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I'm wondering if anyone knows what happened to the very first LS400 ever sold in the US, which was sold on September 1, 1989. What was the VIN? Does anyone know where it is?
If nobody knows, what is the earliest known Lexus still in existence? The earliest cars were manufactured on May 15, 1989.
I know that the 1st Landcruiser sold in the US back in 1958 is accounted for, and is in a Landcruiser museum in Salt lake city. Hopefully somebody recognized the 1st LS400 as being an important car, and it was saved... either that or someone is cruising around in it as we speak, and doesn't even know its significance!
or someone is cruising around in it as we speak, and doesn't even know its significance!
That's what I think it might be! And if that's the case, I'd like to track it down and buy it. For all its lore and its legendary status, I'm surprised that there isn't more public knowledge about where the very first ones are. All we really know about them is that the first 8,000 units (the ones that were recalled) were made between May and December 1989. (Edit: the first 4,500 cars were sold in September 1989 alone, according to this LA Times article). (Edit 2: That's likely 4,500 LS400s and ES250s combined, not just LS400s.)
Is there any knowledge of what the VINs could be? On pre-1981 VINs of cars, it's usually pretty easy to determine them since they were all produced in a sequence (i.e. XXXXX000001, then XXXXX000002, then XXXXX000003, all the way to XXXXX011879 for example if 11,879 cars were produced in total). But what about on a 17-digit VIN like this? Is there a way to guess what they could have been for the early cars?
Last edited by Shervin; 02-27-22 at 11:08 PM.
Reason: Additional details
The white LS 400 in the Toyota museum in Texas was originally noted as one of the 450 prototypes produced; however, it is not -
This white pearl car is VIN JT8UF11E7L0000516. It was sold new at South Bay Lexus on August 31, 1989, and its original California license plate was 2PTV780.
There is also a gold/champagne LS at Toyota in Texas, but information on this car is not widely known
The above photos are from the Toyota Heritage center's former location in California.
The white LS 400 was recently brought to Costa Rica a few years back for a Lexus anniversary event.
Specific details on this car are also not known, including if it ever made it to the US market and its VIN.
I can confirm I have also seen a 5/89 production LS 400, but I would have to search my records to see if I still have it documented..
The vins seem to have different patterns depending on how and when the car was built (among other potential reasons for different patterns), so finding 000001 will not be straightforward.
Thanks for this great and thorough reply. Such well-preserved cars! I'm glad that Toyota has kept some and is looking after them.
I'm a little skeptical of the information on the screenshot of the red page, though. I'm fairly new to the LS400's history, but from my research I'm fairly sure that any prototypes made before 1987 would have looked recognizably different than the production version. The Diamond White Pearl car in the pictures looks identical to a production model.
From Wikipedia:
In May 1985, designers started work on the F1 project. In late 1985, designers presented the first exterior study models to F1 management, featuring a sports car-like design with a low-slung hood and narrow front profile. By 1986, the sedan used a three-box design with an upright stance, more prominent grille, and a two-tone body. Extensive modeling and wind tunnel tests resulted in a low drag coefficient for a conventional production vehicle of the time (Cd 0.29). For the passenger cabin, the materials-selection tests evaluated 24 different kinds of wood and multiple types of leather for two years before settling on specific trim combinations. By 1986, the Lexus marque was created to support the launch of the flagship sedan, and the vehicle became known as the Lexus LS. Following eight design reviews, subsequent revisions, concept approval in February 1987, and over US$1 billion in development expenses, the final design for the production Lexus LS 400 (chassis code UCF10) was frozen in May 1987 with design patents filed on 20 February 1987 and 13 May 1987.
The figure of 2,919 cars being sold in the first month also seems to conflict with my previously quoted number of "more than 4,500 cars" from an LA Times article dated 3/30/90. So I'm not sure which one is true. (Edit: the museum may be right on this one, since I hadn't accounted for the ES250. That article doesn't specify how many of each model was sold in September 1989.)
Good thinking regarding the VIN; it may not be easy to determine that way. But if you do come across the 5/89 production LS400, let me know!
Last edited by Shervin; 02-27-22 at 10:59 PM.
Reason: Formatting
A little more digging to determine the number of cars sold during the first month...
From the Wikipedia article on the Lexus ES:
In September 1989, the ES 250 and the flagship LS 400 went on sale in the United States. The ES 250 was marketed as the "luxury sedan of sports sedans," and carried a U.S. market suggested base price of approximately $22,000. During the first month of release, the ES 250 logged 1,216 units in sales. However, these numbers were eclipsed by the larger LS sedan, which unlike the ES was built on a unique and all-new platform.
So 1,216 ES250s + 2,919 LS400s = 4,135 cars altogether sold in September 1989, the first month of Lexus sales in the US. That still doesn't meet the quoted number in the LA Times article, but it's possible that figure wasn't accurate to begin with.
Agreed on the white LS. I also have had doubts that it's a prototype. The main piece that always stands out to me on that car is the repainted right fender.
I would love to be able to check it out and see if the label on the pillar is present.
I have some documented cars from the past. For example, this salvage car, #744. Produced in June 1990.
And #718, also produced in June 1990. Last known sold in 2016 on Ebay according to my records. Unfortunately, I only saved a thumbnail of the label, but you can make out 06/89 and 718 in the vin. Confirmed VIN by a clone of the listing:
The earliest car I ever encountered was in September 2016 on Craigslist. Claiming to be #69:
I didn't look into this car though and didn't have time to.. I could not find records for this vin anywhere, so I assumed it was potentially a typo, but saved a copy of the page. No confirmation on if the VIN of this car was accurate.
Wow, what finds! Glad someone like you is on the forum; I definitely came to the right place to ask this question. How do you go about finding cars like this?
Wow, what finds! Glad someone like you is on the forum; I definitely came to the right place to ask this question. How do you go about finding cars like this?
I just search the market occasionally. Not usually serious about purchasing another as I'm happy with my own, but always curious to see what's out there.
I confirmed the correct pattern for the vin of #69: JT8UF11E8L0000069
The car listed on Craigslist likely had a typo.
Using Autocheck as a reference to check VIN patterns, it appears that the car you are looking for is exactly JT8UF11E7L0000001
Great stuff. Yeah, I noticed that the VIN for the white car in the Craigslist ad was missing a couple of digits towards the end (it's 15 digits when it should be 17).
According to Autocheck for looking up car VINs, the car you are looking for is exactly JT8UF11E7L0000001
How do we know that's the exact VIN? Like you said earlier, certain options and equipment may have influenced digits and letters earlier in the sequence (so far, I have noticed that the digit between "E" and "L" seems to vary regardless of the seven digits at the end, and I have even seen it say "X" instead of a number).
I'm also wondering... is there a way to find out what the very first Lexus sold was? I would guess it wouldn't have necessarily been an ultra early car (theoretically if 2,919 cars were sold within the first month, then VIN #2919 could have very well been the first car ever sold). Do dealers have this information in their database?
I just punched in car #1's VIN into "My Garage" on the Lexus website to try and see if anything would come up, and it doesn't accept it as a valid VIN. I even tried replacing the ninth digit with all the other numbers (0-6, 8-9, and X), and still nothing. Autocheck shows it as a 1990 LS400, but with 0 historical records, so I doubt it was ever even registered. This car may be in corporate hands, if it even exists.
Just for posterity, here is the earliest California LS400 I've been able to find on the internet so far. The plates "2PZC933" hint at a 1989 issue (the "2P" prefix was issued in '89) but I'm not sure what month, and the VIN shows up as JT8UF11EXL0003636, so it is/was presumably car #3636. I don't know when it was for sale though, since the website I found it on was one of those clone listing websites (which are great for purposes like this). California smog records show it was last smogged in 2016, so it is presumably sitting somewhere, got parted out, or left the state (best case scenario). But it did have 324,800 miles as of that listing.
This is just a guess, but since it was in El Monte, California, it may have originally been sold by Longo Lexus (also in El Monte), one of the first Lexus dealers in the country.
How do we know that's the exact VIN? Like you said earlier, certain options and equipment may have influenced digits and letters earlier in the sequence (so far, I have noticed that the digit between "E" and "L" seems to vary regardless of the seven digits at the end, and I have even seen it say "X" instead of a number).
I'm also wondering... is there a way to find out what the very first Lexus sold was? I would guess it wouldn't have necessarily been an ultra early car (theoretically if 2,919 cars were sold within the first month, then VIN #2919 could have very well been the first car ever sold). Do dealers have this information in their database?
Right. I believe that these VIN checkers are supposed reference a national database for valid vehicle VINs. Since this VIN is the only one I could find that shows up for #1, I believe this would be the correct one
The fact that the car doesn't appear in Lexus Drivers though likely indicates what you are saying is correct - it's in private hands somewhere. Whether if that's in corporate or elsewhere.
I don't think there is an easy way to find the first car that was sold.. You would need access to corporate sales records and maybe even have to go to a dealer level to find out when each dealer sold their first LS and the VIN. Who knows where that folder resides that contains the information.
Originally Posted by Shervin
Just for posterity, here is the earliest California LS400 I've been able to find on the internet so far. The plates "2PZC933" hint at a 1989 issue (the "2P" prefix was issued in '89) but I'm not sure what month, and the VIN shows up as JT8UF11EXL0003636, so it is/was presumably car #3636.
Cool find. Didn't know that about the "2P" plates. I still don't know the significance of the digit in the VIN between "E" and "L". I wonder if it was tied to production time or something else.
Cool find. Didn't know that about the "2P" plates. I still don't know the significance of the digit in the VIN between "E" and "L". I wonder if it was tied to production time or something else.
Yup. According to my records, the "2P and "2R" plates were issued in the fall of 1989 ("2Q" was skipped). So that one was very likely one of the first thousand or two sold.
If you manage to find that 5/89 production car, I'd love to see it.
02-26-22 | 10:37 PM
What happened to the very first LS400 ever sold?
