Hey everybody I am a first time SC 430 owner and will have a bunch of questions for you. I just bought a 2005 SC 430 in almost mint condition. My car only had 17,000 miles on it, it was always garaged and never driven in the snow. I got one that has the "Absolutly Red" color. After driving SUVs for the past 15-20 years this car is like driving a peice of heaven LOL. What a little rocket this car is WOW.
First off how is the reliability aspect of the SC 430s? Here is my new toy pictured while still at the dealer.

 

Beautiful SC, you are making me jealous

From what I understand they are very reliable, especially the engine. I did hear top replacements are of high cost but haven't really seen any cases of people having to get one.

 

Welcome

Was the car a lexus certified pre owned .? Did you get the extended warranty. If it has run flat tires on it you might want to consider getting rid of them as soon as possible.
I have a 2005 pebble beach edition I bought it new. You will love the car.

Buddy

 

Thanks Rippaflow.

Mrblister yes my car is a Lexus Certified Pre-Owned car. No I didn't get the extended warranty. Yes it does have the run flat tires. I have heard people complain about the noise and handling of the run flats but where I have driven SUVs for many years this cars driving and handling is so sweet, like nothing I have ever driven before so I don't really notice what other people have said about the tires. I may replace them with real good performance tires when the run flats ware out. I already love the car after only having it a month LOL.

 

I thought that cetrified pre owned lexus came with an extended warranty as part of the deal. Did you get any warranty from the dealer.

Buddy

 

The car is still under the 4 year/50,000 warranty from the factory until july of "09". I could have bought a extended warranty if I want to.
A couple more questions for other SC owners. In the pic above of my car are those rims, with the chrome wheel covers, common for cars from the factory?
Also on the run flat tires I have done some looking into them and they came in 2 different styles. One was a "summer run" tire and one was a "all season" tire. How do I tell which ones I have on my car?

Thanks everybody, Cliff

 

Your caps asr called pie plates. ain 2005 they camwe out with a twist style cap which IMHO looks better. What does it say on your tire side walls .Look there first and see what brand the tires are. Depeding on how long you plan to keep the car and the extended warranty. On this group its kind of split . The car is very reliable but 4 or 5 years down the road things can happen. Lexus dealrships are very expensive on labor and parts. My 2005 I bought new . I sstrictly a weekend good weather toy. I have 5900 miles on it . My warranty runs out this month . I just bought the lexus platinum 3year extended warranty with 75.000 miles zero deductable transferable for 50.00 if i sell the car. The cost was $ 1590.00 The best deal I could find . Was from a toyota lexus dealership in georgia . Any lexus dealership can sell it and can charge what they want they want over there cost.

Buddy

 

Here's how the CPO warranty works, or at least how it worked 2 years ago when I purchased a 3 year old RX which was a CPO.
First, all cars have a full 4 year factory warranty, which is the most comprehensive coverage, and which you will not equal under any circumstances after that 4 year period. This warranty runs with the car and is transferable.
All CPO cars have a 4 year CPO warranty which runs 4 years from the date of purchase. If the purchased car is less than 4 years old, then the warranties run concurrently, but the CPO warranty is less inclusive, and is disregarded until the factory warranty expires. So, when I purchased a 3 year old car, I had one year of factory warranty, followed by 3 years of CPO warranty.
The CPO warranty is virtually the same as the so called "Platinum Extended Warranty" offered by Lexus.
At the end of the CPO term, you can purchase additional extended warranties, if you want, with varying levels of coverage.
So the original poster is under the factory warranty until July of '09 (4 years after the "in-service date"), but he should check the CPO warranty. Unless serious changes were made to the meaning of the C part of CPO in the last two years, he has 4 years from date of purchase which are also under warranty, and I am surprised his salesman did not explain that to him.

 

I had an '02 and am now in an '03. I pulled the Run Flats on both and put on High performance Dunlops - I have no intention of using the car in the snow.

she becomes a different car with the Dunlops. The Run flats will go back on at the end of the lease.

 

I thought the '05 models shipped with the twisted center, given that '06 was the full 5-star? In any case, the twisted centers can be bought on ebay for roughly $100 for the whole set.
-Rob

 

New better pics of my car.

 

a thing of beauty. that's a keeper.

 

CBG,
Search for my post on Center Caps. That is the correct term for the pie plate replacements. E-bay seller for my Center Caps was LexusStLouis. Good Luck and great looking ride!

 

What do you think? I am going to put these rims on my car with the Bridgestone Potenza RE 960 AS pole postion tires on my car. They are the best rated "all season" high performance tires on TireRack.com I think those rims will make the car even hotter looking than it is now LOL.

 

I got the new rims and tires on the car and will take pics when the rain stops. They look great, a big difference from the "pieplate" rims LOL.