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Sc 400, Is It Worth It?


Skizz

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Hi all,

I just bought a black 1997 SC 400. It has a tan interior and in excellent condition and also 111000k miles.

I'm hoping I'll be able to get this thing to 200k without bleeding to death in repairs / servicing.

Do these cars hold up well? Performance, maintenence? Or should I have gone a different route?

Thanks all,

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Hi all,

I just bought a black 1997 SC 400. It has a tan interior and in excellent condition and also 111000k miles.

I'm hoping I'll be able to get this thing to 200k without bleeding to death in repairs / servicing.

Do these cars hold up well? Performance, maintenence? Or should I have gone a different route?

Thanks all,

we have a 1992 sc400 that has about 150,000 miles on it. we've run into a lot of problems lately and maintenance/repairs are very costly. my advice to you however, is to keep it well maintained (since you bought it in such excellent condition)so you will not run into problems later. Lexus is a great car and hold up well. most mechanics will say the same, it's just that when you do run into a problem with the car, it's quite expensive so i'd suggest that if you ever run into a problem with it, take care of it asap!!! we didn't and now are deep into costly repairs.

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Hi all,

I just bought a black 1997 SC 400. It has a tan interior and in excellent condition and also 111000k miles.

I'm hoping I'll be able to get this thing to 200k without bleeding to death in repairs / servicing.

Do these cars hold up well? Performance, maintenence? Or should I have gone a different route?

Thanks all,

Skizz,

I bought a 93 SC300 in 1997 for about $16k when it had 90K on it. Initially I put about $2k in maintaining the car because the doctor who own it took poor care of the vehicle and then traded it for a Mercedes. Today I have 265k on the car and if I had not made a stupid mistake about a week ago (Long Story TLC screwup) I would still be running strong. I still plan to exceed 325k. I just love the car and it screams! If I do keep it and rebuild the engine or buy an engine, I want to put a single turbo and replace the AT with the MT. That would really boost an already great performance.

I own a boxter also. I have more fun driving the SC. Good luck with your vehicle. If I had to guess (and there are so many variaboles) I would say that you could expect to get 300k out of the car if you take excellent care of it.

My wife bought my car on site after our Lexus dealer gave it an A+ on the 150 point check. Then when I openned the oil cap a couple of weeks later I had to take a screw driver to remove the mud and sand. I thought I would die! So the Lexus dealer did get the front and rear seal replacement work (the $2k mentioned above). Here is the great part.

The valve covers started leaking also, so I called the same service department that did the 150 point inspection, and replaced the front and rear seals. I asked my personal service manager what she thought I should do (this was all in a month). Her reply was, "Sir I think you need a new engine". She was serious and very lucky I was not standing next to her. After cooling off I called management and they were very regretful of the situation, but made no amends. My extended family has since bought 4 or 5 brand new Lexi's, but I made sure none was from them ;)

Bottom line you are in probably in good shape if you take excellent care of your car. If you do not personally work on your own cars and do not have an OBDII reader you can plan on the "TD" package. Every Lexus comes with a secret "TD" code :D behind the model #. It stands for "Thousand Dollars". I do not care if you take it in for wiper blades....your bill in the end will be at least $1000. :angry: I'll never go back with my used vehicles. Same with my Porche. Just changed the MAF. Part cost $200 and 5 minutes to install. Dealer qouted over $1000.

Good Luck

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Thanks for the info.

I wish I knew how to work on my own cars. I actually got this one from an Audi dealership being resold. It appears it has been serviced regularly and had its 90k done to it at 102,000k.

I just hope does me good. Anyone have any suggestions on how I could learn basic maintence work on cars? Something I wouldn't mind getting myself into and in the end save a couple of bucks.

It does run great and its top end speed is excellent.

Hi all,

I just bought a black 1997 SC 400. It has a tan interior and in excellent condition and also 111000k miles.

I'm hoping I'll be able to get this thing to 200k without bleeding to death in repairs / servicing.

Do these cars hold up well? Performance, maintenence? Or should I have gone a different route?

Thanks all,

Skizz,

I bought a 93 SC300 in 1997 for about $16k when it had 90K on it. Initially I put about $2k in maintaining the car because the doctor who own it took poor care of the vehicle and then traded it for a Mercedes. Today I have 265k on the car and if I had not made a stupid mistake about a week ago (Long Story TLC screwup) I would still be running strong. I still plan to exceed 325k. I just love the car and it screams! If I do keep it and rebuild the engine or buy an engine, I want to put a single turbo and replace the AT with the MT. That would really boost an already great performance.

I own a boxter also. I have more fun driving the SC. Good luck with your vehicle. If I had to guess (and there are so many variaboles) I would say that you could expect to get 300k out of the car if you take excellent care of it.

My wife bought my car on site after our Lexus dealer gave it an A+ on the 150 point check. Then when I openned the oil cap a couple of weeks later I had to take a screw driver to remove the mud and sand. I thought I would die! So the Lexus dealer did get the front and rear seal replacement work (the $2k mentioned above). Here is the great part.

The valve covers started leaking also, so I called the same service department that did the 150 point inspection, and replaced the front and rear seals. I asked my personal service manager what she thought I should do (this was all in a month). Her reply was, "Sir I think you need a new engine". She was serious and very lucky I was not standing next to her. After cooling off I called management and they were very regretful of the situation, but made no amends. My extended family has since bought 4 or 5 brand new Lexi's, but I made sure none was from them ;)

Bottom line you are in probably in good shape if you take excellent care of your car. If you do not personally work on your own cars and do not have an OBDII reader you can plan on the "TD" package. Every Lexus comes with a secret "TD" code :D behind the model #. It stands for "Thousand Dollars". I do not care if you take it in for wiper blades....your bill in the end will be at least $1000. :angry: I'll never go back with my used vehicles. Same with my Porche. Just changed the MAF. Part cost $200 and 5 minutes to install. Dealer qouted over $1000.

Good Luck

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I have to agree with the other guy. A car is just as good as how someone cared for it over its life. A 2000 LS400 with 75K miles can be trash compared to a 1990 with 250K miles but like new if the 2000 was wrecked and abused.

I have had MR2s and Celicas that reached over 200K miles and have always been running strong without need of any internal repairs. Currently I have a 3000GT with nearly 230K miles that purrs. Those cars are notorious for oil leaking and burning but this is all due to neglect so they end up in the junkyard.

My 98 SC3 was purchased on election day this year and so far so good. It was owned by a lawyer who just went to the dealer for everything (even oil changes). About 2 years ago he sold it to another lawyer in his firm that did work on it himself because he was a car enthusiast. He told me he always ran syntheic oil but when I went to go change the oil the first time I found a Pennzoil filter on the car (YIKES!).

The internals are the most important thing in the car. Spend the extra money on full synthetic oil and OEM filters. These cars are known to last to over 400K miles if cared for. Whatever you do I would advise never to mess with the stock engine by adding a turbo or supercharger on an engine that has already over 100K miles or 10 years of use on the street. The seals and gaskets are already well worn and imbedded in there. Extra pressure and work the engine has to do will break something.

If things do go wrong there are plenty of used motors out there that have barley any demand in the market since these were not mass mass mass produced cars to begin with.

Go with your gut feeling with the car. If it looks pretty but something just does not seem right then walk away.

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Aside from needing the wear items replaced, ( tires, brakes, air filter) my 93 was in good shape, with 150k miles

Dispite needing soooo much TLC, I fell for mine 1st time I test drove it. I truely expect it to make it over 250k, hopefully more!

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