Potential Buyer - Questions

[CastIron]

Greetings!

Hopefully I'll get more than just repetative posts screaming "Search!" This forum seems friendlier than most, so here goes:

For various reasons, I'm considering purchasing a mid-mileage ucf20 ii. The cars I'm looking at are in the 70k-90k mile range and the 11k-13k dollar range. Above all else I want a car that is extremely reliable, but I also want it to be comfortable for traveling, get decent gas mileage, be quick enough to be fun, and be reasonably safe and capable in the snow with proper tires. So, I have a few questions.

1. Is it really as reliable as I'm hoping? If I buy a car with 90k miles, what can I expect to encounter for repairs by the time I hit 150k miles?

2. With snow tires, how capable is it? Will I get stuck in 6" of snow when I'm trying to make it home for the holidays?

3. The EPA rating, from what I gather is 19/25, and EPA ratings can be way off, especially for powerful vehicles. I don't care about city mileage, but with the cruise control set at 70mph for an interstate trip, what kind of mileage can I expect?

4. (Don't scoff, and I promise I'm not a ricer.) My current sedan, a Volvo S60R, ran a 14.1 at 100.2 with a conservative launch the only time I tracked it. Is the LS400 at least close? Has anyone here tracked (drag) his/her LS400? Are there any ecu-tuning options to delimit the car (if limited)?

5. Anything to look out for when looking at used examples in my mileage range? Any known issues?

Thanks!

[blake918]

Welcome to the club!

1. Is it really as reliable as I'm hoping? If I buy a car with 90k miles, what can I expect to encounter for repairs by the time I hit 150k miles?

They are very reliable, but by 150k miles, you might have to spend some money replacing some clunking suspension parts (and they're not cheap). The most common thing that will stop a 98-00 LS is the starter. Lexus buried it under the intake manifold, so changing it is time consuming.

2. With snow tires, how capable is it? Will I get stuck in 6" of snow when I'm trying to make it home for the holidays?

I hear it's quite capable with snow tires and VSC.

3. The EPA rating, from what I gather is 19/25, and EPA ratings can be way off, especially for powerful vehicles. I don't care about city mileage, but with the cruise control set at 70mph for an interstate trip, what kind of mileage can I expect?

I get at least 28mpg on the hwy with the cruise set at 78-80mph. These cars get surprisingly good fuel mileage. Everyone's "city" is different, but in my city, I get 13mpg.

4. (Don't scoff, and I promise I'm not a ricer.) My current sedan, a Volvo S60R, ran a 14.1 at 100.2 with a conservative launch the only time I tracked it. Is the LS400 at least close? Has anyone here tracked (drag) his/her LS400? Are there any ecu-tuning options to delimit the car (if limited)?

I haven't seen any programmers available for this car, so you'll probably have to find an expert somewhere if you want this done. Lexus claims a 0-60 time of 6.3 seconds with a top speed of 149mph for the 98-00 models (don't know what the 1/4 mile times are).

5. Anything to look out for when looking at used examples in my mileage range? Any known issues?

Worn suspension, starter, timing belt ($1500 at the dealer if you don't DIY), bad hood support struts, and some have issues (there's a TSB) with the tilt/tele motors for the steering column that are quite expensive to fix (but, with $11k-$13k, you ought to be able to get a low mile '00 that has the steering TSB already done!).

Good Luck and post some pics when you buy one!!

[jcrome04]

They will yell at you to search for ANY reason over at Club Lexus, but not here ;)

1. I'm just over 155k and runnin like a champ. I got mine with 135k to let you know how much I trust the LS :)

2. I have a model with NO Traction control, and it did perfect in near blizzard conditions and frozen highways. A lot of the driveability of the vehicle lies in the hands of the driver.

3. Blake is a jerk and has an extra gear on his 99 ;) hahaha the most I ever got was 29.3mpg on a little trip i did never going over 2k rpm and setting the cruise at 60. The key to good mileage with the LS is a VERY light foot ;) 95-97 = 4 speed, 98-00 = 5 speed.

4. S60R?? Sweeeeeeet! The LS is limited at 149mph if I'm not mistaken ;)

5. Make sure you get one with the timing belt service done. and don't get ripped off!

[landar]

The engineering and quality is just amazing. I have owned mine for 1 1/2 years and put 20k miles on her. I still pinch

myself to see I am dreaming. When I do have to perform maintanence, I am awed by the design and quality of

whatever it is I am working on. Totally astounding cars.

Detroit does NOT need $25B for a rescue bailout. Just $20k for a used LS400/430 to tear down and copy.

[Threadcutter]

The engineering and quality is just amazing. I have owned mine for 1 1/2 years and put 20k miles on her. I still pinch

myself to see I am dreaming. When I do have to perform maintanence, I am awed by the design and quality of

whatever it is I am working on. Totally astounding cars.

Detroit does NOT need $25B for a rescue bailout. Just $20k for a used LS400/430 to tear down and copy.

Detroit will never copy a better idea....It's clear, after 3 decades, they'd rather go down in flames. I've owned my last F.O.R.D.

Every time I get into my '95 LS with 250K, I thank my lucky stars it's not a new Detroit vehicle.

[eatingupblacktop]

The engineering and quality is just amazing. I have owned mine for 1 1/2 years and put 20k miles on her. I still pinch

myself to see I am dreaming. When I do have to perform maintanence, I am awed by the design and quality of

whatever it is I am working on. Totally astounding cars.

Detroit does NOT need $25B for a rescue bailout. Just $20k for a used LS400/430 to tear down and copy.

Detroit will never copy a better idea....It's clear, after 3 decades, they'd rather go down in flames. I've owned my last F.O.R.D.

Every time I get into my '95 LS with 250K, I thank my lucky stars it's not a new Detroit vehicle.

The irony is that when a beatifull American designed car drives by, the common sentiment for the last few years has been "too bad it's not made in Japan".

[GKLCPA]

Amen.

Had Detroit been making cars like the LS over the past 20 years, they would not have the issues they're having now. Unfortunately, these guys alwas figured that the government would deem them too big to fail and bail them out. I'm of the mind of letting them all twist in the wind--and that includes the banks.

The engineering and quality is just amazing. I have owned mine for 1 1/2 years and put 20k miles on her. I still pinch

myself to see I am dreaming. When I do have to perform maintanence, I am awed by the design and quality of

whatever it is I am working on. Totally astounding cars.

Detroit does NOT need $25B for a rescue bailout. Just $20k for a used LS400/430 to tear down and copy.

[SW03ES]

Lets not make this a discussion about the auto bailout, thats not fair to the OP...

[027922]

I concur with Blake's comments - I'd add a couple more -

1. Is it really as reliable as I'm hoping? If I buy a car with 90k miles, what can I expect to encounter for repairs by the time I hit 150k miles?

- I have 180K on a '90 LS and 109K on a '93. On the '90 I had the timing belt and water pump changed at 135K. I have read where some LSs have gone 300 - 400K miles with proper maintenance.

2. With snow tires, how capable is it? Will I get stuck in 6" of snow when I'm trying to make it home for the holidays?

- Living in St. Paul, MN I have gone to winter tires all around from about Nov to April - Winterforce (from Firestone dealers) and Yokohama's work very well at about 60% the price of Blizzaks.

3. The EPA rating, from what I gather is 19/25, and EPA ratings can be way off, especially for powerful vehicles. I don't care about city mileage, but with the cruise control set at 70mph for an interstate trip, what kind of mileage can I expect?

- at 75 mph I get 24; at slower cruising speeds you'd get more.

5. Anything to look out for when looking at used examples in my mileage range? Any known issues?

- don't get air suspension (I did on my '90 - had to replace it with convention shocks/springs - very pricey). Have any Lexus dealer run the VIN number of any prospective purchase to see what prior service has been done.

These are awesome cars and a joy to drive - good luck.