Hello everyone. Thanks to all who replied on the "would you buy this ls 400" thread. That car turned out to be a dog.. so the search continued. I then found a 1993 LS 400. Color is champagne/silverish with a deep grey interior. Its in beautiful cosmetic condition. Car has only had 2 owners. Tires/rims, everything is nice. Here's the thing.. we had it inspected at the Lexus dealer and it needs some serious service.

1. Timing belt has not been changed. EVER. 145k on the vehicle. I told seller this is a condition of the sale BIG TIME.

2. Brakes are all below 2.5 mm, though the warning light is not yet on, they need to be replaced. Yep, all 4 wheels.

3. Drivers side power lock not working... big pain in the butt.

4. EGR Pipe is cracked. Is this a must-fix? What is the consequence of not fixing it? The repair price was astronaumical... i realized from searching posts it requires dropping the transmission. What has anyone paid at an independent shop for this?

5. Hood struts not holding up the hood anymore. . . also a pain but seemingly an easy fix.

6. Oil pain gasket is "seeping" but not dripping oil.

Otherwise, everything else seemed to work fine... windows.. switches.. etc. Acceleration was good.. shifts were smooth..

Private seller was asking $5900. I told him if he addressed numbers 1 and 2 (note this does NOT include fixing EGR) above I would give him about $5k. Is this a good deal? I reiterate, the interoir and exterior are in excellent original condition.

I'd recommend handling all repairs yourself and having him drop the price by $1500. If you let him do the repairs, he might cut corners

Good suggestion. However, I would require all documentation from his independent Lexus mechanic... also the place where it has been serviced for the past 4 years.

for that price its not worth it. you can get a 95-97 for between 7-9k in decent condition. i did

Hmm...

Unfortunately my budget is capped at 5k.. i am a grad student.

What about living with a cracked egr pipe?

gonna have problems passing it thru emissions. This needs to be replaced ASAP.

WOW.. I had no idea that was the case. The dealer said "you could fix it now or not... it may only decrease fuel mileage by 5%"

......


CA law requires sellers to provide smog certificates upon selling a vehicle. I didn't ask to see one (we didn't get that far) but would obviously do so if we were able to proceed. Not too sure after this development, though....

they cant legally sell you the car w/o smogging it, but they may "smog" it without really smogging it.

If the car passed smog 90 days before you bought the vehicle, you could still use that smog certificate.

The car might still pass emission testing...

...and I agree that $5K is WAY TOO MUCH to pay for a 90-94 LS. I got my 92 for half that price (only needs some minor paint on the lower panels and the grille was cracked, plus the power steering had the all too common tiny leak. I haven't cracked open the timing belt cover as I haven't bought all the tools needed yet (I'm going to follow the lexls.com instructions/my repair manual and do the repair myself!).

Good luck in your search.

-A

I'm not sure where you guys are finding your vehicles then....

In combining craigslist, autotrader, ebay, and the local newspaper, it seems like 5k for a 1st gen under 150k is a pretty good deal.

I am not looking only at asking prices. For example, there are 2 1994's for sale in san diego with 290k asking 3500+.

There is a 94 in orange county with 129k asking 9999!!!

traveling helps. I have never found any good deals anywhere near me. I would also look at higher mileage cars too. If they have records you have a solid buy.

yeah, that price is a rip indeed.

i was in line to buy a greenish black '94 that had a bad instrument cluster (well, not the whole thing) leather was so-so, look like it had been sideswiped in the drivers side rear wheel , and had to be realigned w/170k miles for $2400.

instead i opted for a burgandy '91 with everything working perfectly (except for the factory amp being bypassed and i not being able to use the OEM pioneer unit, which i still have if anyone is interested ) (rear diff is slightly noisy though) and svc records maintained w/165k miles but an odo that was replaced early in it's life but not set to the mileage at the time (about 6k as the record shows) so it reads 159k miles, leather has a few stains but otherwise in somewhat good condition for $1900

you're in san diego right?

have you checked this one out?

http://sandiego.craigslist.org/car/267109008.html

how long have you been looking? it took me over 3 weeks of nearly constant searching before i lucked out and found my current '99 LS about 220miles away from me.

The CL link post depicts the nightmare of a car that I first discussed in the "would you buy this ls" thread. I agree, the pictures make it look nice but it was really in bad shape. Interior was gross, paint was an OBVIOUS re-paint. I have no idea how it looks so shiny in the pictures - it must have been wet - because it was a nasty gold matte color in person.

I have been eyeing the classifieds, cl, autotrader, etc for the past month or so and have been "looking" as in, going to check out the cars with cash on hand, for about the past 3 days. Again, nothing much cheaper than 5k has come up.

In fact, the average price for LS 400's in the 1992-1994 range in San Diego on auto trader is over $7,000....... maybe these cars are beginning to appreciate? Who knows.

Anyway, if anyone has/knows of someone with a clean, well maintained (with records) 1993-1995 please have them email georgemiller112@yahoo.com

Thanks for the replies once again everyone.