Is There A Problem W/ 2000 Ls400?

[tealboy]

Just curious, i made up my mind that the 2000 LS 400 was the car i wanted, partly b/c it is a little less bulky looking than the 430, but more importantly, the price drops off nicely to mid 20's vs. mid 30's.

However, after reading consumer reports last night, i found that the 2000 model has a slightly less stellar review for reliability. Don't get me wrong, the reviews are good but clearly less stellar than previous and subsequent years. I don't remember the specific categories at the moment, but that particular year was off. Strange, b/c usually the later years of a model run are the best whereas the first year or two are slightly more problematic.

[SW03ES]

My guess is because there are less 2000 models than 99 or 98. They only made 2000s for half the year, so negative reports are going to have more of an impact over the total score.

Its 100% the same car as the 98 and 99, I wouldnt worry.

[90LS400Lexus]

I agree, that is strange indeed, as the later/last models, tend to have the better ratings. I remember a few years ago, I was researching consumer reports for 1995 Toyotas. This was in 2001 or so. Strange, but many of the 1995 Toyotas (several models) rated lower than other years in the "structural integrity" category. Some models, 1995 was the "center" years of that particular body style, so it was strange why the 1994 and 1996 were rated better. Perhaps more people rated the 1995 model (lower) than other years.

Just a thought.

Just curious, i made up my mind that the 2000 LS 400 was the car i wanted, partly b/c it is a little less bulky looking than the 430, but more importantly, the price drops off nicely to mid 20's vs. mid 30's. 

However, after reading consumer reports last night, i found that the 2000 model has a slightly less stellar review for reliability.  Don't get me wrong, the reviews are good but clearly less stellar than previous and subsequent years.  I don't remember the specific categories at the moment, but that particular year was off.  Strange, b/c usually the later years of a model run are the best whereas the first year or two are slightly more problematic.

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[99lsguy]

ditto all the above.....

good service records and you'll be fine.......

[1990LS400]

Having participated in the Consumers Reports product surveys for many of the past 25 years and with statistics being my favorite (although not my major) in college, my suspicion is that there were not enough 2000 LS400 owners participating in the survey to make the results statistically valid. With only 15,785 LS cars (LS400's and LS430's) were sold in 2000, how many would have been subscribers to Consumer Reports and how many of those would have completed the very long survey? I know I did not participate last year or in quite a few other years - don't even know what my wife did with the survey last year.

According to Lexus corporate statistics, fewer LS cars were sold in the 2000 calendar (not model) year than in any other previous year except 1989. Check this thread for sales figures: http://us.lexusownersclub.com/forums/index...wtopic=8844&hl=

For North America, the 2000 model year LS400 was made at least into June 2000 when mine was assembled (210 from the last) which I think is near the normal model changeover time (for U.S. bound cars) for Japanese car manufacturers. For some of the rest of the world, production of the LS400 ended much sooner when the LS430 was made available at the beginning of calendar year 2000.

I forgot what the category was but once when I was really p1ssed at something breaking, I rated a particular aspect of my 1990 LS400 very badly on the Consumer Reports survey. When I read the poor rating on that particular category in the Consumer Reports auto issue for that year I had to wonder if I was the only LS400 owner who participated!

Check the applicable TSB's for 98-00 LS models and you will see that some of the problems affecting the 98-99's were fully or partially resolved by the 00 model year.

[VGR]

Forget Consumer Reports. Forget "Lexus certified" status. Forget extended warranties. Forget Price. Those are all distractions. What really matters is complete, always timely service records.