray. I was actually pretty well wiped after we got home. Avoiding the potholes and nutjob drivers can be damned tiresome.

I was coming from US 26, so I came down the hill through downtown and made the right turn and the lanes merge going up the hill before going back down hill onto the bridge.

When I was younger, it was a fun place to play when you had a turbo as the hill made for great boost fun up the hill and most slushomatic driving people aren't paying attention to actually do anything by the time you go whistling by and often it was the only way to ensure you had a spot to merge into.

There have been so many accidents on that bridge that it just isn't worth it anymore, so I only give it a little boot when I exit onto McLoughlin since the curve is pretty fun and open.

There are other threads here on this very car. We had one for many years and I really liked it. Very reliable but as other said - and it's kind of a big deal - they get amazingly bad mileage for what they are. I don't know what they did so wrong to achieve that but the irony is palpable when it's a toss-up whether we'd choose to drive the IS or my full-size F150 pickup truck, as they got the same mileage.

Nothing a retune couldn't lean out. The Yamaha head flows well, so naturally, they need that fuel to match. Since this would be a fun car I wouldn't mind the mpg. But it is good for the heads up.

Well if the engine made 300 hp it would be acceptable. 20-ish mph for 215 hp, not so much.

Wife bought one brand new. We sold in 3 years, after realizing it didn't do anything well, and modifying it was going to be an expensive proposition. For a little bit more, i'd be looking at a 2006 IS250 which is better in almost every way.

From discussions I've read here about the ways OEM's used to tune cars, they focused on emissions rather than mileage due to the low relative cost of gasoline, so the mileage tended to suffer a bit.

Some were better than others, and certainly some designs suffered more than others.

Leaning them out helps, but increases heat and can cause it to fail emissions tests, etc.

Is250 is a big price jump in my area. Around 2x's the price on the low end, and 3x's on the high end.

So....look for something else. There are similar sized sedans for similar money and performance.

There is decent power to be made with these by snagging the oem Supra turbos, downpipes, etc. The stock trans and rear end are great until turbo then less so. I put 50k on one with nothing other than o2 sensors, plugs, and brakes. Not the fastest but awfully nice and low production so the world is not quite sure what it is.

What sucks is that there is no way to tune the IS300 ECU while retaining emissions compliance. It's standalone or nothing. That is a really big reason they are not more desirable; it's not like a Honda where you can do some playing around, the IS doesn't respond well to bolt-ons and you can't do any tuning to take advantage of them. So you are pretty much stuck with the bad gas mileage and low power unless you go standalone or do a swap.

Trackmouse wrote: Nothing a retune couldn't lean out. The Yamaha head flows well, so naturally, they need that fuel to match. Since this would be a fun car I wouldn't mind the mpg. But it is good for the heads up.

That's not the way fuel economy works. If you have big airflow and the fuel to match, you're making a lot of power, and therefore you're either accelerating or working against a lot of drag.

I have a feeling that the big, heavy iron engine is a prime factor in the fuel economy. That's a lot of mass to heat up on a cold start. (Supposedly, excessively long warmup times are why the US never got the Nissan RB engines, too) Of course, on long road trips that SHOULD balance out, so there has to be more to the story than that.