Considering a 93 LS 400 - What happens when things go wrong?

Take a look at:

Instrument cluster is expensive to repair (1600 euro in Finland). There are some clever guys in US (Hi Jim!) that can fix it for cheaper.

Check out

and do a search for Lexus LS 400 and Lexus LS400. Typically those parts that are actively advertised are also the onces that need to be replaced time-to-time.

The word is that Lexus is not cheap to maintain. It is a luxury car. However, an old Lexus LS 400 generally agreed to be cheaper to maintain than a luxury car from another manufacturer.

my friend bought a 95 ls400 a year ago, mot time he needs a spring and a tyre, in the year he has only had service stuff.

mrcheerful

Hi Dan - I just bought my first LS400 today! It's frankly amazing. It's a 1992,immaculate save a tiny tiny dent and only 74k on the clock and FSH,the last owner was 86 years old - he had it for five years and has replaced it with a newer one! MOT's until next march and taxed till oct. He'd had it for 5 years and was the second owner - I reckon I've bought the best Lexus available for the age you can get! It's had everything replaced recently too - tyres,timing belt,battery,brakes the works! How much are you looking to spend on the one your looking at? I almost went for a 1990 with 165k on the clock and then this one turned up in the local paper! I'm in London. I'd say be very careful about the history of the Lexus you are looking at and try to suss out the owners driving habits and how much he cared for the car. I'll sell you mine for £4000 by the way - but not a penny less it's too good.

Thanks for the responses so far.

Mad Fan - Why would you want to sell if its so good? Is the drive as good as people say?

I was looking at a 1993 170,000 mile FLSH model - nice pale blue interior!

Just worried about service costs as mentioned in my earlier post.

Thanks

Dan

The drive is every bit as good as everyone says - it is clearly one of the top excecutive cars. I'm in no hurry to sell mine,I'm probably a more Soarer type of guy that's all - but this car was just too good to miss. If i sold it (and I would be a fool if i did) - I'd buy a Lexus Soarer hopefully with similar mileage. I believe if i kept up the same level of cosseting this car has enjoyed up until now it could easily go on for 100's of 1000's of miles more. The service costs aren't 'that' high but they are regular,as far as i can gather there are three levels of service a,b+c. I hope I'm not stating the obvious here but anyone contemplating buying an older high mileage Lexus LS400 and not expecting a fairly steady stream of money out of his wallet is probably fooling himself.

If my experience is anything close to average, 90K to 150K were the most expensive maintenance years (1990 LS400) for my car. I have had very few maintenance expenses (other than routine) from 150K to its current 200K.