Been An Expensive 12 Months

[Nick W858]

Just reviewing the last 12 months costs after picking up my 98 LS400 from Lexus Hull today after a couple of days in the workshop - car was due a service (A service) and I knew the front tyres, discs and pads needed replacing too.

What I wasn't expecting was the MOT failure the car suffered a week or so ago at a local independant test site. The sensor that controls the headlights has broken leaving the lights too high, on top of that both rear brake pipes had corroded and both rear suspension arms had excessive play in the ball joints.

If you have seen my previous posts, you'll see that I have always had the car looked after by Lexus Hull and whilst I know this isn't the cheapest way of maintaining the car, it is something that fits in with my need to keep the car on the road long term and I am fortunate to receive a generous car allowance from my company that I use to maintain the car.

The bill today to sort all the MOT items, the service, tyres, brakes etc came to £2095!

Back in July 09, the starter motor went and I had that replaced aong with a B service - this came to £1086 and in December, the EGR pipe was blowing - this was sorted for £447.

So with the tax and insurance, the total for the last 12 months has been around £4200 which makes it the most expensive year to date but hopefully now will be okay for some time.

The car has around 175000k on the clock and still makes me smile every time I drive it. The guys at Lexus Hull have been great and I have been running around in a lovely Rx450h for the past couple of days which has been a great car and one that perhaps I will buy at some time in the future.

Nick

[deckie77]

Wow Nick,

Thankfully you get allowance for your maintenance, take the sting out a bit, and i was licking my wounds at laying out over £1500 on mines just a couple of weeks ago,

4 new tyres

new Battery

4 new lowering springs

60K service, timing belt & replace all fluids

MOT

Road tax

But that was the first money i have spent on my car in 2 1/2 years outside normal servicing costs, so i cant complain really.

Hope you have hassle free motoring for a long while now Nick.

[Nick W858]

Thanks Deckie - I keep pretty detailed financial records and the previous four years have averaged significantly less so am treating the last 12 months as a one off and I am also realistic enough to know that with a 12 year old there will inevitably be things that need replacing and when they do they are likely to be costly

Nick

[AndyCheltenham1]

I think this highlights the problems of running an older Lexus ( mine is a 1995 so older than yours) that you can spend much more on repairs than the car is actually worth!!

Although my LS400 is immaculate and has only done 75000 miles I think if I had a large repair bill of maybe £1000 I would have to very seriously consider scrapping it as I'm not sure I could justify spending that amount on a car which is only worth slightly more than a repair bill??

[Nick W858]

I think this highlights the problems of running an older Lexus ( mine is a 1995 so older than yours) that you can spend much more on repairs than the car is actually worth!!

Although my LS400 is immaculate and has only done 75000 miles I think if I had a large repair bill of maybe £1000 I would have to very seriously consider scrapping it as I'm not sure I could justify spending that amount on a car which is only worth slightly more than a repair bill??

[Nick W858]

Yes, must admit, that thought did cross my mind too for the first time since I owned the car. However, my logic to pay and keep it running was based on the fact that many of the people I work with but new cars every two or three years and are quite happy not to have any big repair bills but for some reason are happy to many more thousands each year on depreciation which is madness. Plus they are running around in cars that although new do not feel anything like as special as the LS400.

I did think about putting the money I spent on the work into a new LS430 but there is no saying that I would avoid similar big maintenance bills even with a newer car.

The car is running so well now that I don't begrudge the cash I spent and it will push me to keep the car for another two or three years of what will hopefully be fairly low cost motoring - next big expense is the cambelt change at 189k.

[John Lawley]

This post conatins tl:dr

a few years ago i was talking to a work mate about cars and she was saying about her 1.5 Diesel Clio being cheap to use because it did lots of MPG and had cheap insurance, i comepared it to my at the time 15 year old ford mondeo diesel i was running on vegetable oil and worked out i paid £5 more for insurance and got about 20 more miles per £ spent then her and my car could only lose £350 dereciation and that was only if i gave it away for free it was funny seeig the look on her face as she realised the lie she'd bought about "cheap" motoring by getting a small economical car over an older one that was thirstier, what made me laugh most though was all the poeple who didn't believe i'd got my Mk3 LS for £800, dispite the 18mpg it does it still costs less then most peoples cars to run when you factor in repairs and depreciation............and is still more comfortable and a dam nicer drive

and now it's been on LPG for 6 months it's costing less to run then my workmates 1.4 Skoda fabia.

tl:dr :- £12k supermini diesels aren't that cheap to run, and mroe expensive bigger cars are even worse.

[Malc]

Yes, must admit, that thought did cross my mind too for the first time since I owned the car. However, my logic to pay and keep it running was based on the fact that many of the people I work with but new cars every two or three years and are quite happy not to have any big repair bills but for some reason are happy to many more thousands each year on depreciation which is madness. Plus they are running around in cars that although new do not feel anything like as special as the LS400.

I did think about putting the money I spent on the work into a new LS430 but there is no saying that I would avoid similar big maintenance bills even with a newer car.

The car is running so well now that I don't begrudge the cash I spent and it will push me to keep the car for another two or three years of what will hopefully be fairly low cost motoring - next big expense is the cambelt change at 189k.

Nick hi,

I don't think you can really count road tax and insurance in your exceptional Lexus running costs ..... you would have these anyway !

Fair wear and tear with tyres and a Battery, well, maybe !

Your only really exceptional costs are the one's caused by actually running a Lexus over any other car that wouldn't require replacement bits so frequently and, quite honestly, I don't think that there is any car around where the bits need replacing LESS so than on a Lexus LS.

I've been running LS400's now for some 8 years ( now on my second ) and whilst I have another car for the missus I wouldn't swap my LS400 for any other big car at this time.

Getting the very rare and occasional bill for summat exceptional is just so rare you know AND I have learnt from this forum that what I thought was a necessity for a cambelt change every 60k or so miles is really now recommended by Lexus at 100k mile intervals !

So you may have some leeway on this next big bill perhaps.

I used to own a car sales business for some years and have driven most of the big beasts ( not a Maybach mind you ) and besides my classic 1932 Triumph Southern Cross Sports Tourer and my missus little 1994 Mazda 323f I really wouldn't want a different luxury car to my ( low technology and low potential expense ) 1994 LS400 ( now done 31k ).

Malc