Tommyboy72

Lets not get carried away, I own a very competent leaf spring suspension car though the layout is different than most.

My experience owns lots of different cars over the past 20 years to including racing and working on many more than that leads me to believe brands like Toyota and Honda really engineer their parts to last. On top of that their build quality tends to be higher as well. Nissan used to fall into this group but my experience with their last 5 year products (Titan and 350z in particular) has been disappointing - someone at Nissan failed brake engineering school and plastic mold design school.

Being new to the LS400, my observation is that they are very well engineered and built as you would expect from Toyota. Putting it on the lift and going over it inside and out the things that have failed are simply the ones that either had a ton of use or were abused. For example the Climate control display is fuzzy due to apparent use of something like armor-all that deteriorated the clear lens, same with the mechanical odometer. However the engine and transmission work like new with over 100k miles on them, the steering wheel, seats, etc all work within the expect spec.

Of all those cars I've raced, worked on, or even just has as a rental, the Lexus scores very highly in my book. I would put it up against any other car with the same mileage and I bet it would fair very well in failure rates and cost of maintenance.

PureDrifter

iTrader: (10)

competent, but think about how the corvette COULD be with full IRS in the rear

jcrome04

It's just a Chevy that might be asking a little much hehe

(jk to any Chevy lovers! )

Bill Dowd

give the Buick just a little time and all will be forgotten the Buick will never last as long as Lexus not in a million years.

LexFather

B/C its is part of the company mantra. Lexus may not win "cool" points for being passionate about quality but that is where it lies.

Lexus has been so good, they made EVERYONE step their quality game up. Consumers from Kias to Benzs have won out b/c lil ole Lexus came in 1989 and changed the game.

Tons of PRIDE is taken with building the best built car. It may not win awards with enthusiasts, but the gospel has spread....

Tommyboy72

True. Its definitely not the best handling car just competent. The Miata and E36 M3 are far better out of the box, they just dont have the tire size or power to match.

GRAND_LS 4

iTrader: (2)

There is a logical reason for having a language censor, please stop tripping the censor.

kens97sto

My 94LS has been really great so far, I now have 184k on it. I have the dash problems, and the climate control LCD issue, but WHO CARES!! It runs fantastic.

The other car I would mention is the 90-97 Mazda Miata... It has the build quality of the Lexus and is made in Japan, but the simplicity others were mentioning. I got a 96 new. I put 100K on it in 3 years, and NEVER PUT A PENNY IN IT!! Not one thing failed. I was delivering pizza in it LOL.. so lots of stop start, going over speedbumps, over the curb into driveways 50 times a day, opening the door 100 times a day. Nothing ever broke...not one thing. Unfortunatly the car has a reputation for being a "girly" car.. It is in fact one of the best handling cars in the world.. out of the box. And the bang for the buck is just unmatched. You can find a nice used one for under $5K. And even if the engine blows eventually, you can get a salvage yard engine for $600.

My friend bought a 96 new in 1997. He had it 7 years and put 190K on it..same deal.. he put 2 batterys in it, brakes, tires, oil changes.. NOTHING ELSE. clutch, all suspension, hoses, all original.

If anybody is interested... is the best forum for the car.
http://miata.net/

www.flyinmiata.com
has go fast parts. My friend had a 95 with the FMII kit. stock internals making 220HP at the wheels... ran for 170K..then valve seal failed... started suckin oil thru it... got a $600 engine with 30K on it.. still running good... ran 13's in the 1/4 at 104MPH... Its a daily driver.

To find cars that are reliable, you really have to research it.. look at Consumer Reports etc. Even some Toyota's/Lexus/Honda's have some less then ideal models that they sell. It really can be model specific.

The LS.... is ddefinatly one of the finest cars ever made... And CR said it was the most reliable used car you could buy... they commented that an 8yr old LS.. was more reliable than a 2006 Benz.

Have a good one..

Ken

Tommyboy72

My last autocross/track car was a fully prep' SCCA CSP 99 Miata. Great cars, the FMII kits are nice and Bill is a great guy as well. I'm actually about to start a SM build with a 94R.

Back on topic, we all judge cars by our experiences or of those we hear/see. In my case, my first three cars were extremely used VWs that I bought from my parents in the late 80's/early 90s. Each was a POS, probably due to a lot of reasons but I've avoided them ever since despite really liking the R32. I really like Toyotas because of experiences with 4runners and their pickups just running forever. I'm sure we all have stories like this, it carries on to other things as well such the way IT guys pick their personal hard drives.

I'm just baffled by someone who bashed a fairly higher end car (aka not very cheap) they've owned, not one but FOUR of them - thats confusing. I only owned the VWs because I was a teen and each was less than $1000. Around here we call that a slow learner.