Lexus LS400 - what do you think?
Discussion
Hello and happy new year to everyone on here! Yet another question for the collective mind of Pistonheads - found what appears to be a very nice Lexus:
1998 R registration LS400, with 70,000 miles and a full history with 2 owners from new. Colour is a champagne with beige leather. Priced at £2495.
As a confirmed BMW man and having never owned a Japanese car in my life, I don't really know too much about these although I must confess this is quite tempting....anything major to look for? anything to be weary of?
I know its a big old luxury car and understandably there will be expense involved, but that is not too much of a worry.
Thanks!
1998 R registration LS400, with 70,000 miles and a full history with 2 owners from new. Colour is a champagne with beige leather. Priced at £2495.
As a confirmed BMW man and having never owned a Japanese car in my life, I don't really know too much about these although I must confess this is quite tempting....anything major to look for? anything to be weary of?
I know its a big old luxury car and understandably there will be expense involved, but that is not too much of a worry.
Thanks!
Thankyou for your replies - yes, a comfortable cruiser that makes me smile is a good thing. I do hear that dynamically they are not great, although they do have useful power if required....I'm sure Garlick wrote in his running report somewhere for his LS400 that it was the only place he'd like to be if in a traffic jam.
Edited by lordturns on Thursday 10th January 16:34
MUDGUTZ said:
I am planning to get another within a year or so.
Hi Mudgutz - an interesting story, I was surprised at your perseverance with this car and I think many would have given up and most likely chopped it in or sold it for parts....especially as you paid under £900. Have you found any good Lexus independent specialists in your area? I have searched Cambs and Lincs on Google and found nothing at all apart from main dealers.
MUDGUTZ said:
Depending on how much you are spending, I think an independant would be a good bet. I got the impression that Lexus MK where totally clueless when dealing with mine. Most of the normal service items like oil and filters are quite easy to do yourself. One of the reasons I stayed with mine was that aside from this one issue, it runs very well. A while back I did a Central London - Northampton - Nottingham - Northampton inside 3 hours. These cars love eating up the miles and I get 27-28 MPG from mine, although 75% is on the Motorway.
Mudgutz - quite a trip you did there and MPG is still what I deem to be acceptable, figures of 12-15 would be frightening to say the least especially around town. Although I have read many reports of people getting between 30-35 MPG if driven carefully.... I loved owning mine.
I had a used 1998 car for 5 years and eventually sold it with 201000 miles, with nothing going wrong. It was like driving in a favorite armchair in the silence of your living room, although it was difficult to tell how fast you were going as there wasn't much change in feel from 50 to 80 mph.
The first few services were done at a Lexus main dealer, but nothing ever needed doing other than the normal consumables, so I ended up using a local garage instead.
I seem to remember getting about 33 mpg on long runs, and about 28 mpg around town.
There was a newer LS430 with low mileage near me for less than £4k but it sold before I got a chance to see it
I had a used 1998 car for 5 years and eventually sold it with 201000 miles, with nothing going wrong. It was like driving in a favorite armchair in the silence of your living room, although it was difficult to tell how fast you were going as there wasn't much change in feel from 50 to 80 mph.
The first few services were done at a Lexus main dealer, but nothing ever needed doing other than the normal consumables, so I ended up using a local garage instead.
I seem to remember getting about 33 mpg on long runs, and about 28 mpg around town.
There was a newer LS430 with low mileage near me for less than £4k but it sold before I got a chance to see it
I picked up a 1998 LS400 with a multipoint Prins LPG system installed just over 4 months ago. I have loved every minute of owning it. They are fantastic cars with a smooth drive that is unrivalled in my experience. Mine is a mark 4 with fully working sat nav and a brilliant stereo. Loads of other toys too. The Lexus Owners Club is also one of the friendliest forums if you need any advice etc re these cars beyond what you can get here. Good luck with your search.
Heaveho said:
Hi, I used to process warranty claims for a Lexus dealer, suffice to say, it was just 8 hours of feet up action a day! They were extraordinarily reliable. I had done the same job for a Ford dealer previously, chalk and cheese.
That's quite funny...In 1976 my father was given a Toyota Cressida as a company car after 25 years of Fords (Pop, 2 100Es, Consul, Zephyr, Cortina, Corsair, Zephyr, Cortina, Consul) and the Toyota Service Manager was the same guy he'd dealt with at the Ford dealer.
Every time he took the Cressida in for a service (of course it never needed anything else), the service guy used to bend his ear about how difficult it was to to make money from the department because all they ever did was servicing, none of that profitable repair and warranty work.
Plus ça change, eh?
A friend of a friend was looking into starting a Lexus dealership a good few years ago. He was warned off exactly for this reason - they never make any money once they have sold the car. Just servicing, because nothing ever goes wrong....
I have also been on the Lexus forums as a guest and they seem to be very helpful - some of them mentioned that they'd even be happy to view a car on behalf of somebody and give them an opinion as to whether it was worth going for.
I did some more research about cambelts - I spoke to Lexus Cambridge and as I thought (expensive) the cost of cambelt, water pump and tensioners etc came out at a whopping £920 inclusive of VAT and labour. It is either age or mileage related and I was told every 10 years or 100,000 miles whichever is sooner.
I then called an independent specialist 'Westfield Motors' in Essex and spoke to the director who has been working on LS400s since they were first introduced to the UK in 1990 and the price for the whole job came out a reasonable £635 or so...
Edited by lordturns on Wednesday 16th January 17:09
gareth_r said:
hat's quite funny...
In 1976 my father was given a Toyota Cressida as a company car after 25 years of Fords (Pop, 2 100Es, Consul, Zephyr, Cortina, Corsair, Zephyr, Cortina, Consul) and the Toyota Service Manager was the same guy he'd dealt with at the Ford dealer.
Every time he took the Cressida in for a service (of course it never needed anything else), the service guy used to bend his ear about how difficult it was to to make money from the department because all they ever did was servicing, none of that profitable repair and warranty work.
Plus ça change, eh?
Hi, that dealership I was at had the smallest parts dept I've ever seen, there was nothing as reliable as mid 90's Toyotas and Lexus.....the only bits we kept in any numbers were front end parts, but that's the weather in Newcastle for you!In 1976 my father was given a Toyota Cressida as a company car after 25 years of Fords (Pop, 2 100Es, Consul, Zephyr, Cortina, Corsair, Zephyr, Cortina, Consul) and the Toyota Service Manager was the same guy he'd dealt with at the Ford dealer.
Every time he took the Cressida in for a service (of course it never needed anything else), the service guy used to bend his ear about how difficult it was to to make money from the department because all they ever did was servicing, none of that profitable repair and warranty work.
Plus ça change, eh?
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