Overall the LS430 is said to be a smoother ride but you could easily put some 17" wheels with thick sidewalls on the LS460. Probably save you a lot on trading it back in for an 04. Don't get me wrong, do what you want but the 460 is a beautiful car. Very expensive to maintain without a warranty though.

 

I was mentioning this in another thread. The LS430 is a car you can feel fairly comfortable about owning without a warranty. The LS460 to me has fallen into the "don't own without a warranty" group like the S Class and 7 Series. Make me sad, because that might mean that the 430 will be the last LS I'll own.

 

I got the continental when I put the rims on the LS very good tires, however for my son IS I went with Michelins.
when time come to replace tires on my LS and my new IS I will got to Michelins
made in the USA

 

My '07 LS 460 was a CPO, but I traded it in over the weekend anyway for an '04 Ultra with 19k miles and Michelin Primacy MXV4s. I just prefer the previous generation: better car, more reliable, smoother ride glad to be back in this cocoon of a car.

 

Lovely. Only 19,000 miles on an 04! Amazing.

 

Wow. 19k on a 2004. That's crazy.

And I did the same. 2004 LS430 to 2010 460L back to 2004 LS430. No regrets. Very much prefer to 430. Congrats on the great find.

If you don't mind me asking, what did you pay for such a pristine, low-mileage 04 UL?

 

I paid $20k. It included the new michelin primacys

 

OK, resurrecting an old thread. I just had 4 of the "new and improved" Michelin Premier A/S installed on the '01, since the Michelin MXV4 is discontinued in 17". ($100 rebate on 4 at Discount Tire.) Had over 65K miles on the MXV4's and there was still 4/32 tread depth remaining. Tread depth of the Premier new is 8.5/32 vs. 11/32 for the Primacy when new. For what it's worth, my salesman said Michelin discontinued the Primacy because it was just too good a tire, and typically lasted longer (with proper rotation and inflation) than expected / warranted. With 263K miles on the clock, this may be the last set of all-season tires for it. We'll see.

 

put mine on in 5/14 and still loving them.i also came from mxv4's.i have the 18" wheels.

 

This is salesman BS lol. They replaced it because it was too good? Ridiculous.

 

Yeah, no kidding.

I've got about 8K miles on my Premiers so far, and they have blown away the multiple sets MXV4 I've had before. Over 1,000 of those miles were on a trip down and up I-95 to Disney, and the Premiers were absolutely amazing. And the MXV4 were the H rated, while my Premiers are V rated. But the Premiers do everything far better, including ride and noise.

We will see how they do long term, but so far, they are fantastic. No way I'm buying anything else in the future if they remain this good for the lifetime of the tire.

 

I've also had multiple sets of Primacy MXV4s, on the ES300, ES350 and the LS430. While I like those tires very much, I never got more than 40k miles out of a set until they were down to 4/32nds which is where I replace tires. Which is pretty similar to the life I've had on these vehicles of other brand tires too.

I wish the Premiers came in the LS460s size I would probably get them, as it is I'm going to go with the Pirelli P7 Plus, which I'm sure will also be an excellent tire.

 

I have the MXV4 on mine, my guess is I'll get a total of 40k miles on them which is about all I can expect. Always had good luck with Michelin tires, they even went out of their way to replace a tire when a screw had gotten into the sidewall even though I didn't have the extra warranty coverage

So far they've been a great with ride and handling, I will say though I was surprised that they seemed to have more road noise than the Continentals I had on before. But the Continentals were otherwise absolute junk. Chunks of rubber were coming out of them even though they still had a good amount of tread left.

I've toyed with the idea of putting some aftermarket 16" wheels and making it really smooth. I had an ES with 15" wheels and Michelin tires and you thought you were on a hovercraft it was so smooth. I don't know how they can make a car ride smooth with these new 19" and 20" rims from the factory

 

Are you on 18's Brad? The drop off in tire life between 17 and 18 inch is a decent amount.

Most 16" rims and under will not clear the front disk calipers.

 

Was there a change in the LS430's brakes from 2001, 2002 and onward?

Because the 2001 and 2002 LS had standard 16" wheels, with no issues with clearing the brake calipers obviously:

2001 (obviously the OEM rims weren't chrome):



2002 (same wheels as the 2000 400 Platinum series, just painted vs machined):