Hello Veeky Forums I am looking to buy my first car

Holy fuck OP, its Mr Nippon Valdeez again, I really hope you didn't buy the car today.

I paid $1,500 for mine with 224,000 miles, you should really consider the following:

Don't offer them a penny more than $5,000. They would have to have every dealership service record going back to 1998 in order for it to be worth 8k, and I would expect to see only dealership record's, no receipts printed on napkins from some place called "Enrique's muffler shop and taqueria"

The base model Ls400 sold for around $54,000 MSRP in 1998, and although inflation has increased, the quality of the 20 year old car has not. Even if it has had a series of major overhauls, not every single piece is going to be brand new.

If they want 30% of what the car cost 20 years ago, they're crazy, and you can just walk away right now. You will find another nice Lexus with higher mileage for half what they're asking, maybe even 3k for one with 190,00 miles and a relatively clean interior.

Remember, you can always replace broken interior pieces, a driver seat with rips and stains can be re-upholstered, a cracked or scratched window can be replaced.

Unless you really do have 8k to spend on an old, comfy gas guzzler, then by all means, go for it. I'd rather buy a '98 Lexus with 70k miles for 8k than a '98 cadillac with 70k miles for the same price, that's a no-brainer, choose Japanese luxury-reliability over American luxury-unreliability.

Hope you see this post...

So you think its better to buy one with higher miles because itll be cheaper? Wouldn't it bring more problems with higher milage?

why do all retard kids INSTANTLY go for luxury cars when looking for a first car? you WILL fuck up that car in some way shape or form so get a cheap hatchback/sedan like a civic. when you actually know how to drive (you dont right now, no matter how much you think you do) THEN you think about a nice car.

Yes, higher mileage is risky, but a cheaper purchase price means more money for repairs when stuff starts breaking down.

Also, these engines are very well known for going up to 500k miles without a major teardown and rebuild. Like I said, mine leaks power steering fluid like crazy but it still runs and drives great. I'm just too lazy at home/busy at work to fix it.

And I've got 2 other project cars that I enjoy working on much more.

You might need to replace a transmission or 2, but that is a fraction of the cost of buying a replacement vehicle.

Where are you located?

I'll sell you my 1998 LS400, 224k miles, decent tires, recently replaced headlight and brake light bulbs.

I'm serious OP, if you're willing to come and pick it up I'll send you an email right now.

Im in arizona 85254

Well, if you're gonna be in Northern California anytime soon... about a hour north of San Francisco. But you probably will never make it past the gay hordes...

Come on now, the LS400 isn't some priceless artifact. They made over 100k of them.

I drove a 1994 Camry as my first car and I didn't do a thing to fuck it up. The LS400 is honestly more of the same.

This guy is mildly correct but if you can negotiate to 5 to 6k I think low miles is worth it.

He's not correct that a leaking power steering system is okay though. The fluid leaks directly on to the alternator and you probably won't realize it until it's way too late and you're stranded because the battery is dead.

There are like three real things to worry about in an LS400. Oil leaks, starter motor failure, and power steering leaks. Everything else is maintenance or you'll see the failure coming a mile away.

Come on now, I never said the P/S leak wasn't a problem, I just said that I'm too lazy to fix it. I also have 2 other cars that take all my time, plus a donor car that I'm pulling the motor from.

And I'm aware that it could destroy the alternator, if the pump and reservoir were leaking, but it's the steering rack that's fucked, so it's just gonna leak for all eternity.

I say he should buy it, he'll realize that he overpaid and either be content with his nice condition land yacht, or he'll realize how hard it is to sell an old car for more than $2000.

I mean fuck, I just got a Bronco that didn't run for 750 bucks, put $80 and a few hours into it and it runs but ill still have trouble selling it for more than 2k.

Cars are a losing venture, unless you garage them forever and never drive it, and even then it will lose value hand over foot and be considered an old piece of shit in 5-8 years.

If you love cars, you will accept that owning and driving them is a risky venture.

Emotional winning, financial losing I guess is what im trying to convey

>I drove a 1994 Camry as my first car and I didn't do a thing to fuck it up.

are you honestly going to sit here and tell me that the majority of people learning to drive don't do unspeakably shitty things to their cars either by intention or simply by being shit at driving?

>Come on now, the LS400 isn't some priceless artifact.

true, (also the reason I don't like lexus in the first place but that's neither here nor there) but it will come with a lexus repair bill. even though you and I know its just camry parts in that bitch with lexus put over the sticker on the part. This will be ESPECIALLY true if OP fucks up the paneling or the trim and needs to repair and replace.

>Cars are a losing venture,

unless you cheap rice a 3k civic and flip it on some hood wigger. then you can easily get 5k for a 3k car with ~1k worth the cosmetics.

The repair bill if you are smart, is as much as a Toyota repair bill you dumb ass. The worse I can think of is the timing job. I have quoted my ls 430 at about 900 dollars. Is the same procedure as a Toyota tundra. If you are stupid enough to get work done at the dealer then sure, expect to start tweeting #metoo because you are gonna get fucking ass raped.

Besides is not like they are hard to work on anyway. They are Lexus, basically a Toyota not a damn BMW or audi

my whole point to my post was that since lexus is classified as a luxury car, and since luxury car means "i can jack the fuck out of the price" to both mechanics and parts suppliers. so even if you are smart and can either find a decent, non rapey garage or learn to do it yourself, your still going to end up paying luxury tax on the parts for the car (because even though the parts are from other Toyota models, there is probably some fuckery to make them not fit/work).

at this point, it would just be a better idea for you to get a new-ish Camry with all the trimmings (unless your a badgewhore for Lexus in general, in which case fuck you and the horse you rode in on)

You can definitely find a mechanic that isn't a bullshitter that jacks up rates because they can.

But Lexus branded parts are almost always more expensive. Such is life.

phoenix.craigslist.org/cph/cto/d/1997-lexus-ls400/6431880028.html

This one maybe is worth 8k.
phoenix.craigslist.org/cph/cto/d/98-lexus-lsk-miles/6431611989.html