A New Used Ls460 Should I, Shouldn't I?

[leadfootmelvin]

So, when my gorgeous LS430 went pear shaped, i threw the toys from the pram and bought a BMW X5, it wasn't MY idea. I'm now stuck with a bloody awful vehicle, still under "warranty" that has just had a "replacement" gearbox, under the terms of the warranty, with fsh and only 78,00 miles clocked, and we haven't yet owned it for 8 months only adding 2,000 miles, so it spent the last two months of that under repair. We just got it back this week, and it's monstrous, changing up and down, fluttering between 3rd and 4th. Absolute bloody nightmare. Other than, the rather obvious, drive it to a shady place, take a big box of swan vestas, does anyone have any helpful advice?

[Bluesman]

So, when my gorgeous LS430 went pear shaped, i threw the toys from the pram and bought a BMW X5, it wasn't MY idea. I'm now stuck with a bloody awful vehicle, still under "warranty" that has just had a "replacement" gearbox, under the terms of the warranty, with fsh and only 78,00 miles clocked, and we haven't yet owned it for 8 months only adding 2,000 miles, so it spent the last two months of that under repair. We just got it back this week, and it's monstrous, changing up and down, fluttering between 3rd and 4th. Absolute bloody nightmare. Other than, the rather obvious, drive it to a shady place, take a big box of swan vestas, does anyone have any helpful advice?

Sell it, take a hit on the money and buy what you know you shouldnt have got rid of in the 1st place. Happy New Year. Mike

[Cotswold Pete]

If it were me a 460 would be the thing to go for. Had a few mates who used to be BMW fans but the cost of gearbox issues steered one over to Subura (he likes noise and paying for lots of petrol) and the other over to Lexus.

Had a chat with a gear box specialist recently, he does Jags, Audi, Merc, BMW mainly, but he said Lexus (esp the LS range) were always the ones that he never had any problems with.

Over 90% of the gearbox rebuilds he did were for German cars, and mainly because they were trying to be too clever with the design rather than sticking to the first principles of engineering that the Lexus is built around.

He was kind of happy as he made a nice business out of repairing them, but he would never own a modern German car.

[leadfootmelvin]

I may chop the X5 in for an LS600h that i like the look of  (my fave colour)

[Titch LS]

They are not called BMTrouble-you's for no reason. My ex-work colleague paid out £6,000 on repairs to her X5. You guessed it  ----- it needed a very expensive replacement gearbox and A/C system. People watched Top Gear too many times, all that free german propaganda.

[SH20]

For a long time I just totally ignored Lexus as a brand albeit I knew the original LS set the world alight back in 98.  My working life was spent in the motor trade, in particular body shops as an insurance Engineer and my first real passion was for the 3 Bentleys I had over a 10 year period. Then 3 Jaguars, various models  and finally last year saw the light and started looking at the LS460 and only the LS460.   I could kick myself for not having this car years ago.  I handled a number of insurance claims for the LS400 and was always impressed in the way it was put together.   I bought mine used from a dealer and paid out £1700 for an extra 2 years warranty and yet  don't expect to make a single claim based on the last 7 months use of this remarkable car.   Apart from the common glove box lid issue where the swage line didn't  line up, although I fixed that quite easily and a lot of excess folds in the driver's leather seat cushion, again fixed that by removing the seat and handed the cushion to a trimmer who removed the excess folds of leather this car has been the best car I've owned.   I don't normally have need to use the kick down function of the gear box but every now and then I use it just to put  a smile on my face.  

Buy the 460 or 600   I don't think either will disappoint