What is the best state to find a quality LS 430? Cold and wet regions? Hot and dry? Hot and moist? Hills or flatland? Which has shown least amount of wear on vehicle?

 

Well, a year ago, I would have said Texas.... That's where I got my 2005.

Now, I'm not so sure. You'll be better off with a warm/dry region car, but then the interior usually takes a beating from the sun..

 

Don't know if it changed due to the hurricanes, but I thought FLA and TX were good. My car was from Naples, FLA. I have heard others say FLA is no good due to the salt air, but then some even said that's not at all true, that's only if you park on the ocean and the ocean can splash it. Seems that some FLA cars were owned by wealthy people who garaged them....my .02

 

CA if covered or garaged. Needs to be a thicker cover that keeps the interior/exterior temps low. They do get driven out here. Harder to find a low mileage. FLA seems to be the place for that.

 

Good feedback. I've seen a decent amount of good looking 430's in Palm Desert area of CA on craigslist. Prices are much more reasonable than here in Washington

 

Yeah good area. Like FL, older Lexus owners.

 

Any west coast state. Preferably a vehicle that was not right by the ocean.

WA, OR, CA, AZ, NV, NM, UT, CO

All great states that either have no winters or do not use road salt. Just find one that didn't sit in the sun 24/7 like someone mentioned.

I just picked up a silver 04 LS430 from Los Angeles and drove it back nearly 2000 miles to Chicago. Aside from replacing the weatherstripping on the two driver side doors ($80 ea), it has no sun damage, no clearcoat failure, very low miles, and engine bay and underside looks literally brand new (not a single spec of rust or an ounce of corrosion anywhere).

Rust was the main reason I did not buy a local one in IL. I have looked at probably a dozen local ones and they are all rotted underneath, some even had body rust (quarters and front doors above lower molding). The strange thing is, a few other CA cars I saw did have some light surface rust everywhere due to being too close to the coast. The one I got was east of LA in Covina so a decent distance from the ocean.

Since you're on the west coast, just stick to those states. CA was by far the biggest market for these cars, with TX and FL being second. I would not buy a Florida one, I am sure you might find a rust free one somewhere in FL, but most I have seen had a ton of rust.

If you're really crazy like me, you can undercoat most areas of your LS to preserve it from the elements such as subframes, body cavities, all suspension components, driveshaft, diff, etc. even engine bay and trans with a product like Boeshield T9 or Amsoil MPHD, and Fluid Film in low temp areas in case you ever drive it to an area that gets salted.

 

Dallas and Houston Tx

 

There are plenty of just-a-little-bit flooded car in Houston that were masterfully restored and ready for new ownership. Not a trace of Harvey or Irma, and attractive pricing, too!

Joking aside, please be careful and look out for warning signs of water damage.

 

I'm still sold on FLA, because even my wife's cousin's ex who is in the business, looked for FLA cars to resell in NYC and PA.....so there "is" something to it....again, someone explained to me, damage from the ocean is different--there will be rust right on the exterior, because it was splashed, and the rust is not underneath like on a typical northeastern car from salt...anyway, I think the "wealthy" and "garage" factor often happens as well, in FLA, where a snowbird used it in FLA only (not back and forth up north) and it was always garaged. Mine has a complete service history at the Lexus dealer in Naples, that spanned the first 7 yrs. of its life....and only like 37k. The 2nd owner took it to 81k in 3 yrs....I am the 3rd owner....indie told me this can't be a northeast car since 2006 based on how it looks on the lift...

edit: just thought of this, looks like I am the owner who actually drives the car the most miles/day.....

 

The more I read this thread the luckier I feel I found a low mileage (82,000) ls that has 0 rust on it in NY of all places I feel like I struck the lottery. That had all the maintnece done on it except timing belt and water pump it had the 5,000 mile services done as well religiously.

 

What does the Carfax say about your car? I am extremely suspicious it has "zero" rust on it being a NY car.

What I found in my 6-8 month search for an LS430 in Chicago is that these are not cars people "saved" or stored away during winter. These are not exotic cars. So if it lived in NY, odds are it was driven in NY during all seasons.

It was extremely frustrating to talk with different sellers that claimed their cars had a clean undercarriage, with either little to no rust or zero rust, but every time I asked for pictures or drove out to see the cars, they had a fair share of rust underneath and every time the owners would just play dumb and play it off as if it's normal. It turned into such a waste of time, that I realized anything short of going down south to pick a car myself would not satisfy me, and that's what I ended up doing.

You either got some one-in-a-million LS430 that was winter stored or it was brought in from a different state. No other way around it. These cars were mostly purchased to be as daily drivers through all weather, not Sunday "nice day" cars.

 

The gentleman who owned it before would fly back and forth from the country Jordan he was a businessman of some kind very nice guy. He had like 8 cars I think I went down to long island to purchase the car the tires had dry rot on them the car sat most of the time, so first thing I did was flush and replace all the fluids.

When I install my figs front camber correcting arms and Megan toe and caster arms I will take pictures of the underbody of the car when it is on the lift if you would like, also I winter store my ls430.

I know the frustrating part your talking about either the cars I looked at were neglected in some way or were rot boxes idk what they are using as "road salt" now a days but it is deffinetly not salt lol

 

Rust is so nasty here in the northeast....on my 1998 Nissan, I discovered a stabilizer bar link sheared on the left side. The lower rad support collapsed when it was around 11, just from rust. My wife's 2011 which has never been garaged has tons of rust on the undercarriage, tons. The BMW unfortunately was used 2 winters, so it's not rust free underneath (though the front rotors fell off with just my fist after 9 yrs, proving to me how well OE discs are coated). The LS is by far the best in our stable since it came from FLA...but right this instant it's caked with salt!

 

I sold my rare mint low miles garaged blAck cherry pearl here on the site last year. New owner shipped it cross country and garage queened it

owner emailed and told me it was totaled yesterday