roadfrog

I completely disagree. I do believe SOME come here for that reason, but if you look at the first posts by the vast majority of members here, they came to CL because they are enthusiasts and enjoy the plethora of information available. That is why I came here. They also come to ask questions about their research on purchasing a 460 for the first time, maintenance ("what kind of oil should I use?" or "what's the best tire for my car?", etc).

As for warranties, I don't believe that they are neccessary for our cars. All cars nowadays are potentially expensive to repair - they all have electronics, they almost all have NAV, Bluetooth, etc. The parts on the Lexus are not "boutique" and are for the most part, interchangeable with other models, such as the Tundra. If you are needing peace of mind, then I guess a warranty is for you. It's like insurance. Those who claim that their warranty already paid for itself, are usually fooling themselves. It only appeared to pay for itself because they are using the resulting repair costs from their DEALER as the measuring stick. For example, I just replaced my water pump (more on that later), upper and lower rad hoses, serpentine belt and radiator which I accidentally broke, by leaning on the expansion tank nipple and breaking it. Total cost with labour and parts etc would have been about 1200-1500 dollars at the Lexus dealer. One might say, "wow you could almost have paid off a warranty with that one incident!" Uhhhh... NO. I bought a new rad for 62 dollars on Ebay with a LIFETIME warranty, a new water pump for 55 dollars from my local parts store and a serpentine belt for 11 dollars on Ebay. The hoses cost me 23 dollars for both. I did the work myself in 3 hours or so (Lexus quotes 5-6 hours). I also took my time and allowed for appropriate and mandatory beer breaks. Even if I had sourced out the work to an independent shop, the labour would only have been a few hundred dollars with the parts I provided.

As for the water pump, it was weeping a tbsp or so a week, and you could see the leak around the weep hole. I replaced the serpentine belt as a preventative maintenance item as well as the hoses despite the fact that they looked like new when I removed them. A coolant flush was due, so it all worked out very well.

As for any other issues...NONE. The water pump has been the only non maintenance item ever replaced. My car has 85k miles. I will say that I was concerned about a hesitation issue that others have had right after an oil change (which dissappears after a few hundred miles). I appear to have conquered that issue with an engine flush and will be using the appropriate Toyota oil from here on.

If you folks want to see what expensive and less reliable ownership looks like, go to any, (and I mean ANY) other enthusiast forum and have a look.....especially BMW - Bimmerfest is an eye opener....MB, Cadillac, Audi, etc. As a former owner of a 7 series and current owner of an X5 4.4, I can tell you that being in the Lexus is serenity.

RodT

Well I've own my 600 since march of 2013 and so far i haven't had any issues with mine just gas and oil changes that's really about it. So far my maintenance bill hasnt been ridiculous at all however if i was to use it a daily driver in stop and go traffic then fueling can become and issue ( but thats minor being an LS owner) but on long trips its perfect on fuel. In regards to the oil changes i spoke with Lexus directly not my local dealer and they informed me that since im using full synthetic they recommend oil changes to be performed every 6 months or 10K mile which ever comes first (for me mine's pretty much a garage queen so the 6 month deal is what i do). But one issue that i forgot to mention is the loads upon loads of attention that the car brings with aftermarket wheels on them ( you will receive several compliments on the car and dirt looks from Benz,BMW and Audi owners,lol). Besides that its a solid machine designed to try to be as maintenance free as possible but keep in mind it is a machine so things can happen. I love my car and would purchase it all over again even if i had to pay double for it and im very ecstatic about being an LS600hL owner.

gs400jon

The sound of opening or closing the driver's door is so nice. Every once in a while, I'll let the little electric motor finish closing the door. The throttle response has been absolutely perfect since day one. I use the paddle shifters a lot. All maintenance has been done at the dealership with zero problems. It's a great car for normal driving. The only negative is the brake dust from the Brembo's. I have yet to drive in the SPORT mode. All the flat out acceleration, well, at least into 3rd gear, is mostly on the straight stretches.

williakz

They give you anything in writing that backs this up? Is there a website, directive, TSB or ANYTHING in black and white that changes the original oil change interval from 5k miles to 10k miles on LS460/600 2007-2013? If so, I haven't seen it and I'd be REAL leery of taking "Fred's" word that 10k mile OIC is just peachy-keen with Lexus.

wayman28

I just got an LS 460 last week and I do not have a warranty but am in the process of fixing my control arm bushings. I haven't been on this forum long enough or have been an LS 460 owner long enough to have a solid opinion yet. On one hand I have noticed a lot of posters commenting on the thousands of dollars in repairs they got under warranty and their desire to extend said warranty. On the other hand these are luxury cars which are expensive to fix. My brother's Honda Accord had control arm problems around the same time some of the LS 460 owners had control arm problems. Difference is the control arms on my brother's Accord cost less than $800 to fix whereas the LS 460 control arms cost around $3000 to fix. And it seems compared to BMW's and Mercedes our Lexus' are much less troublesome. I'm not happy that I have to deal with expensive control arm repairs on my LS 460 already but this seems to go with the territory of owning this caliber of vehicle. I'm not bitter yet but if expensive repairs keep popping up over and over then 1) I will have a bad taste in my mouth regarding my LS 460 and 2) I will wish I had gotten a warranty.

For what it's worth, below is an excerpt from the April 2014 Consumer Reports Annual Auto Issue which I think may be relevant. It discusses warranty satisfaction among various car makers and relates that to overall reliability. You'll notice Lexus isn't mentioned specifically but Toyota is mentioned:

"When we asked car owners whose extended warranties had taken effect how satisfied they were with their experiences, the most satisfied were primarily owners of less-reliable brands, including BMW, Chrysler, Dodge and Mercedes-Benz. Those are all brands that have had average or below-average reliability in our Annual Auto Survey. Interestingly, some of these brands also had the most expensive extended warranties, with Mercedes-Benz owners paying $2200 on average, followed by BMW owners at $2007, and Chrysler owners at $1525.

The reason for those owners' higher satisfaction may be that they tended to use the coverage more often than owners of cars from historically reliable brands. That probably helps consumers feel more justified about having spent money for the coverage - a bittersweet way to rationalize the purchase. BMW owners were more likely to have used the coverage than any other brand we rated, with 71% saying they had done so. Chrysler owners were next at 65% followed by Dodge at 63% and Mercedes-Benz at 60%. Still even among this group only around 40% of owners for each of the four brands said they would definitely buy coverage again.

Conversely, owners of Hondas, Subarus and Toyotas--perennially high-ranking brands for reliability--were among the least satisfied overall with their extended warranties. They were also far less likely to have used them, compared with owners of most other brands' models."

1WILLY1

iTrader: (9)

thanks a lot for the responses guys, really appreciate it .

as for me my main concern is not sportiness or gas mileage , its just reliability and dependability.

For the guys saying these are high end luxury cars and we should be expecting to pay lots for repairs I really don't subscribe to that mentality, I saw a ton of that on the Mercedes benz forums and ive since been banned from there for trying to open their eyes to how flawed their vehicles really are.

I would equate them with wearing a fake rolex or a Fugazi (fake Diamond), they look good on the outside but really are poorly made and not a genuine high quality vehicle.

I notice a lot of people seem to be new to this vehicle , either just bought one or had one for 6 months or a year, so its a little hard to get an idea of the long term reliability.

I guess since my heart is really set on getting an 07-09 LWB I will just have to do my best to try to get a warrantee, if anything just fro the peace of mind.

Thanks again guys and please feel free to keep posting im following the thread closely

pmiller

I've had my 2010 L for almost 2 years. Has 70K miles. I had an issue with the pulsating brakes. Similar to roadfrog, I replaced the rotors and put on ceramic pads for less than the dealer wanted to resurface them. I didn't need new pads, but I figured I might as well upgrade while I was doing the work. I wouldn't recommend resurfacing the rotors for 2 reasons. One is new rotors are so cheap and from what I've read, resurfacing them will make the issue reappear sooner than replacing the rotors. My rotors were resurfaced before I bought it and 18K miles later they were pulsating. I'm not a hard driver. Other issue I've had is the crappy dealer tires that lasted the same 18K miles. Again took my business elsewhere and went to an independent shop and got Michellins for the price the dealer wanted for the same Bridgestone tires that lasted less than 20,000 miles. I do have an extended warranty. Call me a sucker when I bought, but this was my first high end car. I didn't know any better. After reading stories about the air suspension, I think I may be glad they suckered me. Who knows? Water under the bridge now. If I had to do it again, I'd probably hold out for a 600 and skip the warranty. Some of it may depend on how handy you are with a wrench as well. Good luck!

1WILLY1

iTrader: (9)

thanks miller

in terms of how handy I am with a wrench ,,,well I can change a tire, I can remove the engine covers , and well maybe I could do a brake job....maybe lol

But aside from that ive learned not to even bother.

Im good with body work and painting but mechanically I leave it to the pros.

Don't feel suckered about the warrantee, peace of mind has a lot of value in itself and you simply don't need to worry about much right now which is good.

I will try to go the same route .

By the way why does everyone want the 600? Better gas mileage and power I suppose?

Id be worried about something happening to the electronic motor , I bet that would not be a cheap repair.

greg3852

As far as we can find, no one has reported any issues with batteries or motors. At least not that I've seen.

The 600 has the best lexus offers. Who wouldn't want that?

Devh

Just curious, how much does a 90k mile service cost for a LS430 at the dealership.
Does the warranty cover that service?

1WILLY1

iTrader: (9)

lol I sense a LOADED question, ill play along .

The 90k service is expensive if done at the dealer, id say anywhere from $1000 to $1500 , and no I don't belive a warrantee would cover it .

But on the flip side the 430 has not had any of the valve problems or hesitation issues described by the 460 owners.

I do like the fact the 460 has a timing chain and does not need to be replaced, but from what I heard it makes for a much noisier engine especially at idle but that doesn't bother me much.

I would gladly pay for the 90k service+timing belt in the 460 if I could get the bullet proof reliability that the UZ engines have.

Devh

The hesitation issue isn't a feature isolated to this car. It's is fairly documented issue with those that have most likely run regular oil and when they switched to synthetic the issue manifested it's self. Given enough time the synthetic oil will clean up those deposits and hesitation will no longer become an issue. There are so many that will not run into this issue and it's merely a foot note.
The timing chain does make more noise however this is typical on most modern engines and it will be one of the main features of the engines bullet proof reliability moving forward.
From what I have read on this forum the 2ur-gse has already proven it's reliability.
The UZ engine is a ticking time bomb from the owners who have not followed the recommended service interval of nine years for the belt replacement despite the millage. We will start to hear the sound of crashing valves in the near future while LS460 owners will be nuisance by a click from the fuel injection pumps.

Devh

As for valve related issues, there isn't any except for the fist run of engines for the LS460 that was covered under the recall. If the recall was performed correctly then this too should be a foot note and not something to be used to unjustly target an otherwise well made engine.
The ticking that some are annoyed with is the high pressure fuel pumps which is only noticeable during cold operation and faintly at idle. It is not exclusive to the 460 as most other cars that employ pumps that run off the cams has this feature. Unfortunately it is a minor annoyance but one that can give us 100 more horses and great fuel economy to remain competitive and relevant, again moving forward.
If they never upgraded the motor in the 460 and kept the old UZ motor from the 430 it would have been a monumental marketing disaster.
Fortunately the UR series of motors will most likely surpass the UZ especially in Toyota trucks where they are put to the test.

1WILLY1

iTrader: (9)

cool , well im very glad you guys seemed to have figured out the hesitation issue, that was really worrying me .

In terms of the valves you have to understand that it is and can be a very serious issue, its an invasive open heart surgery pretty much and we have to trust "Muhamed" the new Lexus tech and his assistant 'Mike' to make sure the job is done 100% flawlessly.

I will do my best to try to avoid the engines that needed the recall, I really don't want to deal with it on ahy sort of level.

Also the UZ engines have proven themselves and lasted the test of time, they will not be blowing up anytime soon or in the far off future, they are a true bulletproof engine.

Im not sure why u seem to be taking that personally, i didn't start this thread to attack 460's ,,only to learn more about them and prepare myself for ownership.

Thanks

Devh

My tone was trying to be informative sorry if it came off standoffish as that was not my intention.
I would try to avoid as much as possible those engines that had recently had the recall done.
If the car had the recall and it has completed over 30k miles it is a safe bet that it should be just fine.
I'm like you in that reliability was my first consideration because I want to avoid any warranty contracts as well as the dealership altogether as I take pride in doing all the work on my cars.
Working on your own car is not rocket science as long as the car is easily serviceable and the 460 is no different then any Toyota.
If you are looking I would avoid the air suspension as that is just a feature on almost all cars that fail prematurely. I would also avoid the AWD as I don't think it was implemented well however it is somewhat reliable but less reliable then a RWD just as it is in any car except a Subaru.

Take what you read on internet forums with a grain of salt as there are some people that whine about their cars issue and never seem to get things resolved at the dealer. Don't blame the car blame the dealer for not diagnosing the issues and ends up shot gunning the fix.
Toyota built it right. The dealership management seems to be the weak link.