Frustrated wannabe LS460 owner

Happy Jim · April 19, 2019

Hi All,

Having had my Merc S class (2004, W220) written off 2 weeks ago, and having had 2 Mercs in a row I thought it about time I sample the joys of Lexus ownership, I’ve covered hundreds of miles looking at the ones advertised on E-Bay/Autotrader/Gumtree and failed miserable to find a “good” one (subjective I know, sorry), have to say that the ride quality is comfortably better than the Merc!

Is there somewhere I am missing my searches? My preference would be LS460 SE-L, not Black, not the red wood interior (ideally below 100K miles) - anyone here on the cusp of selling please shout!!

Thanks

Jim

royoftherovers · April 19, 2019

2 hours ago, Happy Jim said:

Hi All,

Having had my Merc S class (2004, W220) written off 2 weeks ago, and having had 2 Mercs in a row I thought it about time I sample the joys of Lexus ownership, I’ve covered hundreds of miles looking at the ones advertised on E-Bay/Autotrader/Gumtree and failed miserable to find a “good” one (subjective I know, sorry), have to say that the ride quality is comfortably better than the Merc!

Is there somewhere I am missing my searches? My preference would be LS460 SE-L, not Black, not the red wood interior (ideally below 100K miles) - anyone here on the cusp of selling please shout!!

Thanks

Jim

Hi Jim,

What is the max size of your budget and what do you mean as "good?"

What are your red lines-flsh?

If one came along with say 90,000 miles, in black with red wood interior and not an L?

You are looking in all of the right places,but go to your local Lexus Dealer and ask who he sells the Lexus cars to, that he does not wish to sell himself for reason of age,or mileage,or condition.

Good luck.

noby76 · April 19, 2019

100,000 miles on a Lexus engine is barely broken in so don't let mileage be a show stopper so long as it has an up to date service history preferably majority Lexus then you have nothing to worry about..

Happy Jim · April 19, 2019

Hi John,

I think Black is a bit gloomy for me and the red wood makes my teeth itch 😁 (beauty is in the eye of the beer-holder etc), I’m pretty flexible on the rest. Good shout re speaking to the dealer! I’ll pop into my local one in Reading and see if they will spill the beans.

Jeff,

I do like a stamped book, equally I do all my own maintenance (where possible), maybe I should get a bit braver and look at higher mileage ones (scope creep to LS600H approaching!)

Rgds

Jim

Malc · April 20, 2019

then whichever one you get will probably need the radiator changing to save the gearbox from terminal decline

nothing to worry about, just the ultimate preventative maintenance that never appears on the service schedule nor sorted by many owners

But as I say, it's an irritant to be done soon after you buy the car, just to be on the safe side

Malc

runsgrateasanut · April 20, 2019

Not wanting to put you off as many satisfied owners, but you may care to read this thread by a perfectionist if buying at the cheap end.

(Mercs also suffered from the Radiator problem from memory)

Happy Jim · April 20, 2019

Well that didn’t end how I expected it to 🙁, re the rads, yep Valeo chocolate rads!

Food for thought

Thanks

Jim

Malc · April 21, 2019

I posted about a local guy with a stunning Ls460 F16LEX try to find that for a short read

Malc

Malc · April 21, 2019

12 year old ..................... is the heading for the reference for you .. 0n this Ls460 forum too

Malc

The-Acre · April 21, 2019

On 4/20/2019 at 7:09 PM, Happy Jim said:

Well that didn’t end how I expected it to 🙁, re the rads, yep Valeo chocolate rads!

Food for thought

Thanks

Jim

Don't be put off by other opinions, try one first. Lots of delighted LS460 owners out there. People often say stuff about the 430 but it's a brilliant car!

Happy Jim · May 18, 2019

Knock Knock 😉

Malc · May 18, 2019

did you buy one |?

Malc

Happy Jim · May 18, 2019

Might have 🙂. .......😁

Whoo hoooo

Tulpen · May 18, 2019

Love the colour!

royoftherovers · May 18, 2019

1 hour ago, Happy Jim said:

Might have 🙂. .......😁

Whoo hoooo

Go on ,tell us all about it.

Where from?

Previous Owners?

Date of first reg?

Any pics.

She looks a beauty HJ.

Happy Jim · May 18, 2019

4 previous owners, bought from a small dealer in Bedford. 2006 plate, so an early 460. Had the TPMS sensors replaced/coded, heated seat switch pack replaced and a bit of bodywork touched up as part of the deal. My compromise was on the interior wood (red) which I’ve decided I can live with! Staggering amount of toys though 😎

The drive back was super smooth! A couple of steps up the comfort scale compared to my S Class which was nice.

It needs a good service which I’ll do once I get a free weekend, and the glovebox is slightly loose, other than that I’m just going to waft around in it and enjoy it !

Pics once I’ve given it a proper clean and polish.

Regards

Jim

Malc · May 19, 2019

and how much for this beautiful beast ? and miles ?

Malc

Happy Jim · May 19, 2019

79K Miles, £7000

V cheap compared to the rest of the 460’s for sale currently, BUT, it does need a set of disks/pads soonish, and the Service History is absent (not a massive issue for me as I self service my cars anyway).

Regards

Jim

DanD · May 21, 2019

There is currently a 2008 LS600h with less than 22k miles on the clock for £21990... seems like a pretty good deal?

Although there are no pix, I'd imagine that, at this mileage, it must be in pretty good nick.

aido · June 29, 2019

On 5/19/2019 at 6:35 PM, Happy Jim said:

79K Miles, £7000

V cheap compared to the rest of the 460’s for sale currently, BUT, it does need a set of disks/pads soonish, and the Service History is absent (not a massive issue for me as I self service my cars anyway).

Have you checked the My Lexus area of the website - if you register your VIN there it will let you see everything that ever happened when the car was at a dealers?

You may find some surprises in there - I got more info from there than the stack of paperwork that came with my car with some good bonuses like the radiator having been replaced etc which I understand can be a weak point.

ambermarine · June 29, 2019

Just as a matter of interest I registered my Ls400 in My Lexus and came unstuck more or less from the word go.

The initial registration was fine and the site recognised my car from the vin but it asks for the variant codes from the cars v5 and lo and behold there are none on the v5 just blank spaces were there should be letters and numbers,without this info the process halts.

after more online research it seems the DVLA are notorious around Europe for this omission and it affects registrations and exports if you don't have it .

So my Lexus is not MY lexus as I can't use it.

aido · June 29, 2019

That is a pain - when I had the Aristo that was on the V5 purely as Toyota Saloon, which used to cause no end of bother at MoT tests and so on as they couldn't look it up on their systems as they moved to computerised.

Maybe Lexus could help if you dropped them an email?

I've got a similar issue with the engine power on an E Class I picked up recently in that what's on the V5 is different power output than the Mercedes Me system so I don't actually know what it is. You'd think Mercedes would have the correct info from the VIN. It's not a big difference, 125kw vs 130kw, but they sneaked in a spec change to go from twin turbo to single turbo and it's a pain to get remapped as the mappers have files for the twin version which drives like a dogs dinner on my car.

It's only a 2.2L diesel but these days you'd think info like that is key for emissions purposes (I'll have to check if they're charging me too much tax thinking of it although even at 130kw it's £135 from memory - unlike the LS :D)

ambermarine · June 29, 2019

Not really an issue on history of the car as it only had 19k on it when I got it and I service the car apart from a belt change when I bought it.

The only Lexus service in the book is the prelim and the first when Lexus owned it for twelve month.

The last thing I want is constant emails from Lexus tempting me towards newer models, the one I have will see me out the door.

Happy Jim · June 29, 2019

9 hours ago, aido said:

Have you checked the My Lexus area of the website - if you register your VIN there it will let you see everything that ever happened when the car was at a dealers?

You may find some surprises in there - I got more info from there than the stack of paperwork that came with my car with some good bonuses like the radiator having been replaced etc which I understand can be a weak point.

I can’t find that area, can you post a link to it?

Thanks