This is my LS400 story, what is yours? share it
06-24-03, 07:59 AM
#1
Intermediate
Thread Starter
This is my LS400 story, what is yours? share it
Let me tell you the story of how i got my LS400( i like these stories, they're interesting 
) We were on vacation in West Palm Beach for a week (we go there every year since we used to live there) and believe it or not on the 6th day of the vacation, i went to a McDonald's and picked up the Palm Beach Post to look at the classified section for a chance of 10% of finding a good Lexus LS400 (in my mind 10% or less). Prior to that, we had been sort of shopping around for an older model LS400 (first gen) here in Maryland, and all we found were cars that were either terribly high on mileage (130k +) or ones that didn't look good and/or weren't one owner or were poorly taken care of. Anyways, in the classified section, i read the following: '91 LS400, 1-owner, 72k miles, excllent cond. $8400.
We called up and were happy to hear an elderly man talk to us about the car. So we went to see the car half an hour after we hung up! From a first glance, this car was all I had dreamt for and more!!
We coulndn't believe (still dont) it was a '91. The paint was in showroom condition with deep shine (we found out later that it was always garaged). We test drove it and it sure did everything perfectly fine. It met all of our criterias as well: 1 owner, low miles, serviced, no accidents (all VIN stickers are there and all match, i even checked the ones on the bumpers!), garaged, all original parts and paint. So we jumped on it and with a bit of negotiation, we got $400 off the original price and bought it for $7800. Mannnnnnnn, the drive back to MD was sure the best drive of my life, 1400 miles of pure fun and luxury. And the interesting thing was that after spending about 20 hours in the car driving it, i didn't feel one bit fatigue once we arrived at MD... i was ready to do anything. It was a great expereince!!!, Share yours with us... use some detail, and make it interesting 
) We were on vacation in West Palm Beach for a week (we go there every year since we used to live there) and believe it or not on the 6th day of the vacation, i went to a McDonald's and picked up the Palm Beach Post to look at the classified section for a chance of 10% of finding a good Lexus LS400 (in my mind 10% or less). Prior to that, we had been sort of shopping around for an older model LS400 (first gen) here in Maryland, and all we found were cars that were either terribly high on mileage (130k +) or ones that didn't look good and/or weren't one owner or were poorly taken care of. Anyways, in the classified section, i read the following: '91 LS400, 1-owner, 72k miles, excllent cond. $8400. We called up and were happy to hear an elderly man talk to us about the car. So we went to see the car half an hour after we hung up! From a first glance, this car was all I had dreamt for and more!!
We coulndn't believe (still dont) it was a '91. The paint was in showroom condition with deep shine (we found out later that it was always garaged). We test drove it and it sure did everything perfectly fine. It met all of our criterias as well: 1 owner, low miles, serviced, no accidents (all VIN stickers are there and all match, i even checked the ones on the bumpers!), garaged, all original parts and paint. So we jumped on it and with a bit of negotiation, we got $400 off the original price and bought it for $7800. Mannnnnnnn, the drive back to MD was sure the best drive of my life, 1400 miles of pure fun and luxury. And the interesting thing was that after spending about 20 hours in the car driving it, i didn't feel one bit fatigue once we arrived at MD... i was ready to do anything. It was a great expereince!!!, Share yours with us... use some detail, and make it interesting
06-24-03, 09:20 AM
#2
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Year and a half ago, I had been riding in a friend of mine's 92 LS400, and I had allways liked the ride, but it had allways just kinda been there, never really thought about it. He hadnt done anything to make it look nice, but then I started to pay attention. I thought the ride was a little too floaty (he had a gold package) but I liked the engine feel and the complete lack of outside noises ...
So he tells me he is selling it.. It was a 92' with 140k miles. I was a little in awe that it was still in good condition. but they wanted 7800 for it. I knew his dad, he was a low income used car salesman, and I had worked with him before, picking up 200 dollar cars from a auction and turning a sale of 2 grand the next day. so I wasnt very cool with the idea of letting him get to my money.. So I started looking around, and I figured why not, I checked ebay... I found one, at 53k miles, 92, bluish grey. It was in Dallas, and as luck would have it, some family of mine was traveling there that week. They checked it out, and it turned out that the odometer was broken and the car was totally thrashed, barely started. I wanted to post huge warning signs on their ebay auction page.
So I was a bit bummed but then I got my eyes on the one. Blueish Grey two tone, 44k miles, 1990, silver package LS400. I have family in Ft. Worth, so I asked them to go check it out for me. It was in perfect condition. First owner, it was being sold by an employee of the owner. The Owner was one of the higher ups at the largest online coin collection sales companies: Heritage Coin. I bid on it, I got it at $9000,
Ran down to Dallas on a friday, picked it up on Saturday at the office, in Highland Park Dallas (The extreamly rich part of town) It had been garage kept and was in great condition, save for a few minor door dings from other cars. I hopped into it, jumped on the highway and made a 6 hour trip back home in 4 hours. No stops. I jumped out of the car at home, and felt 100% refreshed, I wanted to go out on the town that night.
Lucky me, I got a call 10 mins after getting home from a man interested in my old car, he came over, made an offer, bingo...
Busy weekend thanks for posting your story, i hope you liked mine too
...So he tells me he is selling it.. It was a 92' with 140k miles. I was a little in awe that it was still in good condition. but they wanted 7800 for it. I knew his dad, he was a low income used car salesman, and I had worked with him before, picking up 200 dollar cars from a auction and turning a sale of 2 grand the next day. so I wasnt very cool with the idea of letting him get to my money.. So I started looking around, and I figured why not, I checked ebay... I found one, at 53k miles, 92, bluish grey. It was in Dallas, and as luck would have it, some family of mine was traveling there that week. They checked it out, and it turned out that the odometer was broken and the car was totally thrashed, barely started. I wanted to post huge warning signs on their ebay auction page.
So I was a bit bummed but then I got my eyes on the one. Blueish Grey two tone, 44k miles, 1990, silver package LS400. I have family in Ft. Worth, so I asked them to go check it out for me. It was in perfect condition. First owner, it was being sold by an employee of the owner. The Owner was one of the higher ups at the largest online coin collection sales companies: Heritage Coin. I bid on it, I got it at $9000,
Ran down to Dallas on a friday, picked it up on Saturday at the office, in Highland Park Dallas (The extreamly rich part of town) It had been garage kept and was in great condition, save for a few minor door dings from other cars. I hopped into it, jumped on the highway and made a 6 hour trip back home in 4 hours. No stops. I jumped out of the car at home, and felt 100% refreshed, I wanted to go out on the town that night.
Lucky me, I got a call 10 mins after getting home from a man interested in my old car, he came over, made an offer, bingo...
Busy weekend
thanks for posting your story, i hope you liked mine too
06-24-03, 10:57 AM
#3
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Well Here goes my LS Story.
If you just read my post on the 97 vs. 98 thread this first part is the same and skip top the second paragraph.
I did tons of research to find this LS. Every day THREE time a day I logged onto AutoTrader.com, EbayMotors.com, Cars.com, and all my local papers web sites. This was a pain especial since I was doing this at work too. But I ended up with the deal of the century. So consistent shopping pays off. I almost bought a car of ebaymotors but backed out at the last minute cause the condition was not as good as I wanted. I ended up getting my car from an ad on Cars.com. That web site pulls ads from all the US newspapers, but I had to really widened my search area to over 100 miles to find my car. It was a tiny piddly little ad that just red 98 LS400 25k $28,500 and phone number with no area code and no color. I did not call for a couple of days cause I figured at that price it must have had something wrong or a cheesy color. Remember this was almost a year ago so $28 was a steal. So anyways I looked up the Area code and called. The very next day I drove the 100 miles to see the car.
Well actually before I went up there I spoke to the owner at length about the condition. We was older and very vague with detail. He just kept saying the car is clean and in his opinion it was fine. He told me repeatedly that if when I got there I did not like it I did not have to buy it. That alone made me very scared but being that the car only had 24k miles on it I figured it should have been in Phenomenal shape. So I tell him I'm going up the next day with two Check and to hold the car for me and consider it sold.
I was freaking out all that night hoping the car was the right one and hoping I would not be disappointed when I got there as I had been many times before. The next day I had my checks ready and my wife and I took of to the West coast of Florida to see/ buy the car. 100 miles later we are in his neighbor hood and were thoroughly impressed. This was a Boating community with all the houses on the water and each house was in the Millions. The owners house was just amazing. They were a very nice retied couple in their 60's. The second he opened the Garage I was ready to buy the car. I open the drivers door peeked in and said I'll take it. He actually forced me to test drive it. Now let me explain some more. This house was huge and had a Six Car Garage. Also sitting next to it was a Brand New SC430. These people had Cash and the space to baby their cars. Anyways the wife was selling car because they have 6 grand kids and she no longer used it. She now rarely drives and when she does she drives a 2001 Toyota minivan and has a 2003 on order. This was her 5 Lexus and has babied the car. I told her thank you for taking car of my new car so well. So I went for the test drive by myself and of course went through the car with a fine tooth comb, but it was spanking brand new. No Dirt, no stains, no tears, NOT ONE ding or scratch. It was showroom new.
So we proceeded with the sale, but first he told me someone had called while I was driving down and offered to go right then and buy the car CASH. He told that person if I did not buy the car he would be next. Thank God I jumped on the Sale ASAP. So, I was paying some by Cashiers Check and some financing but handed them a Check from the finance company. While we were waiting for the banks to talk he ended up telling me his life story and about the house we were sitting it. He was a retied CEO from huge Oil company ( I forgot which) He paid $500,000 plus for the lot the house was built on and even more for the House to be built. This house was just over 10,000 square feet in space and decorated to perfection. Even had a dedicated built in Theater. His neighbors house was for sale for $2.5 million and supposedly that was a steal. A couple hours later all the money transaction were done and I was driving of with my new Baby. My wife drove her car (99 RX300) home and me in my LS. I could not have been happier that day. Every day since then driving my car is a true pleasure. I still have the print out from the guys little add. I laugh and thank myself for calling on it.
Thats My story
Jerry
If you just read my post on the 97 vs. 98 thread this first part is the same and skip top the second paragraph.
I did tons of research to find this LS. Every day THREE time a day I logged onto AutoTrader.com, EbayMotors.com, Cars.com, and all my local papers web sites. This was a pain especial since I was doing this at work too. But I ended up with the deal of the century. So consistent shopping pays off. I almost bought a car of ebaymotors but backed out at the last minute cause the condition was not as good as I wanted. I ended up getting my car from an ad on Cars.com. That web site pulls ads from all the US newspapers, but I had to really widened my search area to over 100 miles to find my car. It was a tiny piddly little ad that just red 98 LS400 25k $28,500 and phone number with no area code and no color. I did not call for a couple of days cause I figured at that price it must have had something wrong or a cheesy color. Remember this was almost a year ago so $28 was a steal. So anyways I looked up the Area code and called. The very next day I drove the 100 miles to see the car.
Well actually before I went up there I spoke to the owner at length about the condition. We was older and very vague with detail. He just kept saying the car is clean and in his opinion it was fine. He told me repeatedly that if when I got there I did not like it I did not have to buy it. That alone made me very scared but being that the car only had 24k miles on it I figured it should have been in Phenomenal shape. So I tell him I'm going up the next day with two Check and to hold the car for me and consider it sold.
I was freaking out all that night hoping the car was the right one and hoping I would not be disappointed when I got there as I had been many times before. The next day I had my checks ready and my wife and I took of to the West coast of Florida to see/ buy the car. 100 miles later we are in his neighbor hood and were thoroughly impressed. This was a Boating community with all the houses on the water and each house was in the Millions. The owners house was just amazing. They were a very nice retied couple in their 60's. The second he opened the Garage I was ready to buy the car. I open the drivers door peeked in and said I'll take it. He actually forced me to test drive it. Now let me explain some more. This house was huge and had a Six Car Garage. Also sitting next to it was a Brand New SC430. These people had Cash and the space to baby their cars. Anyways the wife was selling car because they have 6 grand kids and she no longer used it. She now rarely drives and when she does she drives a 2001 Toyota minivan and has a 2003 on order. This was her 5 Lexus and has babied the car. I told her thank you for taking car of my new car so well. So I went for the test drive by myself and of course went through the car with a fine tooth comb, but it was spanking brand new. No Dirt, no stains, no tears, NOT ONE ding or scratch. It was showroom new.
So we proceeded with the sale, but first he told me someone had called while I was driving down and offered to go right then and buy the car CASH. He told that person if I did not buy the car he would be next. Thank God I jumped on the Sale ASAP. So, I was paying some by Cashiers Check and some financing but handed them a Check from the finance company. While we were waiting for the banks to talk he ended up telling me his life story and about the house we were sitting it. He was a retied CEO from huge Oil company ( I forgot which) He paid $500,000 plus for the lot the house was built on and even more for the House to be built. This house was just over 10,000 square feet in space and decorated to perfection. Even had a dedicated built in Theater. His neighbors house was for sale for $2.5 million and supposedly that was a steal. A couple hours later all the money transaction were done and I was driving of with my new Baby. My wife drove her car (99 RX300) home and me in my LS. I could not have been happier that day. Every day since then driving my car is a true pleasure. I still have the print out from the guys little add. I laugh and thank myself for calling on it.
Thats My story
Jerry
06-24-03, 02:48 PM
#4
Intermediate
Thread Starter
Just like the owners of your cars, the previous (and the only) owner of my car was also extremely rich!!! The guy was living in a $1000000+ house and his neighborhood was amazing (huge gold courses, security and etc). The reason he was selling the LS400 was because he had ordered a BMW Z8 which was on the way. After owning the LS400 for 12 years, he just wanted to try a totally different car (sporty and Conv. vs Lux/cofortable). His wife with a disapproving gesture on her face said to us: my husband has recently been feeling like a young boy again! Anyways, before he handed me the keys, he gently, yet confidently, said: look, amongst all of the cars I've ever owned, this is my favorite one (he was in his late 50's). I've taken good care of this car, and I want you guys to take good care of it too. And so far I have taken good care of it and plan on doing so in the future, as I drive it.
Well, this was my little addition to make it all more interesting ...
Keep them coming
Well, this was my little addition to make it all more interesting ...
Keep them coming
he didn't have any 'Gold" courses (that would probably make him richer than Bill Gates
06-28-03, 04:52 PM
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Hey Everyone ~
Here is my LS400 story. I can remember back in 1991 when the first Lexus dealer opened up here in Little Rock. It was big news, and everyone was amazed at the new product from Japan ( I know I was). Well, my dad who was a Honda man was drawn in to the LS400, I can remember us going to the dealer and getting in the BRAND NEW 1991 LS400 , MAN that smell was sweet. Anyway, when i saw my dad put the key into the ignition and the power steering wheel move into place and the 3-D cluster pop up so crisp and clear, I knew right at that moment, I WILL have an LS400 someday, we called the Pearl White Ones ( Like Horta's) the "Cloud" car, for obious reasons. My dad always loved the White with Ivory, but I was drawn to the Black Onyx with Ivory. To make a long story short , my dad never Indulged into an LS400 for himself..... he could have but just never did it ? So it was 2000 an my dad was ready to get me my dream. I ( like tons of others) began out on eBay, and the best thing I found at the time was a 1992 Black with ghetto rims + 116,000 miles.
Then in May, I remember comming across a tiny little ad in the paper for a 1994 LS400, loaded, call. No Price , no options , or miles just a #. SO I called and left a message. Being tired from the day, I took a nap, and then thats when my life would change After getting only a few Z'ss I can remeber being waken up by the sound of my dads voice "Get up Paul, It's your lucky day" and I can remember the sun all in my eyes but going to the front soor and looking onto out front driveway, and seeing...... the BEST looking LS400 EVER !!! SHINY Black with all the gold trim, a real work of art. After cooling down my shock and excitement we took her for a run, and my dad gunned her , and she purrred so smooth, and he said with a huge smile "Want it" and that was it !!!! I am the 3rd owner the first was a lawer in Houston, and the 2nd ( who we got her from) was a stock broker here in Little Rock who had just purchased a 1998 LS, and his son did not want to get the Lexus, but wanted an ACURA CL !! .
The car had all LEXUS records, and maintained to a tee Today she looks just as good , and runs great ( yea I have dropped some repair cash into her in these past 3 years, but as I am sure many of you agree, welllllll worth it!!!)
Thanks Everyone GREAT reads!!
Paul
Here is my LS400 story. I can remember back in 1991 when the first Lexus dealer opened up here in Little Rock. It was big news, and everyone was amazed at the new product from Japan ( I know I was). Well, my dad who was a Honda man was drawn in to the LS400, I can remember us going to the dealer and getting in the BRAND NEW 1991 LS400 , MAN that smell was sweet. Anyway, when i saw my dad put the key into the ignition and the power steering wheel move into place and the 3-D cluster pop up so crisp and clear, I knew right at that moment, I WILL have an LS400 someday, we called the Pearl White Ones ( Like Horta's) the "Cloud" car, for obious reasons. My dad always loved the White with Ivory, but I was drawn to the Black Onyx with Ivory. To make a long story short , my dad never Indulged into an LS400 for himself..... he could have but just never did it ? So it was 2000 an my dad was ready to get me my dream. I ( like tons of others) began out on eBay, and the best thing I found at the time was a 1992 Black with ghetto rims + 116,000 miles.
Then in May, I remember comming across a tiny little ad in the paper for a 1994 LS400, loaded, call. No Price , no options , or miles just a #. SO I called and left a message. Being tired from the day, I took a nap, and then thats when my life would change
After getting only a few Z'ss I can remeber being waken up by the sound of my dads voice "Get up Paul, It's your lucky day" and I can remember the sun all in my eyes but going to the front soor and looking onto out front driveway, and seeing...... the BEST looking LS400 EVER !!! SHINY Black with all the gold trim, a real work of art. After cooling down my shock and excitement we took her for a run, and my dad gunned her , and she purrred so smooth, and he said with a huge smile "Want it" and that was it !!!! I am the 3rd owner the first was a lawer in Houston, and the 2nd ( who we got her from) was a stock broker here in Little Rock who had just purchased a 1998 LS, and his son did not want to get the Lexus, but wanted an ACURA CL !! . The car had all LEXUS records, and maintained to a tee Today she looks just as good , and runs great ( yea I have dropped some repair cash into her in these past 3 years, but as I am sure many of you agree, welllllll worth it!!!)
Thanks Everyone GREAT reads!!
Paul
06-29-03, 07:54 AM
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