I was surprised too! I wanted to treat myself to a luxury car that would also prove to be reliable. I've got a reasonable knowledge of car mechanics and for various reasons discounted a number of other options e.g 7 Series BMW, E Class Merc, Audi A8. For the record I bought this car a couple of months ago and it seems very genuine. It's my first Lexus and I can now understand why people rate them so highly. It's done 99,000, two previous owners - each for around 3 years. It's very, very tidy inside and out and doesn't appear to have been abused in any way. It's got a complete set of Lexus main dealer stamps in the service book and all paperwork plus lack of stone chips, seat wear, etc, etc, indicate the mileage is correct. YET, both rear upper suspension arms needed replacing because the ball joints were shot. As I mentioned, they cost me £139 each and a local (ace) mechanic I know fitted them for £102 all in. Having said that, he also noted that the bushes in both rear tie rods, which anchor the independent rear suspension, were worn too (I'd be grateful if anyone could advise on whether these bushes can be bought separately and pressed in). In addition when I first bought the car it had a clunk and judder when braking at higher speeds which I now strongly suspect is down to the front upper control arm bushes and certainly the ball joint on the nsf control arm has wear in it too. I guess in part, the answer to your question is to do what I did and get the car mot'd early and if there are problems you've bought yourself some time to get them fixed! Beyond that, and being a new boy on here myself let's throw it open... does anyone have any views on this? Is it realistic to expect to have to carry out major suspension surgery at around 99k miles?
Frank