Stereorob

as a LS400 driver, and a clean example at that, i find it extremely easy to forget sometimes that im driving a 20 year old car. i have 3 of them. a 95, 99, and 00 but have been activley looking for a clean 90 for years. ill find one, someday hopefully.

anyway, the car i do the most travling in is my 99 thats just a tick over 200k although youd never know it. everything works, its silent as the tomb on the highway and feels like its a pillow floating on air at 100 mph. i drive around town and notice the few other cars of its vintage which are completely clapped out smoke belching turds, that seriously look the part.

last weekend i went to go see a friend of mine and he had a mid 90s Cadillac Deville he recently picked up as a project thats about the same age, with about the same mileage and in the same condition as my LS400 and we compared our rides. after driving my LS400 he is obsessed with finding one now and wants my help to look for one which of course i will lol. what really struck me was just how absolutely ancient that caddy felt in comparison! everything from the clunky door handles to the interior finish to the way it rode on the ride, -antiquated by todays standards and even by my LS400s standards. it felt like i was driving something out of the 1960s. ive driven a few other folks 20+ year old cars recently and its kinda the same deal. they feel like antiques! is it that the LS400 really was that well built to that it still feels modern in the 21st century or have i just gotten so used to the way they drive that everything else i drive feels like a wheelbarrow full of dog poop after it? my buddy's caddy was nice, REAL nice and had all if not more features then my LS400 has, but it felt like junk! even alot of other more modern cars feel like junk after driving it.

thing is, i have driven and owned plenty of really tired LS400s over the years. my 95 for example, feels and looks old but not almost 25 years, but the experience of one thats right, and i mean really right is something thats completely different and honestly vanishing these days as more and more are abused and crushed.

another reality check is when im driving around town or driving even long distances between large cities, not passing very much on the road from the 90s and not passing a single other LS400 for weeks sometimes. yes, these cars are a dying breed, and its all of them really and you can see it here on CL even. early Lexus vehicles are finally dying off and in alarming numbers. they have finally reached the age of not old enough to be an antique but almost, and too old to be taken seriously and just written off by most. hell even the enthusiasts have grown bored and moved on to newer cars. i go to the junkyard to get parts for my cars and its not a mad dash to get to the recently totaled one that just hit the yard. last 3 LS400s i pulled parts from were 90% intact shortly before being crushed. why? people just arent interested in them anymore and the few that are still hanging around people are not fixing. not enough supply to really even be a demand.

even more so on the other models. 2GS are vanishing and 1GS are almost extinct as i really dont see them at all anymore outside well worn junkyard examples. i dont ever see early es300s anymore and i thought the 250s were all long gone till a fresh one went cruising by me in traffic a few days ago and i almost had to blink my eyes at the thought id seen a ghost!

these are the greatest cars of the 90s and honestly its sad that there are so few left. they are not bad cars, its just that you can kick an old loyal dog around for so long before they get tired. these cars have fully aged out well past their life expectancy and now their reliability without major work being done to keep them alive. theres a whole adult generation that doesn't know a world without Lexus, but also have never experienced just how amazing the old ones really were, and if they do get a chance to drive an old one, its usually some friend of theirs absolutely clapped out bomb, therefore ruining the whole experience of what these cars really represented. i work at a lexus dealership as a Technology Specialist. one of my co-workers drives a 07 ES350 but was having trouble with it so he hitched a ride home with me and he had only ridden in one LS400 years before that was absolutely on its last leg and kept saying, "wait, THIS is an LS400??!?" REALLY I CANT BELIEVE THIS IS AN LS400!!" -basically assuming they were all horrible bombs like his friends was. first impressions can mean everything i guess..

for those of us that drive the older models, especially the nice ones, bravo to you all! someones gotta keep these cars around for future generations to experience. and its sad that so many never will....

AgentWin

I see plenty of old Lexus around here. It's just there is a lot of cars out in the market with better technology, daily drivability, etc...for the same price. Truth is, I appreciate older cars for what they are. And more power to u for keeping it going.

mmarshall

I am quite familiar with both the 90s vintage LS400 and Cadillac Seville. I agree wth you and our friend that the LS of that period was a far better car quality-wise, except for undersized (for the car's weight) front brake rotors that tended to warp from heat buildup. But the ride of the DeVille, at least in my book, was definitely NOT garbage, if you look at it as a straight-luxury car, without any sporting pretenses. The DeVille would just glide over bumps like they weren't there. Sure, the handling was boat-like, as it was on most of the big RWD body-on-frame cars of the period (except maybe for the Chevy Caprice police-interceptor)...but one buys a DeVille for cruising-comfort, not to go canyon-carving.

And, BTW, congratulations for keeping that old LS running so long. A former neighbor of mine (who has since moved) had a 1999 LS400, with over 200K miles on it, that he still used as a daily driver.

Stroock639

someone traded in an 8th gen de ville and i remember also thinking what a pile of crap it seemed like quality-wise in the interior compared to my even older LS, everything was wearing noticeably and the buttons all felt cheap and flimsy... after all this time passes it's very clear to see why the LS costs more

but yea when i'm in the zone driving i too can forget that i'm in something over 20 years old, especially at night when all you see are the 'nifty' (lexus customer word) backlight gauges seemingly just floating there and all the buttons are lit up in that soothing 90s toyota green light... the main thing that dates the driving experience is just how airy the cabin is and the fantastic visibility out of the big windows

now that lexus has to spread its attention across so many more models, doesn't really need to prove itself anymore, and things need to have more 'sportiness' now, the LS 400 is probably the best car we'll ever see never to be repeated

Kennyr44

I drove a 1991 LS400 for 15 years up until 3 years ago. What a fantastic car. I was at 198k when I decided it was time to move on to something more updated with newer amenities. My 91 was still in unbelievable condition. I miss it and probably should have kept it in my fleet but I’m against hoarding. I was at my dentist and it was there in the parking lot. The new owner had already trashed it. Dents and interior crapped out and all. After a 3 year stint in a LS460 I moved on again because I wanted better ground clearance, blind spot monitor and all the new safety features. I feel like I’m in a good place now.
I would like to say this is a great forum I enjoy so much even though I don’t own a Lexus at this time. The Grand Cherokee forum is awesome also. The Hyundai forum is a bit of a culture shock. More of a mix including way more people from different backgrounds. Their spelling may be off at times and their wallets are smaller but the same enthusiasm for their cars is there.

Toys4RJill

Interesting read.

Crazy to think of current perceptions and realities today. In 1990, GM sold 175,000 Fleetwood/Devilles under the Cadillac banner, and in all the Chevy or Buick’s of the platform. Then the decline, ongoing and ongoing. I recall the SLS and STS and the move to FWD. Meanwhile Lexus took the long room, slow and steady, making better cars. Better motors. Better interiors. Better designs. How could GM not see the future?

Kira X

iTrader: (24)

This was a good read. The LS400 is the most common 1990’s Lexus I see on the road, followed by the GS and ES. The first generation LS400 is pretty rare compared to the 95+ models though. There is a big demand for the older cars in my area but people rarely want to sell their old Lexus. It sucks that parts are harder to come by now. LS400’s rarely get stripped down at the local junkyard though.

It’s interesting you mentioned you’re a Technology Specialist. I’m a Delivery Specialist at my Lexus dealership and the younger employees are always fascinated by the clean older cars that come in. We get the occasional extremely low mileage 90’s Lexus or imported Toyota Soarer that draws a massive crowd at work.

SW17LS

It just really goes to show you how great these cars were for their era, and how ahead of their time they were. Even compared to similar age E Classes or even W140 S Classes, those cars were really well made but they were archaic inside next to the LS400. Cadillacs and Lincolns of the era were just blown away by the LS. It wasn't just the quality and the drive, the switchgear was on a whole other level, the readouts and displays, the optitron gauges.

I remember when we got ours, people were just astonished when they rode in it by how quiet it was, and how smoothly it rode, and how smooth and quiet the engine was. It was just exponentially better than other cars of the era.

Driving a new/newer LS today people don't react the same way. Its not that its less smooth and quiet and well made, its just that cars in general are much better today than they were then, and cars like the LS (and S Class etc) aren't as heads and shoulders better today.