Let me check......that exact issue is what made me blacklist the Mercedes V12 from my personal ownership. I'm not sure I would ever feel the same about it after having to do that

 

Wow, talk about a design flaw.

It's a shame cuz I can see the car taking a serious hit on resale value if people know about a possible expensive repair before buying it.

 

about costs to maintain/fix high end cars like amg's (or shudder, a ferrari)... ya gotta pay to play - these are specialized vehicles with highly capable and specialized parts produced in limited quantities, often requiring specialized skills to replace/fix.

there's no surprises here. if you don't want to (or can't) shell out for maintenance/repairs, don't buy the cars!

 

one thing i've enjoyed about my genesis lease and now my santa fe lease. all maintenance included for 3 years... ZERO money out of pocket.

 

Like bit said, you gotta pay to play with cars like that. Not my thing, as much as I love cars. I'm glad I don't love performance cars lol

 

Book time for the V12 O-ring is 33.9 hours, that's assuming you drop engine out and work on it outside of the car. You can do it in car I think for certain versions but I've not seen them all in person.

Heads do need to come off to do this so I would say actual realistic is at least 2-3 days of work and if it were my car I would want the heads resurfaced and all the valve guides replaced if I'm in that deep.

That's one reason why I picked the 12 I did, it's by far the most simple and easy to work on. Even if it needs chains you can do them in car or at the very worst trans out.

 

AND, if you add up the engines for both cars I think you have 12 cylinders too. lol


Says the man with a performance car. haha

Compared to 80%-90% of cars I see on the road, your car is up there on performance. IMO

EV's don't count! Talking Ice.

 

Something interesting today at Lexus that I saw. So the higher end RX models have lower door panels that are soft padded. The lower end models are plastics. Never seen Lexus do this where they add it to a higher end trim. I will say it is quite disappointing, they should just have it on all the models and the implementation is not that good. fit and finish is terrible

here are some pictures







I do think, Lexus is going to become all SUV and crossover brand. Their cars are not aging well, even the LC 500 is aged quite a bit.

 

You own one lol, but I know what you're saying.

Design flaws like that there isn't an excuse. These engines were built by hand. Another reason I'm glad I have the M113, there is no way I would own a used Mercedes with any engine that didn't have a good record, no matter how much my heart flutters for a late R129.

 

maybe it's terrible to you because it's plastic, but the 'fit' doesn't look terrible to me.

also, toyota/lexus has ALWAYS micromanaged cost. nothing new here. and i guess you don't look at other brands in such detail because material costs, labor costs, shipping costs, etc., have all forced car makers to look for as many ways as possible to lower cost.

ha. they would not be alone in that but i expect them to continue to sell es/ls. the is is now the 'nostalgia' model.

newsflash, NOTHING ages well. while there's a lot of love on here and in the market for old cars, they're still old. they may be good value overall, they may be built better in some ways (although i doubt it, modern manufacturing has made cars stronger AND safer AND more efficient AND higher build quality). some people just equate heavy cars with thick and heavy parts as higher quality, which is false.

as for the lc500, i knew when getting it that it might not be sold for many more years, but i just liked how unique it is and yes, how well made it is and the materials it uses. not many cars with large brushed aluminum door handles, carbon fiber roof, and many other touches. and although i'm a nerd, i'm fine with the fact that it isn't another cloud device, although i'm glad i have android auto / apple carplay.

besides since you love old cars it shouldn't bother you if lexus models seem aging, no?

 

LC500 still looks as stunning as the day it came out, 100%.

I think it will become a collectible which one of the reasons we're buying one.

 

Its really not lol. Its an expensive german car, but compared to something with carbon ceramic brakes let alone a supercar its nothing to maintain this car. Brakes 100% front and rear with labor at a shop are $2,000....we're talking about $4k in PARTS with no labor for AMG brakes, and carbon ceramic brakes we're talking about $20,000.

If I really wanted to I could have this car serviced at Jiffy Lube.

I have never known them to do that either, that is really surprising.

Well, at least you can get the better plastics on upper trims. I'd be less happy if they only offered the hard plastic trim from the lower trims on all the trims.

I think the LC is just as striking now as its ever been, but their SUVs age too. When I see a pre-refresh last gen RX its like yikes.

 

It does 0-60 in like 4.5 seconds, it's a performance car. Your brakes are killer even if not ceramics.

I still get what you mean but don't sell your car short, and DON'T go to Jiffy Lube.

 

I agree, I do not personally think the LC is aging at all. I see a handful of them around here and they all look amazing. And the LS500 is aging surprisingly well to my eyes. I absolutely hated that when it came out and now I really like the exterior styling, actually more than any generation of the 460 (even the 15-17 looks dated to me now).

 

the lc brakes may not be carbon ceramic, but they are enormous and have tremendous stopping power.