So the day finally came and I sold my Lexus.
After just a year of ownership, it was the best decision and I will explain why.
I chose my LS carefully but couldn't get away with the pace of time, it was a fairly high mileage 160k but average for an 07. it was disgusting both outside and inside when I got it but had a great service history being maintained at the dealer its whole life.,
It took me a long time to clean it my way and put it to my standards, but even after some preventative maintenance I couldn't catch a brake, there was always some ocasional check engine light here and there, replacing some suspension parts, amplifier, repairing the lumbar support for the seats, sticky door trims, melted trunk button, high oil consumption (improved after using the valvoline R&P). Grom Vline installed, new tires and rims, polished, ceramic coated this all done while I only drove about 8k miles. I was scared of other potential issues I read here such as the brake actuator and coolant leaking from the intake and it seems to be the best time to let it go.
It was a gorgeous car, it truly was, and a blast to drive. Not to mention the smell, and boy, the smell... the interior smelled so good! the serenity of the the engine and transmission, and smoothness of the suspension, what a nice car!
Unfortunately I learned the hard way and that is a lesson that I take for me only and not saying that this has to apply to anyone else, and if this is your thing, man... go for it! But it's definitely not easy to maintain an old and rare car when you buy used and with some age. The price of parts, the limited amount of people that knows how to work on it, not to mention the complexity of the car itself. I am sure this was an amazing buy in 2012-2014 when it was around 5-7 years old and less than 50k miles, but now, it was just too much work for me and to be honest, a bit of disappointment as it was not the kind of reliability I expected to see from a Toyota product that was properly maintained.

 

Cars that are neglected/abused inside and out are rarely going to be any better mechanically!

 

Well, if it has **** or tires it's going to give you grief and the older it is the more grief you can expect. Good luck with your next choice.

 

We can say that you were part of the unfortunate group here that has many problems with the LS 460. I also own an 07, but in my experience it’s been a great car that hasn’t given me any major trouble thus far (knock on wood).

I think with these Lexuses, you either luck out, and don’t have many issues, or strike out and have a bunch.

Shoot, It’s not just the 460’s that have many complex issues, but the LS 430 does as well.

Just the other day on my 05 LS 430, the drivers side door latch broke! Now the door won’t even close, and worst of all, I have soft closing doors which means the part is twice as expensive as compared to the non power closing ones. It doesn’t matter if I slam it or not either, the door is stuck open. I’ve never owned a car where the latch mechanism inside the door has ever broken, never! It’s absolutely unacceptable in my opinion. Brand new, that mechanism is a $1,000! And I hear it’s a problem on the LS 430’s too.

So now I had to go buy a used one in good shape on EBay and will install it myself. But it’s the little things that break that are annoying and very expensive that make people just wanna sell their LS’s.

I hear you man, you did what you had to do and that’s perfectly ok. Best of luck to you and your next vehicle endeavors.

 

Seem to hear this often and I'm one of the lucky ones. Bought in 2021 with 234k miles, now at 290k and only done maintenence. Still on original rear air shocks and brake actuator. It has been in the dealer every 3 months for the previous 10 years.

 

Well I guess the Car Care Nut is correct, if you need repairs on an LS460 it's going to cost you. That being said I have a well maintained 2016 with only 43,000. Bought it about 3 years ago with 34,000, it lived its whole life in Arizona so no rust and very clean inside and out. I continue to do the basic maintenence and the car looks and drives like new and as mentioned many times on these forums it is an exquisite vehicle, in comfort, driving experence and looks. I would like to keep it and I only drive it during the summer months in the midwest, it sits on a trickle charger in a garage during the winter. My quandary, as I said I would prefer to keep it a while longer but I am also thinking about maybe selling before the major repairs start, at my current usage it would take me another 20 years before I would reach 100K. It is approaching 10 years old, at what time period or mileage should I consider moving on, any thoughts?

 

So your car was " Maintained" by a "Dealer" - what does That mean? Was the "dealer" a Lexus dealer? I bought a used LS460 that had Every Lexus recommended service at a Lexus Dealer. To verify this, I got on the Lexus website, plugged in my car's VIN, and all of the services/dates/milage were there.

You say the car was Filthy inside and out. No Lexus dealership would service a Lexus and not let it go without at least washing the exterior.
Colt
Pal? Your car Isn't the problem. THE problem is that your car Has been neglected, and I'll add, neglected for Years.

I see this all the time; someone sees a "Cheap" high end car from M-B? BMW, AUDI, or Lexus. Yet, they almost Never look at their service history. They buy the car anyway, and then the problems begin. If one is looking at Any high-end car from Europe or Japan one of the 1st things to check is its service history.

 

The “disgusting inside an out” is a key indicator. That an ostensibly abused full sized luxury car lasted 160k miles is pretty good, especially since 07 was one of the worst years.

Sorry it didn’t work out. Condition is key. A cheap BMW/Mercedes/Porsche/Lexus/Audi, etc. is always a bad idea.

 

Maybe I didn't express myself well. The LS460 is a pretty rare model to find, specially meticulously maintained cosmetically. The car was in good shape and clean, but not to an enthusiasts specks, So for me it was definitely not good. Not detailed or waxed, with some swirl marks. but mecanically it was well mainteined, well... by the book I mean. My total cost of ownership was just a little over 1k for one year with all maintenance and insurance included. But weak items that are inherit to the model started to fail, such as the amplifier, lumbar support motors, trunk button melting, some suspension itens, all resolved easily, or sort of, although for my experience and feeling was telling me it was a good time to let it go.
The problem specially in recent times is that even the dealers don't do the maintenance properly, and that's even if you try to be diligent with it, I called Lexus to do the Transmission oil change and they said they only do a partial oil change, and no need to change the filter. Brake fluid flush, nope, not necessary. Coolant, yes they do change it if you ask. Rear differential, nope... good for life...Obviously wrong... or only if you consider that the life of the vehicle is only its warranty period of 100k or 5 years.
My other vehicle which I also bought used but with low miles and also tried to catch up with maintenance and was told that some itens don't need to be touched, such as front differential fluid. Total BS, ended up servicing myself, I want my truck to last and this time, with low miles and years I think I can make it work. With my Lexus, with 150k and almost 20 years on its shoulders it seemed to be a lost battle.
I truly think that this was a great car and it still could be if you had it since new or bought it with low miles and just a few years old, or, if it was loved it's whole life, but buying a drivers car that was maintained by the book with those long oil change intervals and high miles, you gotta really be prepared to put some serious money into it and have no expectation to see that money again.

 

"Only done maintenance." Then: "It has been at the dealers every 3 months for the past 10 years."

I'm getting a mixed message here, which is it do you suppose? Got a list of repairs you've had to do aside from oil changes?

 

That’s cheap, I pay that just for liability insurance yearly.

 

Yes, over the course of it's life that car was maintained well, with regular oil changes at the dealer, coolant and transmission oil replaced at 70k some water pump work, suspension stuff, sensors, that's all with the history of the car I was able to pull from Lexus,
What annoyed me was that the oil change interevals were quite long, around 10k at the dealer, and for me that's a NO NO... I change oil every 3k-4k miles. And the brakes as far as I could tell were not serviced. The fluid was still transparent but contaminated with about 2-3% humidity as I checked with those tester pens you can get from amazon. I was planning to do that service along with transmission and differential fluids but the option of selling seemed to be more reasonable.
I think that's what made the car start to burn oil. But again I did notice good improvements with Valvoline Restore and Protect reason why I'm using in my other vehicles. translating into practical terms it reduced the consumption from 1qt every 800km to about 1qt every 1200km, I know it doesnt look like much but that all happened in less than 5k km.
It was a car in which everything worked, including the headlights washers and the AFS system I was just scared of the complexity of the engine bay in case anything would go wrong, specially with the brakes or something with the engine due to the complexity of it and the scarce mechanics skilled to worked with those.
For now I am just driving my truck since winter is around the corner and it's cooling down here already with temps on the low 50s and soon snow will fall, next spring I'll think about a new summer vehicle.

 

Oh I forgot my list of repairs
What I did...
- Replaced the gears from the lumbar support
- Replaced the hood struts
- Replaced the trunk button that melted
- Replaced the driver door handle key cover that was cracked
- Replaced all filters
- Replaced 2 suspension control arms
- Bought a new set of nice Lexus rims and summer tires and sensors
- Replaced the ML Amplifier
- Installed Grom Vline
- Polished, waxed and ceramic coated.

I'm still sad when I see the pictures...what a NICE car, I just wished I had a chance to have bought it new. They don't make cars like that anymore, and I don't have the same excitement for the new cars, even the expensive ones. I miss late 2000 and early 2010s for me the pinnacle of design and good taste luxury. Even corollas and civics had a nice design back then