What to do with my dad's LS400?

[speech]

Hi all - my father has had his 1997 LS400 from new, but unfortunately has reached an age where although DVLA is letting him keep his licence, he has been advised not to drive outside of the area he lives in and not to drive anything with a lot of power!  My mum doesn't feel confident driving such a big car and I can't currently see any circumstances where my wife or I would use it.  It was his retirement present to himself so there is a lot of sentiment attached to it, especially as I prised him away from Mercedes and persuaded him to buy Lexus (he was smitten as soon as he turned the ignition key on the test drive)!  It even survived being stolen and driven down to Italy then being recovered by the police.

I thought this might be a good place to look for suggestions on what we can do.  I can't remember the mileage, it's 100k+, which is of course nothing for a Lexus.  As far as I remember, everything is in good working order (apart from the bonnet struts that need replacing) and he still has it serviced by a Lexus service centre every year.  The paint is damaged in a few places from the odd scrape (but I think no bodywork damage), so I'm thinking we would have to get these fixed, but as it's a 20 year old car, would the whole thing have to be resprayed in order to get a colour match?  The alloy wheels have a few scrapes too and would need to be refurbished. 

I think this would all cost more than the car would be worth to sell but it feels like it would be a shame to just give it away or scrap so I thought I'd see if any suggestions here?

[Tinonline]

I bought my 400 from a neighbour that had reached an age where he felt he could no longer drive. The local Lexus dealer would have taken it off his hands.

The wheels are poor, plenty of paint off the front bumpers, couple of dents and a ding. I replaced the cambelt, pulleys, water pump. Serviced it: it too had Lexus history.

Recently I replaced the front discs and pads.

You can't scrap it. In fact you don't need to. I would do the wheels but not the respray. Perhaps forget the current value and consider that to replace it with such a quality and reliable car would be a) difficult and b) expensive.

Please don't sell it to trade. There are plenty of Lexus fans and first-timers who will take your hand off.

I thought I'd take mine as a runabout until I could muster a big fancy sports beast. Can't sell it, it's too good and nicely fast when pushed.

Keep it/buy it yourself. Believe it or not, you have a very desirable car that whilst it's not worth a fortune, is sought after.

 

[steve2006]

Please be careful here and don’t turn this into a For Sale topic as you need to be a gold member to sell on the UK LOC.

 

[cornershop]

Need some pics - most decent examples seem to be around the 2k mark with a FSH, no cambelt work due.

Low owners and a full Lexus service History may make it worth more to some

[Tinonline]

1 hour ago, steve2006 said:

Please be careful here and don’t turn this into a For Sale topic as you need to be a gold member to sell on the UK LOC.

 

Fair point Steve. Wouldn’t be fair on us and breaks the rules.

If you have something good to sell it is worth buying the Gold membership.

[Malc]

is this a new post ?  my memory isn't great but i do remember sometime ago a very similar scenario being posted. maybe there's lots of these old Ls400s lying around with aged drivers ( older than us for heavens sake ) who need to find a happy home for our beloved cars  

Malc

[Tinonline]

18 minutes ago, Malc said:

is this a new post ?  my memory isn't great but i do remember sometime ago a very similar scenario being posted. maybe there's lots of these old Ls400s lying around with aged drivers ( older than us for heavens sake ) who need to find a happy home for our beloved cars  

Malc

Malc 

ha ha! Isn’t the criteria for owning the older marques? Only those with a not so great memory may apply? 😂

[Bluesman]

Please don't post any pictures of the car.

 

[speech]

12 hours ago, steve2006 said:

Please be careful here and don’t turn this into a For Sale topic as you need to be a gold member to sell on the UK LOC.

 

Noted.  If it goes on sale I'll get the gold membership and post in the cars for sale section. 

Just looking for advice right now as it's a shame to leave the poor thing sitting on the driveway with a flat Battery... and my parents are hassling me to tell them what to do with it!

[cornershop]

With the amount of interest in these cars on pistonheads, you should create a thread on there under the “seeking advice” banner.

 

[dendonc]

I think it's better if you either post any advisories from MOT or give the reg number so any advisories can be checked out, that is for where ever you post!

[ambermarine]

Dev 

Do yourself  and your Dad a favour ,the car as no returnable asset value to you or him if you start spending money on it the wheels and the touch ups will cost at least a grand, regardless of how popular these cars are the one you have is not the most sought after of the 400s that prize goes to the Mark 4.

Stick it on auto trader and if there is a enthusiast out there it will fetch its correct value .

[speech]

OK, thanks for the advice all.