Damn.....you're a lucky guy!!!!

 

Mine has low miles. Only 225K.
Believe it or not, I have a 1998 Taurus with 246K. I did not even know that they would last that long. Engine is still running like new.

 

I bought my mother a LS400 in August of 1989. She still has the car and it has 14,000 miles on it. She drives it to church and to the market. Car looks and smells like new. Outside of its yearly oil change the only problems were replacing a radiator, thermostat and one battery. Best damn car ever made! Only reason for the radiator was that I forgot to change the coolant. Oh yeah, my mom will be turning 90 in Feb of this comming year. Skip

 

Sounds like a excellent car. It must really be like showroom new, because my 1990 LS400 has 225,500 miles and it is still in excellent conditions throughout. Has it been heated garage kept?
Just wondering- has your mothers car have any problems with the instrument cluster lights, or the "LCD" lights on the instrument panel? I do not have that problem, but it is a very common problem on these cars. Would be interesting to know if the age of the car had a big part in that- or if mileage/use was the bigger factor. August of 1989- you must have bought it about as soon as they was available. Does it have the "air-ride" suspension, sunroof, leather, TRAC, or keyless option(s)? Seems like most have the sunroof and leather interior option. Air-ride & trac seem to be the "rarer" options. Cloth interior was standard, but I have only seen one 1990 LS400, with the cloth interior and I have never seen one without a sunroof.

 

No problems at all with anything. You got me thinking about the miles on this car. Once before I posted that it had 15,000, but I think that it has less than that. I will call my mom tomorrow and post the exact mileage. Skip

 

Anything less than 100K is considered to be very low mileage on a 90-94 LS400. 15K on a 1990 is exceptional.

 

As of 5:30 pst today my moms car has 14,801 miles. If you think that is nuts, my wifes 2001 GS430 has 2500 miles on it. My 04 GX470 has more miles than my wife. 3992 miles. Skip

 

I wish I had that little of driving to do. You are lucky, unless you have other cars that you do most of the driving in.

 

I know somebody who had a 1983 MB 300SD, original owner, 40k miles driven 2 miles to work and back, and occasional trip to grocery store, 100% dealer maintained, regular oil changes, heated garage kept, clean inside and out, not a scratch, and new car smell. Well, due to lack of use, and very short trips, the engine died, and tranny locked, and electrical problems developed due to deteriorating wire harnesses. Dealer wanted $15k to fix it. NOT!!! The car was absolutely brand new MINT to look at, and he got 500 bucks for the body minus 100 bucks to tow it away. The new buyer put in a used engine for $3k, and fixed it up. Running like new again. Trust me, these were the diesel Benzes with no gimmicks, and solid engineering.

 

Skip,

You seriously need to post some pictures of your mom's car We all are eager to seeing this thing. Both interior and exterior pictures.

 

That shows that setting is very destructive on a car, as these 1981-1985 Mercedes 300SD's have been known to go well over 500K and I have seen some owners report that they have over 1,000,000 miles. The typical mileage on many of the 1981-85 300SDs on E-Bay ranges between 150K-350K. The engines on these cars are virtually bulletproof. I test drove one before I bought my Lexus with 336K.

So, in regards to that 3,000 mile Lexus- my guess is that it will not see the 200K-300K of a typical LS400, without needing a lot of work.

 

It's been my experience that age is a much bigger player than mileage in a properly maintained vehicle. I test drove a 94 LS 400 that had 502k on the clock, and the engine had never been opened up. The guy was in sales, and drove all over the country. He had all the maintenance reciepts, and some of his 3000 mile oil changes were only a few days a part The ad said high mileage, but damn! I had to drive it. It felt just like driving many of the others I tested with 125-180k. I was very impressed. Things deteriate with age, regardless of useage. That said, I would definately take any LS with 3k on the odo

Brandon

 

Did you buy this car? Just interested to know how much someone sold a 502K mile LS400 for.

 

No, I couldn't do it. I know Lexus makes some of the most reliable cars on the road, but how much further could the thing go, you know? This was back at the beginning of 2000, so the car was only 6 years old, and I think he was asking $6,800 if I remember correctly. After much debate we ended up getting my wife a new SUV at that time instead, but seeing that made me come back to the Lexus name when I did purchase another car for me, and it will be the reason my next car is a Lexus, and the next one after that, and the next one......
Brandon

 

Understandable. With over 500K miles, who knows when something will finally go. $6800 for a 94 LS400 with 504K back in 2000 seems like a very good deal though.
I have a 1998 Taurus with 245K and everyone asks me how I got 245K on a 5 year old car. I did not put the miles, as it was a company owned car. 504K on a 4 year old car would really boggle their mind.