Mark H.

Ahh, Mr Blue 32. It looked nice from the pictures, our cars were both built in the same month all those years ago.

What version are you getting?

Thanks for the replys everyone. I actually got a soarer a few months ago, very nice ride with the active suspension.

Is this not just a slightly more advanced version of the suspension on the toyota soarer active in japan? Abeit by Bose.

http://www.ultimateskylines.com/images/celsiordtm/ More pictures there and a couple of details.

That should be a nice benefit round here, should be quite a big difference as my astra has quite stiff suspension as standard as well so you have to go sloooooooow over speed bumps, having to slow down to 5 mph back up to 30, back down to 5, back up to 30, etc can't be good for the car , the cars mpg and thus the environment, yet buses seem to fly over them with out slowing down one bit, and motorbikes can just go round them.Anyone want to buy my astra so i can buy a lexus, its done well, i have had it for about 3 and a half years now though and fancy a change to something a bit more comfortable after driving the omega .

I saw an M reg one today, it looked like it had quite alot of room inside for front and rear passengers. It also had the front bumper taped all round with vertical pieces of masking tape i think, and the 2 front windows were open and looked like they had been for a while as there were bits of blossom or the like that my dad noticed inside which was on the bodywork of quite a few cars there, it was also behind / surrounded by a number of cars that looked like they hadn't been on the road recently, ie flat tyres and a look of standing fir ages together with a few having year old + tax disks in the window. They had a mk4 too, but it too had a few paint blemish's and was way out of the price range. So not been able to get inside a car yet .

I'll have a look through there, thanks.

If the car proves reliable then i would like to keep it for quite a while to minimise the depreciation if it is a nice car in good condition. Then if i have the money after a few years perhaps upgrade to a mk4, but unless i have to or i have to do alot of miles and the cost is too high then providing it stays reliable i would like to keep it for a good few years.One of the main problems is its size, where i live we share a drive with the next door neighbour, and the gap isnt the widest so i hope the car will fit up the drive and its much to big to fit in the garage :o. The people who look after my uncles rover :yack: apparently did a bit of work on an LS400 pretty cheap so i may take it there depending on the cost at my local lexus dealer as my uncle seems happy with the work.

Doh!, i dont like windows much, i use a mac instead when i can.I will hopefully have around £1,000 after purchase incase anything needs fixing, although that might go down a bit if i have an aa inspection done first.

Does anyone know the differences between a mk2 and mk3, i recall reading about there being quite a few differences although i cant really remember what they were, although is there a bit of extra length giving more leg room in the mk3 :duh:. I would quite like a mk4, as most (all?) seem to have satnav but i thought that they were worse on petrol then the mk3, as well as that i'd like to spend around £4,000 really so i have a little incase something needs replacing and i need to cover the extra on my insurance which could be £500+ as i'm only 24. So i cant really afford a mk4, although there is one nearby for £5999 but i cant afford it :(. Hopefully looking at a car tomorrow, a mk3 and a couple of mk4's there to so i can get an idea of what they are like as i didn't have time today, although my Sony PSP arrived today . Thanks to everyone whos contributed, feel free to continue.

When we got my Dads omega about 2 years ago i was also looking at a LS400 in autotrader, but my dad liked the omega so bought it as he thought the lexus would cost abit 2 much. 1 cambelt change and major service with a few bits and another couple of smallish things and one year later its about £2000 just to keep it going, doh! That why given the good reputation for reliability if they are looked after i fancy the lexus. 20 and 28 mpg isnt too bad really, the general motorway runs i do regulary will perhaps requre an extra gallon or 2 per way so not a huge amount more, especially if you consider the difference in physical size and the fact the engine is over twice as big in the lexus . 4 years/60k with just 2 sets of pads and one of tyres would be very nice with services/oil changes as required of course. Thanks for the details Dave, do the mk4's generally do less mpg with the extra gears and the extra grunt, 6.9 to 60 vs 8.5 to 60 for the mk3 officially iirc? Thanks everyone, think i may be off to look at a car this afternoon to have a bit of a look round it etc get an idea of what its like although i cant buy one till my car is sold. Does anyone have a LS400 in the leeds area i could have a ride in as a passenger so i could get a reference of what it should be like to drive in for when i am looking round, that would be excellent.

Well the fuel economy seems good for a car of its size as Adz said after your post and i remember hearing of 32 mpg on long runs occasionally.Adz will love it as i did used to have some uprated stereo, although i only had one small subwoofer, its all about the quality, the added weight of extra think mdf though(i went abit overkill as i wanted to make sure it wouldn't bend with things placed on top so 18mm and 22mm in the boot i think the bottom is the thinner stuff) anyway point being that i worked my car out as doing 33ish mpg on the motorway on a long run and i think it was 23ish round town, the mpg is up quite abit now the false floor is out of the boot. Hopefully the Ls400 will do only a bit less than my astra did, however 20mpg on a long run would be too few from the lexus, but i take it the engine would be a bit stuffed for it to be that low. Thanks for the replys and keep them coming, all useful.

Man i write (well type) some long replys, sorry people .

Thanks for your replys. It seems that perhaps 3 keys in total although i would be quite happy to get 2, slightly worrying when you think what happened to the other keys, someone could just come along and steal your car . As far as looking over the car goes i think i will try and drive a few to get an idea of what they are like, and then when i find one that i like/good value/well looked after (i saw one on ebay with 150,000 miles and 22 service stamps :duh:) then i will try and drive them and if they seem nice, smooth quiet etc and i really am interested then i think i will probably look for a pro to look at it, AA / RAC etc. Someone i used to work with said they would look over a car for me but it seems a bit awkward asking after 3 years. There skill/knowledge would of been ideal however working for now i think its called the VOSA, nevermind hey. As you say about the prices, hopefully a reasonable price can be found with them being kind of the opposite of what the government is pushing people towards, ie big car big engine vs small car small engine. I drove my dads vauxhall omega for a few weeks and its ride was nice, rear wheel drive is nice for when setting off, as some junctions / round abouts near me have gravel, loose debris etc on then and front wheels spin easily where rear grips with ease as it gets near a car length before it gets to the gravel. Although 260bhp is a bit more than 175 bhp from the 2.5 V6. Out of interest what sort of milage do you lot get from the LS400 around town and on longer runs? My main concerns about buying the car are cost of repairs if anything breaks/ needs replacing, and if the fuel consumption is really bad on the wallet. Mainly if anything breaks as i dont have thousands in reserve to spend on it. Thanks for your advice so far guys this is my first time venturing onto the 2nd hand market .

Hi there everyone. Hopefully once i have sold my Astra i would like to get a Lexus LS400. I have a few questions about this. I think an early MK3 model would be best as i can't really afford a MK4 at the moment, so i was wondering what the well known problems are to look out for, i know the mk1 and 2 have problems with the lcd's for air con iirc, is it a frequent problem on the mk3 as well? Also are there any parts that will often need replacing when the milage gets higher eg the wishbones? with the bushes in. Am i correct that the service interval for the mk3 is 9,000, is it that or 1 year whichever is sooner? Also, when the car is purchased originally, how many sets of keys does it come with and were they different colors ie a master key and valet key etc? I'll probably have loads more questions but these should keep me going, thanks for any advice you can give. Mark.

Hi everyone, Oooh, my first post on here . I would quite like to get an LS400 soon. I've been looking at the prices and hope to get an early M or N reg MK3 model when i have the money, which i think seems to have the best spec overall for me. The MK4 is just too expensive for me at the moment. I have swapped between wanting a Soarer and a LS400 for a while, the LS is more practical 4 seats and all, the soarer looks a bit smaller physically which mentally helps the not driving such a huge car feeling etc. I'm only interested in the V8 soarer of course :D. I made a sheet to put in my cars window to see if i got any interest in my car, then went to bed one night ready to print it of when i fancy. Then the next day in a car park someone drove into me so now it needs new bumpers and a headlight i wont know until i get a quote exactly what needs doing as no where i tried seemed open on saturday and i didn't try sunday what with even the supermarkets being closed. So now i need to get my car fixed before i sell it, doh :(. I was 24 in february however.