20 Years old today.

[Bluesman]

9th January 1998 she was born at R.R.G. Salford Quays Manchester. She has 154000  on the clock and Has only let me down once in the 8 years I have owned her.  All those years she has run on LPG and never missed a beat. She had some suicidal female driver texting on her phone at a junction and she hit us having to replace the N/S wing and front bumper I remember she was fined and banned her car a Nissan Micra just folded up. She still looks like a million dollars, the car that is,  when she has been washed and polished and I still look forward to getting into her to go for a drive.

[rich1068]

Congratulations!

I'm ashamed to say I missed my car's birthday. 15 years old on 13th December 2017.

[Cotswold Pete]

Mine will be 18 this year, so it is going to celebrate by going out on the town - having a few Jaeger bombs, some vodka chasers, and then hit the disco floor and see if it can chat up some cheeky little Subaru for a blast (or maybe pick a fight with 911).

Teenagers !!!!!

[Farqui]

Well done chaps, these LS's seem to weather well 

[ambermarine]

Is that you sat on the side of the Cuan sound Mike.

[WSandME]

My LS400 dates from 1st Aug 1996 and currently has around 224,000 miles on it.

It's currently SORN (or will be at end Jan) and sadly is not in very good condition. I'll need to do quite a bit of work to it to make it tolerable for me:

Ugly crease on o/s passenger door (caused by wife reversing into low bollard next to trolley shed at supermarket!). A couple of envy scratches. Some gravel rash.

Boot seal needs replacing - leak has caused some corrosion to spare wheel, tools. Soft furnishings in boot will need deep clean.

Rubber boot on lower ball joint needs replacing (split) But I have both sides lower wishbones and both sides lower ball joints ready to install.

Has the "stall at end of long fast run" syndrome - which I see from this forum is probably due to the capacitors?

Bit of an exhaust leak - but not MOT fail.

Aircon needs recharging, but I don't know if it will hold pressure.

Drivers seat heater no go.

Everything else works fine.

Probably sounds too far gone? Well, I've had it since 2001 and have had an utter ball with it, I still love it - in the way people love their dogs even when they're about to put them down :~(

I admit to negligence - it's overdue a service - but in my defence, I was for the last few years constantly expecting it to fail catastrophically, so it would have been uneconomic to spend relatively large amounts on regular maintenance. But the thing would not lay down and die.

I'll put up some photos when I get a round tuit.

[Bluesman]

3 hours ago, Sunnybrae said:

Mine will be 20 on the 24th January, and is just under 150,000, they do look good when clean  

Great setting.

 

[The-Acre]

Happy birthday Michael's motor, I hope he bought you something nice! 

[mikeyv]

[thatfatbloke]

My old girl will be 21 years old on 20th August this year. LPG fitted about 10 years ago. Now on 160,000 miles and a pleasure to drive. Originally an 'R' reg, but couldn't resist buying the number plate.

[nickd]

That's great and you still love to drive her!   It's rare to see a 20 year old car on the road nowadays. Happy Birthday Motor.

Where is the car in the photo, looks lovely?

 

[Malc]

2 hours ago, nickd said:

 It's rare to see a 20 year old car on the road nowadays

Happy Birthday to Mike's illustrious steed ............. 

quite agree there are so very very few older cars around these days, mostly I guess coz of the comparatively low monthly cost of " renting " one and people demanding " new new new " all the time ....  sad consumerism.

Bit like kitchens, spending a fortune on something new when the old being ripped out is " retro " and also worth a fortune to someone eh ! ......  maybe like older cars will get if they are sound enough  ........  I wish     ( now where's my 50 year old Bentley S3 I should be buying  I wonder )

Malc

 

[Bluesman]

16 hours ago, The-Acre said:

Happy birthday Michael's motor, I hope he bought you something nice! 

Yes, I did, she is having a new set of tyres at the weekend. She will love me even more.

 

[Bluesman]

5 hours ago, thatfatbloke said:

My old girl will be 21 years old on 20th August this year. LPG fitted about 10 years ago. Now on 160,000 miles and a pleasure to drive. Originally an 'R' reg, but couldn't resist buying the number plate.

What a beauty. There are many high-end cars out there that are struggling to look anywhere near as good as your Lexus at the same age. You must be very proud of her. Great number plate.

[Farqui]

10 minutes ago, Bluesman said:

What a beauty. There are many high-end cars out there that are struggling to look anywhere near as good as your Lexus at the same age. You must be very proud of her. Great number plate.

+1 to that 

[Newbie1]

These lovely examples show me I really need to get on with fixing my passenger door which has had an awful repair in the past...

[Bluesman]

4 hours ago, Newbie1 said:

These lovely examples show me I really need to get on with fixing my passenger door which has had an awful repair in the past...

I had the same having to replace a passenger door after hitting one of those infernal bollards that once you are close you cant see them.

Lucky for me one was put on eBay that morning up in Birmingham  £40 went up there and they even fitted it for an extra £10, The spare door won't fit anywhere in the car which is why they fitted it.   Correct colour in very good condition I was happy and so was Lexie. I have never seen another Green door on eBay.

[Cotswold Pete]

1 hour ago, Bluesman said:

 I have never seen another Green door on Ebay.

Is that because as Shakin Stevens said ' Green Door what's that secret your keeping'

[Newbie1]

Mike, that's exactly what the last owner did! Rear arch and door crunched. I have never been able to find a door in the same burgundy, but have an excellent one ready to be painted. Spring job is stripping everything down for the painter. Lining up those lower panels is going to be hard. Fresh clips from Toyota!

edit: I had a pleasing moment with a friend who commented on how light the doors were on my LS400 compared to a Merc he had. When I let him pick up the spare door he realised how damn heavy they are and how well Toyota has mounted them!