lsnut

I seem to have sparked a little disagreement when expressing my opinion of recent Rovers in another thread the other day. This led me to thinking about all the cars I have owned over the years and how I came to have an LS. What about all you others? How did you come to decide on an LS as you present car? My previous collection consisted of quite a mixed bag of stuff. Some good, others not so good. I have tried to list some of my past cars below. I may have missed some as I have had quite a few since 1976 when I got bitten by the car bug. Rover 2000TC - nice Citreon Ami super estate - hilarious Mini 1000 - fun VW variant - Ummm no real memories VW camper - useful but slow 1957 Morris Oxford - different at the time Mercedes 450SE - big in every sense including the bills Rover SD1 2600SE - a nice place to sit while waiting for the AA Mini 1275GT - the most fun on the right side of the speed limit VW Polo van - did what it said on the can Citreon BX deisel estate - comfortable but it fell to bits Jag XJ6 series 3 - Electrical fire nearly killed me Audi 100 - very good ride, better than the LS I think Mercedes 280E - still got it Rover 213 (the little box shaped one) - economical, I just made it to the scrap yard with a knackered CV joint Vauxhall Astra SRi - rusty body and heavy steering Austin Ambassedor 1.7- I know, - - we needed a big car in a hurry Toyota Corrola 1.3 hachback - dull to drive but brilliant in every other respect Toyota Carina 1.6 Auto saloon - see above, did 125,000 miles in it with NO problems LS400 - need I say more. I'm sure there were some other but they obivously didn't leave much of an impression. Let me know what you have driven over the years what you thought of them. Remember, it's just some fun :D

A dig at Rover.......precisely. Unjustified in my opinion.....and whilst inferior to an LS400 (as bourne out by the price-tags when new)......not sneer-worthy in any way whatsoever. Somebody has one bad experiece of a particular car, and the whole marque is condemned. In most cases, it's down to the DPO (dumb previous owner) not doing what should be done. In the case of the 820......they did have their faults.....not least, leaking oil from between the head and block. But then that was a good thing, because it saved the subframe from corrosion. The V6 models were a much better prospect, and aside from the early ones being more prone to rot......were a good motor. Anything from a G-plate on was pretty rot resistant. I've given myself until October to source an LS400, by which time the MOT, tax and insurance all expire on the current daily hack (Mondeo diesel). If I've not aquired an LS400 by then, I'll be putting the 827 Vitesse back on the road, complete with replacement box, and LPG. Why did the box need replacing ? Because the DPO let the tranny oil run low, and knackerd the diif output bearings. I knew about the box before I bought the car, and for £150 was worth the punt. As it happened, I had a replacement auto-box, and after giving up a weekend, got the boxes swapped. I've always admired the LS400, and do consider it a step up from the 800. But if I can't have 8 cylinders, then the 6 in the 827 will be no bad thing. As for collecting my toys........I can manage just fine, thankyou :P Justin ← Sorrry to upset you regarding Rovers. My first car was a P6 2000TC 1967. I bought this second hand for £600.00 in 1976. I liked this car a lot and wish I still had it. This was after learning to drive in a series 2 Landrover which only had 3 gears most of the time, sometimes it had none. After a succession of various other makes including Citreons, Mercedes, VWs, and Mazdas I bought an SD1. This was a 2600SE I think. This overheated at any opertunity and was never sorted by my local dealer. The car was an ex dem bought from that dealer. Next came a Mercedes 450SE, a Jag XJ, Another Mercedes, this time a 280E which I still own. Then the dreaded Rover 820. Here we go again. Loads of trouble. A good friend had a 623 at the same time, Honda engine worked well, Interior fell to bits quite quickly. I also had a Rover 213 (laughs) for a while. Ummm, I cant remember why I bought this but I do remember that it didn't use much petrol. Since then My wife and I have had a few Toyots that have been perfectly reliable if a little dull. This is why we now own a LS400. Its damn good and will still be damn good in 10 years time. When I post on this site I am expressing my opions gained from my own experience. I can't speak for anyone else but my time spent owning Rovers has been . . . . . lets just say mixed in case someone gets upset agan. In case you are wondering I will never even look at another Jag Anyway, as I said before enjoy your future Lexus or any other car you might own. I love driving and cars but I do have realistic opions about them.

Anything Rover should be buried at birth. YUK!!! Anyway, get that LS quick and you will never want to own anything else. LS400 - - - - only thing I can think of that I would be better to cover a lot of miles in wouod be an LS430. Buy the best you can afford and you will NEVER look back.

Rover 800???? Sorry to disagree but the one I had some years ago was absolute junk. It was just over one year old when I bought it with about 6K on the clock. In a yaer I had 2 auto gearboxes, an exhuast and 3 - YES 3 -- alternators!!!!! Don't tell me I was unlucky..........It was a total dog. Anyway, our current 2000 LS400 MkIV is a brilliant car. Not a thing has broken, stopped working or given us any cause for concern in over 25,000 miles. The Sat Nav is a godsend when you need it. Oh! and the mods to the greasy bits do mean that it is even more reliable and smoother than the earlier ones. Gets better MPG to. P.S. Don't let my wife hear you criticise the car, she'll rip your head off. She will now have no other car, except the new LS430 we tried a few months ago. Enjoy.....

9.2 - - - OUCH Worst average is probably about 15. We got stuck in traffic in Chelmsford one evening. If you want to see really scary figures, switch to current consumption, I've seen 5 when pulling hard from a junction once, never put it on that setting since!

Seems about average. We get this sort of milage on a regular basis. My wife does mostly main road driving, A and M roads, and quite often gets over 30MPG on the trip computer. Best we have seen is 32.2 on a trip from Colchester to Bedford, A12 - A14, and back. She is a steady and smooth driver. She Uses 80 - 85 as a max and doesn't try and get there like a rocket. she has the air con on auto and doesn't use the cruise control. This still seems totally amazing to me as I am used to a best of 26MPG from an old Merc 280E.

Firstly, I'm jealous. We "only" have a 2000 LS400. Only kidding, there all excellent cars. We got it from Wolverhampton. I have to say that they didn't give the sort of service we expected when buying a Lexus. I dont know what the service department is like but the sales staff only wanted to get the money. We still haven't got the wallet for the manuals and had to fight to get the books. The service book was also missing. It took months to get the correct one for the car and to get it stamped up from the dealers concerned. I can't reccomend them I'm afraid. We now use Ipswich (we live in the north of Essex) who have been excellent. I know you'll enjoy the car whoever you use for servicing, we love ours. For reference my wife drives about 20,000 a year, generally sticks to the speed limits and gets around 27 -28mpg. So far it hasn't cost much more than our old Toyata Carina to run really especially when you consider the difference in comfort and all the toys you get. Good luck

Well, another convert. The first couple of weeks of ownership is good fun. As you say, it takes a while to find all the toys. The Sat Nav will remember the last 10 towns that you have entered but otherwise its down to setting them as marked points. The Hi-Fi is better than most and especially so with CDs. The function button on the wheel changes the readout of the trip computer on the bottom of the instruments. We generally leave ours on average consumption but its there to be played with. Sorry to hear that your tool kit is missing. You should really get hold of the user manual too. Its quite a good read and some of the translations are a good laugh. Enjoy the car. It gets better the more you use it.

We have tried a 430 and were amazed by the improvement. Its hard to see how they could have improved the 400 as much but they did! We are now saving our pennies and hoping for the best. We are going to try the new GS in a couple of weeks too so that should be very interesting. I'll let you know what we think.

Its too tempting to use all the performance 'cause these cars are sooooo easy to drive aren't they.

What is the deal with all the people that look at these cars and think we are totally mad or have more money than sense. They really aren't that costly to run. My wife covers about 20 odd thousand miles a year and averages between 27 - 28 MPG in our 2000 LS400. I'm becomming a total bore about this car but it is, quite simply, the best car for high milage drivers there is.

Buy it! They are fantastic cars. At 75K its just about run in and with the full history its got to be worth an AA check.

Yeah, that's what it says on the computery thingy. Never bothered to work it out for myself though. I'm assuming that this is about right. I am amazed too although I must say that the car mostly does long runs all over the east of England. It's over nine miles to my wifes base office along dual carriageway which is the sort of stuff the car is best at. What do you get from your 430? ← I get about 17 around town and 26-28 on a motorway run. I thought you were getting 28 mpg around town!! :D ← I think 28 is pretty good all things considered. My friends BMW 530i geta about 22 on average. We have seen 32 on a run to Birmingham with four people on board. My old Merc 280E NEVER got more than 25 even on a run and I wont mention the old 450SE. Oh all right then, 21 at its very best. Anyway the consumption is a sort of secondary thing when you consider the way the car seems to just get you to your destination without trying, Anyone want on old 280E?

Yeah, that's what it says on the computery thingy. Never bothered to work it out for myself though. I'm assuming that this is about right. I am amazed too although I must say that the car mostly does long runs all over the east of England. It's over nine miles to my wifes base office along dual carriageway which is the sort of stuff the car is best at. What do you get from your 430?

Thanks for the great welcome everyone Forgot to mention, if you get a chance to go on a Lexus test day, just do it. We got to try every car in the range with no hard sell. It was great fun. Didn't like the RX much though. Sorry to all you 4x4 owners, its just not my thing. Now we are looking forward to giving the next GS a go. If it drives like it looks, it should be fantastic. Anyone in the Colchester area want to meet sometime?

Hello to everyone. Well, here I am at last. We've had our 2000 LS400 MkIV for over a year now and it is without doubt the best car we have ever owned (stupid comment, of course it is). This iincludes a couple of Mercs, 2 Toyotas and varoius other heaps. My wife drives the LS and does about 18 - 20000 miles a year. I don't drive any more as my eyesight is a little dodgy now. I have to say, if you get driven about in anything then it has to be a LS. We considered a Merc S class but they are so damn expensive and it is realy hard to find one with all the kit that you get in every LS that the decision was easily made and certainly not regretted. The Sat Nav is GREAT. It has only let us down twice. So far we have covered about 23000 and the tyres still have about 5mm of tread left. Incredible. The computer tells us we have averaged 28.6MPG overall since we bought it. Unbleviable. As you may be able to tell, we are nuts about this car. Only one major problem though. What the hell do we replace it with. And when, it seems that it will go on forever. 'Spose it will have to be a LS430. :D