1999 Lexus LS400 UCF20 II from Australia and New Zealand - Comments

Cam-belt replaced at 85,000 Kms, which is not very good for the car of this level. I might be an unlucky person to buy a bad secondhand car. But my other cars (some are secondhand) show much better results (my secondhand Accord from Japan had the belt changed at 90,000, my two Volvo 960 changed at 100,000km, and my S80 changed at 110,000 km).

This car gave me a real nightmare on the steering rack. It leaked oil like a fountain. The oil leaked 6 months after I purchased this vehicle. The steering wheel was locked and the car could not move at all. The mechanics tried to fix the racks on three occasions, each time taking a week or more. However, they were unable to locate the problem, and finally the whole rack needed to be replaced at my expense (it cost me $6,000 to replace a rack + $1,000 for the three previous visits). Unfortunately, the fluid is still leaking from times to times.

The water pump was out of order at 70,000 Km. It makes a sound like I am driving a steam locomotive. This is terrible, and it took mechanics three days to fix it. Thanks to Lexus, I have to take a bus to work nearly 30 times since I owned this diabolic vehicle.

The VVTi problem makes the car shake like a Magnitude 8 earthquake. The mechanic was unable to locate the problem at first. They presumed that the car was running out of some fluid, and billed me $200.00. After paying that bill, the car still had the same problem, and they fixed the VVTi for me at the cost of $550.00 (they never confessed that their first $200 bill was their own mistake for being unable to locate the fault).

The remote key was broken. So, I ordered a new one in for $1,000. Unfortunately, the Lexus dealer was unable to code the key successfully. So, they decided to move the unit within my old key to a new one, while my new $1,000 key can be use manually. (I am uncertain whether my car is a real lemon, or the mechanics who work at the Lexus dealer are not that good, since they were unable to detect the problem on some occasions).

The car is very thirsty. I paid around $140 for full tank of petrol and it only drives 390-420 Kms. I only drive my car within the city, and that is not considered good fuel economy by anyone's standard (my old Volvo took me nearly 500 Km for a full tank).

Since owning this car, I have replaced the rings for steering rack a dozen times.

The Lexus is not that cheap to maintain as well. The Lexus always costs me $500 per year for servicing alone, and that is on a par with my Jaguar XJR ($500), and even more expensive than my Volvo S80 ($400).

The wires of the speaker need to be reworked. However, I give credit to Lexus Service staff as they did that for me without any additional charge. However, the very same mechanic give me a piece of advice that the cars imported from Singapore gave plenty of problems, and he told me clearly that even though he is a mechanic himself, he will not buy any Singapore imports, regardless how cheap they are in the market, because it is not worth his time and money to fix them.

The fluid leak got me in the habit of checking my car on daily basis, whether the car has another fluid leak again or not. The worst one occurred on 23 December 2005, while I am planning to take my family for a week long holiday in Queenstown. The fluid leaked right before we departed, and instead of driving my car down south, I had to drive the car to a Lexus service center instead. To make the matter even worst, the Service center was closed for Christmas and New Year. So, they could not fix my car until after the 3 January. So, we ended up have to cancel the trip because of one damn car. Since I owned this Lexus, I never taken my family on any holiday at all.

I might be an unlucky person among the other reviewers. I ended up purchasing a Lexus Lemon which gave me a diabolic reliability, and a shocking experience.

I acknowledge that the brand new car might be very durable and reliable, as I have a friend who owns a LS430 (UCF30), and he has been very happy with his car. However, I am unable to rate this vehicle based on my friends experience, as my one is the other way round.

I bought the car when it was 4 years old, and had done 55,000 Km. The car came from Singapore (which might be one of the reason that caused me to have a tragic experience of owning a Lexus). All of my horrible experience is listed above.

The good part of Lexus is the feather light steering that assists me in every corner, and the turning is awesome.

The Lexus service agent is amazingly nice and helpful. They are very friendly and helpful. Still, I have a few issues with the mechanics who were unable to locate the faults of my cars (but still charge me for their work).

Furthermore, the loan car from Lexus was always a Toyota Corolla (I only got a Lexus IS250 and RX330 for loan cars in two occasions, while my other 10+ visits I either left without a loan car, or have to take a bus or Toyota Corolla), while I always got Volvo S40 or Jaguar X-Type for a loan car at Volvo centers.

The personal air conditioning and rear seat package are real gems. I love them; the only down side of the car is that it did not have any heated seats (I heard NZ New version has one, and this is one of the reasons to avoid import cars).

My comment is that if you cannot afford a new Lexus, at least try to buy a NZ New (I cannot guarantee that it will be good though; the reason I recommend NZ New is based on my friend's happy experience).

But avoid all import cars, as I ended up paying $12,000 for fixing the problems with this car. There is no such thing as a cheaper way to get into luxury, but rather an easy way to get into expensive poverty. Any second hand with import history should be avoided, and any without ongoing service history with the dealer should be avoided as well (it is expensive to service with the dealer, but the truth remains that the mechanics at the dealer have little idea how to locate the faults, if the car has no service record with authorised Lexus dealers in the country).

I have had problems with a 1999 Lexus LS400 imported from Singapore, including with the power steering rack at 100,000 K .Fortunately, I had taken out mechanical insurance with the AA, which paid the NZ$6,000 this problem cost to repair. I can recommend this to anyone. The cost is about $1,200 for three years and now there is no excess.I would now not buy any second-hand "luxury" car without this insurance

My Lexus mechanic told me that Singapore imports have more problems than NZ-new models.

Having said this, I am very pleased with the comfort, performance and ride of the car. The stereo is first-class.

I wish to thank the writer of this review for the detail provided. I have to say I was looking very seriously at buying one of these cars, but I am not encouraged by the number of ongoing problems and the time taken to rectify them. I have never in 30 years of driving had to leave my car at a service centre for a week for any repair. I would be very interested in the opinions of others on the LS400. Perhaps I should be looking at a different model Lexus?

Obviously you have ran into a rare case of lemon LS and a bad mechanic too. I have owned 4 Lexus vehicles within the past 9 years, among other cars like Mercedes and BMW. First off, I will never buy another car but Lexus, and second, I have had a 1991 LS400 with 267000 miles on it, and car was perfect in every way. I have personally put close to 80k miles on it with no problems at all. I sold a car to friend of mine and he still drives it without any problems. In my opinion this is the most reliable car I have ever had.

Currently I have 2004 LS430 and it is much better vehicle than a 2002 Mercedes S430 I have had.

Both Mercedes and BMW gave me bunch of trouble; small problems, but I spent more time in dealers courtesy vehicles than my own car. All this ended when i switched back to a lexus.

It may be more conservative looking than a Mercedes or BMW, but it is definitely much better built vehicle than any Merc or Beemer.

I'd like to also add to my previous comment that I strongly disagree with your opinions stating that Lexus is a bad car, those are based on your personal (bad) experience with Lexus.

The majority of Lexus owners will agree that the LS400 is the best bet for used luxury car, and also is the most reliable car ever built.

Would you happen to know that an LS400 engine crank shaft is fully forged, balanced and bolted to the engine block by 4 bolts! Only formula one engines are using 4 bolt mains.

Whoever knows this vehicle, will agree, that these cars were over engineered and built in a short time, compared to, for example Mercedes, which had been on the marked for 75 or more years. Now Lexus gets better reviews everywhere and they have been on the market for ONLY 20 years. That speaks for itself...

Thank you for comments 4. However, the fact remain that I have to pay $12,000 to fix the problems, and NOTHING can change this fact. I am the one who pay the bill and it is not you or any reviewers on earth that write the cheque to Lexus to fix that car. It was me who paid that money, and with that amount of money I can buy another small size Japanese car or medium size Korean car. If you are the one who will pay $12,000 for me, then I will never complain about that DIABOLIC Lexus.

I bought this car because I TRUSTED the reviewers from everywhere, including the infamous Dog and Lemon Guide that recommend Lexus ahead of all brands. I owned that car for 3 years and I ended up spending my time on public transport more than the time I drove my Lexus. Do you know the last word that Lexus dealer told me? They say the reason for this problem is because "the car wasn't serviced properly by the dealer (s) ". Let me ask you this, I bought this car from an import company. The car came with FULL SERVICE HISTORY from Singapore. Then I serviced my car every SIX months with Lexus dealer in New Zealand. Who is the person that DOES NOT SERVICE this car properly? I don't know about that Singapore owner, but the car sold to me at 55,000 Kms after 4 years of ownership (Lexus in New Zealand and Australia warranty their new cars for 4 years and I believe it is the same practice elsewhere on earth, so the Singapore owner must be a real idiot if he serviced the car elsewhere while he still got a free service contract from the dealer). Do you think it's him that caused the problems? May be if he is a real moron, but generally I better give him some credit and I guess he is not that stupid.

Is it me who doesn't service the car properly? I don't think so. I took my car for a service 6 times in 3 years, plus 10+ times to fix all of the problems. I parked my car in the heated garage and paid for the car cleaning company to vacuum, wash, and polish my car by their hand on frequent basis. Then whose problem is it? If you ask me the knife should fall to either incompetent service staffs in either Singapore or New Zealand. Alternatively, it might be the nature of the import cars that are supposed to be diabolic (but a friend bought an import Mercedes Benz from Japan and did not face any problem). Perhaps, it is Lexus that didn't built the car properly.

I am not saying all Lexus are alike. My friend still drives a NZ New LS430 happily around town. But, I am telling the New Zealand buyer not to buy Singapore imports. If you are not living in New Zealand, then it is another matter.

I don't know whether Lexus is good or not. But, my family members always used European cars as we owned 3 Mercedes Benz, 2 BMWs, 1 Audi, 1 Saab, 2 Peugeots, 3 Volvos, and 3 Jaguars in the past 20 years. It is not that I am not familiar with the problems with luxury European cars. Of course, luxury cars are expensive to fix and not that reliable. I used to owned Jaguar XJ6 and Volvo 960GLT, so I know that fact. However, I always expect to pay the price for driving luxury and stylish European cars, but not the JAPANESE cars that are advertised as luxury and reliable. I am the first person in the family that broke our tradition to buy Japanese cars because I trusted the reviewers, and the truth remains that my LS400 gave me the real headache; even more than my 1988 Jaguar XJ6. All of my family members were shock about my Lexus diabolic experience.

How would you feel, if you have to cancel the whole Christmas/New Year break because the car breakdown? I can tell you now, I was really angry. While, my younger brother took his family to their holiday home with the Volvo S80, my family ended up staying at home because of this Lexus. This is the fact that cannot be changed; my family trip was ruined by one car.

Since I sold that diabolic car and decide to go back to Jaguar. My new XJR (bought from a Jag dealer), which received not as good reviews from the reviewers tends to give me a better reliability and money wise than the LS400. The Jag only require to be serviced annually (not 6 months like Lexus) and still never gives me any problems while Lexus gave me problems during the first 6 months. I would like admit that I regret from moving from Jaguar to Lexus in the first place. I should have stayed with my Volvo 960GLT for a few more years and changed to an all new Jaguar instead of choosing Lexus. Well, when I bought Lexus I would admit that I like the service from the dealer, and the feather light steering wheel. But the car always gave me a real nightmare. I have to check the steering fluid every morning before driving to work. Since, I owned Jaguar I have a good sleep and never have to panic about the oil leak ever again. After I struggled with the Lexus LS400 for 3 years, I will never consider using Lexus again.

I am not a snobbish person who is always talking about warm European cars with plenty of personality like Jaguar, Porsche, or Bentleys, I can stand cold, relatively ugly, and unadventurous vehicle like Lexus, Saab, or Volvo, as long as it is reliable and value for money. But I will never tolerate diabolic cars that force me to spent thousands of dollars to fix the problems. I do not say all Lexus are bad. It is just my experience, and I am not alone in this world. Comment 1 faced exactly the same problem with me. He is in a better position, as he has mechanical warranty to cover his expenses. BUT without the warranty I can assure you that comment 1 will say exactly the same thing about fixing prices and how diabolic his Lexus is.

As I said before in my review. I did not say all Lexus are bad. If you live in New Zealand, please avoid Singapore imported Lexus (perhaps, including ex-demo with low mileage). You can try NZ New. I believe the best thing is try to buy Lexus cars from the Lexus dealers, not the Singapore import specialist companies. It might be $5,000 cheaper than the dealer, but you will likely to pay $12,000 to fix your problems. But still I cannot guarantee that it will be good (perhaps comment 4 can guarantee it). As for me, I drove a Singapore import version and I will never buy both Lexus and Singapore import cars again.

The problem might lie with where you got the car from. I've read around about the Lexus ls400 because I want one and everywhere I've heard that you should avoid an import from Singapore, no matter how expensive, cheap, or otherwise. 99% of the cars from there are given a 'death sentence from the factory' if you will. Just thought I'd let you know...

LS 400 Forged cross drilled crank, six bolt mains, rated at 250 HP, bottom end untouched is good for 850 HP.

Ancillaries are manufactured by third parties, not Lexus.