mateen

I'm interested in buying a one owner, dealer maintained 2008 600h. Since it's a 9 year old car, I'm wondering how well the hybrid system and batteries will hold up for the next five years or so. Car has 80,000 miles.
Also, will there be any upcoming hybrid maintenance required?
Any other concerns I should have about the car?

Thanks in advance.

CJITTY

Please use the search function..as a former 600 owner I have voiced my issues as well as others on this forum..plenty of info for you to digest. Long story short ..I dumped my 600 and moved back to gas 460L

riknchar

There's definitely a chance you'd have to replace the hybrid batteries at some point in the next 5 years, although the actual odds of that happening are somewhat unclear. This past year, there have been a few reports of battery failures in the LS600s, although the actual percentage of the 2008 model that have experienced battery failures is still probably pretty low overall. CJITTY had probably the worst possible experience along those lines (batteries failed just days after his warranty expired and Lexus inexplicably refused to fully cover the replacement).

Beyond the potential battery issues, you'd want to take a close look at the vehicle's history on the My Lexus web site to make sure the front Control Arms have been replaced and to see if any/all of the Air Ride shocks have been replaced. The Control Arms can be replaced with aftermarket parts fairly reasonably, but the air shocks are pretty pricey, and do tend to fail.

When you test drive, be listening for wind noise from the side windows near the side mirrors -- common problem on the '08s (but fairly easily fixed DIY).

I own a 2008 LS600hL that I purchased 2 years ago for $43K as a CPO (with 58K miles). It now has 75K miles, and I haven't had any issues whatsoever. I have full warranty coverage until 2020, and I plan to keep it at least until then. With the huge drop in prices for the 2008 models recently, I still would highly recommend them, despite the potential for battery replacement (around $5K). You can't buy a nicer car for $25-30K, and the LS600 is truly Lexus' flagship model in every respect.

Nospinzone

I have a question.

If the battery on a 600hL fails, do you have the option of not replacing the battery and simply driving solely on the gasoline engine, or will the car not operate if the battery has failed?

litesoarer

Car is bricked.

dlbuckls10

Great having full warranty coverage until 2020 its peace of mind.

caha14

I had a vague recollection of discussing this and couldn't remember the details. Look what I found! We go way back

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/ls-...ml#post8912986

Nospinzone

Wow, that was barely more than a year ago and I don't even remember posting that.

I must be be suffering from CRS!

CJITTY

Actually, it failed the DAYOF the 8 year warranty expiration which happened to be on a Sunday and dealer was closed...ended up settling a partial goodwill, but still ridiculous based on my circumstances in my opinion. I get it..they didn't have to do anything for me, but the timing should of been 100% on my side.

CJITTY

For my particular issue, the car seemed to have behaved normally as it was a segment of cells that went bad or "could no longer take a charge". I still had the hybrid charging arrows working and all of that so I assumed the system was working as designed. I had a bunch of warnings on my dash that I could not clear which prevented displaying things on the driver info center like MPG, Tire pressure, radar cruise info etc. Just the CHECK HYBRID SYSTEM showed up and nothing else. In hindsight, I should of just cleared the error and see if it ever came back...I am sure eventually it would have. But after I got rid of the car with a brand new hybrid battery installed, I saw a lot that had it for sale with yet another hybrid error on it. So something else went bad on it....oh well, not my issue anymore. on to bigger and no hybrid things

caha14

Jitty, putting aside the absurdity of the failure happening on expiration day and subsequent aggravation you dealt with, I do wonder if something else was systematically wrong with that car (acknowledging you had no issues beforehand). While the photos made it look flawless, I remember reading you found out that it had been fully repainted, and this just makes me wonder.

I obviously don't have access to aggregate hybrid system failure data across the entire Toyota system (wish I did!), but the anecdotal evidence I've gathered over time (e.g., from cab drivers) suggests that when the system fails, and the battery pack is replaced, you're good to go and typically aren't chasing gremlins for the foreseeable future. Now, I guess I could see the inverter (or something else) going bad, but I really haven't heard of this at all. Then, of course, there's the possibility that something got loose (or wasn't installed properly), which I've also read about. Who knows, but whether the probability of the battery pack going after - say - 9 years is low, medium or high, the probability of the hybrid system crapping out again after battery pack replacement has seemed remote.

CJITTY

In total, I had about $14k in warranty repairs and it was sold to me as a CPO. ..so who knows. Perhaps the car just had a ton of scratches and they repainted it to freshen it up. No frame or structual damage. .just paint. Anything is possible but I learned that I will always have my private inspector go out and spend the 1.5 hours with a car I'll be potentially purchasing from here on out like I did for my new to me 2012

jainla

The 600h is a complicated beast; mostly because a) it's a hybrid and b) it's a loaded LS.

Aside from all the normal concerns of buying a used 4LS (and there aren't that many but I've summarized them here) the fact that it's kind of a unicorn car is something of a concern. There aren't that many on the ground here so used parts for the hybrid system will be almost impossible to come by.

That being said it's an LS (generally reliable) and a Toyota Hybrid (generally very reliable) so the risk is as low as it would get on a car like this. In CA the batteries are covered for 10 years; not sure if IL has the same policy but as CJITTY will attest hybrid batteries can and do fail. But they will also fail in almost any other hybrid car; so this is not unique to the LS. A new Prius battery is about $5k; for what it's worth.

I think more important than the hybrid system are all the other little things that will probably annoy you more. If the car doesn't have any other issues I think it's probably a decent gamble that the hybrid system will last another 5 years. I have friends with 150k+ miles on Prius with original batteries; and CU tested one with 185k miles with the original battery; so sometimes they do last.

You may want to consider an aftermarket warranty; but the coverage for the hybrid system might be excluded. The cost is also a significant percentage of what the new battery would cost (and you might get Lexus corporate to kick in for some of it) so it's a gamble.

But a gamble with pretty good odds.

roadfrog

I am a member of the CT200 forum as well, and there are no reports of any failures there either. Some CT owners have 300k miles on them - no issues. Obviously the Prius is proven with all the taxi fleets out there. I foresee aftermarket companies cashing in on the battery replacement opportunities at a fraction of the cost of a dealer. There's a company in California that will come to your house, replace the hybrid battery pack and warranty it. I think the cost is around 1500 dollars (on the Prius that is).

jainla

The 600h battery modules are apparently riveted into the battery carrier; which makes some reconditioning processes more difficult. Some of these companies can test the individual modules and replace the faulty ones; I'm not sure this is possible with the 600h.