Thank you for all the replies.

Suggestions from people I know are mixed relating to whether to sell my 460L or not. Those that are against said that if I were to sell the car, I should have done that a lot earlier. The car is likely to be trouble-free for many years to come as a Toyota (hopefully). Others have urged me to get rid of it ASAP before it turns into a blackhole sucking money from me. Actually they are also the same people whose honest advice was not taken. At that time, the naive me wanted the best as my first car. Now I have eaten up all the ruthless depreciation. This is also one of the reasons for me to seek for a 430 instead of a newer ES as some in the 460 forum suggested. I have learnt my lesson. Not going to commit the same mistake again by buying another fancy crap.

I understand parts will eventually fail with more and more miles put on the car but at 36k miles, I would say it is unacceptable. Had been it been a German luxury, so be it but a Lexus? Without any mechanical knowledge, I am willing to set aside a budget for suspension replacement (control arms, struts, sway bars, etc; say $3000?), a set of new tyres ($1000), engine work as @Striker223 said ($2000?). With all these expenses, I can only gratefully make a deal with whomever the seller is with $12k max. To be on the safe side, any 430 with air suspension will not be considered. For those of you who own one with Mark Levinson, how does it hold up? It sounds like to be a common nightmare among the 460 owners. What a relief to learn that it is only an added option. A base model free from any added options will be ideal.

The pristine 430 of @TominPT is very encouraging! Good for you! Thanks for the tip about not getting a car that has a history abused by Northern climate.

 

Gorgeous car....wow.

 

I dont care if you sell the 460 to get a 430, but dont go into it thinking they are gold lol. They have their own issues.

 

For the price and what you get, an LS430 is an ideal car, provided you buy the right one. You should be looking for the lowest mileage example possible that fits your budget. Look for one that has been serviced religiously at the Lexus dealership, probably even sold by the dealership and then traded into the dealership.

Be willing to factor in some basic maintenance to start with, the biggest being the TB/WP service. My 06 at 77k needed that service due to age. I also did brakes all around, tires, and a few other small things. So in addition to my $14k purchase price, I dropped another $1800 or so almost immediately. Still though, I have a car that is motoring perfection. It's as perfect as can be and a real joy to drive. Nothing else is going to come close to what an LS430 does, certainly not for under $20k. You can to run at over 100mph for an hour? Sure... LS430 will do it with ease and you won't feel fatigued at all. Want to take your colleagues to lunch and blow them away with how quiet your car is and how well it rides, LS430 will do it. Want to rack up the miles without fuss? This is the car.

Bottom line, it's a top tier luxury vehicle that still performs admirably, even 14 years later. If you take your time and buy the right car (and we can help you with that), you'll be set for years to come.



The day I brought her home. 1 owner with 77k. Full service records, all keys, manuals, etc. Lucked out with the color...

 

The 430 would be a decent replacement for you, but unless the value has hiked up since I last purchased mine, or you're looking at Ultra Luxury trims, I believe $10k is a little high.

I'm from Atlanta so this may have something to do with it, but they usually float between $5000-$8000 for anything up to a Modern Luxury package.

For you, I do not think I would recommend the Ultra Luxury trim unless you're prepared to deal with the Air Suspension. It will inevitably fail on you and they cost roughly $1500 per strut on parts cost alone. I have an ultra lux and are currently in the process of converting the suspension over to Struts/Springs, although I am also taking this opportunity to lower the car an inch or so for a cleaner look and a slightly firmer than OEM ride.


Even with it's age the LS430 is a stupendous vehicle, though you may miss some of the modern amenities that came with your 2015 model. So long as you don't mind leaving some technology behind, the 430 should satisfy you plenty!

I'd say go for the Modern Luxury or Custom Luxury if you can find it, Base models are also good as they have less techno wizardry to go wrong, like motorized reclining air conditioned rear seats in the UL (I had to take these apart to replace my subwoofer and it was quite a pain!)

 

Following is a brief trip and repair history of my 2001 LS430. This may give you some more insight on the LS430.

My LS430 has 306,000 miles. I purchased it new on New Year’s Eve, 2000; my late wife and I have been the only drivers. To this day it still drives and rides like new—quiet, smooth, power when needed. We drove this car across the U.S. ten times plus several trips to northeast U.S. Two trips Atlanta to Utah and back with five adult passengers with luggage and four bicycles on bike rack. Has been in all the lower 48 states and on Pikes Peak.

Here are the various problems I have resolved: Installed new radiator and repaired oil leak. Minor problems I resolved: rear speaker; broken cup holder; new hood and trunk struts. Current unresolved problems: driver’s window does not close, telescoping steering wheel frozen in place, radio does not work, failed front bumper fog lights, and recently, NO DISK message along with no GPS. (I have chosen to not fix some of these problems—some are in the queue to be fixed.)

Other routine repairs: new timing belt and water pump every 90,000 miles, including a variety of parts replaced due to accessibility; replaced brake rotors, discs, pads; replaced engine and transmission mounts. Not to mention the various items replaced due to normal wear and tear.

Other than the usual door nicks and three rust spots on right front fender, the car still looks good. AND it is not for sale.

Vern Zander, Carrollton, Georgia

 

Hi Tiffany, the LS 460 is a better car than the LS430 and either car with air suspension can have this problem, when we first started looking for an LS we thought we wanted a 430 and looked at a couple and found the ones we looked at with low miles were driven a few miles every day and mostly everything was tired, all the electric motors for steering wheel, windows, mirrors, seats etc. We rethought what we were looking for and decided to see about a LS 460 and found a great one, it is a 2007 long model and has every option except rear DVD for the five seater configuration and we have had no problems with it and we have air suspension, I cycle the air suspension settings monthly including vehicle height to keep the seals in good shape and it has been trouble free for the five years we have had it, we keep cars a long time and fix it if it ever needs it.

 

All things being equal I wouldn't dump an LS460 because of a freak failure (which an air compressor at 36k miles definitely is). I have both an LS430 and LS600h with air suspension; and in a total of over 200,000 miles and 30+ years of service between the two of them I haven't seen issues with either compressor.

At this point mileage, general condition and level of equipment matters more than chronological age; so if you pick a loaded LS430 vs a base LS460 then yes the LS430 may be more problematic. You don't indicate how well equipped the Celsior is in this example.

The 430 and 460 are dramatically different cars but generally they deliver the same experience. They have similarities and differences; the 460 drives better has more rear legroom in the L cars and is nominally faster, the 430 has better materials, is quieter and has more headroom. The LS430 is an evolution of a prior design the LS460 is all new; but by 2015 they had equivalent levels of engineering and iterative updates.

The 460 obviously has more up to date features, but there are plenty of documented cases of both cars doing hundreds of thousands of miles with nominal maintenance. At this point it's the devil you know vs an unknown car; a different one could be great or have a colony of rats living in the trunk.

My LS430 has 130,xxx miles on it and the only leaks I've experienced were the valve cover gaskets; because I don't drive the car that much. I've done some front suspension work, a new radiator (broke inexplicably during the timing belt service), 2 new oxygen sensors and replaced 3 of the door lock actuators ($8 motor on ebay) and after that just standard maintenance. My tilt steering motors is a little flakey.

My 600 got a new water pump, and may need some control arm work but I'm putting it off. But it only has 62,000 miles on it; half the LS430. The UR engines are actually more durable than the nearly indestructible UZ engines in the 430 because they lack a timing belt; they were designed to go 250,000 miles before any major maintenance would be needed.

Bear in mind these were $80k+ cars when new; and the price of parts and service reflects that despite it being a fraction of what the S class or 7 series of this era will cost you in repairs. LS430 parts in particular seem to be getting rather pricey. There is a saying "nothing is as expensive as a cheap Mercedes"; while generally that's not as true with a Lexus you shouldn't be surprised for it to $1000 you once in a while; especially as they approach 10 years old.

Cars break. It happens to everybody. You were unlucky once; but it seems that Lexus did you a solid by helping out; so do you want to roll the dice again or play the hand you have?

And lastly a Corolla? Seriously? It's a great car but after a Lexus LS? That person should have their head examined.

 

As much as I would say a newer 460 is better than a 430 the UZ engine is far more durable and reliable than any UR. The 1UR has issues with DI injectors, pumps, valve seals, sometimes has issues with valve springs, and the lack of a timing belt means you are now going to eventually wear out the chain guides and the more lazy you are with oil changes the faster it will happen and it's not a 3-4 hour job like the timing belt on a UZ is. 3UR had issues with cam towers, retainers, valley plate leaks, and oil ring failure.

The belt also reduces shock and wear to the valve train to nearly zero vs a a chain, and overall it's just a simpler engine to work on and live with that doesn't really ever mess up. The UR family not so much, still worlds better than any BMW N62/63 engine or Mercedes V8 with exploding crank sprockets but comparing Lexus to Lexus the UZ is better since belt aside it can go over 500k easily unlike the UR that will have guide issues trying to reach that

Overall the 460 is a better car, but you will lose ease of service, reliability, and materials quality/fit finish vs a 430. Those factors are what sent me to a 430 since I do all the work myself and prefer the interior over the 60 since it aligns with my tastes more. I like early 2000s and late 90s styling the best so far, modern interiors are too busy and disconnected and are not calm to sit in. Feels like you are in a box and I don't particularly like that outside of sports cars.

 

I could not have said this any better. Out of all the posts including mine in this thread you really sum things up nicely. Both cars can be great most of the time but things happen whether it be more miles or high miles. The history of all generations of the LS excluding the 500 since it has not been out long enough will tell you that they are really reliable vehicle's. You can argue one is better than the others but that really just comes down to personal taste. I've owned each generation and IMO each one has been better than the last.