Advice required.. Is this worth it?

[Tulpen]

I don't think that tars all 430s with the same brush. I would want to know how the car was treated by previous owners. 

[Abid221]

3 hours ago, Malc said:

that's actually each corner i understand !

so at £2000 + £300 fare seems a lot better than before methinks 

Malc

Also he's replaced the following:

 

The steering wheel tilt and telescopic motor (£500)

The heating cooler motor from the drivers seat

 

Transmission fluid replaced "professionally"

 

[RgrWynne]

1 hour ago, messi said:

Sorry I'm not being aggressive, far from it, Its hard to get me aggressive. I'm a nice guy. But I will say I told you so and laugh at you when the suspension fails on your ls430. Then you can go back to Paul Frost and say the guys on the Lexus club were right.

 

I know Paul Frost sells a lot of air suspension for the ls430, I wonder why, oh because nothing goes wrong with them and owners just want to replace them for the fun of it

I do think there is something quite perverse, when you wish to laugh at somebody else’s misfortune. You know nothing about me, my car or my reasons for enjoying this great brand. Failures can and do happen with every vehicle at some time, for all sorts of reasons, but what I can tell you is “ that the world is not about to end” 🤗. Try and get some pleasure out of this forum and make it a happy place.

[RgrWynne]

1 hour ago, messi said:

 

 

I know Paul Frost sells a lot of air suspension for the ls430, I wonder why, oh because nothing goes wrong with them and owners just want to replace them for the fun of it

You seem to be an expert on what Paul Frost does. Why did you not mention that most of his stock goes to the US, which is where the LS was developed for,  and where there are considerably more LS’s still on the road. I do get a little tired of reading reviews on their forum about the incredible mileages LS430’s  do without fault. A little intelligent thought might conclude that with many more on the road covering very high mileages, parts just might fail, so hello Mr Frost.

Maybe it was just a fluke that Lexus dominated the JD Power survey for years, and if good cars are properly cared for, don’t usually become bad cars.......but things can and occasionally do, go wrong.

[The-Acre]

23 minutes ago, RgrWynne said:

You seem to be an expert on what Paul Frost does. Why did you not mention that most of his stock goes to the US, which is where the LS was developed for,  and where there are considerably more LS’s still on the road. I do get a little tired of reading reviews on their forum about the incredible mileages LS430’s  do without fault. A little intelligent thought might conclude that with many more on the road covering very high mileages, parts just might fail, so hello Mr Frost.

Maybe it was just a fluke that Lexus dominated the JD Power survey for years, and if good cars are properly cared for, don’t usually become bad cars.......but things can and occasionally do, go wrong.

We also need to remember these cars were sold new to people with healthy bank balances, people who would consider the cost of maintenance and running and not be put off.  As someone on this forum put it some time ago, "we're at the bottom of the motoring food chain"  It would be crazy to own an ageing LS and not expect the occasional deep dig in the pocket. For me, with over 4 years of LS430 ownership, my only non service part was one height sensor.  My current one I bought with a problem rear air shock (slight oil misting) and I did buy a used one from PF.  Should something else go wrong I won't complain because cars wear.  As it stands I'm thoroughly enjoying it and it's still the very best car I've owned. I've ordered a radiator today as a precaution which I would recommend every 430/460 owner does, or else fit a cooler.  It's also an opportunity to replace the coolant which can't be a bad thing. Enjoy!

[GSLV6]

+1

new or used, you do need to walk into premium Lexus model ownership with eyes wide open and a healthy bank balance.   If they were 1 million mile cars where all you did was put petrol in them, everyone would be driving them.  They're not.  The engines, by and large, are utterly reliable and almost unburstable, but it's rarely the engines that give trouble...it's all the peripherals, just like most other cars.  A few thousand for a roadworthy example in generally good condition is still a good buy however you want to look at it.  To get it trouble free for the next 10 years probably wants three times the purchase cost spent on it and then it would still be cheap motoring.  A sense of perspective sometimes defuses some of these debates which otherwise get a little too emotional between certain parties!

 

[Malc]

4 hours ago, Tulpen said:

and Malc should start your own forum. You could call it '400 perfect...…..everything else rubbish'    🙂 

hey, if you're referring to me then I think you're being very unfair 

never have I said that about the Ls430 or any other car mentioned on here ............  I don't appreciate being criticised for summat I've not said or done 

Please keep a civil tongue when answering to my posts.

 

😐

Malc

[Abid221]

5 hours ago, GSLV6 said:

I agree.  Problems happen because there has never been a car made (whether prestige or not) that doesn't wear or have a few design or quality issues.  Inevitably wear happens as much to cars as it does to their drivers!  Considering any 20 or 30 year old car with over 150K miles which hasn't had a meticulous eye kept on it and a bottomless wallet which has paid for every little replacement or repair needed means that something will be required.  I wouldn't be put off buying any LS marque except for the last two which once they went hybrid just became rather pointless by sacrificing useful boot space for batteries that make sweet FA difference to rear world fuel economy (real reason was reduction on paper of emissions to drive down the tax band for directors considering one as their company car!).

I'd happily buy any well looked after LS400, 430, 460 or later non-hybrid model knowing, eyes wide open,  that it will cost a bomb to run (fuel, taxation, servicing) but it'l likely still be running fine in a decade's time and that there are few if any other cars this side of a £150 to £200K Rolls, Bently or top spec Mercedes Limo that offer the same ride or luxury.

Looked at from that perspective, 2.3K is silly cheap and probably looks more like the bi-annual champers Bill of those who can now afford to buy the equivalent new car.

One thing though that I would check and that's rust.  It is the enemy of any car that age.  I would look carefully at the underside for evidence of any serious rot on suspension linkages, wishbones, sills, sub-frames etc of any car I buy, as well as the bodywork.  I wouldn't go there if there was any.  Rot is easy to prevent or treat if caught in time, but left too late it's something that would make me walk away from any vehicle deal.

Thanks GSLV6

I didn't think of rust. Will definitely ask him.

[Bluesman]

Come on guys lets keep it friendly. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion and of course, we all have our own experiences. No one would laugh at another forum members bad luck so I am sure I am sure Messi will take that out of his post.

 

 

 

[ambermarine]

Lets calm down boys the debate on pro's and cons of the Ls 400 and the 430 are well established and go back at least 15 years,there have been reports of design faults on the 430 leading to mechanical failures but conversely there were design faults on the ls400 in the first three series it was only in the Mark 4 that the engineers had tweaked the car to being almost perfect but that was taking into account initial start of the design 1983 to 1997 fourteen years of tweaking .The ls430 was in production for six years and had some features that were new and had not been tried on the 400 although air suspension was available on the first 400s and was an abject failure so much so that it was dropped on the next two series.

Anyone who bought a mark 1 with air suspension ended up changing to coilovers on Lexus advice.

If the LS430 had stayed in production I doubt some of the problems they have would be inherent in later models but time moves on and even whilst the 430 was in its third year of production the ls460 was on the drawing board and they were omitting a lot of the things that were wrong in the 430 in that design.

[RgrWynne]

2 minutes ago, ambermarine said:

Lets calm down boys the debate on pro's and cons of the Ls 400 and the 430 are well established and go back at least 15 years,there have been reports of design faults on the 430 leading to mechanical failures but conversely there were design faults on the ls400 in the first three series it was only in the Mark 4 that the engineers had tweaked the car to being almost perfect but that was taking into account initial start of the design 1983 to 1997 fourteen years of tweaking .The ls430 was in production for six years and had some features that were new and had not been tried on the 400 although air suspension was available on the first 400s and was an abject failure so much so that it was dropped on the next two series.

Anyone who bought a mark 1 with air suspension ended up changing to coilovers on Lexus advice.

If the LS430 had stayed in production I doubt some of the problems they have would be inherent in later models but time moves on and even whilst the 430 was in its third year of production the ls460 was on the drawing board and they were omitting a lot of the things that were wrong in the 430 in that design.

I think they call it car development 

[Malc]

19 hours ago, Abid221 said:

Also he's replaced the following:

 

The steering wheel tilt and telescopic motor (£500)

The heating cooler motor from the drivers seat

 

Transmission fluid replaced "professionally"

This is really good for you as an upcoming purchaser too.

It really shows the guys looked after the car and cared for it.

Many arguments here for buying this specific car I'd have thought.

Could be one of the best for sale right now  .....  maybe a fresh MOT as a condition of purchase !  .  even if you pay for the MOT, great peace of mind

Malc

[Abid221]

25 minutes ago, Malc said:

This is really good for you as an upcoming purchaser too.

It really shows the guys looked after the car and cared for it.

Many arguments here for buying this specific car I'd have thought.

Could be one of the best for sale right now  .....  maybe a fresh MOT as a condition of purchase !  .  even if you pay for the MOT, great peace of mind

Malc

Yes a fresh MOT would be good. Its currently got 6 months left. Previous one had zero advisories

[Texas]

Oh dear, started reading this thread from the 'Latest Topics' link and thought summit was wrong with my IPad as I have appeared to stumbled into a GTI forum!!!!!!!!!!