I was one who has owned a LS400, LS460 and a few LS460's. I will agree the LS430 was a very comfortable car and was a little more stately than the LS460. The 460 leaned a little more towards a sport luxurious car, it's going with the trends right now and it's what people wanted.

A LS430 is way cheaper, even a mint one than a 2007-2010 LS460. You fall back in tech and driving features (the tech behind what a modern car offers). If you're Ok with this, then all good for you.

The big change with the LS460 is timing belt vs, timing chain. The belt will offer smoother performance but, by the book it needs to be replaced every 60K miles (this is a HUGE job, well over $1k even with small shops).

If your shopping for a LS430, make sure the timing belt was done, if not, get it done and take a discount based on costs...

Mine was the trunk. Let it go and it would drop really hard, if your hand was there, it would cut it off. At least 3rd party shocks were like $25 at the time and best money I have spent on that car.

 

What’s odd is how the 460 SWB weighs about 250lbs more in weight than the 430, while being just barely an inch or so longer, and about 1 inch wider.

The 460 masks it’s weight very well I would say and I wonder were that extra weight came from because 250lbs might not sound like a lot, but if you have had anyone over 200lbs get into your car, you can usually feel the additional weight in the vehicle and does make a difference in how the car handles.

Also I don’t think Lexus curb weight specs are entirely accurate because they are not addressing added weight from additional features and optional packages that can add a significant amount of weight to the cars base model.

Air suspension isn’t taking into account, nor the additional A/C components for rear seat passengers, including reclining seats all which add more pounds to a car.

I will have to say the pinnacle of Toyota and Lexus interior quality ended in 2006 with LS 430 and the ES 300-330. The RX300 for instance has wonderful thick and solid door panels with nice solid sounding doors vs the RX330 which suffered badly from interior quality issues. I can’t speak for the newer Lexus models, so I could be wrong.

All of Toyota/Lexus interiors from the 90’s and parts of the early 2000’s had this softly padded vinyl on the lower door cards that had this nice leather looking
texture to it. fitment was great, no super cheap plastics to break apart. Paint quality was excellent as well.

Although they are very dated looking vehicles today,
I wouldn’t mind owning a beater 90’s Toyo just to have as a backup car. But at the same time, I really like the 430’s now, and do plan on buying one in the future but I really want one in black with the UL package.

Its styling is also very dated now, but they look really good in dark colors with those Benz style chrome wheels.

 

90k miles, but very good point.

Its the more sophisticated suspension setup in the LS460, multi-link front vs double wishbone in the 430.

I wouldn't go that far. My 13-17 refresh 460s had incredibly high quality interiors, and my 13 GS350 also had an incredibly high quality interior. The LC of today has an incredibly high quality interior.

 

The interiors especially the dash and center console on the 13-17’s look like they are much higher quality than the 07-12 models so I’ll give you that.

I just think the 07-12 Lexus vehicles in general took a huge hit in interior materials quality, but then recovered and improved in the refresh and new model years.

Yes, the 460’s suspension design has more moving parts which can add weight. What’s interesting is that I read an old Car&Driver article last night talking about the new 460 when it came out and how Lexus added 375lbs of weight to the car over the 430, but said most of the additional weight came from added accessories and not because of increased in mass of the body itself.

It said that the subframe is made out of aluminum vs steel on the 430 and more parts in general used more aluminum to save on weight, yet the car still weighs a lot more than the 430 by hundreds of pounds so using lighter weight parts sort of defeated the purpose.

Also an old motor-trend article from 2007 says that the curb weight is actually about 4500lbs for the SWB version! They could be wrong however, but then the C&D article states the curb weight ratings are anywhere from 4500-4600lbs on their test drive.

I kinda felt like these cars weight ratings are under spec'd from the factory because every time I need to jack up my 460, it takes a lot of effort from my scissor jack compared to even my older Classic Lincoln’s which weigh about 5,000lbs each.

At least in the 460’s there is no timing belt to change nor any power steering fluid or pump to deal with like was mentioned. All better for reliability and saves on maintenance cost.

Check out the weight ratings.

 

They absolutely did

It didnt defeat the purpose, it kept it from being even heavier. The 430 is a much less sophisticated car than the LS460, the 460 is much more like a Mercedes, all of that complexity adds weight, and aluminum is used to try and combat that weight.

 

The LS460 is a far stronger, stiffer car, much lighter suspension actually even with more arms since they are all forged alum not steel. The actual weight of a RWD SWB with full tank is 4232lb on a scale, an LS430 is 3990 and that small weight difference is totally worth it with how much tighter, stable, and powerful an 460 is as well are more quiet of a car on DB meter