1990s Bentley vs Lexus LS430

1990s Bentley vs Lexus LS430

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Discussion

aww999

2,068 posts

260 months

Wednesday 3rd October 2012
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The LS is so bloody good at its job and cheap to run that it becomes very difficult to justify changing from one. I quite fancy an E55AMG, or a E38 BMW750i, or an old S600, but I would be trading Lexus reliability (which is spectacular on these old barges) for potentially epic costs, a nicer badge and an extra 50-odd bhp. Any of these limos are going to be pretty lousy as a drivers car, so there's not much to be gained there either. I also love the idea of a Bentley one day, but like the OP I worry that they may not be that great to drive. A lot of the responses here suggest I may be right!

PS: The 1997+ LS400 has VVTi and a five speed box, so economy is remarkable for a big engine pushing a big car. 28mpg at ~70, 18mpg if trundling around town for very short trips.

MUDGUTZ

Original Poster:

117 posts

146 months

Wednesday 3rd October 2012
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inman999 said:
I'm still amazed you can get 28MPG out of a LS400.

I could barely get that drafting behind a large lorry.
When I first got the car, I discovered a problem that in order to try to solve, involved new plugs, leads, distributor caps, etc. The car has 165,000 miles on it now and runs really well. I'm no slouch on the motorway and have run it on normal unleaded, VPower and now Tesco Momentum (which seems to be the best) but I'm getting a fairly consistent 28 MPG. I think if I was sensible, I could manage 30 MPG.

The whole story of the fault it has makes interesting reading and in on the LOC forums. I would post the link but I'm not sure if I can do this. The whole car is stock.

tgr

1,129 posts

170 months

Wednesday 3rd October 2012
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There's no way on earth the Bentley would be superior to the Lexus in safety terms. So the question becomes is it sufficiently safe for you? If you buy the Bentley it will be an emotional decision. All logic points in the direction of the Lexus. Only you can decide whether you're happy to accept the compromises of a Bentley because... it's a Bentley.

It may be worth waiting until you can afford an Arnage from the point of view of safety.

In my viewwhistle

anonymous-user

53 months

Wednesday 3rd October 2012
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infradig said:
I went from thinking early 4.4 Arnages weren't real Bentley's to realising that they and the V12 Seraph must be the'poor'mans way to run one on a 7 series budget. Think there are still rust issues on early ones though. The big V8 has a lot of charm but I could live with 20mpg potential and cheap ebay BMW parts especially if it was Black or Red Label pimped.
The 4.4L lump may have started life as a BMW design, but considering that it has grown a Turbocharger and its associated mechanical and electrical gear that was never found on the 'humble' 540i or 740i I remain skeptical that many parts ordered from the BMW parts catalogue can used successfully. The V12 in the seraph is a lot more related to its BMW cousin, however I must say that in my time as a Tech I never once saw a 4.4L or V12 car suffer any form of major engine failure. That doesn't mean I didn't often see bills of £10,000+ on those cars. The engine is one of your least worries if you ask me.

Mustard

6,992 posts

244 months

Wednesday 3rd October 2012
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inman999 said:
I'm still amazed you can get 28MPG out of a LS400.

I could barely get that drafting behind a large lorry.
When I was involved with Lexus several years ago circa 25mpg was the norm for most owners

Bizarrely mk4 ls400 with the vvti engine did slightly less than mk3's

I used a mk3 running up and down the motorway doing a 50mie each way commute and averaged nigh on 30mpg.... Didn't spare the horses as it wasn't my car or fuel .... The World Cup was on and was trying to get to work during half time!



300bhp/ton

41,030 posts

189 months

Thursday 4th October 2012
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infradig said:
Its not just a fuse box,its also the control box for the aircon and to be fair that did include labour, it was made worse by me not investigating the anti-freeze smell when it happened and ignoring it for a couple of weeks,letting everything corrode nicely!
Sounds like a real bummer. But £4k, sounds like you got fleeced for something.

300bhp/ton

41,030 posts

189 months

Thursday 4th October 2012
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k-ink said:
Exactly. Halfords will only get you so far! Personally I'd rather run a Lambo if I had to lay out epic amounts per year. By comparison running a Lexus would be about as expensive as running a skateboard.
Well no it isn't "exactly". You need to know what actually caused the cost, is it common and could it have been avoided. You could spank more money on a clapped out Fiesta if you bought a brand new engine from Ford and got your local main dealer to fit it. I'm not saying this is the case with this Bentley, but there really isn't a lot of info to judge it on.

anonymous-user

53 months

Thursday 4th October 2012
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300bhp/ton said:
279 said:
Take it from someone who has worked on them and perhaps is able to see the forest a little more for the trees, wanting to run one daily for anything other than a short commute is crazy. This nonsense about being able to fix them on a pittence because parts coming in bentley bags makes them 1000% more expensive is just that, nonsense. They aren't cheap to run, that's not saying that you can run one on the cheap, but as an only car i wouldnt.
I assume that's aimed at me?

There must be some parts that can be bought cheaper by not going through a Bentley specialist.
To be honest though 300, I do remember once you suggested to a poster considering a Bentley Continental GT that he should buy a drum of oil to keep in the garden to save money on oil changes smile

300bhp/ton

41,030 posts

189 months

Thursday 4th October 2012
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St John Smythe said:
To be honest though 300, I do remember once you suggested to a poster considering a Bentley Continental GT that he should buy a drum of oil to keep in the garden to save money on oil changes smile
Well the conversation had moved on slightly, so it wasn't exactly that. But yes cars can be run a lot cheaper than buying bits from main dealers. Just had a friend a few weeks back spend £1000 at a Subaru main dealer for new rear calipers on a 1999 Impreza. I priced it up and reckoned you could have done it for about £200-£250.

MUDGUTZ

Original Poster:

117 posts

146 months

Thursday 4th October 2012
quotequote all
tgr said:
There's no way on earth the Bentley would be superior to the Lexus in safety terms. So the question becomes is it sufficiently safe for you? If you buy the Bentley it will be an emotional decision. All logic points in the direction of the Lexus. Only you can decide whether you're happy to accept the compromises of a Bentley because... it's a Bentley.

It may be worth waiting until you can afford an Arnage from the point of view of safety.

In my viewwhistle
I think you have hit the nail on the head.

On a side note, I was looking at a couple of cars on the web and found this one, which looks great until you get to picture number 6 of 9: Check out the steering wheel, it looks like the leather is lifting in the centre and also like a couple of others I have seen, doesn't look to great on the rim. Maybe it's just a bad example and they actually wear well but my 165,000 mile Lexus is in better condition in this respect. Obviously it could just be me being subjective and the advert does say: "HERE WE HAVE"...

Are the older ones harder wearing?

Edited by MUDGUTZ on Saturday 6th October 16:22

anonymous-user

53 months

Thursday 4th October 2012
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300bhp/ton said:
St John Smythe said:
To be honest though 300, I do remember once you suggested to a poster considering a Bentley Continental GT that he should buy a drum of oil to keep in the garden to save money on oil changes smile
Well the conversation had moved on slightly, so it wasn't exactly that. But yes cars can be run a lot cheaper than buying bits from main dealers. Just had a friend a few weeks back spend £1000 at a Subaru main dealer for new rear calipers on a 1999 Impreza. I priced it up and reckoned you could have done it for about £200-£250.
1k is crazy money for that job! I agree that simple jobs can be done yourself but most people seem to want to pay a garage to do stuff. This weekend I'm replacing the rear suspension air bags on my old Range Rover plus doing the heater o rings. Straightforward stuff with detailed instructions on the net. God knows how much an Indy would charge to do this. Luckily parts are cheap for Land Rovers but I do still think a lot of stuff for an old Bentley would be very expensive, whether you do the job yourself or pay someone.

Thin White Duke

2,333 posts

159 months

Thursday 4th October 2012
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Surely you buy a Bentley (one of the 90's vintage) as a weekend car. Unless you can park at work where no one parks next to you, plus it'll be out in all weathers.

Couldn't the OP buy a cheap daily commuter and have a Bentley as a second/weekend/classic car?

anonymous-user

53 months

Thursday 4th October 2012
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Thin White Duke said:
Surely you buy a Bentley (one of the 90's vintage) as a weekend car. Unless you can park at work where no one parks next to you, plus it'll be out in all weathers.

Couldn't the OP buy a cheap daily commuter and have a Bentley as a second/weekend/classic car?
That reminds me, there's a guy round the corner from me that owns an old Turbo R. He's had it since the 90s and I got chatting to him at the petrol station the other day. I asked him about servicing costs and he replied 'servicing? No, it hasn't had any of that for years!'. The car is a bit shabby with some panels faded, etc but to be honest I think it actually suits the thing. Sort of like a crumbling old country pile smile

greggy50

6,161 posts

190 months

Thursday 4th October 2012
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Neighbour has a Bentley Turbo RT beautiful car and with 400bhp it bloody shifts quite rare as well I believe.

Anyway he isn't short but even he says parts prices are just mental like getting a new key from Bentley was something stupid like £500 oh and if he has a heavy right foot it gets 8 yes 8mpg and it costs nearly £150 to fill with fuel.

I would say the LS430 would near enough have half the running costs even driven like a saint he gets about 18mpg imagine the LS could get nearer 30 and be a lot cheaper for parts etc...

However the Bentley is quite a car and if you can deal with the running costs go for it they feel a very special place to be and I found it hilarious when he took me out before and demolished some chav boy racer in his civic type on the A5 with it wafting up to 130 without even breaking a sweat.


Balmoral

40,660 posts

247 months

Thursday 4th October 2012
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Reckon on around 12mpg and around £4K a year for fettling. Anyone who suggests otherwise is talking bks, just ask anyone who's run one for more than a year or two.

greggy50

6,161 posts

190 months

Thursday 4th October 2012
quotequote all
Balmoral said:
Reckon on around 12mpg and around £4K a year for fettling. Anyone who suggests otherwise is talking bks, just ask anyone who's run one for more than a year or two.
Is it you that has a RT in green as well?
Remember when I saw on the forum before thought might have been my neighbour lol

k-ink

9,070 posts

178 months

Thursday 4th October 2012
quotequote all
Balmoral said:
Reckon on around 12mpg and around £4K a year for fettling. Anyone who suggests otherwise is talking bks, just ask anyone who's run one for more than a year or two.
Yeah but 300bhp/ton has a mate named Dave who works in Halfords. He can service a Bentley for £4.99 in his fag break. hehe


infradig

978 posts

206 months

Thursday 4th October 2012
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Balmoral said:
Reckon on around 12mpg and around £4K a year for fettling. Anyone who suggests otherwise is talking bks, just ask anyone who's run one for more than a year or two.
Thank you ,300BHP, would you like to cross examine?

300bhp/ton

41,030 posts

189 months

Friday 5th October 2012
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St John Smythe said:
1k is crazy money for that job! I agree that simple jobs can be done yourself but most people seem to want to pay a garage to do stuff. This weekend I'm replacing the rear suspension air bags on my old Range Rover plus doing the heater o rings. Straightforward stuff with detailed instructions on the net. God knows how much an Indy would charge to do this. Luckily parts are cheap for Land Rovers but I do still think a lot of stuff for an old Bentley would be very expensive, whether you do the job yourself or pay someone.
I agree. I just struggle to see where £4000/5000 would go every single year though (as some have claimed you'd need), unless you are massively over paying for simple parts/servicing.

300bhp/ton

41,030 posts

189 months

Friday 5th October 2012
quotequote all
greggy50 said:
Neighbour has a Bentley Turbo RT beautiful car and with 400bhp it bloody shifts quite rare as well I believe.

Anyway he isn't short but even he says parts prices are just mental like getting a new key from Bentley was something stupid like £500
Maybe you should ask MB about getting a key for a modern Merc?

That said, is the Bentley key a special key, or could you buy a replacement through a locksmiths for £20-30?