Cheap LS460, the fun starts...

[Haylands]

I know I shouldn't say this but if I were you I'd keep the 430...

[Spacewagon52]

On 15/02/2017 at 6:02 PM, Chris Skelton said:

 

Know the feeling about 'not taking' to a car-I'm not happy with my 42K mile XM 3 litre-though it's probably the best one in UK!

I do not wish to go off topic but purchasing a car and then finding it does not suit you is a worry for all of us when we change vehicles. Chris, have you had an XM before or had an extended test drive before you bought this one? Can you put your finger on why you don't like it?

[madasahatter]

On 15/02/2017 at 9:13 AM, Dale_V said:

Yes I guess everyone is different and its an expensive car to own and keep if you dont gel with it.

 

by the way, can the LS460 be remapped? I'ts not something ive ever looked into

I know exactly how you feel, i owned a mk1 Skoda Vrs for 4 years until an unfortunate accident. I loved the car comfy pretty fast reliable all the toys.

Needed a car pretty quick so bought a mk 2 even more toys better seats? I hated it owned it 18 months and could not wait to get rid.

I part exchanged it for the lexus and i love it, not fast but a very nice place to be. Iv owned it for 18 months and it  will be with me for a while yet.

I generally keep cars a while anyway, not interested in what years on the plate.

[Chris Skelton]

On 16/02/2017 at 9:03 PM, Spacewagon52 said:

I do not wish to go off topic but purchasing a car and then finding it does not suit you is a worry for all of us when we change vehicles. Chris, have you had an XM before or had an extended test drive before you bought this one? Can you put your finger on why you don't like it?

Possibly my age! Am so familiar with our small car these days, that am content to trundle in that. Plus various joint aches that I get......

 

The car is perfect; only 42K miles, fat service file, smooth, quiet, powerful-when-needed.

Had a chain of big Citroens: Traction Avant. DSs.CXs. Had decided to leave Citroens as happy memories when this-almost mystically low mile version appeared to tempt me away from constant viewing on-line. (As we know, after an LS 400, it's hard to contemplate others. The style of the XM suceeded, with my Citroen innoculation) Maybe I'll mellow into it....but then, maybe I should mellow into retirement!

[Malc]

On 18/02/2017 at 2:59 PM, Chris Skelton said:

Possibly my age! Am so familiar with our small car these days, that am content to trundle in that. Plus various joint aches that I get......

 

The car is perfect; only 42K miles, fat service file, smooth, quiet, powerful-when-needed.

Had a chain of big Citroens: Traction Avant. DSs.CXs. Had decided to leave Citroens as happy memories when this-almost mystically low mile version appeared to tempt me away from constant viewing on-line. (As we know, after an LS 400, it's hard to contemplate others. The style of the XM suceeded, with my Citroen innoculation) Maybe I'll mellow into it....but then, maybe I should mellow into retirement!

Chris  NEVER NEVER NEVER      Mellow into Retirement  ......  it's a potential killer  ..  YOU really must continue being super active .......  I'm 67 and 18 months ago started a completely new, and new to me business,  and it's keeping me brilliantly busy and I'm always thinking about another Lexus or several to add to my " stable " of cars

 

Malc

[Tulpen]

Malc, Agree with you 100%.

I spent my working life flying all over the world but never having time to look around. I retired in 2013 and we decided to spend our retirement exploring the places we only visited briefly. We moved to the European mainland which makes it so much easier to just jump in the Lexus and go.

We really enjoy visiting the States and in 2014 we flew to San Francisco, hired a motorhome, and spent 6 months wandering around till we got to Miami. This year we are doing it again but, this time, we are doing 'mountains and deserts' - exploring the Rockies and Sierra Nevada from the Canadian to the Mexican borders.

While we were in the States last time, we met a couple in Death Valley who were wearing T-shirts with the logo 'SKI'. I asked where they could ski in Death Valley. They told me it stood for 'Spending the Kids Inheritance'. They said they had fed them, clothed them, and educated them..........now it was the parents' turn.

Of course, the other big thing is HEALTH!  We tend to take it for granted......until it fails.

Life (and retirement) is for living. Keep your mind and body as active as possible.......and go for it!

Preferably in a Lexus :)

 

 

[Chris Skelton]

On 16/02/2017 at 9:03 PM, Spacewagon52 said:

I do not wish to go off topic but purchasing a car and then finding it does not suit you is a worry for all of us when we change vehicles. Chris, have you had an XM before or had an extended test drive before you bought this one? Can you put your finger on why you don't like it?

Well.Folk who know me tell me I was always 'chilled' (except when dealing with Council idiots!) As to seeing things (around the world). Rather than doing a 'Pret a Manger' with my business -it WAS possible-we did it before them!) I chose to take time off, so I DID see places at leisure. Been to NZ several times/ New Mexico for New Year dances -Taos. Lots of Iberian trips, including 6 months once! Sat in near empty Alhambra in full moon(-try THAT now!) Canada for 3 months.....

Happy to trundle.

[Haylands]

Maybe we should rename this thread to 

LEXUS (SAGA) OWNERS CLUB CHAT.......

[RgrWynne]

That is a brilliant analogy ....oh so true !!

i honestly don't think there are many cars out there that have such an effect.

cheers,Roger

[Spacewagon52]

Older people have one advantage ........................ the big E

[JimBobS]

Haylands respect 

your honesty and the way you have talked us through possible fixes/ problems have been a real eye opener 

Only one thing I am concerned about I bought the 2009 Gs300 after owning 3 older Lexus 7 years ago.I don't think I like this car , the drive feels twitchy and sometimes it feels like it's on rails if the roads bad.

I hope you don't take a hit with the car price wise and for what's its worth If I still had the money to buy the LS 460.

I wouldn't think twice about buying it off you, put the cheep shocks on because that's the only thing it needs , I wouldn't know the difference.Your a perfectionist I'm not.

Thanks for the entertainment, wow

 

[jonthetourist]

On 2/16/2017 at 8:56 PM, Haylands said:

I know I shouldn't say this but if I were you I'd keep the 430...

Well that's the only response I have had to my dilemma, and it comes from the vendor!

I would still like to do a "compare and contrast" test drive, but it may not be possible with this car as I am committed for the next few weeks. I think we would all like to see Peter at least get his money back.

 

Jon

[gkkes]

I see you have succumbed and put the car up on eBay.

I have loved reading this thread, as this was my intended upgrade. I planned to miss out the 430 chapter, but now I'm all in a quandary. 600 may well be a similar puppy..... I'm not a fan of the "oriental" look of the latest styling, so all I can do is keep my eyes open for a sensible low mileage mkIV which hasn't been standing around forever.

 

Enjoy the Jeep

[Spacewagon52]

11 minutes ago, gkkes said:

keep my eyes open for a sensible low mileage mkIV which hasn't been standing around forever.

They are becoming very rare - more chance of finding a good LS430 me thinks. But you never know what is around the corner if you are prepared to be patient.

[The-Acre]

Well that's possibly scuppered my plans!  Because I'm changing things business wise this year (hoping to do less hours basically) I thought I would part with my LS430 and become a sensible person and just enjoy my very nice Volvo, which it is.  Now I'm having to think again and wondering after reading all this if I'm going to miss it too much!!

[Chris Skelton]

On that topic (finding a good Ser 3 etc).

Maybe we should set up a Club Bereavement Section, where members leave their cars to fellow members, to keep them in the aura of enthusiasts!

Assuming they didn't pass away in the car crash!

 

[RgrWynne]

Phil if you don't need to sell.....don't, no point in being sensible !!!

[ScousePaul]

42 minutes ago, The-Acre said:

Well that's possibly scuppered my plans!  Because I'm changing things business wise this year (hoping to do less hours basically) I thought I would part with my LS430 and become a sensible person and just enjoy my very nice Volvo, which it is.  Now I'm having to think again and wondering after reading all this if I'm going to miss it too much!!

When I changed jobs not too long ago one of the plus points was giving up my company Vectramobile and getting back into the sedate world of old school LS motoring :). You will miss it when it's gone!

[The-Acre]

12 hours ago, ScousePaul said:

When I changed jobs not too long ago one of the plus points was giving up my company Vectramobile and getting back into the sedate world of old school LS motoring :). You will miss it when it's gone!

I know, I sold my last LS430 and convinced myself that having just one nice car would do...that didn't work!

[Malc]

I've not yet found a car that gives me the luxury   ( comparative ) and comfort and total lack of stress and backache whilst driving, than the Ls400.

It's speed and acceleration when needed is quite sufficient, it's reliability is without any match at all and the costs of servicing and repairs is very minor compared to even a small cheapo run-around Ford or Vauxhall or whatever.

Driving a Ls400 is always for me the  " sensible "  option.

I have driven very many different cars, owned very many too as a used car sales emporium owner in the past and would berate BMW, AUDI, Rolls Royce,  Bentley and Mercedes for having the audacity to promote their cars as anything other than potential moneypits and not really for the normal owner that simply wants the best car to drive  ...........  like old buggers such as me 

Malc

[Haylands]

I thought I'd posted the end result to this but apparently not....

 

I gave the Lexus a good clean up and used it a few times, the first thing that happened was the PRND lights in the dash went, then the TPMS died and wouldn't show the values, as you scrolled through the menu it just wasn't there!!! Then I noticed the voice command had packed up, and finally the trip computer and all of it's functions were blank, the item you were looking at MPG, distance to empty was there but no value...!!!

 

I returned to Lexus for advice, apparently  it was failing ECU's, those features are spread across the values from three different ECU's, they believe one was dying and either taking the other two with it or confusing the output from them... the cheapest ECU was around £800 the most expensive over £2,000. They had never tried a second hand one (well, the main dealer never would, would they...?) so didn't know if they would work on any 460, they have to programme the new ones when they fit them and they didn't know if you could programme a second hand one to work with another car (specific programme once only is getting very popular with manufacturers now, one ECU will ONLY ever work with the car it was programmed to) 

 

I contacted several of the ECU repair places but they had never seen Lexus LS460 ECU's so had no knowledge of them and could not offer a repair service..

 

So I cut my losses and sold it through the trade, it was unfair to sell it privately in the condition it was in, I lost a decent chunk of money but hey ho, you win some, you lose some...

 

So, beware, if you are coming from a 430 then I would avoid the 460 for as long as you can, if you do want one, make sure you take one for a good test drive as they do not feel like a 430 or 400, they feel too much like a BMW to me... And having had all three now and taken them apart more than once I can honestly say that the build quality of the 460 is much lower than the 430 and on another planet compared to the over engineered 400...

 

BTW Jeep is still going well, done about 6,000 miles in it, no faults and sailed through it's MOT with no advisories.... (It's still not a Lexus though...!!!)

 

Now where did I see a nice 430.... 

[jonthetourist]

On 2/16/2017 at 8:56 PM, Haylands said:

I know I shouldn't say this but if I were you I'd keep the 430...

What a shame! Thanks again for saving me from being on the end of this experience. Hope you didn't lose too much. I owe you a beer or two.

Our exchange made me decide that my 430 is probably going to be a "forever" car, so it's booked in to my paintshop for a makeover, including a bonnet respray for the stone chips, and a refurb of the headlight covers including new UV protection. It's still a joy after a couple of years' ownership. My neighbour - owner of a new MB E class - had a lift with me the other night and his first words were "this is quiet".

 

Thanks again and hope you find a nice Lexus.

 

Jon

[GrahamG]

Thanks Peter,

Yours has for me been one of the most fascinating and informative posts of all.

[Spacewagon52]

Thanks Peter, it is good to get an honest view. That was quitea journey!

[Guest]

Really enjoyed reading through this thread today and like a good book I never saw what the end would bring,but your honest opinions about the LS 460 will help a lot of people.