Ls400 buying advice

[Lukeofg]

I'm thinking of getting a lexus Ls400 as an occasional luxobarge and I was wondering if they are good to own/run? I've read a bit about some things that can cost alot on honest John like suspension and exhaust but is there other stuff to be aware of if I was to own one?

[Howplum]

You are obviously a man of taste Luke, and welcome to the club.  Here is a little more reading for you:

If you are able to do a lot of the maintenance and repairs yourself than they needn't be too expensive to maintain. If not, then a car that needs little or nothing doing needn't cost a lot, although prices are on the rise, at least for good ones. Not that's it's particularly relevant I imagine, but the fuel consumption isn't too bad either. I tend to average about 30 m.p.g. on a longish trip.

Like any piece of complicated machinery they will have potential issues after 25 years, as I have found out! However, I did buy mine as a project.

This is my topic, which you might find of interest. My car seemed to have most of the common issues, plus  more, mainly as a result of damp and lack of use.

Please fire away with any more questions you might have.

[Howplum]

I should have mentioned that they are, as you probably suspect, wonderful cars to own and drive, and most repairs and maintenance jobs are not too difficult, helped by the thoughtful design and build quality.

[Malc]

Luke hi, there's a wealth of brilliant info on this Forum about the Ls400

I'm on my 3rd Ls400, a Mk1 and Mk2 before this one which I've had for 10.5 years and 110k miles of it's 26 years young life and 235k miles wonderful motoring

Owned one or other now as my main car for 20+ years and probably 250k miles ......  travelling all over the UK and much of Europe too

Extreme comfort and reliability with simple regular inexpensive servicing and hopefully planned relatively inexpensive preventative maintenance too

Go buy one, I doubt you will have a day's regret 

Malc

[Lukeofg]

3 hours ago, Howplum said:

You are obviously a man of taste Luke, and welcome to the club.  Here is a little more reading for you:

If you are able to do a lot of the maintenance and repairs yourself than they needn't be too expensive to maintain. If not, then a car that needs little or nothing doing needn't cost a lot, although prices are on the rise, at least for good ones. Not that's it's particularly relevant I imagine, but the fuel consumption isn't too bad either. I tend to average about 30 m.p.g. on a longish trip.

Like any piece of complicated machinery they will have potential issues after 25 years, as I have found out! However, I did buy mine as a project.

This is my topic, which you might find of interest. My car seemed to have most of the common issues, plus  more, mainly as a result of damp and lack of use.

Please fire away with any more questions you might have.

Thanks I'll have a look.

[Lukeofg]

35 minutes ago, Malc said:

Luke hi, there's a wealth of brilliant info on this Forum about the Ls400

I'm on my 3rd Ls400, a Mk1 and Mk2 before this one which I've had for 10.5 years and 110k miles of it's 26 years young life and 235k miles wonderful motoring

Owned one or other now as my main car for 20+ years and probably 250k miles ......  travelling all over the UK and much of Europe too

Extreme comfort and reliability with simple regular inexpensive servicing and hopefully planned relatively inexpensive preventative maintenance too

Go buy one, I doubt you will have a day's regret 

Malc

Gives me confidence that you've had good experiences with these cars. 👍👍

[GEN]

These are wonderful cars but bear in mind the following, especially if you are not able to do the mechanical work on it,:

- you can buy what was once an expensive car cheaply but both the parts and labor are still expensive.

- I had to write off my 1998 Mark IV because I could no longer get the solenoids for the transmission. Everything else was in fine working order but you can't drive a car without a transmission.  It was heartbreaking ...

Leaving the above aside, my LS400 was the best car I ever had and by the time it broke down it had 228k miles (I then had an Ls430 and now have an Ls600hl, neither one of these is as good as my Ls400 even though they have more features).

 

[Malc]

That's the other tremendous benefit I've experienced with my Ls400s ........  they don't suffer from the traumatic decrepidation and degradation of all that stupid ultra modern electronic technology they fit to younger cars .....  far far less to go wrong

Malc