Yep, or the UZ V8 starter.

 

That really just sucks. It goes against everything MB once stood for, and was.

You used to be able to buy a Mercedes and drive it for 40 years....

 

Now you need a 2nd job just to cover the repairs.

 

This is something a lot of people say, but it hasn’t been true for a LONG time. Mercedes has had a decades long reputation for making cars that are complex and notoriously unreliable. In fact part of Lexus’ whole claim to fame was that they delivered much of the driving character of a Mercedes while being reliable. If Mercedes “made cars you could drive for 40 years” that wouldn’t make much sense. Why buy a Lexus to get reliability if Mercedes made incredibly reliable cars?

Some Mercedes they made 40-45+ years ago were cars you could drive forever, namely the old diesels…but Mercedes hasn’t been known for reliability for over 40 years.

 

I know..... my original statement stands.

And, well, my 2002 Mercedes is 24 years now and I know I'll have it another 16 years absolutely for sure.... so that will be a 40 year old, old school Benz driven around then. Like I said, Mercedes weren't even really that complex when they were the reliable tanks... just ludicrously over-engineered and over built, and priced in the stratosphere because they cared about the car more than the price. "Build the car up to this (ridiculous) standard and then figure out the price" was how they used to do it.

I do not believe a 2026 S580 will last 40 years.

 

Your SL is sparingly driven and is low mileage and well
cared for. If somebody just drove it 12-15k miles a year like a normal car it wouldn’t last 40 years.

if someone drove an S580 3,000 miles a year and left it in the garage all the time like your SL, it would last 40 years sure.

Bear in mind a 40 year old car driven an average mileage per year would have 480,000 miles on it. Not many cars will last that long. No S Class of any generation except maybe a W126 Diesel would.

ANY car babied like your SL would last 40 years. 16 more years at its current average miles driven is only 48,000 more miles.

Thats the thing with Lexus, a Lexus WILL last 40 years driven an average 12k miles per year. No Mercedes except those old diesels will from any generation.

 

Don't think I've ever seen a shop cut open a torque converter, go to about 8:00

 

Yes. Techs who figure out "tricks" to complete work in less than book time can make great money. But get that one job that fights the whole way and takes 3x as long, and it'll destroy your whole week.

 

well that's not necessarily lexus' fault - you've changed too, needs/wants/etc.

it's true that the GS/LS are gone now which is kinda sad, but then the entire market has changed so much.

looking at that engine rip out by striker looks like an absolute nightmare. good for you striker being able to do work like that...

 

Lexus has also changed a lot though.

I can say for sure that if Lexus was still making a spacious, modern V8 LS I would still be a Lexus customer.

 

my main belt snapped over the summer after a somewhat aggressive 1st gear merge and omg what a pain in the *** to replace without removing the bottom cover and getting the car on a lift... i was just able to limp it back to my parking spot before the coolant started to really get hot

the supercharger belt is literally the easiest thing to remove, it's just a single 17mm socket on the tensioner and voila off it goes in like 10 seconds... but for the accessory belt i literally had to use an old ski pole (and a 2nd set of helping hands) to get the belt over the back of the power steering and a/c pump pulleys




without removing the fan there's like so little room to work hence the need for some kind of long stick... btw the dealer charges like $500 to replace this belt! happy i did it myself

 

damn no way! i'm only getting excited bc Conan still has his 1992 taurus SHO and occasionally will still talk about it... his is the 5 speed as well!



what i've heard him say about it pretty much exactly echoes your sentiments lmao

 

It was in the shop literally every 2 weeks. The transmission had been replaced. The door hinge I had to screw in manually to tighten up the door when it closed.

I traded it on a 1997 Maxima SE loaded which might as well have been a brand new LS400 the quality difference was so huge. Still miss that car.

 

Is there a 6th RAV-4 thread? I can’t find one

https://media.toyota.ca/en/releases/2026/toyota-starts-canadian-production-of-the-all-new-6th-generation-.html

 

I doubt it. There's only so much stuff to break in my car, yours is a techno tour-de-force.

Say what you will, I've seen 300k+ mile R129s and there are still W124s on the roads here. I bet some are even still doing taxi services in some parts of the world overseas. R129 is based on a shortened, upgraded W124 platform. The problem is people just don't drive them enough.

I swear I bet my temp sensor went bad because the car stopped being driven 4-5xs a week, but I'll never know. As a DD it's perfect if you don't mind no tech. The Bose thumps better than any other stereo in any other of our cars including the Yukon and LX.