but my eyes are often bigger than the trunk. Once I got a 60 qt cooler at Costco and figured it would fit in the trunk. Not even close, it barely fit in the car at all lol

But seriously I do love the size whether I need it or not, and appreciate the expensive design with the struts. Reality is to lose 4 cu ft to have a cheap spring mechanism with arms.

 

John I had a Volkswagen GLI with hood struts, the design is not a new concept to me nor are the benefits of such a mechanism.

However theres a big difference between a well executed strut design and a poor one. The GLIs trunk was great — it would lower itself slowly and under control. The 430s trunk lid may as well be a guillotine once it starts going.

 

Sorry, but I don't agree. My 335i has struts, and it does not "lower itself slowly and under control," it's physics. A vehicle with a cheap spring doesn't close on its own at all, it requires a motor, or in the case of average and normal cars, it requires the user to push it down. Most people are used to this and therefore slam the LS' trunk. Does a hood with struts, lower itself? At what point do we say, first world problems?

 

First world problem, no doubt. Lol!

 

I will say this....I have never owned a car with soft close doors, and I want them! lol And for what possible reason?! When I was at the BMW event, I did not let the Alpina B7 and M5 soft close, I basically slammed them as I would with any car (not abusively, but not acknowledging that they shut on their own). That's what imho happens with the LS trunk with others who slam it...it's heavy, and they are not used to gently shutting it and letting the actuator do its thing...

 

The design is all about increasing the trunk space. Over the years I have crushed items in the trunk with the support arm for the trunk lid.
It's a lovely elegant design, but no it does not pop open.
Tony Soprano liked it, room enough for two bodies in the LS trunk.

 

I too was pretty surprised at how hard this trunk is to open. I can imagine an elderly person having a lot of trouble getting this trunk open, and that's the group this car was and is tailored towards. Mine even has new trunk struts, but alas its still difficult. Still love the car. This is probably my least favorite aspect, and thats not sayin much.

 

Great, I'm not the only person who believes that the struts are an expensive design (imagine pulling into the dealership and telling them to replace them, probably over $300 for the work). If car cos. are eliminating rear fixed calipers even up to $150k cars, we can believe eliminating gas struts is so-called low hanging fruit. Those struts have to cost Toyota $5 each, huge. Car cos. look to change out fasteners that are < $0.50, times x number per vehicle, times # of vehicles...

 

I am not really surprised it doesn't open all the way. Mine doesn't even open enough to be able to tell it's even unlocked. That's what annoys me; if I have a load of bags I would like a little assistance from the vehicle getting in.

I can hold down the unlock button to automatically unlock doors, roll down all four windows plus open the sunroof halfway but I can't get the trunk to open 2 inches...

 

When our LS430 (an '01) needed to have the trunk struts replaced (because the worn out ones were a huge safety issue) it was surprising how inexpensive (for a Lexus) the replacements cost ($30-40 for a pair!!).

When we finally got the correct ones (a finger check by the wife resulted in SC430 versions which we had to swap) it took me a while to "learn the trick" on that first one but once mastered the other one was less than 30 seconds.

Later, I ended up replacing the hood struts which is a bit more involved but fairly straight forward (please, remember to support the hood with something during the process) and also relatively inexpensive for the replacements.

With both completed the end results are fairly satisfying once you except the trunk limitations. In contrast, though, the electric trunk on the LS460 will really spoil a former LS430 owner.....

 

My wife has mentioned that it would be nice to be able to open and close the trunk by pushing a button. I think mainly this is because of the effort to lift the trunk lid. She is shorter and smaller than me, so I can see this is not fun for her...

 

Imagine this, what if the trunk lid were light and tinny, and reverberated when it got shut? My 1998 Nissan Maxima is like that, and it does have a cheap spring mechanism that takes up space, and when electrically released, it pops up a few inches. For me, that would cheapen the LS430. But seems to be what people want. Well, this was a late 2000 early 2001 car where auto mfgs were trying to make things well and had the budget. There's no problem getting the Maxima like trunk on a brand new car today, as the trend has gone towards cost-cutting. cheap, light, easy to open and shut.

 

I recently changed my front hood and trunk gas lifts and it is SO NICE. Owned the car for over a year with both of them shot. Best part is I got each pair for around $12 shipped. If anyone is interested I'll link them. I can lift the trunk with 1 finger, once it opens half-way, the gas pistons kick in and it open by itself!

 

Yes I would very much like the link for this part @bd3471 !

 

I ordered mine from AliExpress, which is like Chinese Amazon. Make sure to chose the one shipping from the US. https://www.aliexpress.com/item/3282...1d614c4d0e9zqQ. If you're not comfortable with the site, you can also get them on Amazon for $19
The only tool needed is a flat head screwdriver!

For me, the trunk lifts fit perfectly but the hood lift required a bit of modification with an angle grinder to fit perfectly.