beeblebrox

Used snow mode to get to & from the station in fairly snowy conditions with no drama this morning. Even when provoked the gentle guidance of the stability control kept the car on the straight and narrow :) (Yes, I found and bought a Mk4! More on this soon...)

Thanks for the input everyone. What is a more reasonable price for such a car? The cambelt was done at 128k, so it's got plenty of life in it yet. Hi John, I've just emailed you. Thanks.

Thanks for the tip. I have been corresponding with Mark about his lovely-sounding car but I can't get across to view it for a few weeks, and I'm sure it will have been snapped up by then.

Hi all, I'm off to view this car at the weekend. It has 158k on the clock with full Lexus service history, which is a big plus. The MOT history doesn't have any nasty surprises - it had both rear upper suspension arms replaced at the last MOT in November, as well as a few other bits. The trader says there's a bill included that shows £1400 worth of work was done - money that the next owner won't have to spend I hope! Does anyone here know this car already? Any obvious red flags that I've missed? It's towards the top end of what I'd like to pay, and the colour wouldn't be my first choice but that's a minor concern if the rest of the car is sound. Thanks all. Dave

Thanks for all the alacritous advice, chaps, appreciated! The groaning Mk3 was this one. It has a full service history, mostly at Lexus dealerships, and a cambelt at 120k. The fact that it was being sold at a Lexus dealership was of reassurance to me, so it's a real shame about the noise and the little bits of rust. I also had a test drive in this Mk3, which was also very nice. There's a bumper scuff on every corner though, as well as some slight stone chips to the bonnet and again a tiny bit of rust at one corner of the windscreen. A bit more tired at 158k but I think the asking price reflects the condition. The Mk4 was here - I think the lack of photos is justified considering the state it was in! I think I'll go back for a drive tomorrow just so I can compare the inside to the Mk3. No intention of buying that particular car. The search continues...!

Hi all, I'm looking to buy my first LS400 shortly, and have been to see a few today. I saw two Mk3s and a Mk4, and had the opportunity to drive both Mk3s. What awesome cars! I was amazed at how smooth and comfortable they were. The first Mk3 had covered just 128k, and drove very well. However, a couple of things did worry me slightly and I was hoping for some advice. The car was started from cold and there was a fairly annoying rattle/groaning/screeching noise when manouevring at slow speeds. It seemed to go away or be obscured by road noise when driving normally. Is this a common problem? Should I forget this car and move on? There was also a slight amount of rust right at the top corners of the windscreen, on both sides of the car. It just appeared to be surface rust and had obviously been touched up with paint (not very well!) at some point. Again, is this a common problem or something that's going to cause grief in the future? The Mk4 was buried behind a few rows of other cars and I got to the garage quite late so didn't have an opportunity to drive it. However there were some immediate problems - damaged and mismatched driver's door mirror, missing centre caps on the nearside wheels, the trim in front of each rear wheel arch was missing entirely for some reason and on the offside had started rusting... And the guy was asking £3k for it! I'm going to take it for a drive tomorrow to see how the Mk4 compares to the Mk3, but unless he'll cut his asking price in half I think I'll be leaving that one on the forecourt. Thanks for any help/advice you can offer. Can't wait to join the club :)

Hi all and thanks for the warm welcome. This really does seem to be a well-mannered and knowledgable forum, and I'm looking forward to getting my own 'Japanese Rolls-Royce' and contributing back to the forum as I can. Unfortunately my being in South Wales means that the majority of cars worth going to see are all a fair old way away, so when a decent-looking motor comes up perhaps I'll ask if anyone could give it a once-over before I make a potentially pointless long journey. I'm going to take my time and wait for the right car rather than drop hundreds on the first one that comes along, so everything I'm reading on this forum has been really helpful so far. The LS is going to sit alongside my MX-5 as the wafty long-distance cruiser. It'll certainly be quieter on the motorways! :)

Well this makes for sobering reading. I'm going to be buying my first LS400 some time in the next couple of months and the thought of buying from a trader didn't seem too bad until I read this thread. A lot of the privately offered cars on eBay/gumtree at the moment do seem to be sheddy and the traders are much more persuasive with their wording. Perhaps I'm looking in the wrong places?