SC400 Reliability

I'm currently driving a 2002 Mitsubishi Montero as my daily driver, and am eyeing a very clean 94 SC400 to be my new daily. Should I back out on it? Cost of maintenance is a concern but, I like literally everything about the car except the fact that it's automatic.

Here's another note, I guess. The odometers on both cars are more or less identical (115k), so how much of a concern is the extra ten years of age? We are comparing the Lexus product to a Mitsubishi one

For this we must call upon the old fag. GEHRAZ.. WE SUMMON YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

>drives a mitsubishi
>asks if a toyota is reliable
Wew

The V8 is stupid reliable if that's the model (same as the soarer). Proper maintenance and it will outlive you

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"Paging /u/gehraz lolol”

I mean, my Mitsubishi has been reliable. All I had to fix was a defective CVT cable. I imagine Lexus can only be better in terms of reliability.
That‘s the one, and that's what I figured would be true with the 1uzfe.

Not CVT. I forget the name of it.

It literally wont die unless you go through siberia seventeen times in a row without doing oil

The trips of truth

It's the same as the Soarer. Matt Farah memes aside OP you shouldn't be overly worried about anything outside of usual maintenance. If you're wondering about finances 1000ish should cover you

It's a 90's Lexus. The holy grail of reliability. Only bad maintenance will damage.

These are the things I like to hear.

>so how much of a concern is the extra ten years of age?
perishables
Rubber pipes, bushes, sensors and electricals

Shouldnt be a problem though if it was garaged and looked after

Search up Matt Farrah's Million Mile Lexus, same engine IIRC.

CHECK FOR FRAME RUST. Other than that the SCs are awesome. If you ever decide you wanna upgrade it's pretty easy to throw an Eaton supercharger and run 6lbs of boost on stock ecu and injectors.

I hear the M90 or M112s are pretty good boltons for the car. Any word on what numbers they pull when tuned right?

My 98 is currently on 12 lbs and doing about 340bhp with a street tune, but has a bunch of other bolt ons. My 92 is completely stock other than the supercharger, and does about 280.

Even though they're more expensive i'd hold out for a 98+. They got an updated engine with toyotas version of vtec

Does the 98 hold up? I've heard that the VVTI doesn't take boost as well.

I thought they were the some of the most reliable cars so i told my friend to get one and he's had it for a year now. Sad thing is though, he's only been able to drive it for like half that because something has been broken. First was control arm bushings, then cracked radiator, now it needs coils or something for a misfire. And oil leaks almost everywhere, some of which require pulling the engine. I feel bad recommending it to him but it needs one small thing after another. If he'd button up all the small things though it'd be lovely. I really want it from him. Transmission is still great, engine is still perfect despite overheating multiple times(because the radiator leak), handles well, decent gas mileage(20-21), stereo is good too! Everything electronic still works, seats work great...umm...that's about it. Other than the door panels falling apart a bit(because the doors are so heavy that it puts lots of stress on the interior handles) the interior is put together exceptionally well, no rattles or anything.
A few common issues are hoodshocks break, control arm bushings, coils, trunk shocks, door panels falling apart, dimming needles in the dash, interior lights going out, only one cup holder...other than that thoughhhh, she guudddd

It's a 1992 with 160,000 miles btw

That sort of seems like it could come down to just poor maintenance on the previous owner's part.

seems like poor maintenance and the previous owner thrashed it around. Dimming needles is a common issue on these cars, with power steering leak too. Those are the only two problems really with the SC400.

Shocks and rubber pieces could be bad because of various reasons such as age, mileage, ambient temperature and so on, you should change rubber things regardless, rubber goes bad on any car.

Door panels falling apart, this could be because of the previous owner messing around and not being careful..

really everyone i know with a SC always boast how many miles and how reliable their car is.. sucks that your friend got a really poorly maintained one

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