polymoog

Mine is an X250 3.0DS. It's mostly quieter than the Lexus in the cruise. Very little wind noise and the engine is doing 1.5K rpm at 70-ish mph. The dominant noise is from the tyres - 20" wheels. On very smooth new tarmac at m-way speeds it's eerily quiet and much quieter than the Lexus. At lower speeds you can hear the engine and here the LS would be quieter. At m-way speeds there's quite some wind noise from the LS which is here it falls down, but the engine is very muted and tyre noise is usually fine. But overall the XF wins. That said, I really miss my LS430. I loved the interior space and quality, the lovely leather, the whole wafty driving experience. Okay the fuel consumption not so much. But some days I wish I still had it.

After my LS430 died I got a Jaguar XF with the 8-speed ZF transmission. I would the say the shifts on this are far less noticeable - often undetectable - than they ever were on my LS430. The LS shifts were smooth but you definitely could feel them.

Good list. A couple of additions from my experience: Aircon not working could also be a corroded and holed coolant line. In my case, to the rear unit near the fuel tank making a fix very awkward (some just cut and blank the line and thereby lose the rear unit, relying on the front). Front arches on my 2003 were starting to bubble so watch for that. Satnav screens can start to dim a little. Check the exhaust carefully. Any replacement section involving a cat e.g. central Y pipe will be ££££ from a dealer and not many aftermarket options about. You'll be looking at used parts or bespoke made (which is still cheaper than Lexus parts). Transmission problems is what killed mine - radiator corrosion leading to coolant and ATF mixing - so I'd emphasise your point about shifts up and down should be all but unnoticeable. Any thumps or even slight lurches when shifting are atypical and shouldn't happen. If you buy one change the rad asap unless you know it's been done recently.

West of Newcastle. Yes I p/x-ed it to a main dealer so it's been to auction and ended up down south. Sold up because I was hacked off with it after being hit with over £2K of bills in one month which didn't properly resolve the problem (transmission), and then rust and sundry other issues still to resolve. Not strictly a rational response as what I spent on a replacement could have made it the best 430 in the country three times over, but there you go. I do miss it.

Just noticed my recently-offloaded car is on ebay at an indie dealer. It's a silver 53 reg car on 107K, in Norwich. If anyone's interested and wants the inside skinny on it drop me a PM. Cheers.

Sorry just saw this. Well in somewhat despondent mood I went to a local car dealer today who had a 2006 E Class and a 2009 S Class in stock. The E was under £5k, the S was £9K. Both on 80K-ish miles allegedly, and both diesels, so the promise of 30+ mpg spurred me on. Drove the E (the S was boxed in and it was getting late). It went well enough being the 3.0 TDI. Externally they looked pretty good, very good even. But the interiors on both - dear lord what a load of depressing plasticky old carp. Tacky plastics, chatty switchgear, Vinyl - sorry, MB Tex - seats in the E, and leather in the S which might as well have been vinyl. Woeful 😞 All I could think of on the way home was a) I can put up with a lot of transmission clonks before I'll spring £9K to sit in a plastic coal-hole, b) I could chuck another 2 or 3 used transmissions at the LS for the price of the E, and c) if the LS dies completely I'd consider putting its seats in my front room 😄 But as to your main question, I haven't a clue really. Just soldier on for now I guess.

I can believe it; the original unit was over 100K and absolutely perfect until the rad failure took it out.

Alas it seems my "40 thousand mile" tranny is shaping up to be a bit of a lemon. After initially seeming fine slouching around under a very light throttle, now I'm driving more normally it more often than not shifts up into 2nd with a noticeable bump, occasionally bumps down into 2nd too, and on a couple of occasions has positively banged into 1st from reverse. I'm generally always 'aware' of it, either in that it's more audible than the old 100K+ one (which was effectively undetectable to me), and sometimes feeling like it might be slipping slightly, though that may be psychosomatic. Basically I've lost confidence in it to the point I feel apprehensive every time I get in it, even though empirically it's probably still better than most cars of its age out there. I can see me getting out of the Lexus game before long at this rate. Not really what I was hoping for after such a big outlay, but that's the joys of trying to run a premium brand barge on a budget I guess.

Thanks. I can't see a number on it anywhere but as far as I can tell it's an OEM one. I've cut it off the pipe and chucked it on ebay anyway - we shall see :)

Would anyone have an idea of the scrap value of the LS430 centre catalytic converter?

All very fair. Austrin of course offered a full transmission rebuild as their first and surest option, but that would have cost £2K+ in itself, then there was the rad to sort and so on. I told them I would have to scrap it rather than pay thousands, they were understanding of that so we proceeded incrementally on that basis.

Update - I ended up having to replace the transmission, the original being damaged. On further testing it started throwing up solenoid fault codes and there was no way to discount clutch damage without chucking a fair bit of money at it, so it made sense to fit a used transmission known (or at least hoped) to be good. So that's what we did. Sourced a used box from Paul Frost and had it shipped to Austrin who fitted it for me. At my own risk of course. I picked it up today and, so far and touch wood, it's driving beautifully again. Only put 30 miles on it so far, but we shall see. I have to big up Austrin Engineering, who have been unfailingly friendly, open, honest, and who gave me a very kind deal on the labour charge for fitting the replacement transmission. Plus they lent me a courtesy car for a fortnight gratis while we sorted this all out, and gave the Lexus a thorough valet inside and out - shampooed carpets, tyres blacked, alloys sparkling - before I collected today. Top notch service. I'm a good summer holiday's worth poorer in the the end, but back on the road. And I have to say it was like sinking into a warm bath getting back in the old barge after buzzing round in a 'normal' car for a while. I now need to fit the new exhaust downpipe I bought just before the 'box went bang (the blow has developed since it went away and it sounds like Nick Nolte's Cadillac in 48 Hours), and then there's the fubar aircon to sort out... Hey ho!

Yes it's very dispiriting, although I knew there was a risk - make that likelihood - that all wouldn't be well at this stage. The guys it's with at the minute could fit one of Paul's transmissions, if I decide to throw more money at it.

Been away so only went to collect the car today. I got literally two miles down the road before the transmission failed and I lost all drive. I'm now drinking beer.

They'd already ordered in the OEM one and wanted to crack on with the job (if you recall after getting a cheapy and returning it after being foxed by it being different) and they didn't seem keen on trying for a 3rd one, so I let them stick with the Lexus part. An extra £150 but I'd lost the will to try and change their minds by that point so it was a case of JFDI.