ezekielj007 Posted August 20, 2006 Share Posted August 20, 2006 I'm in the process of buying a 96 tomorrow with 118,000 milles on it. it rides good and the price is good at $8,800. I'm taking the car to the lexus dealer tomorrow for an inspec but should I be worried about tranny or engine issues. I looked at the oil and it looks clean, The only issue I have is that the owner that has it now is the third owner and probably doesn't have records. Should I be concerned if it still checks out ok? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Threadcutter Posted August 21, 2006 Share Posted August 21, 2006 I'm in the process of buying a 96 tomorrow with 118,000 milles on it. it rides good and the price is good at $8,800. I'm taking the car to the lexus dealer tomorrow for an inspec but should I be worried about tranny or engine issues. I looked at the oil and it looks clean, The only issue I have is that the owner that has it now is the third owner and probably doesn't have records. Should I be concerned if it still checks out ok? Ez: If the service records are up to date & the timing belt has been changed, then the only problem you may have is wondering when it's finally going to croak so you can go buy something newer. I just gave our son one of our 2 '96 ES300's. It has 350K on it. We decided to be nice to him & put a timing belt & water pump in it. It'll probably go to 500 to 600K. Maybe need a new engine or tranny in there, maybe not. My '95 LS400 was purchased with about 150K on it. See why I'm not worried?........ My wife and I are not quite at One Million Lexus miles yet, but we'll get there. Lexus would have to really, really screw the pooch bad for me to even consider looking at another car. You may have to put a few bucks into the car, we all have at one time or another. However, keep in mind that you are driving a car, that with proper maintenance will probably give you another 200K miles (easily). When new, the car you are considering, sold for about $60K. If you have to drop $2K into it, you are still getting a screaming hot deal (plus a pretty dammmmned nice ride). ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jainla Posted August 23, 2006 Share Posted August 23, 2006 I agree with Threadcutter...the only real thing to watch with the LS V8 is the timing belt. As long as it is changed regularly these engines are virtually bulletproof...usually good for at least 300k miles if not more. They may want to replace the sparkplugs as well, but that's about it. After that just change the oil and go...there is nothing exotic needed just regular maintenance. The dealer will tell you what else, if anything needs changing. Sometimes some of the front-end bushings may need replacing but that's about it for these cars. The LS400/430 is regularly the MOST reliable car in the JD Power 5 year dependability survey....so settle in for a while. What color is it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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