Hey guys! I finally fell for the Lexus Kool Aid.....Got an UNBELIEVABLE deal on an immaculate 04 silver/silver LS with 70k....I actually pay less now per month than I did for my 2006 Acura TL.

The car is absolutely fabulous. I loved my Acura, but was tired of shifting gears, and no matter what I did I could not get the car to ride smooth....lol the ride problem is definitely solved! I about fall asleep lol....I was sick of the edgy sportiness and wanted just 100% luxury, and this car certainly delivers!! I hate to sound whatever, but I kinda like knowing I'm cruising around in a 60k FLAGSHIP Lexus....who cares it's old, it certainly has plenty of life left!

Great, great car! I absolutely love it...all the little details...like how the ambient lighting brightens in park, the way all the storage stuff, glove box, oh ***** handles open with a damper, I even noticed there are little lights in the seat belt buckles to help you find them! Wow, details!

Now I'm a car nut, so I don't even need to ask you how reliable these cars are lol....there is absolutely nothing wrong with it, other than a bolt (or something of the like) is loose on the driver's seat which makes it move (which the dealership is fixing tomorrow)...and, the adaptive headlight light doesn't come on, but I've noticed that the swiveling/leveling lights do in fact work...so who cares, I guess?

Tell me, is there any point in driving in S? I mean, does it change the shift patterns or is it just there to use the steptronic? I can't really tell a difference. I can't really tell a difference in "power" vs "normal" either, but perhaps it just needs to adapt to my driving style. I absolutely love the way it just melts through the gears, always changing at 2k, when you pull away from a light. This car imparts luxury like NO OTHER.

In the manual there is a diagram of just seat heaters, but mine has a little picturegram of a fan...so does this mean I don't have heated seats, but warm air will blow?

And, finally, A GRAND(????!!!!???!?!?!) for the dealer to install XM? Is that a joke? My 30k Acura came with it standard. Guess they figure people well off enough to drop 60k can afford another thousand, but I personally do not fall into that wealthy category and think it's ridiculous. Any cheap fixes, etc?

I know from general knowledge that these are extremely reliable cars, but just how long do they usually last when maintained properly? 250k?

 

Welcome!

- If you have perforated leather, you have seat cooling in addition to heat. Look at the ***** on the center stack and there should be blue toward the left (cooling) and red toward the rignt (heat).

- The feel of running in power mode or setting the transmission to sport mode is fairly subtle in both cases. I no longer bother and just enjoy the ride.

- As for longevity, a well-maintained LS should last well beyond 250K. There will be rather high scheduled maintenance costs and likely replacement of items like mirror motors/controls, steering column motors, and air suspension components on a UL.

 

I find the manual shift thing kind of silly on a car like this and almost never use it. The PWR switch on the other hand definitely sharpens up the throttle, especially at light throttle. It'll be more eager to hold onto gears too. Sport mode on the suspension (UL) also tidies the handling up a lot when you're in the mood.

Do you know what package you have yet (ML, CL, UL, Premium, Base)?

I don't think the AFS (adaptive headlight thingy) light should ever be on unless there's a problem or you turn AFS OFF with the switch near the driver's left knee.

Get to know the owner's manual - there are dozens of features in the LS you'll likely never find otherwise. For example, did you know you can program different door unlock patterns?

Some fun things to check out if you haven't noticed them yet that I think are on all packages are: little fold-down sun block above the rear view mirror, pads between the center console and front seats to keep stuff from falling down, storage drawers in the lower front of the front seats, volume control for the car lock/unlock beep around the driver's knee area, ease of replacement of front A/C filter in the back of glovebox, tons of hidden features and voice control in the nav/radio.. I could go on and on.

 

I paid about 350 for the sirius xm sat radio install. I got th kit off ebay for lik 50 and 300 for the entire install. I would bust out laughing at 1k to do it and had to ask the stereo shop installer if he was serious about the 300 price, but I quickly found out he wasn't joking

The s mode on the shiftint gears thing is in order to use the tiptronic manual shifting mod. Congrats and by the way if u got a UL LS430 they were 80k new

 

I purchased an XM radio from XM (50 bucks) and then had best buy install the radio on the vent on the left side of the wheel.(they charged me $140 to install) They ran the wires behind the dash and out just under the cassette (so one wire is visible from the cassette and then into the top where the disc player is - maybe 2 inches visible) The cassette adaptor is $10 bucks and I think it sounds great.. All in around $200 (if your handy you could prob. do it yourself)

 

Well congrats on a fantastic purchase the LS430 is a great car all around. The question about the seat is you have climate controlled seats meaning they blow warm air and also cool air. The power and normal button changes the shifting slightly in the trans but not enough to really feel a seat of the pants difference.

 

the 's' is just for personal sequential shifting. if you feel the need to overtake another vehicle you can simply downshift instead of depressing the accelerator pedal. both, however, do the same thing.

 

Welcome here


Denis.

 

Sirius was 225 bucks.

 

Welcome! I'm new also and came from the Acura family....a Gen 1 Legend that lasted 356K miles on the C27A motor and original transmission. It's sitting in my garage. I love my 430 and it's in great shape! Good luck!

 

Sweet ride...
I have had an 01 LS for 8 years now and it runs like a top. You can't get the wife out of it.... Everything else is just junk to her now.

 

Good for you. I just bought a 2004 with 36K miles! I'm ecstatic. There are a few problems - No XM and one of the rear speakers is blown. I look forward to reading herein how to address these issues.

I'm sold on Lexus. My previous car was a 01 GS 430 with 147K miles. I'd still be in it if a cabbie hadn't hit us in the side causing it to be totaled.

 

Hey guys, I'm new here as well, I just purchased a 2003 LS 430, great car. I have driven higher end Buicks for yoears (as well as a couple of Lincolns, but may not admit to it in public) and have to say this is by far the best car I have driven.

AJ, Thinkin is right, get to know your owners manual. I have an electronic version...

 

Congrats on the purchase! Welcome

 

Yeah I loved my Acura....those are great cars too, but I was just starting to get a little nervous because I completely ragged that car out, like ridiculously. It was a 6speed TL, and well, a Honda V6 just begs you to wind it out as I'm sure some of you are aware. I floored that car and took it to redline several times EVERY single time I drove it lol. The CV boots were failing and I was just kinda nervous about the little things next. And I know how great of cars Acuras are, but it's just that I ragged that car out THAT MUCH. Lol. The clutch had already been replaced once. I did love that car; that gen TL (2006) was probably the most beautiful Acura ever IMO.

The LS is much more sedate...it's got big speed if you want it, but honestly cruising and enjoying it melt through 5 gears at 2k RPM is every bit as satisfying. I can tell the previous owner was never hard on it, because for the first 3 weeks I had it I thought something was wrong with the transmission programming bc it wouldn't hold gears. Lol, but it's adapted and now is in the correct gear 90% of the time.

I love this car. I put nearly 2500 miles on it in just the first month. I've said this before, but I just didn't realize how nice of a ride/drive this would be. I'm almost ashamed to admit that, as an avid "car guy", but mainly what I was so stoked about is just taking satisfaction in knowing I own a Lexus LS. However I quickly learned after driving it for a while that you really do get what you pay for with cars like this. Rich people really are lucky. It just does EVERYTHING perfectly, with so much precision. There are still things that I'm noticing about it that just amaze me more; you can just tell it was engineered so well (for example, a 2 ton, 290HP V8 car getting 27MPG hwy?? Wow.) I honestly can't think of one single thing I'd change, other than I wish I had the 18 inch rims, but that's aesthetic and easily fixable whenever I have money burning a hole in my pocket.

I'm spoiled for life with this thing. I will drive it for 10 more years, and I know that' won't be a problem because I still see 1 and 2 gen LS400s almost daily. There's plenty of life left. Heck, it barely even seems broken in, with 75k.