Striker223

True but you can easily cheat it on the German cars, brakes in particular since it's easy to find the alternatives from the same factory. My W12 costs $5500 for brakes at Audi, or you can buy the same brakes for $1100 and self install more easily than the LS460. The Audis self retract the rear brakes and you don't even need to take the caliper bracket off, fronts have a much more advanced caliper design with faster to remove pads and everything is coated to not rust or fight.

The UR engine is prone to many of the same issues as the comparable German V8s problem is you can't even bring the 4.7 S class TTV8 into the comparison even if it does have more issues because it so badly outclasses the UR engines.

Air suspension is still optional to this day on the LS, that's more of an A6/E class tier thing for that to be optional. It also breaks a lot and isn't rebuildable so for a similar spec maxed out LS vs a near base German the LS is going to have less options to deal with it. What about spring suspension you ask? Well again if you want OE on a Lexus like I did the damn LS430 sport suspension costs $110 MORE a corner than the air struts in my 4.0 A8

I've worked on near all these cars and owned a bunch of them at the same time, I kept the 460 and would consider another one in AWD to supercharge so it's more on the same level as my other ones. The 430 broke so much and was so expensive in parts I got rid of it after 80k miles because I like cars to have nothing wrong. The LS430 drives fine with things less than perfect, it masks issues well, but I don't like that and it constantly breaks and requires my attention.

My wife drove the 430 after I got the 460 and now drives the 460 after I moved up to the A8s, she was CONSTANTLY coming and complaining to me if little issues in the 430 that I would need to fix. Stupid **** like abs sensor intermittent codes, dash rattle due to the heater core pipes touching at 2100 rpm, suspension issues and complaints of wandering/tram lining, vents getting stuck and needing disassembled and dealt with, headlights needing HIDs replaced more often than expected (I did it 3 times), random engine shake that can't be reproduced, random idle drops that required me to take the whole intake off and clean those stupid air mix paths, etc etc etc

She has complained ONCE about the 460, and that was for me to program her key to return the car to her default settings when she approaches it. On the flip side she praises it unprompted and cares enough to actually keep it clean/empty inside. It also has yet to give me an issue other than the ones I bought it with that I fixed ONCE and they haven't come back. Took me less time and parts cost than the 430 as well, front suspension complete replacement was also cheaper.

BB9

I had multiple European cars in the past (BMW, several VAGs, even Opel, LOL), I had 4 Toyotas and the ES350 before I decided to go for the LS460. Most of these cars were very cheap and easy to maintain and some, obviously not. So, here's my story. When I was looking for my next car I did some home work and I figured that I want normally aspirated V8, rear wheel drive, full size luxury sedan. I decided not to go for ze Germans because of my previous experience and some feedback from current owners and mechanics, so the next option was the LS. LS430 is very nice, but the newest LS430 in existence is 18 years old (never mind LS400) and as good as it might be it is still an 18 years old car, not a viable solution for me. So the next closest thing is LS460, but it is not as reliable as LS430, costs more to maintain and it is also out of production by now. So what is the solution? Find the newest one and with the lowest mileage possible and make sure you ready to pay the price. I was sleeping on this dilemma for a few months. Eventually I found the last production year LS460 with 29K miles, Lexus certified, with warranty and such and my boy, it was expensive. I mean like ES350 x 2 expensive, but it worth it. I'm not going to cry if I have to shell some money out to get it fixed when warranty expires and something breaks because I researched it before, I knew about all these potential issues, I knew that keeping this luxury sedan running is going to be expensive, I accepted it and I bought it. End of story. If I wanted cheaper to maintain luxury sedan I would just keep my ES350 UL (really nice car BTW). At the end I got exactly what I wanted, I am happy with the car, I'm very particular about maintaining it the best I can and trying to be careful with it. I think this whole firestorm about this video posted on the Care Care Nut channel is rather blown out of proportion because the actual message is not that the car is bad, but rather that before you buy it, do your homework, consider all possible scenarios, be aware of the future expenses and don't expect that $6K LS460 with 7 owners and who knows how many miles on it to save you any money. LOL. And actually, this is not the first time AMD is talking about it. He is very honest and very knowledgeable mechanic and I value his opinion in these matters.

PANICiii

Exactly. He doesn't say not to buy it, but gives a warning (again) about it. He said something I read multiple times here, "buy the most recent, most expensive one you can afford". As you said, he's especially warning his viewers about the "cheaper", lower priced ones. Comes down to you get what you pay for.

All makes sense. Also as someone mentioned, it's true he didn't talk about the brake actuator maybe because he was in the middle of a valley plate repair. But also I don't recall watching him fix a brake actuator issue. Certainly seem less common of an issue than the coolant leak, in Chicago area at least.

texas008

Lexus did pretty good, replaced all four door panels, central console, and glove compartment in 2018 on my 2009 LS460 for free, with invoice price over $12,000.
I'm not sure if any other car brand has done something similar for a 10 year old car.
My 2009 LS460 has 139k now, and all the repairs it ever needed are:
Two round of front control arms (part and labor $800 in 2015 with no-name brand, $1400 in 2024 with Delphi CAs)
Two round of radiator (part $90 in 2015 for no-name brand (Scotty said they are all the same), $200 in 2023 with Denso, with DIY labor)
water pump, belt, hose, thermostat in 2015 ($350 part from rockauto, with DIY labor)
All four brake rotor & pads in 2015 ($600 part and labor)
Tires are another major cost since they don't last long on the LS460.

It's still such a timeless nice car, cruises beautifully on highway and pickup speed quickly whenever needed.

SW17LS

I can’t agree with this for most buyers, this is only because you work on them yourself. If somebody is out hiring a shop to work on them, the LS460 is much cheaper to maintain. The consumables like brakes for instance are dramatically cheaper, tires are cheaper and not in staggered layout like most of the German options…

The LS doesn’t scare non specialty shops like the German cars either, basically anybody will work on it where with the German flagships they turn you away unless it’s a specialty shop

Right now if I compare what I have spent to maintain my S560 vs LS460s at the same point it’s at least twice as much, probably more…and I haven’t gotten into any real repairs

HJP12

Statistically how many LS460's have been built, what % are still on the road and what % are major problem free after 70,000 -100,000 plus miles and can you look at the %'s by each model year? I do not know the answer but I think that would be very relevant data rather than focusing on the cars that the Car care nut guy services.

Gerf

There is info here,

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/ls-...uild-info.html

Tdes395

if you talk long enough you eventually end up where I started. You and sw17LS are doing that very well and validating the points that I and others have made in the process in other threads. Eventually this conversation is just a merry-go-round. I got off a long time ago, but you two just continue to keep on enjoying those revolutions, I’m throwing my lit cigarette into the gasoline behind me.

SW17LS

No, we don’t. The LS460 is not a Camry, it needs to be compared to similar caliber vehicles and when compared to those similar caliber vehicles it’s the most reliable and least costly vehicle to operate. That does not mean it is an inexpensive vehicle to operate, it’s not.

Striker is only correct because he does his own work, when you are paying someone else to work on the car the LS460 is much cheaper to maintain than a comparable German car. I know, I have had both and paid the professionals to maintain both.

JRA2000TL

^ All of this. AMD's targeting the "budget luxury" crowd picking up $6k 07 models and then acting shocked when the whole car has to be rebuilt. There's no such thing as a cheap luxury car. I did the same thing as you, but my budget was smaller---bought the newest, most expensive, well-maintained LS460 that I could with the options I wanted. OEM control arms done at 64k, plugs and brake flush done at 64k; it's at Lexus now getting the valley plate leak fixed at 85k. There's 2 of the big 3 done and all the previous maintenance to show that it has been a good car and taken care of. I lowered by budget for an LS because I'll have to replace my daily commuter, 11 ES UL with 198k, in a year or 2 with another one---6th Gen for around $20k. I sacrificed buying an almost new ES to replace my other one to buy an LS460 and an older ES again as a commuter.

So many people buy cars without knowing anything about them. Oh, look at that huge luxurious Lexus, and it's less than $10k! They last forever! It's a Toyota! That's his target crowd. Seems like you get opposite ends of the spectrum owners. The aforementioned type buyers and the rest of us that know what we're getting into. No, I'm not looking forward to keep dumping thousands of dollars into it, but I was also dumping thousands of dollars into my old crappy project Taurus SHOs out of nostalgia from my younger days---and they were still $3000 cars. At least this one can be relied upon to drive. As I get older, I'm getting tired of working on cars. Don't even get me started on the use of aftermarket parts and having to do jobs over again due to their poor quality. (hardly any OEM parts available on 30 year old Fords) Working on the LS seems intimidating, other than basic maintenance. I've done significant auto repair work, but some of this I don't want to touch.

HJP12

Now how to find out statistical Info on repairs, I'm sure Lexus would have this for warranty repairs but not out of warranty unless maybe if it was done at a dealer. If 10% of 460's air suspension fails at 100,000 miles or sooner then 90% are good and so on????

Marc780

Never say never, I can't think of any consumer good except cars, whose price can vary so widely over the same product. There are many sellers who might be offering a bargain on 4 wheels for any number of reasons, often they just need the money fast and might accept any offer that's even close. The point is there are probably lots of LS's you can afford to get, if not now then later on. I didn't know I needed an LS460, until the first test drive of one, after I spent months looking for a used ES350 and realized I didn't really like any of them. I felt the ES350's were lacking something but I didn't know what. But once I started test driving LS460's, I realized this was the actual car I really wanted, and finally quit looking at the ES350's after all.

Tdes395

Does anyone know if there is a TSB for the valley plate leak? I’d be curious to see what it says

SW17LS

So right now my S560 is sitting at 48,500 miles, I added up what I have spent in maintenance from new through now this includes brakes and tires...$7,503.35

My 2017 LS460L through the same mileage I spent $2,940.54.

So as you can see, just in regular maintenance and upkeep the S560 is dramatically more expensive to maintain than the LS460. Both the S560 and the LS460L were serviced the first couple times at the dealer and then at an independent mechanic.

HushedRide

Those are both really good numbers imo. I let some idiot on MBWorld dissuade me from buying the 222 due to reliability. Seeing that makes me regret the decision twice! We’ll switch at some point though. Really not a priority for how little I drive.