I took a JDM RHD LS460 for pre-purchase used car inspection. The car was in great shape and except for very minor issues everything checked out fine. Yet, the mechanic cautioned me to not to buy the car because, according to him every repair/maintenance work other than an oil change would be more expensive than cars made for Canada. Cited reason being incompatibility between parts available in Japanese market and Canadian market. As a result, despite myself being totally in love with the car, I asked for more time to re-evaluate the purchase decision.

Is it true that almost all repair/maintenance work will cost more for JDM RHD LS460 in Canada?

 

Having owned an Aristo in Canada and being very familiar with Lexus parts and part numbers, this is 90% false. Some of the ECUs will be slightly different but how often does an ECU actually die?

Even then, Toyota is very forgiving with interchangeability so some cross market ECUs will work without a hitch(I use 2013 japan spec headlights in a Canadian spec ls and the 2007 headlight control ECU doesn't mind at all).

Steering assembly? Okay, fine but the rest is similar if not the same.

 

Thank you so much for sharing your experience. I really love that car and had zero problems with RHD, but hearing about the parts issue during the pre-purchase inspection made my head spin. The car has air suspension and I'm concerned about interchangeability of those parts too.