LS400 24000 miles £17,000. A new benchmark?

[Howplum]

This has just appeared on Car and Classic:

https://www.carandclassic.com/car/C1441648

[b4u2]

Oh wow that must be very rare but also expensive due to mileage I assume.

[b4u2]

I've just had a quick look at the mot history and some years are missing on there which is making me think 🤔 

[Tinonline]

Well good, as these cars are criminally undervalued.

But it’s the last of the line 400 for me for the performance and relative easier maintenance over early variants.

[Devo]

3 hours ago, Howplum said:

This has just appeared on Car and Classic:

https://www.carandclassic.com/car/C1441648

The company that supplied to first owner are my neighbours and a really lovely bunch of guys, I’ll have to let them know about the car tomorrow. Beautiful car! I’m thinking of swapping my rather nice LS460 for a really clean 400, what say you guys? 

[Tulpen]

16 minutes ago, Devo said:

The company that supplied to first owner are my neighbours and a really lovely bunch of guys, I’ll have to let them know about the car tomorrow. Beautiful car! I’m thinking of swapping my rather nice LS460 for a really clean 400, what say you guys? 

Why?

[Devo]

28 minutes ago, Tulpen said:

Why?

Thought that statement would get that response, just really like the lines of the ls400, don’t get me wrong I love the LS460, my wife drives as a daily, so going to get her an Alfard as a daily and then the LS460 can be my toy, then thinking of swapping for another Lexus sc430, ls400, ls430 not sure which one yet, any suggestions? 

[Devo]

37 minutes ago, Tulpen said:

Why?

Probably should of started with the other Lexus’s and ended up with the 460, have you had any of the others mentioned Tulpen? 

[royoftherovers]

8 hours ago, Devo said:

Probably should of started with the other Lexus’s and ended up with the 460, have you had any of the others mentioned Tulpen? 

Should have, not should of, my friend.

[GMG]

Stone Cold Classics whom are selling the car work on a SOR basis; Wayne the owner is a lovely genuine bloke...sold an early Mercedes Sl for me a few years ago...

 

...bargain at £17k ...very undervalued imop

[steve2006]

I can’t make out if the car is a 90-92 or 93-94 model as no clear shot of the odometer.

Car was a December 1992 registration so may be the later series II with the bigger wheels and better front brakes.

 

[Tulpen]

10 hours ago, Devo said:

Probably should of started with the other Lexus’s and ended up with the 460, have you had any of the others mentioned Tulpen? 

I've been an LS owner since 1997. The first 15 years were with a 400 then I bought my 460. I won't hear a word said against the 400......it was, and is, a mighty machine.......but I wanted a more modern car. And it had to be an LS!

[Malc]

personally I wouldn't touch it ............ why you may ask .....  totally underused and unusable really .  a car to be kept in aspic to retain any value over and above an " ordinary "  92 Ls400  .... and it's possibly a Mk1 with 15" wheels .... and brakes to match

my first Ls400, from about 22 years ago, same colour, pearlescent white ( J54DAP and a Mk1 ) and a wonderful car compared to any other " daily " user car .....  and I had her for about 60k miles .  wonderful car that I gave away at about 180k miles .  bit of rust from an accident repair before my ownership .......but a super car for sure 

My second Ls400  M47HWO ?  was my Mk2 ( write off in 2011 )  ..........  and now I have my Mk3 that I've had since 2011  ..  the Mk3 is better than either of the two previous for sure ...........

I don't know about a Mk4 BUT certainly the first Ls400 wasn't a patch on the Mk3 from all aspects ..................

NOW ....  an elderly Ls400 ( mine ) does suffer from occasional electrical gremlins which you may never resolve .....  they do however have the great habit of resolving themselves thankfully .....  good servicing and preventative maintenance is the way to treat these cars in my experience

I fear that an early. earlier car will suffer from these, especially one that's hardly been used 

Bit like me buying my yearning for S3 Bentley from the 1960s ...  I won't get one coz i just know it will be troublesome from all sorts of very expensive aspects even if it just sits around, or maybe especially if it just sits around, looking pretty and for people to drool over 

I think Devo that if you wanted a very usuable car then do not go for an early Ls400 .....  your Ls460, with attendant issues sorted, will be a much more useful car in the years ahead 

Just my simplistic view ......

Malc

[ambermarine]

35 minutes ago, Malc said:

personally I wouldn't touch it ............ why you may ask .....  totally underused and unusable really .  a car to be kept in aspic to retain any value over and above an " ordinary "  92 Ls400  .... and it's possibly a Mk1 with 15" wheels .... and brakes to match

my first Ls400, from about 22 years ago, same colour, pearlescent white ( J54DAP and a Mk1 ) and a wonderful car compared to any other " daily " user car .....  and I had her for about 60k miles .  wonderful car that I gave away at about 180k miles .  bit of rust from an accident repair before my ownership .......but a super car for sure 

My second Ls400  M47HWO ?  was my Mk2 ( write off in 2011 )  ..........  and now I have my Mk3 that I've had since 2011  ..  the Mk3 is better than either of the two previous for sure ...........

I don't know about a Mk4 BUT certainly the first Ls400 wasn't a patch on the Mk3 from all aspects ..................

NOW ....  an elderly Ls400 ( mine ) does suffer from occasional electrical gremlins which you may never resolve .....  they do however have the great habit of resolving themselves thankfully .....  good servicing and preventative maintenance is the way to treat these cars in my experience

I fear that an early. earlier car will suffer from these, especially one that's hardly been used 

Bit like me buying my yearning for S3 Bentley from the 1960s ...  I won't get one coz i just know it will be troublesome from all sorts of very expensive aspects even if it just sits around, or maybe especially if it just sits around, looking pretty and for people to drool over 

I think Devo that if you wanted a very usuable car then do not go for an early Ls400 .....  your Ls460, with attendant issues sorted, will be a much more useful car in the years ahead 

Just my simplistic view ......

Malc

Little too simplistic Malc first you condemn ownership because its been kept in some ones front room and then because it was first generation and not up to the mark 3 ,but then suggest ownership over a 460 to keep things less complicated .

This is probably the best example of a mark 1 LS400 outside of Toyota's museum, yes there are a lot of improvements on later models and that is to be expected but whoever buys this car is going to own a true part of motoring history the same way someone buying a classic Model T Ford back in the day.

I have never been a disciple of the not used not good for the car doctrine with modern technology and materials the damage to the mechanical parts is negligible and probably equates to equivalent usage of the vehicle.

I have owned a mark 1 for 14 years and put 130k on it before I sold it with 180k and it served me well my present mark 4 is a better car in some ways but that classic look into the engine bay the mark1 has is missing as is that lovely 15 inch wheel design that you could put on the wrong direction.

To sum up I think anyone who as owned these cars from their inception is spoilt because anything that followed is a drift away from the original concept and can never be quite the same .

[The-Acre]

3 hours ago, royoftherovers said:

Should have, not should of, my friend.

I'm surprised you're not giving lines or detention John!

[royoftherovers]

Just now, The-Acre said:

I'm surprised you're not giving lines or detention John!

Morning Phil, I am in my Andalusian mood of wishing well to all ardent readers of Handbooks and reinforcing the need for good communication amongst like minded Members.

Detention is an aspect of my Psyche which I left behind when I was promoted to the rewarding task of Head Milk Monitor. I discovered that there were designed avenues to success in life in the Western World and...............I`ve completely forgotten where I was going with this Phil🤣.

Devo is a welcome new recruit and I`m sure he will have received my interference in the spirit in which it wos sent !👍👍

[MotorDevil]

11 hours ago, steve2006 said:

I can’t make out if the car is a 90-92 or 93-94 model as no clear shot of the odometer.

Car was a December 1992 registration so may be the later series II with the bigger wheels and better front brakes.

 

Its a 90-92, the Overdrive button on the 93-94 is on the side of the gear shifter 🤓

[steve2006]

9 minutes ago, MotorDevil said:

Its a 90-92, the Overdrive button on the 93-94 is on the side of the gear shifter 🤓

Cheers, I never knew that until now, where is it on the 90-92 model or does it just have a 4 speed without the 3 plus OD?

[MotorDevil]

On a 90-92 its on the backside of the shifter:

 

On a 93-94 its on the side of the shifter

Don't know why they would have changed it but there you go. The other give away is the odometer as you said. 

[Malc]

and another maybe interesting point ......  the wheels on the 15" have one spoke less than the later Mk2  16"  .....  the wheels aren't sadly interchangeable if you needed to find a spare ..  otherwise, to the untrained, or even trained eye, they look the same ! 

wot a history lesson eh !

Malc

[Devo]

23 hours ago, royoftherovers said:

Morning Phil, I am in my Andalusian mood of wishing well to all ardent readers of Handbooks and reinforcing the need for good communication amongst like minded Members.

Detention is an aspect of my Psyche which I left behind when I was promoted to the rewarding task of Head Milk Monitor. I discovered that there were designed avenues to success in life in the Western World and...............I`ve completely forgotten where I was going with this Phil🤣.

Devo is a welcome new recruit and I`m sure he will have received my interference in the spirit in which it wos sent !👍👍

I presume the “wos” wos intensional! 😋

[royoftherovers]

3 minutes ago, Devo said:

I presume the “wos” wos intensional! 😋

You presume correctly Devon. A flavour of the old M &W scripts.

[Malc]

shoot me down in flames on this one ......  if my memory serves me I'm thinking the '92  Ls400 cost new about £35k  ..  so at £17k it ain't bad BUT of course '92 inflation in the UK puts £35k at now equiv £77k .  so an effective lot of depreciation and of course really quite sad that the owner never got the true benefit from using such a fantastic car .........  unlike you Phil .......... and me

I do think I'm so blessed to have " seen the light "  so early on in life ...  about 22 years and 250k miles ago ...... a significant part of my driving time .....  in an amazing Ls400 ...........  and all starting from being a part time car dealer in glorious beautiful Kent on the Romney Marsh 

Malc

[ambermarine]

You are quite correct Malc , the 90 Mark1 I owned according to the first owner was £33k new, he wanted to sell the car back to Lexus but he was not staying with the brand so they declined. He sold it in part exchange to Devonshire motors in Barnstaple who sold it to me in part exchange for a 89 Audi 90 for 13k they had a ticket price of £19k on the 400 with 48k on the clock.

The 400 was written down in my company for the rest of its time with me 16 years so when I sold it for £600 I owed " it " money.

Paradoxically my present mark 4 cost £56k and at 14 years old(one owner) I bought it for £3750 with 19k on the clock and mint.

As you say we are blessed to have had such good fortune ever becoming involved with this all time history maker.

[hockeyedwards]

Well looks in an imaculate state, compared to some of other ones we've seen out for sale asking strong money. Nice to see it in all honesty. Something to aim for! 😛