Lexus LC500H "Luxury" (AKA Poverty-Spec)
Discussion
OK, a bit of background first. From an early age I’ve always been an Italian car and bike bloke, I was fascinated by the explanations of Ducati’s desmodromic valve actuation in my older brother’s motorbike magazines and, for some reason, I was blown away by pictures of the Alfetta GTV in the late seventies. When they stuck the Busso engine in it, something clicked and as soon as I got my licence, several decades of Alfas and Ducatis followed.
I’d never even heard of (little-own seen) the LC500 until I pulled up behind one in a traffic queue sometime in 2022. After the initial, what the **** is that? moment, the expensive petrolhead “One way or another, I’ve got to have one of those” switch switched and the die was cast.
The first question is, of course, why the LC500H and not the V8 version? It wasn’t a decision I took lightly – the combination of the LC500’s bodywork, interior and build quality with that amazing V8 is certainly a match made in heaven. However, I’ve done the V8 thing with a Granturismo and I already have a couple of loud cars. For my daily-driver, I specifically wanted something quiet and relaxing. The fact that, like-for-like, hybrids are usually at least a couple of grand cheaper (and cheaper to run) probably tipped the balance.
Next thing was the perfect spec. As, fingers crossed, I want to keep this for the long-haul, I wanted as few options as possible which would add to potential future maintenance/repair costs. So, rear-wheel steering was definitely out and I’d prefer to avoid the active spoiler and carbon roof. I believe the rear wheel steer makes a big improvement to the handling, so makes a lot of sense on V8’s, but less so on the hybrid. Particularly one that has been specifically purchased as a relaxed cruiser.
Perfect colour would be Structural Blue, but as that was not available on early UK cars (my budget zone), second choice was Dark Mica Blue.
Of course that meant I was looking for an absolute unicorn – Base “Luxury” spec Hybrids are the rarest of the rare and blue cars are also a bit thin on the ground.
I wasn’t in any great hurry, my 2007 Brera 3.2 was in good shape mechanically (with all the suspension work done to make it as good as a good full-fat 3.2 Brera can be), and I was quite happy to eke out a few more years in that while I put a bit more into the LC budget.
Cut to December 2024 and, keeping an eye on Autotrader, I could see that Hybrids were dipping under £40K…I don’t usually like buying the cheapest available car, but the Lacquer acne on the (red) Brera was getting to the state that it was becoming a bit embarrassing to drive, so I was getting a bit twitchy.
There was a white private sale car that was edging under £40K, but White was bottom of my list of colours, and I wasn’t quite ready to go for a private buy on a complex car I didn’t know much about.
Then, pretty much my perfect car appeared. Not only was it a Mica Blue “Luxury” Hybrid, but it had done less than 14K miles and had a (nearly!) perfect main dealer service history. It had HUD but no Mark Levinson (which would have been a nice-to-have, but was certainly not a deal breaker). It was for sale with a small independent dealer, which was a bit of a light-amber flag but when it dipped under £40K for a “December only Sale”, I couldn’t resist, so this arrived on my drive. (Apologies for the reflection-strewn pic…I’m a rubbish photographer, which doesn’t bode particularly well for a Reader’s Car thread).
First job was to get the underside seriously rust proofed...the wings on these seem to be prone to corrosion and, as a long-term Alfa owner, rusty wings are among my worst nightmares.
I’d never even heard of (little-own seen) the LC500 until I pulled up behind one in a traffic queue sometime in 2022. After the initial, what the **** is that? moment, the expensive petrolhead “One way or another, I’ve got to have one of those” switch switched and the die was cast.
The first question is, of course, why the LC500H and not the V8 version? It wasn’t a decision I took lightly – the combination of the LC500’s bodywork, interior and build quality with that amazing V8 is certainly a match made in heaven. However, I’ve done the V8 thing with a Granturismo and I already have a couple of loud cars. For my daily-driver, I specifically wanted something quiet and relaxing. The fact that, like-for-like, hybrids are usually at least a couple of grand cheaper (and cheaper to run) probably tipped the balance.
Next thing was the perfect spec. As, fingers crossed, I want to keep this for the long-haul, I wanted as few options as possible which would add to potential future maintenance/repair costs. So, rear-wheel steering was definitely out and I’d prefer to avoid the active spoiler and carbon roof. I believe the rear wheel steer makes a big improvement to the handling, so makes a lot of sense on V8’s, but less so on the hybrid. Particularly one that has been specifically purchased as a relaxed cruiser.
Perfect colour would be Structural Blue, but as that was not available on early UK cars (my budget zone), second choice was Dark Mica Blue.
Of course that meant I was looking for an absolute unicorn – Base “Luxury” spec Hybrids are the rarest of the rare and blue cars are also a bit thin on the ground.
I wasn’t in any great hurry, my 2007 Brera 3.2 was in good shape mechanically (with all the suspension work done to make it as good as a good full-fat 3.2 Brera can be), and I was quite happy to eke out a few more years in that while I put a bit more into the LC budget.
Cut to December 2024 and, keeping an eye on Autotrader, I could see that Hybrids were dipping under £40K…I don’t usually like buying the cheapest available car, but the Lacquer acne on the (red) Brera was getting to the state that it was becoming a bit embarrassing to drive, so I was getting a bit twitchy.
There was a white private sale car that was edging under £40K, but White was bottom of my list of colours, and I wasn’t quite ready to go for a private buy on a complex car I didn’t know much about.
Then, pretty much my perfect car appeared. Not only was it a Mica Blue “Luxury” Hybrid, but it had done less than 14K miles and had a (nearly!) perfect main dealer service history. It had HUD but no Mark Levinson (which would have been a nice-to-have, but was certainly not a deal breaker). It was for sale with a small independent dealer, which was a bit of a light-amber flag but when it dipped under £40K for a “December only Sale”, I couldn’t resist, so this arrived on my drive. (Apologies for the reflection-strewn pic…I’m a rubbish photographer, which doesn’t bode particularly well for a Reader’s Car thread).
First job was to get the underside seriously rust proofed...the wings on these seem to be prone to corrosion and, as a long-term Alfa owner, rusty wings are among my worst nightmares.
One thing I do have pictures of is the rust-proofing process:
"Before" pics of the worst affected areas. To be honest, the only components that showed any real sign of corrosion were the bottom of the four shock bodies. Every thing else was really clean:
Underside was steam cleaned with ChlorX and traffic film remover, surface rust was removed, treated with rust converter, all four inner wings were painted with expoxy mastic paint and then stone chip paint.
Rust treated areas were then sprayed with Corrolan Penetrator Wax, wheel arches and underside were treated with Corrolan Pure Wax and cavities, box sections, doors and bonnet injected with Corolan Active wax.
The whole rustproofing process was really impressive - the bloke sent me something like 100 pics showing multiple views each stage of the process and it was with him for 3 days. At the end of the process the car smelt like a wet sheep for a week or so, and I have to get the lanoguard checked and retouched each year, but I'm now reasured that no corrosion of note was found, and the car is about as rust proofed as it can be.
"Before" pics of the worst affected areas. To be honest, the only components that showed any real sign of corrosion were the bottom of the four shock bodies. Every thing else was really clean:
Underside was steam cleaned with ChlorX and traffic film remover, surface rust was removed, treated with rust converter, all four inner wings were painted with expoxy mastic paint and then stone chip paint.
Rust treated areas were then sprayed with Corrolan Penetrator Wax, wheel arches and underside were treated with Corrolan Pure Wax and cavities, box sections, doors and bonnet injected with Corolan Active wax.
The whole rustproofing process was really impressive - the bloke sent me something like 100 pics showing multiple views each stage of the process and it was with him for 3 days. At the end of the process the car smelt like a wet sheep for a week or so, and I have to get the lanoguard checked and retouched each year, but I'm now reasured that no corrosion of note was found, and the car is about as rust proofed as it can be.
Edited by ian996 on Saturday 12th September 14:44
The car was one-owner (plus the selling dealer, who had run it himself for six months). Without wanting to speculate too much, it looks like the original owner stopped using it, as the car was missing one service stamp and one MOT (fortunately, the Lexus "Relax" service driven warranty kicks back in again once you get back to main-dealer servicing).
Service stamps were:
Registered 01Sep2017
1 Year Service: 28 Aug 2018 @ 2,660 miles
2 Year Service: 22 Aug 2019 @ 4,619 miles (1,959 miles)
3 Year Service: 26 Aug 2020 @ 6,069 miles (1,450 miles)
4 Year Service: 10 Aug 2021 @ 7,650 miles (1,581 miles)
5 Year Service: 18 Aug 2022 @ 10,449 miles (2,799 miles)
6 Year Service: Missing
7 Year Service:10 Sep 2024 @ 13,394 miles (2,945 miles over intervening two years)
MOT history and car history all cross-checked with the above and car drove absolutely perfectly. Only issue was a couple of the wheels had the start of some white-worm, so those will have to be dealt with at some point, but when the car was delivered in early Jan 2024, I reckoned I'd got a good deal, subject to whatever reared its head over the coming months.
Service stamps were:
Registered 01Sep2017
1 Year Service: 28 Aug 2018 @ 2,660 miles
2 Year Service: 22 Aug 2019 @ 4,619 miles (1,959 miles)
3 Year Service: 26 Aug 2020 @ 6,069 miles (1,450 miles)
4 Year Service: 10 Aug 2021 @ 7,650 miles (1,581 miles)
5 Year Service: 18 Aug 2022 @ 10,449 miles (2,799 miles)
6 Year Service: Missing
7 Year Service:10 Sep 2024 @ 13,394 miles (2,945 miles over intervening two years)
MOT history and car history all cross-checked with the above and car drove absolutely perfectly. Only issue was a couple of the wheels had the start of some white-worm, so those will have to be dealt with at some point, but when the car was delivered in early Jan 2024, I reckoned I'd got a good deal, subject to whatever reared its head over the coming months.
Wow, they really did cover everything on the underside! Which product is that (beige looking in photos)?
I use ChlorX on my old E46 M3 when I wash the underside in the winter after being on salty roads, no idea if the stuff works, but would like to think so.
They really are a lovely looking car.
I use ChlorX on my old E46 M3 when I wash the underside in the winter after being on salty roads, no idea if the stuff works, but would like to think so.
They really are a lovely looking car.
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