Lexus LS400

...

So get a different car!

The LS is like a Japanese Town Car- you get one engine size, one automatic transmission option, four doors and a couch. If you're so obsessed with having to show off that you can play clutch-and-fiddle stick in the middle, get something else.

Please do not do this.

I get what the LS400 did to step up the luxobarge game. For the time, it had some pretty cool gadgets. However, it's the most disengaging car to drive ever, and its innovations are the root cause of the automotive industry's problems we hate today: appliance mobiles with numb feedback. Coupled with the fact that the car is ugly as sin and has a boring interior, I think it's one of the most overrated cars of all time.

There were better cars from the same era. The Jaguar XJ6 and XJ8, for example, had an even more comfortable ride but were engaging enough for the driver while remaining limo tier cushiness for the passengers. The quality of their interior is second only to Rolls and Bentley, and even used the same leather. The LS400 has a very bland interior and uses meh quality leather and... cherry wood? Whatever it is, it's boring, and you can argue that "hurt who cares if it's boring Hiroshima Sakamoto takes his waifu car to sudoku competitions in this car it's awesome" but the car is pretty ugly inside and out, and quality is more than just reliability. Quality is also craftsmanship and attention to detail.

>hurt durr jaguars unreliable
Look up the reliability of the X300/X308. The latter had a few problems that were covered under warranty. They are both just as reliable as the 400 and 430 but look incredible and have a real air of class about them.

That's more than I can say about most other cars of the Era. Audi was shit, Mercedes was worse than Lexus and BMW was alright. Cadillac had the styling down but not the quality of materials.

>They are both just as reliable as the 400 and 430

Uh, There is no Jaguar that has done a million miles.
So no.. not as reliable..

Nah.

Looks are subjective, but I think the LS has always been very basic, stately and beautiful. Almost everything Jaguar has made since 1995 is hideous and terrible. If I want a car with a barely functioning electric system, it'd have to be an early 90s Vanden Plas.That being said, irl, regardless of how gorgeous they looked, I will never get an old Jaguar because they're, well, Jaguars, while a Toyota manufactured brand with renowned build quality, a great engine and a reputation for going tons and tons of miles even when beat on (with low repair costs to boot) strikes me as a great used car deal at the very least.

I think that interior looks comfy as shit and is extremely attractive, fwiw.

God that is such a moot argument here

10x+ LS400 were sold, of course there's going to be more high mileage examples. But is it really reliable if you've rebuilt the engine once or twice by then? What's the point of calling it reliable at that point? What part of the car is reliable?

Even though only 30,000 XJ6 were made world wide of that generation, there are plenty of examples at 500-600k miles, some without a single rebuild on the engine. For a more exclusive car, the XJ6 holds up extremely well. Couple that with the fact that a lot of LS400s were picked up as delivery cars and taxis and shit, whereas the Jags weren't, and it's easy to see where the extra miles come from.

I'd like to see the retard who tried to use a Lexus as a wedding car, though. That's the most nigger thing I can imagine.

Like I said, that's why I don't own one, wasn't having a go at the car at all.

>Let's buy a low output British sedan from a company that was in financial troubles during the era said vehicle was produced.

Can you even get parts for that hunk of garbage?
Lol
Ten bucks says you're a Brit remainer

Those high mileage cars arent usually rebuilt, 1.5m ks on a stock engine/tranny is reasonably common. This isn't the case with the jags. Also those jags are a number of price brackets higher, and if something goes wrong the cost/difficulty of sourcing parts is significantly more.

See
Those are 95-97 models, "FWIW". Call them ugly, I dare you.

Jaguar electronics in the early 90s were average. 95 and later, they are on par with Lexus. Easy to diagnose issues, cheap parts, very robust gold plated connectors. See, people are scared of Jags, and I think it's funny how long that stigma lasted. I used to have an X300 which I beat on and drifted and it never gave me so much as a hiccup. It had 300k on it.

>toyota build quality
What is build quality? The jag is just as well or better built, but uses Connolly leather and hand detailed walnut. What's the argument here?

>There were better cars from the same era. The Jaguar XJ6 and XJ8, for example, had an even more comfortable ride

I'm Canadian actually. I don't like everything Jag has done, but these cars were miles ahead of the poor-man's 90s luxury, I.E. Lexus. And yes, you can get parts, and they are cheap. You can get most everything from rockauto for next to nothing. Just saying, you can stop praising your ugly novacane on wheels
The million mile cars are all on different or rebuilt engines and transmissions

C'mon LPG, you're the last person I would've expected to be ignorant on this subject

A huge factor here is what country you live in. I'm in the US, and an older Jag is a money pit 9 out of 10 times. If you live in Europe, go for the big Cat.

But here, even a beat-to-shit 300k mile 90s Lex will run better and cheaper than a similarly aged Jag with average wear and tear, and take less maintenance along the way.

I personally think the shape of that dash is too rounded and therefore unappealing to me, but again, these are aesthetics, and they are all subjective.

How is that Connolly leather and hand detailed walnut holding up on these mythical 300k mile Jags though? Durability is not a strong suit in Jaguar, whereas Toyota has literally built a brand out of it.

I'll give you this, the reliability isn't the HUGE gap people think, I'll even bust out a vintage edition of the meme charts to help boost your case

But the XJ6 and XJ8 as better cars? No. Are they good cars? Absolutely. Are they better cars, or even better rides than the classic LS that they competed directly against? No. Even a Mercedes try-hard fanboy like me has to admit the LS is THE car for that segment, it's gold standard everything else has to be measured against

an older jag is what you call it. You have a stereotype set in your head about it. It is not the same car you are thinking of.

The interiors hold up very well, actually. The walnut specifically, while the Connolly leather requires some conditioning (as anyone knows true quality leather does, be it in furniture or footwear). Here's a picture of my 95 when i still had it which was beat on by the previous owner.

Will even throw up the 2001 VDS, where Jag snuck up to third most reliable brand in the US

I mean, yeah, obviously pic related is a beautiful car. But its soooo far distant in my mind from a reliable daily driver that I can't even imagine being in one. I'd never want to deal with a vintage Jag in terms of maintenance.

The Lexus is accessible, simple, and perfect at what it does, with no bullshit. A Jag is literally a different animal. Its just how you like your luxury I guess.

That reliability study was from a year when Jaguar did a recall for nikasil lined cylinders and bad timing chain tensioner AND a fault with the transmissions. I'm impressed that they still scored that high. Do you have one from 95 or 96?

I know people say it's the gold standard, but I think that's just because there were so many of them made due to their cheap introduction price.

Anyway, I think that the LS400 was a good car, but only exceled at one thing and that is being comfortable and disengaging. It doesn't look good at all, which yeah you can call subjective, but that can only go so far. It is not a beautiful car and i don't think anyone would call it that. It's reliable but still harder to wrench on than the Jag's inline 6 (which made the same power and got better MPGS, I was pulling 26 mixed, it sounds great too). I just think it doesn't deserve all the praise it gets, because it also led to the things that everyone hates about new cars.

Thinking about picking this up to dd for awhile, opinions?
youngstown.craigslist.org/cto/5656781888.html

The fact that Geo is more reliable than anything on this list is immediately suspicious.

That's not even the generation I had in mind. The X300 is nicer looking and more reliable.

So far distant in your mind? You're thinking of the older older jags, friend. I daily'd one for years with no problems. Such an easy car to work on. I did everything from new shocks to gaskets and belts to wiring (old owner was rough with the trunk and stretched the wires to hell and back).

Different manufacturers have always defined Luxury in different ways so in a way there will always be some subjectivity to evaluting a luxury car

Take a Jag, a Lexus LS, an S Class, and a Cadillac. All luxury cars, but every one of them tackles 'luxury' in a different way/with a different flavor. See, I don't mind the 'disconnected' feeling in a luxury car. To me, it doesn't detract from anything, but I understand why it gets up other people's pants, although I don't know that you could peg the LS as 'patient zero' for numb, disconnected steering in modern cars

I will agree, the LS isn't beautiful, but it's not exactly offensively ugly either. It's just generic and boxy, and looks very much 'of it's time' if you know what I mean. They were trying to copy the old school look of the S class, so it was never going to be a timeless design

I have to say from experience, I do think the reputation for reliability and quality is deserved. I've never seen or come across one of these thing that's had serious issues, even with hysterically high mileage, and the interiors/exteriors hold up well even in salt covered US states.

The Lexus got "icon" status because it managed to do 4 key things well at the same time. It was well built, it was reliable, it was comfortable, and it was good value (didn't depreciate). Neither the Jag, or the even the S Class gets all 4.

I do like the old Jags though, personal experience turned me around a bit with those cars, and I will say they have more character than the Lexus ever will.

A Geo doesn't have anything in it to break

LS400s and 430s have been massively overpriced recently. Just like 4Runners. Toyota and Lexus are experiencing some form of Tulip Mania right now.

Those aren't current pictures. Sounds like that car has been in an accident.

>windshield
>hood
>driver's door doesn't open
>"front door panel"

The glue-on Buick vents and the poor communication skills indicate that the owner is of the Afro-American persuasion, meaning that the oil hasn't been changed in two years.

I would look a little higher in price and be wary of any seller who can't type full sentences. The thing with these cars is that while a doctor may have took it home from the dealership in 1992, its probably had about 5 owners since then, and we have to remember how popular Lexus' were in rap lyrics during the 90s...do the math, you get some beat up 'hoopties'. Especially in the NYC area.

If the lexus LS came in wagon form i'd came enough for a flood of biblical scale. I guess they don't since they don 't expect you to haul shit other than passengers.

Any tips on how to keep the interior clean and keep from cracking on my seats?!?!

They never offered it in AWD either did they?

Okay, I can see that.

For what it's worth, the jag gets 3 out of 4 there and the Mercedes gets like 1 or 2. The jag gets some other things that neither the merc or lexus gets, so I guess that's the difference in their definitions of luxury

is that matt farah's million mile lexus???

"THIS IS NOT MATT FARAHS MILLION MILE LEXUS"

If you're willing to get a little more than half the MPG of an econobox, 1st and 2nd generation LS400s are the KING of a cheap, reliable used DD.