Lexus LS400 - Bargernomics
Discussion
After months looking through the barges and bargain basement/SOTW threads I decided a little while back I fancied a bit of shedding, but I could never quite shake the desire for a big barge to waft around in too.
So I give you the under £1000 Lexus LS400, 12 month MoT with no advisories, a mere eight previous owners (the last two both being PHers), a rather soggy boot (new seal on the way) and 172 thousand of your earth miles on the clock.
We're still very much at the "getting to know you" stage but I'm already a bit worried that I like it too much to be as ruthless as shedding requires. Time will tell......
So I give you the under £1000 Lexus LS400, 12 month MoT with no advisories, a mere eight previous owners (the last two both being PHers), a rather soggy boot (new seal on the way) and 172 thousand of your earth miles on the clock.
We're still very much at the "getting to know you" stage but I'm already a bit worried that I like it too much to be as ruthless as shedding requires. Time will tell......
Edited by anonymous-user on Wednesday 14th May 22:20
Thanks everyone 
Well it's day three with the barge and I'm smitten. Never driven anything quite like it, just a supremely relaxing way to travel.
Turned my attention to a few jobs this evening. First I replaced the boot seal to hopefully stop water getting into the boot, the old one was certainly past it's best and it's one of the few common problems on these cars so hopefully I've sorted it.
Checked the tyres, I knew they were a matching set of Goodyears with decent tread all round but was very surprised to find they're actually Goodyear Excellence run flats - I imagine I could improve the ride still further by going to a conventional tyre when the time comes but since these are at 6mm on the front and 4 to 5 mm on the back that shouldn't be for a while.
Also sorted out a bodywork issue - there is no question to which "Duck Tape" is a wrong answer.
Yes, I did. I really did. Sorry.
Look at that colour match - it's absolutely perfect! Well, perfect for a car painted a different shade of silver anyway.
Job done. I thought this bodywork lark was supposed to be tricky?
In all seriousness, I'll service the car and see to the consumables as they're needed - but punting £300 or so on a bodywork issue on a car which cost as little as this one? Madness. At least this way the damage is a bit less obvious. The car was the price it was because of the bumper ding.
To make up for that butchery here's a shot of the interior. The drivers seat has a tiny bit of bolster wear and the electric motor for the steering wheel is noisy as it retracts the wheel when you take the key out, but other than that it's pretty much perfect.
Well it's day three with the barge and I'm smitten. Never driven anything quite like it, just a supremely relaxing way to travel.
Turned my attention to a few jobs this evening. First I replaced the boot seal to hopefully stop water getting into the boot, the old one was certainly past it's best and it's one of the few common problems on these cars so hopefully I've sorted it.
Checked the tyres, I knew they were a matching set of Goodyears with decent tread all round but was very surprised to find they're actually Goodyear Excellence run flats - I imagine I could improve the ride still further by going to a conventional tyre when the time comes but since these are at 6mm on the front and 4 to 5 mm on the back that shouldn't be for a while.
Also sorted out a bodywork issue - there is no question to which "Duck Tape" is a wrong answer.
Yes, I did. I really did. Sorry.
Look at that colour match - it's absolutely perfect! Well, perfect for a car painted a different shade of silver anyway.
Job done. I thought this bodywork lark was supposed to be tricky?
In all seriousness, I'll service the car and see to the consumables as they're needed - but punting £300 or so on a bodywork issue on a car which cost as little as this one? Madness. At least this way the damage is a bit less obvious. The car was the price it was because of the bumper ding.
To make up for that butchery here's a shot of the interior. The drivers seat has a tiny bit of bolster wear and the electric motor for the steering wheel is noisy as it retracts the wheel when you take the key out, but other than that it's pretty much perfect.
Update:
Starting to get under it's skin a bit more now. You'll never get away from the sheer size and weight of the thing but it's actually entertaining to hustle down a ( sufficiently wide! ) back road. Admittedly most of the fun comes from knowing you really shouldn't do what you're doing, but it's no worse for that.
MPG is predictably horrific around town, but absolutely excellent on the motorway for a big V8 - unless the trip computer is lying it looks like 30mpg+ is easily attainable on a run.
Gave the car a good going over this afternoon. All the levels are as they should be. Pollen filter is very manky and the air filter while ok could do with replacing too - both easy DIY jobs so for the sake of £20 or so in parts I'm going to change them myself. ATF fluid looks and smells fine so no worries there. Whipped the engine cover off for a look around - the aux drive belt looks good with no cracking and I couldn't see any leaks or other issues.
I'll get a local garage to give it an oil and filter change as my drive slopes and to be honest it's not a job I like doing so for the sake of an hours labour I'll let someone else do it.
Starting to get under it's skin a bit more now. You'll never get away from the sheer size and weight of the thing but it's actually entertaining to hustle down a ( sufficiently wide! ) back road. Admittedly most of the fun comes from knowing you really shouldn't do what you're doing, but it's no worse for that.
MPG is predictably horrific around town, but absolutely excellent on the motorway for a big V8 - unless the trip computer is lying it looks like 30mpg+ is easily attainable on a run.
Gave the car a good going over this afternoon. All the levels are as they should be. Pollen filter is very manky and the air filter while ok could do with replacing too - both easy DIY jobs so for the sake of £20 or so in parts I'm going to change them myself. ATF fluid looks and smells fine so no worries there. Whipped the engine cover off for a look around - the aux drive belt looks good with no cracking and I couldn't see any leaks or other issues.
I'll get a local garage to give it an oil and filter change as my drive slopes and to be honest it's not a job I like doing so for the sake of an hours labour I'll let someone else do it.
charltjr said:
Update:
Starting to get under it's skin a bit more now. You'll never get away from the sheer size and weight of the thing but it's actually entertaining to hustle down a ( sufficiently wide! ) back road. Admittedly most of the fun comes from knowing you really shouldn't do what you're doing, but it's no worse for that.
MPG is predictably horrific around town, but absolutely excellent on the motorway for a big V8 - unless the trip computer is lying it looks like 30mpg+ is easily attainable on a run.
Gave the car a good going over this afternoon. All the levels are as they should be. Pollen filter is very manky and the air filter while ok could do with replacing too - both easy DIY jobs so for the sake of £20 or so in parts I'm going to change them myself. ATF fluid looks and smells fine so no worries there. Whipped the engine cover off for a look around - the aux drive belt looks good with no cracking and I couldn't see any leaks or other issues.
I'll get a local garage to give it an oil and filter change as my drive slopes and to be honest it's not a job I like doing so for the sake of an hours labour I'll let someone else do it.
My brother owned one of these - and he too was getting close to 30 mpg out of it.Starting to get under it's skin a bit more now. You'll never get away from the sheer size and weight of the thing but it's actually entertaining to hustle down a ( sufficiently wide! ) back road. Admittedly most of the fun comes from knowing you really shouldn't do what you're doing, but it's no worse for that.
MPG is predictably horrific around town, but absolutely excellent on the motorway for a big V8 - unless the trip computer is lying it looks like 30mpg+ is easily attainable on a run.
Gave the car a good going over this afternoon. All the levels are as they should be. Pollen filter is very manky and the air filter while ok could do with replacing too - both easy DIY jobs so for the sake of £20 or so in parts I'm going to change them myself. ATF fluid looks and smells fine so no worries there. Whipped the engine cover off for a look around - the aux drive belt looks good with no cracking and I couldn't see any leaks or other issues.
I'll get a local garage to give it an oil and filter change as my drive slopes and to be honest it's not a job I like doing so for the sake of an hours labour I'll let someone else do it.
He now has an LS 430 - and that's managing around 31 mpg.
His commute is mostly motorway though
I'm not entirely sure I'm doing this shedding/bangernomics thing quite right - I keep spending money!
Spend so far (with a nod to S10GTA as I'm nicking the idea from his readers car posts):
Boot seal: £24
Service parts (air filter, pollen filter, 2x oil filter, 2x sump plug washer): £50
Interface cable for ipod/Bluetooth module: £20
Spare key: £15
Total so far: £109
That's more than 10% of the price of the car - still got to get six litres of oil for the service too. Definitely not bangernomics then!
MPG for my commute seems to be settling at around 27/28 mpg which I'm very happy with. Looks like we're in for some heavy rain over the next few days so that will show if the new boot seal has fixed the water getting into the boot or not.
Still love the car. It's the perfect antidote to my s
tty commute - stereo is absolutely brilliant too.
Spend so far (with a nod to S10GTA as I'm nicking the idea from his readers car posts):
Boot seal: £24
Service parts (air filter, pollen filter, 2x oil filter, 2x sump plug washer): £50
Interface cable for ipod/Bluetooth module: £20
Spare key: £15
Total so far: £109
That's more than 10% of the price of the car - still got to get six litres of oil for the service too. Definitely not bangernomics then!
MPG for my commute seems to be settling at around 27/28 mpg which I'm very happy with. Looks like we're in for some heavy rain over the next few days so that will show if the new boot seal has fixed the water getting into the boot or not.
Still love the car. It's the perfect antidote to my s
tty commute - stereo is absolutely brilliant too.Edited by anonymous-user on Wednesday 21st May 07:16
Seven years ago my kit car building buddy and myself bought a 110k miler Lexus LS 400 that had sat in a workshop compound for two years in North Wales for the sum of £300. It was going to be the spare engine and gearbox donor for our Lexus Cobra projects.
After thraping it 100 odd miles back home we decided it was too good to break and so we kept it as a spare car. In seven years the sum of our maintenance has been three suspension springs ( its a heavy old beast), a set of rear discs and a cambelt snapping on the non interference, hurrah, engine ( should have changed it and the idler pulleys when first purchased as the service history was non existent) a 67 pence doide from Maplins to restore instrument functionality and a donated power steering pump reduced the ATF drips onto the drive.
Its done another 30k in our hands and is now been promoted into a daily driver. We gave it a second oil change last autumn. It passed the mot last November with no advisories, as usual.
Needing a tow wagon we put a towing bracket on it, that cost more than the car, and so far its towed caravans and car trailers with such ease you don't know the extra weight is there.
Brilliant cars, brilliant engineering, awful residuals. Thankfully.
Cheers,
Tony
After thraping it 100 odd miles back home we decided it was too good to break and so we kept it as a spare car. In seven years the sum of our maintenance has been three suspension springs ( its a heavy old beast), a set of rear discs and a cambelt snapping on the non interference, hurrah, engine ( should have changed it and the idler pulleys when first purchased as the service history was non existent) a 67 pence doide from Maplins to restore instrument functionality and a donated power steering pump reduced the ATF drips onto the drive.
Its done another 30k in our hands and is now been promoted into a daily driver. We gave it a second oil change last autumn. It passed the mot last November with no advisories, as usual.
Needing a tow wagon we put a towing bracket on it, that cost more than the car, and so far its towed caravans and car trailers with such ease you don't know the extra weight is there.
Brilliant cars, brilliant engineering, awful residuals. Thankfully.
Cheers,
Tony
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