Sky1961

I had a brief discussion with my mechanic the other day, and mentioned my interest in buying a first generation, SC 430. He noted that getting parts for the car can be very challenging these days. I live in the new York Metro area, so I was a little bit surprised about the difficulty in getting parts. I asked him about the possibility using Toyota parts and he did not think that was a great idea. Have others had difficulty finding parts for the SC 430?

Kira X

iTrader: (24)

Parts are getting harder to find in the older Lexus now, especially the SC300 and SC400. A lot of interior and body parts can no longer be ordered anymore through dealerships. Some dealers have some parts in stock but it varies from part to part.

There is always junkyards or buying parts off of other people in your area. The engine stuff isn’t too much trouble as other Toyota and Lexus models had the 1UZ and 2JZ during the 90’s and early 2000’s. There’s aftermarket options, as well as some
stuff from the 93-02 Supra that fit.

From what I’m seeing right now as a long time owner is a lot of parts getting very expensive after 2020, while also becoming harder to find at the same time. There’s parts I could easily find like the 1995-96 taillights that are very hard to find now in decent shape now at a reasonable price. There’s very few SC’s on the road around here now too, so they’re not popping up in junkyards more than twice a year.

My advice is to buy the nicest, newest, cleanest SC or Soarer that you can afford. I watched so many friends try to fix up beat up SC’s back in the day and it wasn’t cost effective in the end. It’s worse now due to how expensive parts are, even used. Do as much preventative maintenance as you can once you do have it so that you’re prepared for the future and have a reliable car.

KahnBB6

iTrader: (5)

Just to be certain, since you specifically mentioned the 2001-2010 SC430 models, you were NOT focused on the 1992-2000 SC300 and SC400 models, correct? I can move your thread to the appropriate SC430 sub-forum if so.

Regardless of model, though it is ever more true for the first-gen SC300/400 models all that Kira X states is also beginning to apply to the SC430 models, though not quite as much (yet) since they are newer than the 90's era SC's and Soarers.

DshngDaryl

So far I haven't had any problems getting parts for my SC430. They are pretty reliable and the parts that do break, seem to break on all of them. That leads to a high demand for certain parts, which means they will keep making them

It gets a little trickier when your interior or plastic parts break, then you have to go to ebay and buy previously owned parts.

If you ever buy a part from the Lexus dealer, you will see it comes in a toyota box. There does not appear to be a different standard between the two models. In fact there isn't even different part numbers.

Bgw70

eBay, rockauto and megazip (OEM) have plenty of parts

doobs

I placed an order a replacement console insert for my '07 from Megazip. A couple of days after I had placed my order, they told me they were no longer available.

Was able to find the part through a dealer in the states, albeit at a much higher price, but I see this as an indicator of things to come.

The newest of these cars is 13 years old.

The moral of the story is, if you are waiting to buy something, you might get an unpleasant surprise when you finally go to pull the trigger....