3rd Feb 2005, 20:56
I will be buying a used ls400 with 130,000 miles on it for 10,000 this week, and after reading these reviews and watching my sister take her lexus to well over 100k, It has seemed like the best choice. luxury without losing performance.
4th Oct 2005, 15:02
I have just purchased a 1996 LS400 with 186,000 miles on the clock, Full service history from Lexus up to 179,000 miles, The car is faultless all except a few stone chips here and there. I took it to kwik fit to have the oil changed and drove it on the ramp myself, when I got out of the car I did not turn off the engine as I had only done about a mile and the engine was still cold, without realising the mechanic raised the ramp, by the time I walked over to him he was stood under the car saying this is nice not a drop of oil to be seen anywhere on the engine, I then suggested he lowered the ramp to turn off the engine, he looked quite shocked when I showed him the slight exhaust coming out of the pipes, he said your joking its never running I was standing under the sump and couldn't hear it, and after the oil change I now have to look at the rev counter to see if its started. I cannot believe how good this car is, I have owned several merc's and jags and they don't hold a candle to this sheep in wolves clothing. Well done Lexus and keep up the good work. I feel like royalty when driving it. I even purchased a new private plate for it so no one would guess how old it is.
10th Jun 2006, 16:26
I own 2 Lexus. My wife drives a 99 LS400 and I drive a 98 GS400. I bought the LS400 brand new for myself, but when my wife started driving it she fell in love. I did not expect to buy another car so soon. In June 1999 I had taken the LS400 in for its 1000 mile service when I saw the GS400. I test drove it and the salesman said they had just got it in the day before and mentioned it was nearly impossible to find a used GS400. I had him write up the contract the second we got back to the dealer. I have no regrets buying either of the cars. The LS400 has close to 80000 miles and the GS400 has 60000. Nothing has gone wrong with either. I have at least one offer a month to buy the GS400 but I won't part with it. I think I'm going to drive these cars into the ground because I don't see a point in spending the money when I have something like new.
6th Oct 2007, 00:09
Hello. I own a 1995 LS400 with 78,000 miles. I looked forever to find one with low miles and a original owner. This Lexus is an unbelievable car, very quite and enjoyable to drive at anytime of the day. I receive comments on the pristine condition of the Lexus all the time. This car is in the garage and I use it only on weekends when I go out for dinner. The quality is unbelievable, Toyota of course!!
The only repairs that needed to be done was the replacement of the battery. I had the usual timing belt and water pump changed just for a piece of mind. The Lexus looks like new, and hard to replace a car like this one. When the Lexus was new in 1995 the price tag was around 45,000. That is a lot of car in those days! I would buy another Lexus any day.
I have friends that have had MZB and Beemers they are always in the shop for expensive repairs. Thanks Toyota for engineering such a great luxury car. Keep up the good work!!!
7th Sep 2008, 23:44
My buddy has a 1993 LS400 w/135K on it, and it runs and drives great. Only problem is intermittent problem w/gauge lighting. I raced him last night in my 2000 GTP 4 door with 118K and it was no contest. I was gone off the line and he NEVER gained on me! I let off @ 115mph, and it took him 5-7 seconds to catch up. Sounds good, but performance is hampered by weight.
14th Feb 2009, 07:33
We bought a used 1996 LS400 for my husband who is 6'6" back in 2000 and he loved the car. When the Prius came around in 2006 he bought it to use on HOV and we passed the LS on to our teenage daughter - she loved it despite the fact that we had some electrical quirks and the radio never worked for her.
She drove it till it had 280K miles on it and it didn't make sense to pay for repairs anymore. I still got $1K for it on a trade in!
Now my daughter needs another car and I can't get her away from the LS400s; we just found a super well maintained 1997 with 120K miles on it for $6700. I think it's the greatest bargain, yet my husband thinks the maintenance costs will be too high for her; she's in college and pretty broke. Anyone have an opinion? I can't imagine getting a more reliable car of any type for that amount of money? Can you? Should we grab it?
14th Feb 2009, 23:08
On the plus side, it sounds like you know for sure the Lexus has been well maintained. That is more important that if the car is a Honda, Ford, Toyota, Chevy or anything else.
On the minus side, it sounds like you have personal experience with maintenance costs to keep the LS400 once it is over 100,000 miles, and based on that, your husband is saying the maintenance costs are too high for your daughter.
Driving a 12 year old car is more of a problem than people like to think. A lot of the parts in that car are long past the time they were expected to last. Mileage is only half the story when looking at cars wearing out. Cars are full of rubber and plastic parts that age. Gaskets, belts, motor mounts, etc all are full of rubber. Still if your daughter is going to use the car for short distance commutes, even if the mileage adds up, things won't just start falling apart.
But if your daughter has something like an 6 hour drive to college, that she will be doing every week, all those parts will be getting hot and their lifetime will be shortened quite suddenly. This is a situation where the theory that highway miles are easy miles on a car does not apply.
For the $6700, there are lots of cars that you can pick up that are only 5 years old and will be more reliable from that standpoint. But maybe your daughter will not be happy with them and won't do as good a job keeping up on maintenance as something she feels like is a treasure. She will probably drive more carefully too if she is worried about banging up her baby. Based on that alone I would be inclined to pick up the Lexus, but only if there is not a lot of long distancing commuting involved.
14th Feb 2009, 23:56
"I can't imagine getting a more reliable car of any type for that amount of money?"
Everyone knows that new car sales are way down right now with the economy the way it is. What most people don't realize is that used car sales are down even more.
My friend who is a car dealer told me used car inventories are full and at better prices than normal. They can do searches and find things that normally just aren't out there. So I would make sure I looked around a lot before buying anything.
13th Mar 2004, 11:28
I own a 97 LS400 and it is simply AMAZING. Coach Edition leather makes the interior the nicest I have ever sat in. The transmission is FLAWLESS and as far as performance... the car was not designed to do that (get a GS if you want it... very nice). It is by far the quietest, smoothest car I have ever ridden in. I have never had a problem with it (aside from a dead battery which resulted in the local Lexus dealer picking it up on a flatbed, providing a loaner and returning it clean and as good as new). I questioned myself for spending that much money on a used car, but has been the smartest thing I have ever done (this after owning 20 cars and 7 motorcycles over the past 14 years). Sure... I would love another 500 horsepower while keeping its drivability, but it just isn't possible (and I'm not saying the car is slow.. it is just fine)