Stevie-Boy

Ah so never from the factory, always done afterwards?

Thanks! Does anyone know why some cars get gold badges and many don't?

Were the clocks difficult to get out? I'm picking up my 400 tomorrow and may well face this issue some day!

Had wondered about the plate, now done thanks.

Great idea, I will do that with Lexus to see what they can tell me about it, thanks :)

Yeah the plate comes with the car, have been thinking about changing my name to match the KGT part. I'm going to keep my MX5 aswell, just a bit of variety, Little and Large.

For sure Malc, the car has 181000 and she was on the forecourt for £1795. I offered £1500 which I thought was a fair reduction and he agreed. I'll hook up the ad pics and certainly do some more on Friday after the valet :) Advert Pics:

I pretty much went against everything that would have been said to me on this car. It was in a garage five minutes from my house and that's what made me go and look at it. Lovely condition, loads spend on it recently, cambelt done lest year but sadly doesn't have a service book with it. She drives lovely, sound system is lovely, I think she looks like a nice car, has MOT with no advisories until May 2013, just had new tyres and front brakes, recent suspension work, some bits under the bonnet changed too. I figure if she lasts me until the MOT, it's money well spent and I'm sure she will be trucking on a lot longer :) Made him an offer, he said yeah so all good. It's getting a proper full valet on Friday morning so I'm picking it up in the afternoon. I'll get some pics uploaded somewhere and link them up :)

Just following on from my other thread about looking for a 430, this morning I bought a 400. Am now the proud owner of a nice blue 1996 LS400 and looking forward to joining the ranks here properly. I pick the old girl up on Friday, great!

I've just bought it this morning and decided to keep the MX5 also. I won't bother doing LPG to this one but would if I buy a newer one in the future. I pick her up on Friday, looking forward to taking her for a proper spin!

So I went to drive the LS400 last night, interesting car for sure. Inside it didn't feel as plush as I thought it might, a little 90s Japanese of course but certainly comfortable. Lots of space inside and it certainly went well. The chap from the garage drove it first and going from a 30 to a 60, he demonstrated the kickdown and how the car takes off, it went off like a rocket!! I drove it and was surprised how quickly I took to the 'autoness', first time driving one and it felt great to just do that little at junctions!! Only faults are the front heated seats don't work and the seat memory doesn't work. The rear heated seats work, it has the premium sound system, the air con was icy cold and all else seemed well. Looks like we may well do a deal with the MX5. I would end up with around 300 less than I hoped for but that's not so bad in this game.

True about the MX5 performance, it's not a quick car by any means. I did have a temptation around six months ago to go for a S2000 to make up that performance difference. Really looking forward to driving the LS in a short while! It's going to feel like a tank compared to the MX!!

This local one actually has 181k miles on the clock but has had all new tyres, new cats, belt done last year, recent ancilliaries under the hood, MOT till May 2013 and it looks nice. It's up for 1795 so it seems like a nice little punt, most I can lose is 1795 if it all goes south so that's not bad at all, can live with that :)

That's funny how we both want to go from a car so small to a car so big!! It would certainly be nice on my commute for the trucks to fear me for a change!! :) One annoying thing (though not LS related) is that whn I did the online insurance quote, I guessed at six years no claims. My previous insurer emailed me to say I have 11. So I updated the quote and prices are exactly the same. So an extra five years of jolly motoring with no incidents has counted for zip!!

There is a nice LS400 very local to me so I'm going to see that tonight after work. Would mean getting a lovely car and even having some cash in the bank from the MX5 which is great. Even if it lasts until next year, that's a great introduction to the cars and would let me know whether it's worth investing more into an LS430 or not. So knowing how I operate, I could well have an LS400 tonight :)

Sounds cracking that Steve. Did you get your conversion done locally?

Can anyone tell whether this car should have the Mark Levinson system? It's hard to tell but it does seem to only refer to rear luxury pack: http://users.autoexposure.co.uk/cjjccarsales/search.cfm?Mode=0&Category=PRESTIGE&StartRow=26 It's at the end of the two pages, couldn't seem to get a proper link from looking at the car directly. The black leather is really growing on me (not literally). Should this car have had cambelt done? Thanks.

That blue one on eBay is nice yes. I'd noticed that one at work on Friday but was massively put off by the advert itself. It does sound like a great car though. Initially I'd not wanted to buy a private one because of the fact I'd then be left on my own with a very complicated vehicle should anything big go wrong. I think when buying from a garage, the same is generally true anyway though. Only benefit to me of garage purchase is part ex potential.

My friend has never had or driven one before, but I'm glad he'd previously spent a lot of time being very smitten with these cars!

Thanks Mike, I'm going to go for one which isn't done, I think it limits the choice too much to look for converted ones and hopefully I'll end up taking it to a good place to do the work. I did one of those Internet comparison searches for insurance and I ticked an extra box to say it was LPG converted so hopefully when I ring the best place, they'll be cool with that. I'll also ring my current insurer Adrian Flux and see if they can beat it, they seem to quote cheaper if any modifications are done rather than not.

Hi Patryk, I'm pretty sure the conversion would pay itself back in a year, I worked out I'd be saving around £100 per month on fuel and that's just for work commute mileage. Just looking for one currently. The price seems to change quite rapidly at around 2005. There is a lot for the 3500-6000 sort of price range and then they seem to leap to around ten and above. I saw a cracking one advertised in the blue that I'd really like but they want 11000 for it!!

Does anyone have any recommendations for the North West area of places to get the conversion done? I'd travel for a reputable place but always nicer if it's handy. Thanks.

Hi Graham, Thanks so much for your post, that's really useful. I was going off Autotrader which had everything after a certain point in 2001 as being £405 per year. I've just checked the reg of a 2004 car and sure enough, it comes back as £270pa This does open the options as you say, brilliant!!

Hi all, I've joined up as I'm currently looking to get some 430 into my life. I'll try not to go on too much, hopefully someone can confirm whether all of my theories so far are correct!! I've been driving an MX5 for around 17 months now and I do love it, it's wonderful at what it does. However, being small and me doing motorways every day, it's a little worrying at times. Been amazed at how many times people just pull out on me as though I wasn't there. Starting to feel a bit vulnerable. So, I started to tell a friend at work at how I fancied something a bit bigger, safe, sturdy, reliable, fun, classy, comfortable and he immediately said that I had to buy an LS400 and it's the only car that fits the bill. He literally spent a couple of days solid talking about the car and this was enough to make me read up more. Upon reading more, I got to thinking the LS430 was more for me but I would also need to go LPG as I drive 50 miles per day for work and running it the regular way would send me to an early grave. I had been looking for one already converted but was aware this would cut down my choice of cars massively. I had thought the conversion would cost around £2500 but have seen ones recommended in other threads here for half of that, so I'm thinking having it done myself and having full choice of cars makes more sense. Also, after owning a Mazda 6 MPS recently and paying 450+ annually for tax, I just refuse to do that anymore, it's just absolute theft for no good reason. This means it looks like 2001 is the most recent car I can have. I'd love to buy newer but not to pay double whammy on the tax. So what I'm after is a nice clean 430 with full history, lowest miles as possible, cream leather, all in great shape and on the lower tax bracket. Oh and it must have the full luxury package with the fridge in the back and the crazy sound system (of course). In the last couple of weeks I've thought many cars would be a good idea including 730d, 530d, 330d, GS450h and would have actually bought a gas converted Daimler if it hadn't of literally just been sold! Always come back to the LS though, sounds a superb package. If anyone spots one and would bear me in mind, I'd be highly appreciative. I live in the Lakes area and am not scared to travel, a day out of my life is nothing for the right car. Really looking forward to joining the ranks properly and seeing this incredible sounding car for myself!!