Htony

In any car manufacturer line ups, there are some overall good ones in certain years show up. They are usually hard come by
because owner won't let part with them. No matter how good a mechanic is without good electronics knowledge it's pretty difficult
to work on modern cars.

SW17LS

I was going to add that line too lol.

I need to watch this again.

JDR76

mmarshall

Arguably the 3rd-Generation GS300 AWD. It was one of those rare Lexus models that was rated below average in reliability by Consumer Reports....and not recommended.

SW17LS

mtraine

Interesting that I noticed a Ford LTD as one of your vehicles. Those cars also have a reputation for being super reliable. I've always wanted an 05-06 Marauder for the DOHC engine [yes I'm a Ford guy] vs doing a swap on the LTD.

AJT123

GS430 or LS430. LX470.

mtraine

I totally agree on the less frills part means less to break.

I did a bad thing about seven years ago, and that was to "hot rod" an 05 Nissan Altima SE-R. First I didn't know Nissan wasn't really the Nissan of old in 05 as they merged with Renault around 1999, hence Nissan quality went out the window.

Anyway, when you totally rebuild something you get the know it intimately. The SER had some really good things going, but the negatives outweighed the positives. For example, electronic motor mounts. Well, that is fine, and good, BUT when they go bad the will take out the ecm.

Also, wiring issues abounded, [wires cracking on a car that was less than seven years old when I bought it vs my 65 Mustangs that have the factory wiring still looking great]. Plus, one of the headlight replacement bulbs was $100 each, a new master key cost around $130, a bad brake light sensor would kill the torque convertor. Just too many expensive parts for a car that has terrible resale value.

That is what brought me to my 93 Camry. The Camry is slow, boring, ugly [IMO], but its reliable, easy to repair, and parts are reasonably priced.

What got me thinking about an older Lexus was that my friends son just bought a used 93 Coupe [V8, but I can't remember the model]. As a mechanic, I looked the car over, and found it to be extremely overbuilt, which is good. Plus the styling, and power are much better than my 96k mile Camry. Since they both share Toyota reliability I'm thinking about selling the Camry, and moving up to an early '90s Lexus.

I did read on a few forums that the biggest issue on the early '90s Lexus was the power steering pumps. I would hazard to guess that those replacement pumps aren't cheap, so if they do frequently go bad, that might be a deal breaker, what do you guys think? Is it an over heating issue with the PS pumps as that could be easily fixed with an external cooler. However, if its just a bad design, well that is a problem unless there is a pump swap from another Toyota for a better pump.

mmarshall

Welcome to CL as a new poster.

Yes, in general, you are correct. That is something that people should think about with the air-suspensions. They are a notorious failure-item, and can be quite expensive to repair or replace. The failure rate on the Continental Town Car, for example, was so high that Ford actually developed a relatively low-cost kit for owners, if desired, to convert to conventional coil springs.

It wasn't just because of the merger. itself. Nissan had been struggling for several years, and Renault Chief Carlos Ghosn had to take drastic action to forestall a Nissan bankruptcy. One of the results was overly-stark interiors with Cracker-Jack materials.

Hoovey689

iTrader: (16)

SW17LS

Haha, love it

Stroock639

well mine must've not known about that reputation because it's constantly been a huge glitchy pos, goes in and out of limp mode, and it's most recent thing it's been doing for a few months is to every so often blow a single 20A fuse that immediately kills the whole car and makes it unable to start lol... you just pop in a new fuse and then it's good to go again. also twice now it's blown the fuse for the brake light switch, so it'll start but then you can't shift out of park. same thing just pop in a new fuse and it's good to go again. the engine will definitely last a long time, and they do. but i use the analogy of: if you never get off the couch, you'll never pull a hamstring. for a 4.6 liter V8 on sale in 2011 to make that little power, it better last a long time.

mine probably isn't a good example of what the crown vic can do, since it's a former nassau county police car that i essentially bought for peanuts, only as a beater to take to work and drive through snow and other bad conditions to avoid putting my beloved LS through them, whilst saving up for the E55. with the limited slip diff i had swapped in it also does donuts very well, and is surprisingly kick-*** through the snow. i got the entire crown vic for several hundred dollars less than it would be to replace a single headlight for the lexus, so it almost makes sense to own lol. it also made more sense when my friend had his crown vic, and i thought it'd be amusing to have two identical crown vics driving around. then he went and ruined his engine somehow so i'm trying to get him to buy mine since he's expressed interest and is a mechanic, i really just don't care to put any more energy into this car lol.

monkey92

iTrader: (3)

going to be a bit bias here, but IMO the 2nd generation GS. bought it used after graduating high school and been using it as a daily for the past 8 years. Absolutely solid car and cant get myself to get rid of it for something more modern

Johnhav430

2nd gen is 1998, right? I mean the magnitude of how good that car was/is still, is like the Toyota Supra of that era. The thing already had 300 HP which I am pretty certain topped the BMW 8 cyl. at the time. It was car of the year and even xenons were pretty advanced back then. I got a brand new Maxima SE 5-spd in 1998 and was all into it, and then I saw a old guy driving a brand new dark blue GS400. I just said I may as well throw in the towel LOL it had a wing on the back. I'd daily drive one of those today it still looks good...

p.s. I have the brochure

Stereorob

okay, so lexus has almost 30 years under their belt ald the cars have changed ALOT since the early 90s.

1. Lexus does not build cars like they used to. yes they are still reliable as they ever were, but the fit and finish isnt the same. its the only way they have been able to keep costs down. for an example, if an Ls500 was built the same way an Ls400 was it would be $200k instead of 80k
they are still the best in the market, but its not the 90s anymore. seems like quality across just about everything Japanese peaked from the mid 90s till the first half of the 00s before the bean counters started showing up.

2. all the electronics and technology in the modern cars is really cool, but in the end, its what will kill them as well, as all the computers, sensors, etc age and start failing. good examples are 2006-08 IS, and 2007-09 LS, first with all of the early versions of the current systems these cars have. ive seen some pretty catastrophic component failures. the reason 85% of the Lexus's that end up in the junkyard is over weird electrical problems that cant be figured out, and electrical malfunctions that are killing mechanical components due to them not operating correctly.


im going to say the most reliable cars they made are from around 1995-2005. a lot of people including those that i work with, all say the most solid, well built and balanced LS was the 2005 LS430, which would make sense because i still see them all over the road and still show up all the time here at the dealership for routine maintenance with 300k+ miles and still running beautifully. i think the most reliable LS400s were the "middle age" generation from 95-97.