lpgdlex

You forgot the suspension Phil. It's deflation is overdue on age, and about due on miles. LexusChap had a collapsed 430 some months ago. He just about got a thousand for it. Surely though that applies to any 00-03 430. Pretty much all of them will have delaminating windows, corroded alloys, the amp will blow at some point, as will the sub and the suspension will inevitably need work. The question is whether they have been done, but if they have been done then the car will probably have 170k on it. All used cars are compromises to a certain extent. What you are basically saying is don't buy a 00-03 430 as for not a lot more you can get a newer one with slightly fewer problems and on that I'd probably agree with you. Depending on what they look like a lot of people wouldn't do the alloys or the windows and probably not the steering column on that car and to a degree I sympathise with that. From a financial point of view they'd be right - do all of them and it is still a 12 year old LS430 which has a price ceiling no matter what is done to it because you get to a point you can just buy a newer one.

In fariness to WBAC they are better now that they are owned by BCA and not Carcraft (who are now out of business anyway). WBAC, regardless of whether they pay it or not, is always a rough guide to bottom-book trade price for a car as it will be sent to auction. I don't think I'd buy it either but I wouldn't buy a 2000-03 LS430 full stop - I just don't think it is *quite* as bad as some people are making out and in reality most of the "immaculate and perfect" LS430s advertised out there have similar or different faults which just aren't in the advert.

WeBuyAnycar offer £3275 for it so the seller isn't going to accept £1500 (and WBAC or anyone subsequently buying at auction will not test the audio). On a forecourt, with most things done, it is a £5-6k car so for someone who can do a few things it is worth a reasonable amount. It is basically a full Lexus history car which is slightly overdue for a service, needs the amp fixed (£200-£300) and maybe (depending on how fussy the owner is and where it is stuck) the column done with a genuine 70k miles. The biggest thing against it IMO is that it isn't a 2004 model year with all the improvements.

I don't think that is a bad advert. OK, so it's not worth £12k, but at least they've been honest with the issues with the car (which are all common LS430 ones) which 90% of sellers probably wouldn't be. OK, so it could do with a few bits doing but the buyer can make up their own mind what they do. The service is neither here nor there frankly, I bet the oil even still looks quite clean. It's got to be worth £3-£3.5k to a buyer who know how to fix common LS430 issues. It would probably get £3500 in a straight car auction.

I think Toyota GB back in 1989 were determined to set a 100% reliable reputation for the car and decided on very conservative servicing schedules. That isn't necessarily a bad thing. I wasn't aware any forum has a "relationship" with Toyota - it is a discussion place and the relationship is people pay money and they give a service! Fast forward to 2013 and the last of the LS400's are worth 3k just about tops the question comes whether to follow that very conservative schedule set by Toyota GB or follow the slighly less conservative one set elsewhere in the world. That, of course, is a personal choice based on the information available and how much you want to spend. Personally, if looking at a used Mk IV with about 100k I'd be concerned whether it has had a change but not desperately worried about it needing an imminent second one unless the change was done very early in the car's life and the belt is well over 10 years old. That is just my personal view. I'm sorry I don't buy the different driving styles line. I'm not convinced drivers in Rhode Island or Netherlands have dramatically different journey patterns to the UK and there are always exceptions to the case anyway which a schedule has to cover. That doesn't explain why a LS430 is 100k either as it has the same cambelt arrangement. I just think Toyota GB played double or triple safe back in 1989 and the schedule stuck.

It wasn't a rant. It was a point of debate. Lexus UK say 62k. Lexus Europe say 92k. Lexus everywhere else says 100k. Same car, same engine, made at same time in same factory using same parts. Basically same engine in LS430 using exact same belt, tensioner etc. Lexus UK says 100k. Any regular car maintenance is a cost/benefit debate. Otherwise change the cambelt and oil every 500 miles. If this is supposedly a forum about Lexus cars, is not debating that cost/benefit a relevant topic of discussion?

I think the km change is 150k so about 93k miles. The service mileage in continental Europe is 15k km so 10 years @ 15k = 150k. Basically, each territory seems to make it up as they go along. The LS430 uses exactly the same belt and tensioner as the Mk LS400 but Lexus UK seem to think that it is good for 100k/10-years!

That's true with the US and Australasia to an extent but not so true in Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark....Cyprus(!) etc. In the case of your car, a Lexus dealer does not normally replace the water pump unless a customer specifically requests it (it is not part of the regular timing belt change service) so a car with full Lexus history and even two timing belt changes will most likely be on original water pump. It just seems a bit odd to me that if I go into a Lexus dealer 15 miles away the belt needs changing at 62k....but if I travel another 120 miles East and go into a Lexus dealer it is nearly 100k miles.

I wouldn't get too hung up on the 62k change interval. Everywhere else in the world for the exact same car it is 100k - only Lexus UK for some reason set it at 62k. I'd be more concerned with time than miles - 100k/10-years seems a safe guide.

If I read that right, that's 17.5mpg which isn't actually very good at all on any sort of run. Even a bit loaded up, I always get 20mpg or over on LPG on a '98 unless significant town work is involved.

Not sure which car we are talking about but the ebay system certainly works on a "previous owners" basis. What I mean by this is, if you fill in an advert on ebay using your car's registration number to pre-fill in all the information and you are the second owner then the ebay advert will say "Previous owners: 1". This isn't the seller's fault and is common across all adverts on ebay (and others for that matter). You can not put in your reg number but then potential buyers can't HPI check it via ebay and they think you're trying to hide something so, as a seller, you cannot win. A one owner car will say "Previous owners: 0". This is kind of correct, as the current owner is not a "previous" owner until the car is sold. Don't blame sellers for this confusion, blame the way the DVLA and ebay use the information. The explanation from the seller is basically correct - if you are the second owner of your car your V5 will also say "No. of Former Keepers: 1" in Section 2 and it is the way advert sites, most auction houses and the motor trade refers to owner numbers.

Calculating exact LPG mileage is always a bit difficult as you never get quite the same amount in everytime and you can only really calculate on long journeys otherwise the petrol issue comes in. I know pretty much on petrol at 77ish late night cruise (satnav speed not speedo although the speedo is only about 2mph out) it does 29mpg. If you keep to 70 it tops 30. I've also found the computer to be pretty much spot on when comparing with the brim to brim measures. When the car first had LPG it was averaging about 21mpg on LPG - interestingly it didn't seem to vary much how I drove it. The mapping has since been tweaked and on the last reasonably fast 250 mile motorway run I measured the LPG brim to brim it used about £32 worth at 78p a litre so about 25-26mpg. I've got a couple of long motorway runs to do over the Christmas break I'll probably use the Lexus for so will fill it up with LPG and run it 'till it beeps empty and report back what the odo was showing.....

That's 22.7mpg by my calculations (or just under 16p per mile at £0.78 per litre). If that is mixed driving that really isn't at all bad.

On a longish fastish (80ish as opposed to 70ish) motorway run I get about 25mpg (maybe 26) on a LPG - on petrol it would be doing about 29-30 in similar circumstances. Around town goodness knows what it does but something pretty awful - 16 to 17 ish but I only live a mile from work and from a cold start a LS400 does about 10mpg for the first mile so it'll use a lot of petrol and LPG whatever you try in those circumstances. Awful short journey and around town fuel consumption is just something you have to accept on a 4 litre V8 whether running LPG or petrol. I'm more than happy with 25 at 80 and I bet if I stuck to 70 it would get close to 30mpg on LPG. That's about 13-14 pence per mile which you'd need a diesel doing at least 45mpg to match.

I've got a LS400 which was converted by Profess earlier in the year and so far so good. They're pretty competitive on price (£1200 for a LS400 or LS430) although that doesn't include any gas. They started on mine at 8.00am and were finished just after 6.30. If you're some way from them you will need to take it back for a check after 1 month so bear that in mind. They set the map a bit conservative to start with and then set it tighter when you take it back so you should see a 5-10% improvement in economy after the check. I've got a 84 litre tank in the spare wheel well which you can squeeze about 70 litres of gas in. It switches to gas after about 1 mile, even on these cold mornings and feels just the same to drive. Economy wise it doesn't do quite as well on gas as petrol – on a fastish motorway run (75ish) it will do about 25-26mpg on gas which is about the monetary equivalent of a 45mpg diesel car so still not bad. I haven't worked out mixed mpg since the calibration was re-done. Profess use a Polish controller system called STAG and although the guys running the place are Welsh most of the fitters and mechanics are Polish and seem to really know the system. The reason they can do it in a day is because as you drive in four very hard working Polish guys are straight on the car and don't stop until it is done. The other bits, such as the injectors, all seem similar to other installers (OMVL in my case). It is a very neat install with a nice bracket made up to mount all the injectors on in a nice line either side of the engine. The only very minor issue I've had is a slightly uneven idle on gas in the last couple of days which seems to have fixed its self today. I assumed it was done to the weather – and it was – it is the first time I've ever run it on gas with the aircon off (being below 3 degrees it turned its self off) which of course reduced the idle speed. It seems the controller need to “learn” this new situation. The only other downside is that although petrol has come down recently (129.9p locally today) gas has gone up quite a bit from 74p last month to 80p most places this month.