Is the Lexus SC 400 Better Than a Bargain BMW 850 You Just Found Online?
Is a bargain BMW super coupe 'The Ultimate Driving Machine' or is it a case of 'Don't Believe the Hype'?
Greener Grass
We all face temptation. It's a normal part of life, no need to feel guilty. Maybe your life is too predictable? Too routine? You're ready for a change, you tell yourself. Or maybe you still love your SC 400 and don't want to give it up, but you feel like there's room in your life for another. You've heard the nightmare stories about Italian and British luxury sport coupes, but that BMW 850 Series... It feels familiar, comfortable, and you've always wanted to try a V12. Oscar Wilde's words keep bouncing around in your head: "The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. Resist it, and your soul grows sick with longing for the things it has forbidden to itself." Okay, let's imagine that what that future looks like.
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/o/oscarwilde108207.html
1. Cost, Part 1
If you purchased your SC 400 recently, you likely got it for far less than $10K. A few years ago, there seemed to be more $10k 8-series BMWs around, but now some people are asking more than double that amount. You can do it, you say, you can afford it, you earned it. Of course, purchase price is only one small part of the story. Feeding it will cost you more, 50% more just for fuel in the city (11 mpg in the 850). But what about other expenses, the scary ones? You're a realist, you realize there will be expenditures. You're a risk taker, you tell yourself. Nothing ventured, you say...
2. Cost, Part 2
But how bad can it be, really? Well, every two years your wonderful-sounding V12 is going to require new intake gaskets. Big deal, how much can intake gaskets cost? Only 700 bucks, but it's a 10 hour job to replace them, at 120 bucks/hour from a German car specialist, which is close to half of the price of buying another high-mile Lexus. And that's just gaskets. The BMW has two ECUs, one to control each side of the engine, and they are notoriously unreliable, and just as notoriously expensive to replace. And, despite the robustness of German engineering, there is also the robustness of German replacement part prices, which are even more expensive in the case of a low volume exotic like the BMW 8-series.
3. Trust Issues
Browsing BMW forums for info on an 8-series reveals comments like, "it's reliable... for a 20 year-old car," and, "it's a reliable car... but it did leave me stranded on a multi-state trip." Your Lexus SC 400, on the other hand, might be one of the most reliable vehicles ever built, by a company that regularly tops every list in long-term dependability and quality. Daily driven Lexus SC 400s with 300K miles are not rare. And ten bucks says the leather in your Lexus is still softer than the hides in a comparable BMW, and the ride is quieter and smoother. How about the wood trim, still in good shape? Don't bother looking in the BMW for wood, there isn't any.
4. Love the One You're With
In Car and Driver's January 1992 Ten Best issue they wrote: "Our technical director, the redoubtable Mr. Csere, summed the new Lexus SC 400 up by calling it frustrating. Why? Because he couldn’t think of one single thing to do to the new Lexus coupe that would make it better." Contrast that with the same publication's July 1991 test of the 850i, where they summed up the driving experience by saying: "Sorry to say, the 850i is short on magic," and, "Hardly bad, but we expected more." What did they expect more of? Handling, for one thing. Under the category 'Lows' they listed "road manners." Car and Driver described your SC 400 a bit differently: "well-controlled suspension behavior” and, "the coupe is a car built for drivers."
5. Run What You Brung
One reason the BMW disappointed the enthusiast press, and drivers alike, may have been the fact that it was carrying around 500 more pounds than the SC 400. Nowadays there are scores of sports coupes that outweigh the 850i, but they are packed full of modern tech that help hide their obesity, like magnetic shocks, torque vectoring, and supercomputers. All that extra weight basically negates the few horsepower advantage the BMW had over the SC 400; Later Lexus SC 400s had only 6 less rated horsepower but posted identical 6.3 second 0-60 times.
6. Idle Hands
Okay, so maybe we convinced you not to roll the dice on an 850, but we still haven't dealt with that itch you feel? Fortunately, the Lexus aftermarket community has a prescription for that. We'd be liars if we didn't admit that Bavarian Motor Werks fit sharp-looking rims on their cars, so to keep up with the Joneses (and Germans) you might want to start there. No need to stop at wheels though, there are as many SC 400 mods available as there are weekends available to spend in the garage. Keeping your hands busy on your Lexus will always be more rewarding than window shopping online used car listings. One more thing you should know? The grass looks pretty green in your back yard; the BMW 850 guys start "should I get a SC400?" threads all the time.
For help with service on your car, check out the how to section of ClubLexus.com