Sunseek

Hello,

I'm new to the board and am very happy to see the community as robust with help and technical information as it is. The last LS400 I owned was several years back and a '95.

I'm on a search for a '98/99 and have found one but I'm a little confused by options.

The car has air suspension (and of course the Nak stereo), it doesn't have the wood package on the shifter and steering wheel, but does have heated seats. The dealer is telling me it doesn't have HID headlights.

My problem is I'm 800 miles away from the car and the dealer who has it asked me what xenon was, so I'm not sure they would know xenon if it had them.

Is it even possible the car could be optioned this way?

Thank you for your input, I look forward to being as much help as I can to the board.

James

Alan D

Does it have a sunroof? I believe the sunroof was in a package with the HID headlights. You could always get the VIN and call a Lexus dealer. They should be able to tell you about the car.

PureDrifter

iTrader: (10)

tell him that when he turns the car on facing a wall (in the dark of course) that when the lights turn on, they will level themselves automatically, so the lights will appear to move on the wall, this is only in the first 3-5 seconds after turning the lights/car on.

Broker404

I'm not 100% sure, but I've read that the wood shifter and steering wheel only came on 99+

Sunseek

Hello,

Thanks for the input everyone, I did end up gettng the correct VIN number and just having my local dealer confirm options.

It did indeed have:

HID
Air suspension
Heated Seats
Moon Roof
Nak Radio

Thanks everyone!

James

GRAND_LS 4

iTrader: (2)

It was optional on the 98. Mine has it.

Technically, it was optional on all years, but every car since 99 came with that package.

GRAND_LS 4

iTrader: (2)

If I had to choose, HID's are much more important then the wood package. You can always add that one later. Ebay is full of wooden shifters and steering wheels. Let us know if you get the car. But that certaintly is a odd combo of options.

vicpai

....or the one you're going to get, is identical to mine (options wise). Air Suspension was an EXTREMELY rare, and very expensive, option on pre-2001 LSs (the 400s). So basically, if it has this option, then it's pretty much a foregone conclusion that it will have everything else (except that you would have either the NAVIGATION SYSTEM, OR the Nakamichi sound system, since they were not available together.). IMHO, the Nakamichi is a FAR FAR better choice, since the Nav system is hopelessly obsolete by now, and the fidelity of the Nakamichi system is in a class by itself (and besides, Lexus Nav systems are not the best - Acura systems, made by Alpine are the best) .........FYI, I've installed the latest Alpine NVE-N872A Nav system (with XM NAVTRAFFIC real time traffic info), and backup camera in my LS.

PureDrifter

iTrader: (10)

actually, the A/S was a fairly common option on the first gen (89-94) LS400s, after that it became increasingly rare.

Kansas

The dealer cost of air suspension for the 2000 LS400 was $1,524 and the retail price was $1,905 - quite inexpensive. I suspect that there were several reasons why few late LS400's had air suspension: 1) The late LS400's had a more compliant (i.e. soft) suspension than the earlier ones. Air suspension did add as much comfort value like it did on the early LS400. 2) The LS400 air suspension option had earned a fairly bad reputation by the mid 90's - mainly for reliability. And I have an Automobile Magazine article that recommended that air suspension LS400's be avoided for their poorer steering response -- articles like that likely suppressed damand for the option.

The leather steering wheel and shift **** were options only in 1998 but standard in the 1999 and the 2000 model years.