Toyota Aristo

Toyota Aristo buyer's guide (JZS147 and JZS161)

The Aristo is one of those cars that looks like your accountant's daily and goes like something that should worry him. Toyota sold it in Japan from October 1991, and in export markets the same car wore a Lexus badge and got called the GS300 or GS400. It is a big rear-drive luxury sedan with a long bonnet and a quiet cabin. The first generation is the JZS147, built from 1991 to 1997, and the second is the JZS161, which ran from 1997 to 2005.

A four-door Supra hiding in plain sight

Here is why enthusiasts care. The top grade, badged 3.0V on the first car and V300 on the second, runs the 2JZ-GTE, the 3.0 twin-turbo inline-six from the A80 Supra. On paper it made roughly 280 PS, because every Japanese maker stuck to the gentleman's output cap of the day, though the earlier pre-VVT-i turbo is sometimes quoted a shade under that. The number matters less than the hardware. It is the same block and the same sequential turbos, with the same appetite for boost the Supra is famous for. Fit a bigger turbo and the fuelling to match, and the 2JZ will make daft power without complaint. That is the whole appeal: Supra running gear in a body nobody looks at twice. There is also a naturally aspirated 2JZ-GE version, badged 3.0Q on the JZS147 and S300 on the JZS161. It is smooth and it is reliable, but it is not the one people chase.

About that "V8 Aristo"

This one trips people up, so it is worth clearing up. There was a factory V8 Aristo, but only on the first generation. The 4.0 Zi-Four (UZS143) arrived in October 1992 with the 1UZ-FE V8 and all-wheel drive, good for around 249 hp, and it was a Japan-only model that stayed fairly rare. What you cannot buy is a second-generation V8 Aristo. The 1UZ-FE in the S160 shell was the export Lexus GS400 (UZS160), and Toyota never sold that engine as a JDM Aristo. So any S160 you import will be a 2JZ car, either the NA S300 or the turbo V300.

What to check before you buy

First job is proving the turbo car is actually a turbo car. Plenty of tidy NA Aristos get advertised with vague wording, so check the badge and the chassis code before you get your hopes up. A genuine 3.0V or V300 reads JZS147 or JZS161 on the plate and has two turbos sitting under the intake plumbing.

Almost every Aristo left the factory as an automatic. If you find a manual it is nearly always a conversion, usually an R154 or a Getrag out of a Supra, so treat it as a modified car and inspect the swap on its merits. After that it is the standard import checklist. Look hard for rust in the arches and floors on any car that lived somewhere they salt the roads. On the turbo motor, tired or weeping turbos and a smoky cold start point to an engine that has had a hard life. The luxury electrics can sulk too, so make sure the climate control and the electric windows actually behave.

The last point is the big one on a car like this. So many Aristos got bought as a cheap 2JZ donor or a boost project that a clean, unmolested standard example is genuinely worth paying more for. If the boost gauge is aftermarket and the ECU has obviously been opened up, ask what was done, and whether it was done by someone who understood the engine or someone who just wanted a bigger number.