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This is not my first Lexus or my first V8 full size RWD car. It is my first LS though. Over the years I came close to buying an LS twice. Once it was a first gen about 15 years ago but the car failed my pre purchase inspection. Next time it was a second gen LS I wanted to buy but the seller did not want to allow a pre purchase inspection.
This time I had my heart set on an 04-06. I looked for months online but got serious about 3 weeks ago. I test drove 5 of them and a GS430 just to see the difference. I went for a black on black 2005 without the NAVI screen, ML Audio, etc. This one is your more base LS but it does have the park assist and 18 inch wheels with the 245 series tires.
The seating position is so high on this car. It is similar to a compact pickup truck. That took some getting used too. I'm also a kind of slender man so the seat seems oversized and I have to extend my arms away from my body to rest them on the door and console arm rests. I am kind of used to these things now. What I just love about the car is the ride quality. It just absorbs downtown roads and there are ZERO noises or rattles from anything in the car. That is just amazing for a 10+ year old car. My SC300 makes noise from the moonroof area on similar roads plus you feel the bumps in the road a lot more. The low end torque is also impressive on this car. It pulls from zero to 30 so effortlessly. The 60-80 mph is actually a bit disappointing for a V8. I've driven about 200 miles getting about 22 mpg in mixed road/highway driving so that's pretty good.
What I absolutely hate about it are the DRLs, the elimination of the button to turn off the motorized steering column, and how the locks all lock when you put it into drive. I know these things are programmable and can be customized by the dealer for a few hundred dollars but come on; just put simple switches in the car to let the customer set how he wants things.
My pre purchase inspection revealed a failing alternator and battery so I'll do those in the coming week. Then it will be off to a Lexus shop for the T-belt/water pump major service. I have odds and ends to fix on it. The telescope function is dead on the steering column, the rear sunshade is broken, a door handle is missing the body color cap, the rear cig lighter is missing, the cup holder has a broken tension tab, the wipers are some cheap non-OEM type so they will go, etc.
Overall I'm happy with the purchase and look forward to a long road trip in the winter.
There are no "Lexus people" at my office. The younger people are Accord/Civic types and the officers like BMW/Mercedes. The ones that looked at the car were stunned you can buy so much car for what a used LS430 costs.
This is not my first Lexus or my first V8 full size RWD car. It is my first LS though. Over the years I came close to buying an LS twice. Once it was a first gen about 15 years ago but the car failed my pre purchase inspection. Next time it was a second gen LS I wanted to buy but the seller did not want to allow a pre purchase inspection.
This time I had my heart set on an 04-06. I looked for months online but got serious about 3 weeks ago. I test drove 5 of them and a GS430 just to see the difference. I went for a black on black 2005 without the NAVI screen, ML Audio, etc. This one is your more base LS but it does have the park assist and 18 inch wheels with the 245 series tires.
The seating position is so high on this car. It is similar to a compact pickup truck. That took some getting used too. I'm also a kind of slender man so the seat seems oversized and I have to extend my arms away from my body to rest them on the door and console arm rests. I am kind of used to these things now. What I just love about the car is the ride quality. It just absorbs downtown roads and there are ZERO noises or rattles from anything in the car. That is just amazing for a 10+ year old car. My SC300 makes noise from the moonroof area on similar roads plus you feel the bumps in the road a lot more. The low end torque is also impressive on this car. It pulls from zero to 30 so effortlessly. The 60-80 mph is actually a bit disappointing for a V8. I've driven about 200 miles getting about 22 mpg in mixed road/highway driving so that's pretty good.
What I absolutely hate about it are the DRLs, the elimination of the button to turn off the motorized steering column, and how the locks all lock when you put it into drive. I know these things are programmable and can be customized by the dealer for a few hundred dollars but come on; just put simple switches in the car to let the customer set how he wants things.
My pre purchase inspection revealed a failing alternator and battery so I'll do those in the coming week. Then it will be off to a Lexus shop for the T-belt/water pump major service. I have odds and ends to fix on it. The telescope function is dead on the steering column, the rear sunshade is broken, a door handle is missing the body color cap, the rear cig lighter is missing, the cup holder has a broken tension tab, the wipers are some cheap non-OEM type so they will go, etc.
Overall I'm happy with the purchase and look forward to a long road trip in the winter.
There are no "Lexus people" at my office. The younger people are Accord/Civic types and the officers like BMW/Mercedes. The ones that looked at the car were stunned you can buy so much car for what a used LS430 costs.
Glad you are liking the car. I had two and finally traded my 2006 in for a 2011 LS460L. I will just tell you that they have now added the buttons. All the locking unlocking, DRLs, lighting, how many times the turn signal blinks when you hit it once to change lanes, etc. can now all be programmed by the owner on their navigation screen. So you have something to look forward to down the line if you get a 460. Good luck with the 430. Not surprisingly, I often think twice about trading in the 430 when I drive the 460. Something about the 430 I just love.
rock and roll! It's amazing how well these cars were built. Fewer rattles than my boss' ATS or his boss' W222. When I gave my boss a ride to lunch after I started my job he joked, 'nice car! how much were they paying you at your last job'.
Most dealers have a pretty reasonably techstream charge - $40 which is a lot for the level of work but independent Toyota shops might be able to hook it up for less money. And if you go looking around the interwebs you might find a DIY solution on the cheap.
Glad you're enjoying your new car! Here's to many more uneventful miles!
I've driven an LS460 a few times and found it super isolating from the road. Actually, the base LS430 with the 225 17 inch wheels feels like a big boat on the water. The steering is not sharp at all and at high speed the front end kind of wanders ever so slightly so you have to correct. What scares me about the 460 are so many electronics that are a nightmare to fix if something goes wrong and you are out of warranty. My 430 is relatively "low tech" by new car standards but each park sensor is $250, the rear sunshade is $980, etc. Parts like control arms and shocks (non air suspension) are pretty reasonable considering it was a flagship luxury car. I intentionally did not buy one with the NAVI screen since a smartphone does that for you these days.
There was an 04 430 with 23K miles for sale at a Lexus dealer in my city for $20K last month. I still kind of regret not buying it but I could not get past the gold on tan color combo. Long term I will probably try to find another black on black non NAVI 430 with with under 80K miles. The resale value is pretty good on these cars. You can easily get $5K for them with 250K miles if everything works and it looks good. Since about $13-18K gets you into a nice 430 you can't beat driving a premium car for so little money lost to depreciation.
I've driven an LS460 a few times and found it super isolating from the road. Actually, the base LS430 with the 225 17 inch wheels feels like a big boat on the water. The steering is not sharp at all and at high speed the front end kind of wanders ever so slightly so you have to correct. What scares me about the 460 are so many electronics that are a nightmare to fix if something goes wrong and you are out of warranty. My 430 is relatively "low tech" by new car standards but each park sensor is $250, the rear sunshade is $980, etc. Parts like control arms and shocks (non air suspension) are pretty reasonable considering it was a flagship luxury car. I intentionally did not buy one with the NAVI screen since a smartphone does that for you these days.
There was an 04 430 with 23K miles for sale at a Lexus dealer in my city for $20K last month. I still kind of regret not buying it but I could not get past the gold on tan color combo. Long term I will probably try to find another black on black non NAVI 430 with with under 80K miles. The resale value is pretty good on these cars. You can easily get $5K for them with 250K miles if everything works and it looks good. Since about $13-18K gets you into a nice 430 you can't beat driving a premium car for so little money lost to depreciation.
I was worried about the 460's electronics too, turns out I didn't have to worry. Amazingly I've never had one single issue, the car now is 9 years old with 130,000 miles and everything still works like new. Most cars I've looked at with a lot of gadgetry (which is just about all cars now) have serious signs of wear and failure. Those start push buttons? I've seen them looking so worn - and in a relatively short period of time - on other brands, it's ridiculous. And ive seen light upon light not functioning, or buttons and switches broken, but the 460 is pretty high quality...the stuff just works like it should.
The 430 is a wise investment though, you'll definitely be able to put 300,000 miles on it with little worry.
What I absolutely hate about it are the DRLs, the elimination of the button to turn off the motorized steering column, and how the locks all lock when you put it into drive. I know these things are programmable and can be customized by the dealer for a few hundred dollars but come on; just put simple switches in the car to let the customer set how he wants things.
If you search around, you can find a solution with your own version of TechStream on a laptop. But that gets into some "gray" areas. You can also find a complete list of all the customizable options.
If you're not technical or don't want to go that route, I still think its worth having the dealer customize to your liking. There's also a way to make the AC colder through the TechStream, which in Texas, you're probably going to want. I love how ice cold my AC is. That alone would be worth the service charge for me living in Arizona.
I turned my DRL off, my automatic steering column, and made the AC colder.
Call around, my guess is many Lexus dealership will probably do it for around $100 or less.
If you search around, you can find a solution with your own version of TechStream on a laptop. But that gets into some "gray" areas. You can also find a complete list of all the customizable options.
If you're not technical or don't want to go that route, I still think its worth having the dealer customize to your liking. There's also a way to make the AC colder through the TechStream, which in Texas, you're probably going to want. I love how ice cold my AC is. That alone would be worth the service charge for me living in Arizona.
I turned my DRL off, my automatic steering column, and made the AC colder.
Call around, my guess is many Lexus dealership will probably do it for around $100 or less.
Thanks for the info.
The a/c programming is a must do. As it is now if you set it on Max cold it will become a freezer in the car. If it is 100 degrees outside and I set it to 72 inside on Auto it will run the blower at a higher speed for a little while but then barely blow air. It stays dehumidified in the car but on the warm side. The setting the A/C is programmed to is inferior to my other cars that cost LESS when they were new.
I plan to add a GROM or similar aux input jack and never use the CD player in the car but for now I am on CDs since I can't stand radio ads. The CD changer is another problem area. It loads 2 CDs fine but when you try to load #3 it hits on a CD already inside the changer. CD 1 and 2 play and change just fine. If something is broken here I really don't care to fix it and will just go aux in.
The a/c programming is a must do. As it is now if you set it on Max cold it will become a freezer in the car. If it is 100 degrees outside and I set it to 72 inside on Auto it will run the blower at a higher speed for a little while but then barely blow air. It stays dehumidified in the car but on the warm side. The setting the A/C is programmed to is inferior to my other cars that cost LESS when they were new.
I plan to add a GROM or similar aux input jack and never use the CD player in the car but for now I am on CDs since I can't stand radio ads. The CD changer is another problem area. It loads 2 CDs fine but when you try to load #3 it hits on a CD already inside the changer. CD 1 and 2 play and change just fine. If something is broken here I really don't care to fix it and will just go aux in.
I'm not sure of the accuracy of the temperature setting for the A/C, but for my 15 year old LS430, the a/c works so well at my usual 74-75 degree setting, I can hang meat inside my car! and I'm living in Florida.....
I'm not sure of the accuracy of the temperature setting for the A/C, but for my 15 year old LS430, the a/c works so well at my usual 74-75 degree setting, I can hang meat inside my car! and I'm living in Florida.....
Like he said above. I live in Phoenix and never find that I have to change my temp setting from 76 in the summer. Quick cool down when ambient temp is 110F+ and holds a stable temp. Best A/C i've ever seen.
Can someone explain in detail about this a/c "fix"?
My a/c works great (I usually leave it 70-72), but this did pique my interest. Car A/C can never be too cold on a hot, humid summer day (or night).
On the TechStream software, there is an option to lower the temperature the AC evaporator goes down to before it tells the compressor to start cycling. The factory default is a higher temp (can't remember off the top of my head, I believe they give it in Celsius) whereas this option allows it to get colder by around 10 degrees. It's basically a box you check on the evaporator option.
Not sure if it's a fuel saving decision or it was an option for export nations like the Middle East where the extra ac is needed. But they made it an option.
The default AC if strong, it just allows the vent temperature to get a bit colder. So like 40 degrees comes out the vents instead of 50 degrees.
In the summer in AZ, 110 degrees plus a dark car with black upholstery means I leave in on the lowest "COLD" setting in the summer. I put a thermometer on the vent and in park I can get around 48 degrees blowing out on a 110 degree + day.
It has been about a month with the car and I am pleased overall. It has been what I was expecting. It needs a few things done before I will be 100% set. The rear sunshade has a broken arm, I want to add an aux input for the stock radio, the top of the rear seats is not as soft as the rest of them so I will treat them or take it to a pro to soften the leather, and one of the "pads" that sits on the plastic splash shield in front of the front tire to act as an air deflector is kind of rough so I will just change all 4 of them since they are rubber parts that have seen better days. I also took the engine cover off and found all of the vac/vapor lines to be rock hard and dried out so I will replace all of them. The hood struts and top rear door seals also have issues so they will go. I figure throwing a few hundred dollars at the car will get it where I want to be.
The first 2 pics are the day I brought it home the weekend of the 4th of July.
Photo 3 is that weekend as well. A friend of mine happened to buy car the same week so he says "you gottta see what I got and I gotta see what you got". I drove over there expecting to see a Mercedes Benz or BMW (S class or 7 series) but he went to a Bentley Flying Spur. Kind of humbling when your whole car costs what one wheel on the Bentley costs. Anyway, this guy is the total opposite of a snob so it was cool.
I am glad that you're enjoying her. As for the seats, mine were hard around the top of the head rest area and I had recently done the Leatherique option by putting their rejuvenator oil on it and let the car sit in the sun for hours. After a few hours the oil gets tacky and you can wipe it off with their pristine clean and be surprised at the improvement. I am going to do it again as I am sure that the previous owner did not condition the leather frequently and with the California sun beating on it. Overall the leather suppleness has improved all around. I did it on the whole car over the weekend. It definitely takes time to put it on and then remove all the oil. I have pictures posted under Jimmy's Build if you want to see the process.
07-05-16, 05:51 PM
4 days into LS430 ownership; my thoughts
