90 to 97 LS in junkyards not 98 to 00?

 

Newer cars are more rare in junkyards?

 

Not really

 

Sorry wasn't meant to be a question I spend plenty of time in junkyards, but when you think about it it's simple math.

The older cars get, the closer to end of usable life they are and more likely to have a critical failure. They've had more time on the road to be in accidents. They are MUCH more likely to get totaled by insurance vs get fixed. etc., etc... ending up with more of them in salvage yards

 

NP, by 2019 98-00 would fall into that category as well.

 

Sure, but moreso the 90 - 97 which fell into that category even earlier!

Havent looked up the production numbers but I suspect there are also more total 90-97 LS vehicles sold vs 98-00 as well

 

and here I am lookig for a 90-94

 

Thats my experience too,there just arent that many 98-00 in my experience also.

 

there's more of them, they're older, and the 98 added so many improvements the 97 is effectively made obsolete

 

This is true for most cars, the Lexus LS isn't most cars...

 

there is much more in quantity of the older gen cars, and as stated the obvious fact that they are older contributes to your observation.

 

youll see more 95-97s then any others. why?

1. the ucf10s are so old at this point that they were clapped and crushed years ago. the few still left have a small cult following but even they are dwindling. the ucf10s are played out and alot of people have moved on to other cars. its also getting to the point now that im starting to see ucf10s going to the crusher largley intact, unlike 10 years ago when they would be stripped to the frame before seeing the crusher. alot of people have simply lost interest.

2. 95-97 ucf20s got the short end of the stick of the bunch. they dont have the cult following the ucf10s do, and dont have all the cool stuff the 98-00s have, rendering them undesirable especially now that the 98-00s are basically the same price the 95-97s were a few years back.

3. the 95-97 cars have gone from old to now very old status and are at the point where catastrophic problems are starting to show up in them, even if kept up. they are expensive to fix, and why the hell would anyone spend 2 grand to fix something on a 95-97 when for the same price they can get a 98-00??

4. as stated before, the 95-97s got the short end of the stick. they are the bastard middle child LS400s that nobody really loves or takes seriously. laking the beauty and nostalgia of the ucf10s, and lacking the advancements of the 98-00s

5. 98-00s are old too but still look like flashy expensive cars and to the common eye, DO NOT look their age. the styling of modern car landscape as well as new school Lexus has changed so dramatically, the 95-97s are 20+ year old cars, that now LOOK like 20+ year old cars. they are very dated.


honestly, i think the 95-97s will never be as desirable as the now classic ucf10s and the later 98-00s, plus they didnt make very many of them unlike the ucf10s. however the 98-00s have even lower production numbers. i already never see 95-97s on the road anymore. the only ones i see, which LS400s in general are becoming rare sites, are blue hairs driving 98-00s, and a few of the stance/slam folks driving the even rarer ucf10s.

i have had every type of LS400 under the sun over the years. i have a 99,00,and 95 currently. although the 95 seems like half the car the newer ones are, its slow, loud, stinky, and has its issues, it still has me grinning ear to ear when i drive it and ive spent ALOT of money over the last year keeping it alive.

despite all the shortcomings of the 95-97s, they have something the 98-00s kinda lack. they have soul. especially the 95s. it seems like they had everything dialed in absolutely perfectly in the 95. its got the build quality of the 10s, but isnt floaty, dead quiet and disconnected as the 98-00s. they feel more mechanical. i feel more of the road in a 95 and feel more engaged with it while i drive it. personally, its my favorite of the bunch. maybe im crazy idk....

 

thats very true.

there are or were WAY more ucf10s then 20s made. 42,806 units in 1990 alone. vs 23,657 in 1995

total production numbers of all ucf10s stateside between 1990-94. 162,952. thats ALOT of cars

total production of original 1990-92 pre facelift ucf10s, 116,595

total production of post facelift 1993-94 ucf10s 50,630

total production numbers of 1995-97 ucf20s, 62,542. -HUGE drop.

total production numbers of 1998-00 ucf20s 55,799 -even less

total production of ALL ucf20s stateside 118,341

the numbers speak for themselves, however, even though there were SO MANY 90-91s, give basically 30 years of driving, how many were driven into the ground, crashed, or just taken by natural selection? the ucf10s were also the ones to suffer the biggest cash for clunkers mass-murder in 2009. that took an estimated 15,000 or so off the road. i remember seeing entire rows of them in the junkyards of south florida at the time, with that pink spray paint and yellow sticker slapped on the engine, some still in beautiful shape. real shame.

wish there was some kind of database here in the states that could tell us how many of them are still on the road. the UK has one.

 

Good research Rob,thanks.

 

ive been following these cars for a long long time lol