When I saw that mileage I thought it was a misprint. Once I found out it was in fact 1000 miles, I put a deposit on it and drove down to pick it up the next week. It’s really difficult to find this exact spec down here for some reason.


“What year was that Buick? If it was a 1996 it got the updated 3800 S/C with 240/280. Ultimate sleeper. I saw one just like yours a few weeks back and posted it in an "under appreciated survivor" FB group and it got tons of hate, but a decent amount of love. I would drive a car with that engine happily, still today.

That thing would roast half of today's cars off the line or from a slow roll assuming you don't roast the tires”


You know your Buick’s! Unfortunately it was a 95 so it had the series 1 supercharger. Still was the 3800 sleeper but parts for the Series 1 were discontinued and I’d have to do a bunch of searching for the supercharger parts which is the parts that started giving trouble towards the end. I wanted to swap it for a Series 2 or 3 but I figured I’ll let someone else try that.

I’m 45 years old and back when I was in my senior year (94) and after HS I worked at a Buick dealer on cars as a class B/C tech while I was going to General Motors school. Never actually followed through on that career but I worked for the dealer for about three years. When this car came out, I couldn’t get over how nice of a car they were. I got the luxury of transporting these from Jersey to Ling Island, NY at times (only 18 years old) and I couldn’t believe how much power these things had. I always wanted one from back then and so I ventured out and found this one. Parts are ultra cheap, easy to work on car and it actually got 28 mpg on the hwy. Heated seats, rear dim mirror, quad horns, supercharged, dual zone climate, soft close trunk, air ride rear suspension which I replaced and the compressor still worked. This car was ahead of it’s time. I added Apple car play and a nice system to it and wired in a 360 max radar detector so I had all the creature comforts of today’s car. It was fun but the ES purchase was inevitable after a few months of messing with it. Great cars and the guy who bought it still has it as he’s a local here in Charlotte.





Welcome back![/QUOTE]

I hear you on that one and I’d say most average around town drivers will have an electric car in the near future. I’m no stranger as well when it comes to DIY maintenance if you look in my history. Changed the plugs on the GS350, RX330, LS460 and the ES350. The LS is a breeze compared to the RX or ES due to the RWD vs FWD configuration. The technology has come a long way and is getting better year after year. I usually drive 700-1200 miles in a 5 day work week so an electric car is out of the question for me.

 

That's Nice, Good Read!

 

I don't understand why you do your own oil changes. Seems like you have enough money to pay someone to do it .
Just an observation....

 

I think that was my response to one I saw, lol. Yeah the '96 got the 240/280....point is ANY vehicle with a 3800 past 1987 or so felt punchy, great torque. Even if they weren't that objectively fast, 3800 was perfect for cut and thrust in traffic, off the line, etc. We had a Toronado and it would move if you booted it, my mother had a very slow car then but when she drove that Olds she gunned it a lot. Same with the Silhouette. I would drive a N/A 3800 over any of today's crap in mainstream cars in the same league as those back then, with a few exceptions. S/C would be nice.

https://www.roadandtrack.com/car-cul...rtrJQ1iU5h0cqM

"On the move, the Touring Sedan exhibits a torquey authority from the low-tech 3800 Series V6, combined with silent, seamless automatic shifts. It's more than fast enough to keep up with modern traffic, and it can return economy-car mileage numbers when driven carefully. There has been a lot of effort expended in the past ten years to make the current crop of turbo-four-bangers work as well in daily driving as this 31-year-old powertrain does, and most of that effort has been unfulfilling."

That last sentence is legit.

 

Some people really enjoy doing their own maintenance. For instance, I mow my own lawn and all of that and I can afford someone to do that, I just prefer to do it myself.

 

Very enjoyable thread!!!

MMade22, if I ever made my way to North Carolina -- the 1-owner-before-me 2013 L that I purchased was originally sold by, and serviced at, Hendrick -- would you be willing to teach me a thing or two about maintaining/"operating on" my vehicle? I'm mesmerized by some of the tear-down images, and efforts.

I'll generalize this a bit to those in, or closer to, Massachusetts - anyone willing to guide me a bit in-person/on-site on maintaining my vehicle?

I love DIY stuff; I've done some on other cars; and I'm reasonably smart, and handy. But, in general, people in this section of CL take things to another level. And, if/when I have the need, I'd like to be able to at least realistically consider whether I'd want to engage something involving.

PMs are fine with me on this, as I don't want to take this thread off topic; although, I believe my post is relevant to the general spirit of this thread.

 

I've been on a similar car model journey the past 14 years. Started with an ES300, RX330, ES, LS, ESh, ES, Mercedes E350, Mercedes GLK and back to an LS. Mercedes are nice cars with great options and engineering, but more expensive to maintain. My current LS460 hasn't needed more than tires, brakes and fluids. I'm alone in my car and don't drive much as I'm retired. But an LS is hard to beat for comfort and dependability. If I relocate to FL from CA, I'll get an RX so I can tow a small boat and fish my Golden Years away. The LS is perfect for the cross county drive.

 

Best advice I can give you is to procure a full set of OEM Factory Repair Manuals for your year, make and model. Knowledge is power. First time you use them to fix your car, they will pay for themselves.

 

Florida......why......?

It is hard to beat our weather here in "America's Finest City".

 

Do you wash your own car too ? I still do.....but then I am old school. And yes, I cut my own grass.....and yes, I clean and maintain my own pool...and, yes, I still climb my palm trees to trim them

mmade22 is very much like myself. I will do everything possible myself before I take my car into the Lexus dealer or any other mechanic shop. After reading thru this thread, I can see that mmade22 is very mechanically inclined and can take on most automotive tasks. So oil changes are a no-brainer for most here in this forum, but it seems most people who buy an expensive car like an LS460 would take their cars in for service. Even the basics...

 

Lol give it time, we were the same way when we bought our house. But our yard is a slight PITA. Just sold my mower.

 

I'm confused as to why you don't understand why he likes to do his own maintenance then...

I wash my own cars sometimes. I do my own detailing but I dont love actually washing cars.

As for them being expensive, a 2013 LS460L is 8 years old at this point, going on 9...no longer an expensive car. I would agree most people who buy a 80k+ car new don't do their own maintenance but you will find people that do.

I'll keep mowing it. I have people take care of the other stuff.

Thats the key to me, I do what I like doing and don't do what I don't like doing.

 

Same here. Been mowing since I was a kid. It's enjoyable, easy since I own a 0 lot home, and doesn't take too long. I also maintain my bushes. If I can do something I do it. I change all the faucets, replace toilets, repair sheet rock, paint, etc in my home. Why? Because I can. I can't work on a car so I leave it to the pros. But if I could I would.

 

I didn’t mind at first and our neighbor sold us their riding lawn mower for like $200. We sold the push mower we had when we bought riding. It was old but worked fine but started to fall apart just normal cheap things. So then it’s like ok great how do I mow my yard? So I have to go rent a trailer and sign 70 things at Home Depot and deal with all that to tow it somewhere to wait a month for it to be fixed. Our lawn guy is cheapppp and great.

There are household chores I like, I like pressure washing the side of my house and cleaning gutters, pulling vines. Mowing, after you get a mower you never go back. At least we won’t.

 

What I like about mowing is nobody can bother me. I can't text, can't talk on the phone. And its done the way I want it done.

This is why you buy new stuff. My cousin went through this down in WV, he bought a bunch of cheap, used mowers and had endless problems. Finally he broke down and bought a nice new mower and life is good.

When you use other peoples old discarded stuff, you have issues.

This is also why I like my electric lawnmower and yard tools. No maintenance.