Ozzie0607

I'm ok with 1-2k annual maintenance. I want the comfort. I been driving a lotus Elise as daily when my wife's cayenne is with her

SW17LS

$1-2k annual maintenance isn't going to get it done on one of these that old with that kind of regular usage.

LOTS of comfortable cars out there today that are much newer and will take that use better. Hard to buy something thats almost an antique and put 30k miles a year on it. I would look at a much newer Lexus ES in the Lexus family as an example...

S2Kiwi

I've never heard of them going bad outside of very warm climates as well.. food for thought.
Lot in US and AU and not much in NZ here.

Also I'm pretty sure you can rebuild them anyway? It's worth it for the prices they charge.

Striker223

I consider any of these to get great MPG/cheap to fuel vs what I was raised on as "normal" and are incredibly cheap to run if you can work on them yourself....if you can't then it will get very pricy eventually. For that mileage load you should get one that is under 50k miles to start with so that by the time it starts to get old it will also be close to mileing out too, I consider the LS a 300k mile car unless you are committed to a high degree to keep it perfect or within 90% of new performance. Anything over 300k will require some major work as a risk at any time so it would be unwise to rely on it past that IMO unless you pre-emptively rebuild it.

S2Kiwi

Most high comp modern cars run 95 RON here (the grade up from ****/91RON) or better, some of the turbos are 98 (usually98 RON = E-85), I don't miss having to find that back in the mid-late 00s in in high comp modded superbikes.
The efficiency of the 3GS/LS platform is pretty damn good considering they are an older, heavy v8, as long as you are not stopping and starting. It's as good as the average US car and in cruising beats it due to the 8 speed.
The other thing to master with them to get them efficient, is to drive within parameters of the stall converter. Adding a tiny bit more throttle at some points does nothing but force the car harder against the stall converter/slip point. So by backing off 10-15% you go basically the same speed but with noticeably less fuel use, especially when not in lockup. Try it and use the instantaneous gauge. Then try do it all the time after a fill and see if you get better efficiency. I find having a very gentle foot helps quite a bit, it then covers up for when you don't have a gentle right foot ;D.

Edit: agree with what @Striker223 said, don't get one of these unless you can work on cars with moderate complexity if you want to put kms on it. They are not too bad, it's still a toyota and the service manuals make it a breeze if you have the tools. Or have a friendly and low cost (pick one) toyota/lexus mech, even then it won't be cheap. We are nearly done on the main maintenance things for a 95k mile car but it's been done over a year or two. It's been a fun ride and with the new shocks and engine all freshed up it's like a new car again.

Striker223

98 ron is only 93 octane. E85 is 105+ so that's not comparable at all. You are completely correct with how to drive it, that's exactly what you need to do to average over 24-25 but it sometimes is not possible depending on conditions.

It's kind of not a Toyota...it's an LS. It doesn't share anything with the other cars for the most part and it certainly has some systems that require knowledge to deal with. The engine will be fine it's just stuff like the suspension/brakes/tech that can become a real issue if they were not well cared for.

S2Kiwi

Just checked, you're right it's not an E85, it was some other smaller ethanol blend to make 98 RON. Real E85 here as race fuel is 110 as you said 105+.

And you are right - in steep hills it's not possible to do that 'back off the TC' trick.

The chassis platform and much of the stamping is same as Toyota Mark-X, and Lexus IS/GS. Quite a few suspension parts (and some others) are interchangeable, I just spent a few weeks looking through them, but yes, it's a very separate beast and they are miles apart. Mate of mine went in the GS460 and was amazed at how different it was to the Mark-x (and faster lol).

jrmckinley

I've owned the LS400, LS430, and now have a 2010 LS460L. Kept the 400 and 430 to 250k miles each, had little/no problems and was driving 30k-50k miles/year in each of those cars. I think the 460 has the best styling (and I'm not saying that in 2022 as if I'm comparing a 460 to a 400, I mean during the time of owning each car I feel the 460 has pleased me the most with interior and exterior styling) and is slightly more "fun" to drive. However, the 460 has been less bullet proof than the others and "only" has 130k miles (I've owned it since 65k miles). I really love the car and am currently fighting an inner battle with myself on if I want to keep or sell it. I have no concerns of keeping this one to 200k or more, but the road to get to 130k miles has been more expensive than the 400 or 430 were.

Find a reasonable indy mechanic and you can achieve your $1k-$2k/year maintenance budget, ESPECIALLY if certain things have already been done to the car. Personally I would suggest looking at 2010-2012 and try to find one where actuator was replaced under the recall/warranty, interior has been replaced under ZLZ program, and control arms are replaced. Outside of those, really the only other thing that you'll read about here is the need to replace the valve cover gasket at some point. Again, with a reasonably priced indy that's not an absurd thing to have done - mine doesn't need it yet but I've proactively shopped around and one shop quoted me $1,800 and another quoted me $650...