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"Verbal contract" as such is not legally bounding today.. My grandfather, a respected businessman, told me how back in his day it was the most common form of legal agreement and i often wonder what's gone wrong with the world since then.. Taking a dodgy car trader to court without solid legal case is a waste of time and money. Your word against his. I personally would look him up and beat my plates out of him :D yes it sounds barbaric and rude (and i do not advise You to do that) but i have learned some lessons in life, that certain people must be spoken to in a certain way.

The Hybrid pump will eventually fail, typically between 120k and 180k on both GS450h and LS600h cars. But, it is not actually the pump that fails, it's just the two ball bearings within the pump which fail, preventing the shaft from turning. These bearings are about £7 each and are readily available from most bearing suppliers. The only down side is that it takes about 6 hours labour to change them, but it is a straight forward repair, so anyone with ramp can do it. See my post "GS450h loss of power" for more detail. Any local garage should be capable of doing this using my instructions, but unfortunately, Lexus don't repair vehicles properly, they only replace faulty parts, so avoid at all costs as you will be in for a £4-5k bill instead of a £500 bill !! My point being; don't let the pump put you off. These are wonderful cars. Incidentally, mine has 162k on the clock now and still drives like new. Save yourself £3k and go for the higher mileage car; after all, it is still low mileage!!.

Welcome to the LOC. If there was a choice between buying this and travelling on the Titanic, I'd take the ship! Look up the sellers name in a search.

I gets worse,you can actually replace the bearings in both the tensioner and idler pulleys with a quality Japanese bearing costing a couple of pounds. Remove the pulley and drift the old bearing out and a new one in, 30 minutes tops including removal and refittimg If anyone else has the same problem I'm doing a special offer of £299.99 this week only.

Been some 7+ years since I had my Mk1 ..... until then the very best car I had driven ....... ever .......... and I drove most of what we had on our garage forecourt ... . Bentley, RR, Aston Martin, Jag etc . the Ls400 was the very best daily driving car I could have wished for..................... on reflection, guess it wallowed a bit, 15 inch brakes and wheels didn't compare to the hugging and braking performance of the Mk2 on 16" stuff.. and I loved my Mk2 ....... it seemed markedly better than the Mk1. Engine performance ....... well tbh I can't really tell now the probable slightly appreciable difference in the Mks, all being superb with 4ltr power. I do like the PWR mode in my Mk3, which I leave it in for my daily drive, it's just magical. Looks, well, I do really like the Mk1 and Mk2 bodystyle best, but then I am old and a bit old fashioned in my outlook ...... preferring say the 1961 E Type Jag to later models and the 1960's RRs.. I think good well kept Mk1s will be very collectable at some time .............. but possibly not very useable as a daily driver coz one wants to keep classics for sunny days and in cotton wool a bit too. That's what I like about my Mk3, it's a very useable daily driver that can be used, is worth bugger all and irreplaceable except with another Ls400. Malc

...... quite agree with your sentiments. If this is the first bushes you've had on this car ever then they have done ok. I know that certain of mine were changed at about 120k by the previous owner and even when checked specifically at last year's MOT ( 154k ) was told that everything seemed in order and no undue wear ( hope that stays this year too, especially for the UCAs ). £1300, a drop in the ocean really. What would you change the car for and not spend a fortune ? ( rhetorical Q ) ................ spend the dosh and enjoy several more years of superb and comparatively inexpensive motoring. Malc I keep thinking about a 460 or 600 too BUT tbhonest I really can't see that I would get any appreciably better comfort / reliability / safety or lower running costs than I attain from my Mk3. If I was to make the change then I would be doing it now, well over the next two months or so with these tax changes in the Pension Rules ..... OR I could spend the dosh on rather more adventurous holidays .... and maybe take the Lexus away more around Europe.................. just convinced myself I guess

At the end of the day "you pays your money and takes your choice" - for me, owning a performance car like the ISF, it has to be V-Nitro and for my other cars too. In the end it may all be marketing smoke and mirrors, but I reckon over the long-term this is what performance cars needs and I definitely notice the difference in terms of responsiveness and performance...

Nice Green one on Ebay (or so it SAYS, having no pics!)

I sold my last Ser 4 for exactly this paranoia! And now? Am looking for another -I think - as nothing else compares (Thanks Sinead) Luxury costs-and other cars fail more often/more price-ily?

All, I've driven the car 700km now. For all practical purposes, Lexus has fixed the virbration issue for me by giving me a new car :D The vibrations in this car are so weak, I would never have noticed if I hadn't been sooo tuned to a 43Hz vibration for so long... Oddly, what I find most different between the new and the old car is the engine. The old one didn't run very smooth (although not worse than I expected from an oversized 4-banger). The new one just purrs. While engine starts and stops in the old one was absolutely noticable (causing an audible clunk most of the times), in this car I cannot feel them at all. I'm happy. -Tore

I ruled out the older models on the following. Up to ten years older than mk4, so obviously more likely to have corrosion and age related faults. Slower acceleration, even crappier looking wheels (not much in it, I admit!), and, when I bought mine, not much difference in price. I don't dislike the looks of any model, I even like the orange lenses cars, and can't understand why people put clear lenses on them.