My E53 vs 00's RX300, Touareg, Tacoma (aka Scotty K is not always right)

[alberniken]

I see a number of postings from folks wondering about whether an X5 could be considered a reliable daily driver. I am hoping to help them and maybe dispel some myths that have grown over the years.

Here is my DIRECT personal experience with mid-00's X5 and Lexus rx300 (x4), Tacoma (x2) and 1 T1 Touareg.


IMHO Toyota reliability DISAPPEARED in the 00's - !!

Background:
My 3x week commute includes 50 miles of active logging road. I know many others who regularly cover the same route. I have a video linked in an older post.

Say yes to the X5 3.0
In one year, I put over 25,000 miles of just this route under my X5. I bought at auction for $1500CDN - ~$1kUSD, surely rode hard & put away wet for most of its life. No service history with almost 150,000 miles on the ODO.

In that time I have only replaced normal wear & tear (brakes, tires, shocks), driver door external handle, the heater fan module, and had one broken coil spring. My A/C is still ice cold, all windows go up & down. Sunroof still works. PDL still works. Power tilt-tele steering still works. Etc

Lexus RX300
I had 3 RX300's in the previous several years on the same route. Slightly higher mileage, but hey, c'mon its a LEXUS right? A/C failures on two, and

all three were mechanical write-offs when the transmissions blew out after about 200,000 miles on each.

These were not beaters. One had a real good service history, and on all of them fluids were changed on regular basis. My wife has another rx300 that is mostly parked as it keeps coming up with weird, un-diagnosible electronic failures.

Taco-a-nono
2 co-workers paid the Toyota Tacoma tax about a decade back. They cover the same commute as I do, but only about 2 or 3 times a month. Everyone reading this probably knows about the frame-rot debacle, but did you know folks are starting to see fatigue issues, even if the frame isn't rusty? One I know just had to have a frame re-section and re-enforcement where the drivers' side motor mount is located. This mechanic services a lot of vehicles that travel the same route and he would never recommend a Tacoma or Tundra after what he has seen. Even the replaced frames are giving problems. Stress crack is just the latest issues she dealt with. In the last 10 years - 2 x sway bar mounts breaking loose, front valence falling off, power window failures, and a laundry list of minor annoyances. This is literally owned and driven by a 'little old lady' and she drives very slowly on this commute. Also WAAAY lower mileage than my X5.


T-T-T-Touareg
Not enough miles under this one to be a fair comparison, but I will do it anyhow.

V8 with air suspension & about 200,000 miles. Dayyyyum does this SUV ride nice. My shit-road commute is so much smoother and relaxing. Too bad I blew out a strut last week


The Treg needs a few items fixed, but I bought it for $3000CDN (so $2000USD) and I am not unhappy.


In closing, I would like to share this:
https://comoxvalley.craigslist.org/c...504718683.html

It has 440000kms (that is over 270,000 miles)
I have not yet seen a Lexus or a 'Yota from the 00's in such good shape at that mileage.


Cheers
Ken
PS I am not a mechanic, just someone who has driven hundreds of different vehicles in all kinds of conditions.

[crystalworks]

Thanks for the insight.

BMWs get a bad rep. I see so many old Bimmers on the road. They aren't always in the best of shape because, as you mention, they are often "ridden hard and put away wet" by their 3rd, 4th, and 5th owners.

They aren't cheap to own, but neither is any ~20 year old vehicle if you don't want to stare at a dash board lit up like a Xmas tree.

And I can't stand Scotty K...

[alberniken]

Originally Posted by crystalworks

Thanks for the insight.

BMWs get a bad rep. I see so many old Bimmers on the road. They aren't always in the best of shape because, as you mention, they are often "ridden hard and put away wet" by their 3rd, 4th, and 5th owners.

They aren't cheap to own, but neither is any ~20 year old vehicle if you don't want to stare at a dash board lit up like a Xmas tree.

And I can't stand Scotty K...

My dashboard more often resembles Houston mission control in 'Apollo 13', but I know how to listen and smell and feel if something serious is going on. Learned to drive decades before OBD, and ABS was still just a form of plastic.


Cheers

[alberniken]

RX300
As a follow-on, I did try to get a low mileage used transmission from wreckers, but there wasn't any to be had anywhere in western Canada at the time. One I talked to even called direct to other wreckers in case they hadn't posted to car-part.com or on their shared system.


Seems I am not the only one scrapping RX300's because of transmissions. Lots of engines for cheap though.

[zuvarak]

The old Xers are underestimated a lot imo and most people hating on them either had the pleasure of repairing them after being neglected by many of previous owners or have / had the V8 version

Just had my transmission serviced for the first time in 220k miles. Rides really nice. At the same time my friend sold his 100k mile Lexus GS for parts due to the transmission shitting the bed.