Which And What

[Maduggo]

Hiya folks.

Newbie here. I want to pick your brains as to how to go about selecting a LS400, what to look for etc.

Any advice is greatly accepted.

Chris

[simontaylor]

Chris, now that you have joined up for free, you should use the search facility. Tons of advice available.

Personally, Mk-iii 95-97, best mpg (according to Lexus spec), what pay so much more for 20 more bhp and a built in savnav which is so out or date compared to personal units. FANTASTIC cars, go for it.

Good luck.

[Maduggo]

Chris, now that you have joined up for free, you should use the search facility. Tons of advice available.

Personally, Mk-iii 95-97, best mpg (according to Lexus spec), what pay so much more for 20 more bhp and a built in savnav which is so out or date compared to personal units. FANTASTIC cars, go for it.

Good luck.

Hiya and thanks

After i posted the message I found a buyers guide from a search, contained lots of useful info, I printed it out for reference.

MPG is not a major issue, I just finished my motorbiking career and want a slice of luxury for a year or so, was told LS4** is the way to go for that apart from rolls royce of course.

I have seen a few on eBay and Auto trader that I like, Mk 3 and 4 don't really bother me as long as everything works as it should and the fluids are as they should be. Most of all I want service history with payments to suit.

As for the other tips i have found by browsing im well impressed.

Chris

[whysub]

Importantly do not let high mileage put you off of a car you like-my 1995 LS400 had done 217,000 miles when I bought it. The body was near perfect and in the colour I wanted, likewies the interior was perfect-no marks or wear on the seats or steering wheel. The motor ran sweet as could be And with a full Lexus (and latterly independant Lexus) service history I couldn't go wrong.

Two years on the only issue I have had has been perforated brake pipes and a broken front suspension spring-both caused by the winter and the corrosive crap they spread on the roads!

I still ride bikes (very briskly!) but the LS relaxes me like no other vehicle I have driven-and makes me enjoy driving again.

[Bebop Beru]

I'm on the look out myself (probably will start really seriously looking next year when we're back in recession and petrol is even more expensive!!) for one of these.

Apart from the obvious fuel, insurance and tax costs, what's the realistic running costs for other consumables such as tyres, brakes and servicing from non-Leus dealers like?

Did have a look with the search function but nothing seemed to come up (perhaps I'm doing it wrong?)

Maduggo, could you please post up the link for that buyers guide please? I'm aware of the issues with bushes, suspension, water pump, LCDs etc that seem common but anything else would be handy.

[Maduggo]

Importantly do not let high mileage put you off of a car you like-my 1995 LS400 had done 217,000 miles when I bought it. The body was near perfect and in the colour I wanted, likewies the interior was perfect-no marks or wear on the seats or steering wheel. The motor ran sweet as could be And with a full Lexus (and latterly independant Lexus) service history I couldn't go wrong.

Two years on the only issue I have had has been perforated brake pipes and a broken front suspension spring-both caused by the winter and the corrosive crap they spread on the roads!

I still ride bikes (very briskly!) but the LS relaxes me like no other vehicle I have driven-and makes me enjoy driving again.

Hiya

Mileage doesn't bother me, iv'e just sold my motorbike with a genuine 102567 miles on her, and we all know bike engines suffer more than cars do, so i would easily believe a well looked after and serviced lexus could easily reach over double or triple that.

[Maduggo]

I'm on the look out myself (probably will start really seriously looking next year when we're back in recession and petrol is even more expensive!!) for one of these.

Apart from the obvious fuel, insurance and tax costs, what's the realistic running costs for other consumables such as tyres, brakes and servicing from non-Leus dealers like?

Did have a look with the search function but nothing seemed to come up (perhaps I'm doing it wrong?)

Maduggo, could you please post up the link for that buyers guide please? I'm aware of the issues with bushes, suspension, water pump, LCDs etc that seem common but anything else would be handy.

Hiya mate

I used the search and found this when i was hunting

http://www.lexusownersclub.co.uk/forum/index.php?showtopic=73395

click the link above the car on the page

hope it helps

[Chris Skelton]

Chris, now that you have joined up for free, you should use the search facility. Tons of advice available.

Personally, Mk-iii 95-97, best mpg (according to Lexus spec), what pay so much more for 20 more bhp and a built in savnav which is so out or date compared to personal units. FANTASTIC cars, go for it.

Good luck.

BUT....you DO get TRACTION CONTROL, which is an omission on Ser 3....and the Satnav ain't TOO bad really!

Each new LS (up to 430?) was a distinct upgrade on the previous one.

It does just depend on just how much you need. Certainly a 3 ser is fine. I switched to a Ser 4 for the Traction bit. Yes, my 430 brochure tempts me, but (as Simon says, how much do you want to spend for subtle upgrades?)

[Maduggo]

Chris, now that you have joined up for free, you should use the search facility. Tons of advice available.

Personally, Mk-iii 95-97, best mpg (according to Lexus spec), what pay so much more for 20 more bhp and a built in savnav which is so out or date compared to personal units. FANTASTIC cars, go for it.

Good luck.

BUT....you DO get TRACTION CONTROL, which is an omission on Ser 3....and the Satnav ain't TOO bad really!

Each new LS (up to 430?) was a distinct upgrade on the previous one.

It does just depend on just how much you need. Certainly a 3 ser is fine. I switched to a Ser 4 for the Traction bit. Yes, my 430 brochure tempts me, but (as Simon says, how much do you want to spend for subtle upgrades?)

Satnav i not worried about, they only good for the last 3 miles of the journey, planning and thinking you can beat a satnav.

Does the traction control make a difference, i don't plan on launching myself about like a rocket, that's why i rode a bike to do the launching bit.

As for money, i got a £4k slush fund to play with so anything up to that i can use, i don't plan on spending it all on a car though if i can avoid it.

As i said before, good condition with history is my main criteria, mk 3 or 4 is of no real importance in that respect, extra bells and whistles is a bonus, but whatever i go for it must be original, i won't go for anything that has been modded, in the bike world it means a mess as the original parts are usually lost

[beavisrules]

Traction control is VERY worth having , makes those foot to floor moments in the wet a bit less worrying.

My mk3 would always loose traction and fishtail at a certain turning out of work if I tried to hurry it - a sharp right on a decline.

As far as i was concerned the mk4 satnav was worse than pointless , use a hacked navman F10 instead. (worse than because it made using the heating controls a pita).

MK4 also has HID lighting , better engine & 5 speed box.

The seats seem softer too , but I seem to be on my own with that observation.(supposed to be the same).

I think if I had that much money to buy another I'd be looking for that 1 owner , low mileage mk4 and expect to come out a winner.

[GEN]

Traction control is VERY worth having , makes those foot to floor moments in the wet a bit less worrying.

My mk3 would always loose traction and fishtail at a certain turning out of work if I tried to hurry it - a sharp right on a decline.

As far as i was concerned the mk4 satnav was worse than pointless , use a hacked navman F10 instead. (worse than because it made using the heating controls a pita).

MK4 also has HID lighting , better engine & 5 speed box.

The seats seem softer too , but I seem to be on my own with that observation.(supposed to be the same).

I think if I had that much money to buy another I'd be looking for that 1 owner , low mileage mk4 and expect to come out a winner.

I do think the MK4 is substantially better as mentioned above although the traction control is not quite as important in terms of loosing traction/fishtailing on a turn as are the tires - my MK4 was doing exactly that (loosing traction, etc. on turns) until I switched from Pirellis to Vredsteins which completely cured that. Personally if not going for a MK4 I would try to track back to the earlier (can't remember which one) models that did not have an interference engine so a snapped timing belt was a mere inconvenience rather than a catastrophic occurrence as on the new ones.

[itarumaa]

Well, the good thing with Ls400 is that even if you go against the advice and buy the car without any service history, you still might not get too much problems. Just like I did, and I drove the car from Ireland to Finland, 3100km without any major issues.

Of course I had to fix some items recently, but nothing really out of ordinary and thanks to eBay, parts can be found really cheaply. For instance both upper control arms to front of the car were 140e.

Most of the problems with my car has been with brakes and front suspension, but the car is from 1998 and 153k miles.

I personally prefer the newer model, traction control and stabilization control are great to have, hid lights are nice and 5-speed gearbox even better.

I live in Northern Finland so traction control is major issue for me, I could not think to manage the long winter ahead without it.

[whysub]

Hiya

Mileage doesn't bother me, iv'e just sold my motorbike with a genuine 102567 miles on her, and we all know bike engines suffer more than cars do, so i would easily believe a well looked after and serviced lexus could easily reach over double or triple that.

I sold my Fireblade that has over 100,000 miles on it. Nerw owner pleased with it as it still rides lovely. Likewise my GSX-R750 had 180,000 on it when it was killed in a crash. I had hoped to get it to 200,000 but it wasn't to be, although it was on its last legs by this mileage. Both bikes were regularly ridden hard and track day'd and the rev counter needle was a regular visitor to the red line. The GSX-R was run on Tesco car oil (lets not start the old "car oil ion a bike engine" argument)with no ill effects.

I do mostly long runs in my vehicles (treating them gently for the first 5 miles or so) and therefore the oil always gets hot and burns off condensation and contaminates, which io am sure is what makes them last. I had a 1600cc petrol engined escort that had 450,000 miles on it when i sold it-I'd be gutted if my LS doesn't surpass that figure.

[Chris Skelton]

"I'd be gutted if my LS doesn't surpass that figure. "

I agree. I thought the same about my current (and previous!) LS400.

While I'm not a huge fan of the looks.....as a Citroen DS lover! - the car is totally amazing to drive and own. No trouble at all, just the odd service so far!

Just had cam belt done plus service at local independent/Lexus trained garage, so good for a while now.

I'm still pondering getting a smaller car as I don't do many miles these days.

but, on that logic, the car could "see me out" !!!

And; what else would get close to satisfying me after this?

Effortless comfort with power?

was in a Carrera recently; boneshaker!

And a couple of Golfs too.(Golves?)same feeling.

Had better ride in a Citroen GSA! (Ah, memories!)

[Malc]

My 9 years of driving a LS400 out of some 44 years driving ( am I that old ! ) and still driving other cars and having driven lots of prestige cars too, evidences to me quite clearly, that my time with the LS400 has been the happiest, most comfortable, confidence boosting and trouble free and least expensive overall motoring that I have ever had.

And I so hope it may continue.

Malc