My cousin has a 1997 ls400 83000 miles w/all lexus service records ,the car looks new. My wife drives a 2001 lincoln.He wants $12000 for the lexus. Is that a good deal ,and what are the pros and cons of a1997ls400 ? thanks

 

Welcome to CL.

The price is average IMO. If the body is dingless and the paint is in excellent condition it may compensate. No con's the the LS's...but there is lots of service info available here that will make you aware of what these cars may need as they age. The first gen info is relevant too.

 

Cost to drive and probably resale.

Your car will only require regular maint until around the 100-120k mark. At that point, suspension components and things like the air conditioning will need servicing. Regardless, it will be as reliable or more so than any other car on the road, I honestly believe that. Gas mileage is not too important given your wife's ride, and insurance is reasonable [in most cases since you are married]. Tires aren't terribly expensive, and so on.

On resale, a clean 91/92 in the same condition as yours is currently, is worth between 5-6k on the private market, as long as it doesn't have really* high miles, maybe more. This would make yours worth about that much in 2012. The only factor is that if lexus remakes the model completely, you will be 2 generations behind which significantly hurts resale. Even the 91's are still only considered to be 1 gen behind, most people probably can't tell the diff between a 91 and sub 2000 cars, whereas the new gen is a complete overhual visually.

This is the main reason why benz has such terrible resale, coupled with their reliability. Lexus and bmw try not to overhaul their designs too much because of this, Lexus being the most successful. You can buy a mid 90's S600 [new over 140,000] in the mid to low 30's now, pretty terrible investment I'd say!