I just recently purchased a 05 LS430 with 196k on the clock.i am trying to figure out how many control arms are on this car.might you or anyone else on this wonderful forum know the answer to this guestion

 

LEXUS just STANDS ALONE as far as making GREAT GREAT,RELIABLE,DEPENDABLE cars,it's just FACTS....

 

Just goes to show you, that you always don't need a new vehicle every few yrs or so......

 

if you like driving a 53 year old volvo death trap.

granted some of the other vehicles in this thread are much newer, but again... there's needs vs wants.

you're right though, you don't NEED a new vehicle every few years or so. i just don't care to drive something a decade old, even if relatively reliable.

 

Another question to ask here is, why in the world does anybody need to drive a personal vehicle this much? Certainly there are better ways to spend one's time and resources. While there may be some legitimate reasons for racking up these kinds of miles, I wonder what the economic and environmental costs are and if they're worth it. For instance, people with long commutes may get to buy a bigger and better house the further they locate from work, but it takes its tole on the commuter who finds all their discretionary time and too much of their income is dedicated to their commute. We talk about fuel efficiency but we rarely discuss lifestyle efficiency.

I tend to marvel more at the low mile/high age vehicles out there, but that's just me! I justify my ownership of two vehicles with V8 engines by the relatively low miles I drive them.

 

If I think about the number of miles I've driven in my life...I just did a little back of the envelope math of all the cars I've owned, and how many miles I have put on them (some all the miles, some half the miles, etc) it adds up to just over 600,000 miles...and I've only been driving 23 years. If you put all your driving mileage on one car it adds up more than you'd think.

I also don't drive trips longer than say 400 miles one way or so, but a lot of people take road trips regularly much farther than that. So you can see how if you drive one car for all your driving and travel around the country you could rack up millions of miles on 50+ years.

 

Sadly, Irv left us us last year. I was able to meet him and see his car at SEMA in Vegas a few years back. Genuinely nice guy and he LOVED that car. Not sure what happened to his car. I hope Volvo bought it and it sits in a museum somewhere. Or maybe it's still out there, rolling up the miles.

 

I am a travelling salesman, I wear out cars. My old Prius in my sig. box, that is a personal record few drivers ever see. That one did require an engine to hit 327 k. 2010 was not a good year for the Prius gasoline motor.
The 05 LS replaced the newer Prius. Just the semi autonomous Prius 5 spoiled me forever. My next new one will be a Tesla.
The Prius was indeed a safe little car, the LS is a "Safer" large car, heavier and more to smash. After 2 or 3 exciting experiences with today's breed of truck driver made it clear more mass was required.
The LS? Superb, if I could make it autonomous I would. Fact is Tesla autonomy is enough now that many emails, texts etc. can be done in traffic jam time. My work day gets shorter. that's pretty sweet.

 

They won't find anything they don't already know, the first gen LS was made to be as perfect as they could make it.

My entire fleet doesn't add up to 1,000,000 and I've only put 400k on them, three I got used with 200k on them already and the ones bought new are all sub 70k

 

Agree. I feel like they do get overhauled but not until it has an obscene amount of miles.

 

Wonderful article on Irv's life and car... RIP.

Remembering the “Three Million Mile Volvo Man” - Wyant Group

 

another wonderful interview and video on irv and his car...

 

There are some marine diesels in commercial fishing boats that go for 30-50,000 hours or more, equivalent to millions of miles, without a rebuild. I have one, a pre-WWII design, slow turning, ridiculously heavy for only 94 hp. with only 13,500 hours on it. Built in 1971. Incredibly simple and well made, Gardner 6LW. An 8 cylinder Gardner was in a ferry operated basically at WOT for almost 50 years in BC before it was retired. Something like 400,000 hours, hours, not miles. I can't think of anything else with that combination of longevity and duty cycle.

 

Interesting, I believe it about the diesels that last forever. I googled and watched some YouTube videos. You're saying a ferry was powered by 8 cylinders?

What is the old adage where X amount of engine hours equals Z amount of miles on a car? Roughly?

 

This was a ferry powered by a straight 8 engine, Gardner model 8L3, 150 hp at 900 rpm. It was a 123 foot inter-island ferry that held 16 cars. Operating from 1956 to ~ 2011. I think a rule of thumb of # engine hours to # miles is roughly 1 engine hour = 40 miles. My truck has an hour meter on it and at 50,000 miles in mixed city and highway (majority highway at speeds below 65 mph) I have about 1200 hours on the engine. So that ferry engine has equivalent of ~15,000,000 miles on it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MV_Mill_Bay