I have the same year in gold. 205K miles. Runs smooth. The quality and reliability is unmatched. The 1UZ-FE engine is rated by the FAA for airplane use.
I just bought a 2000 version in dark blue with 140k miles. So far it has been great from inside out. It rides comfortably smooth with the engine power delivered with no hesitation. A quality build car indeed.
These ls400s are just better than any other competitor man, I’ve seen sooooo many of these things still super clean and smooth running. Definitely not the same story with other competitors much less clean examples on others
What a machine. I'm planning on getting one in the next 2 years, (probably for my 50th birthday :) ) and keep that luxury baby for life. I think you should have kept it. Some go as far as a million miles, so you had about 900k to go. Shit, that sounds nuts.
They are wonderful cars. A week after I sold this car I missed it so badly that I started a months-long search for another Lexus. 9 months later I got an LS430 because it was another situation where the owner treated it better than most parents treat their children. Patience in the search is key!
@@KevRalph In earlier years ('98 and earlier IIRC), fixing a steering wheel tilt motor was a very cheap fix. Like less than $1 cheap. I still don't understand why they changed the design on that tilt motor because Lexus usually designs their cars to be serviced easily. 2000 was a fantastic year for the LS-series. Hold onto that car, it is special!
@@aleks2912 hi, im thinking to also import one from Japan. Any word on how is yours been so far in terms of reliability? Did the car come clean and driveable ? Thanks
I always found it quite odd that the front headlights of the 1997-2000 LS400s, looked like the 2001-2004 Toyota Tacoma headlights. But hey, no criticism here, I love these cars too much, I have a 1990 Lexus LS400, same color as yours, and I absolutely love it, with 256k miles its barely noticeable.
A quarter million miles, whoa! You've taken excellent care of her! I wish I still had my LS400. It was the smoothest riding car I've ever owned, and only needed basic maintenance. After selling this LS400, I briefly owned a '98 Mercedes E300 diesel. The Mercedes had major electrical issues that 3 shops couldn't fix... After owning that, I spent months searching for my current '05 LS430 that I bought in 2019. This week a deer ran into the side of my LS430; so next week I'll be taking it in to get a repair estimate for insurance... D:
Damn, sorry to hear that, these cars are harder to find now than they were a few years ago, they are all ending up in junkyards and stuff, I got mine for $650, from a guy who was going to scrap it at a junkyard, clean title, 7th owner, Ive spent around $4800 into repairs so it can run its finest, its been treating me very very well, and Ive found one just like mine in my city, and im going to buy it for $500, as a donor car for mine.
@@LSnium Nice! Just subscribed to your channel and watched your tour videos. Hoping you will be posting updates of it as you continue to restore it. Making me miss owning an LS400 now... Lol
The owner manuals state that they both require premium fuel, but you can use regular grade fuel if needed. If you do use regular, you may experience a slight drop in performance and fuel economy. For my area, the difference is about $0.80 a gallon, and paying an additional $16 a tank is not something I think most people would opt to do on a 15+ year old car. Also, the 8 cylinder engines in the LS cars are pretty easy to work on, with a notable exception being the starter, which is difficult to get to. You can take these cars to almost anybody and they shouldn't have trouble working on them. Know that the Lexus OEM parts are expensive though. I would budget at least $1K annually for maintenance/repairs.
Aron Harrington thank you very much. i really didn’t expect to get a reply from you, nor it being very detailed. I also had another few questions, before you purchased the car, did you take it to a lexus dealer for a pre purchase inspection or was it a private mechanic? also how do you think i should go searching for this car? i’ve tried using autotrader, ebay, craigslist and none of them have favorable results. and lastly, do you think it’s worth it to travel a couple hundred miles just to get this car. sorry for asking so many questions i am obsessed with the build quality and really don’t want to be tricked into buying a lemon.
@@albertvathapally84 You're welcome! When I bought my 400, I had the dealer I worked for at the time inspect the car, and they couldn't find any faults, so that was pretty easy. When I bought my 430, I actually travelled about 3 hours away to buy it from a dealer. If it were in my city, I would have asked my regular mechanic to do a PPI, but since it was out of town I didn't have any leverage to take it to an outside mechanic. This dealer had a mentality of "everyone wants this car so I don't have to do you any favors". I did a pretty thorough inspection myself, and found the rear sunshade was inoperable, and at the time the telescopic steering wheel was inoperable. I got them to knock off some money for that. Funny enough, the telescopic function worked after I left lol. When you test drive a car, push every button and switch to ensure everything works. Sometimes you can haggle or have them fix it before you buy it. If you're buying one, look at the owner and service history. These cars have timing belts, so that is a big service to look for on the history report. It's a service that can cost upwards of $1K! It took me 6 months to find my 430. I used Cars, Cargurus, and Craigslist. I think Cargurus may have had the listing first, but in general you just have to check the inventory frequently because these cars sell quickly. I was specifically looking for (and bought) a Custom Luxury 430. The 430s have several option packages that you will want to research to see which one(s) are right for you. These include Base, Premium, Modern Luxury, Custom Luxury, and Ultra Luxury. I avoided the Ultra due to air suspension, but some people like it. Let me know if you have any other questions. I'm really familiar with these cars and highly recommend them.
Premium is required. According to Scotty Kilmer, a popular RU-vidr on cars, the 8 cylinder is reliable but pretty expensive to fix if something goes wrong. None the less, I have had an LS400 and over the last 10 years of ownership, other than regular maintenance, I have put in about 3000.00 in repairs. About $1500.00 more than my 1999 Grand Marquis on which I have owned 12 years and put on just as many miles.
Unfortunately, it has become very difficult to find a 1999-2000 LS400, especially one with 100,000 miles or less, in the United States. Recently, used car prices have also increased dramatically. In the current market, it would not be surprising to see a dealer asking $10,000-15,000 for one. Your best option may be to search locally in your area for private sales/estate sales, or even approaching a current LS400 owner and asking if they would be willing to sell. In my case, I later bought an LS430, which are relatively easier to find, but still more difficult than an average car. If you are searching for a Lexus I wish you luck!
@@aronharrington thanks brother I love this car very much and I will look for one in good condition to buy as soon as I come to the United States after I finish my college and get a job It's like my dream car 😍
@@M_e93 You are welcome, my friend! There is a website called "AutoTempest" that you can use to search across multiple websites for a specific car. It is a very useful website when searching for rare cars like the LS400. Good luck on your college studies! 😃
Same here, I have the 2000 LS 400 Platinum Series / pearl white / 7 spoke chrome factory upgraded rims. 137,000 miles. Same options this car has. Same condition pretty much as this one. My digital led display for the radio is doing the same thing as this one, and the clock. (common) Glad I don't have the navigation option or air suspension, those go out and it's a much bigger deal. I bought it off the original owner, she changed out the timing belt once already at a little over 100k miles since she owned it so that's good. I also own a honda civic manual that I zip around in too, and for sure this is no civic haha. This is a big car. She took real good care of the lexus and did everything she was supposed to. In 2001 with the 430's of course the headlights go much higher on the fenders hood area and the body style is a bit different. I kind of like the last in line of this 98-00 generation better, the lower sleeker headlights. Sleeker design. I paid more than 4000.00 dollars and less than 5000.00 dollars for mine, but I wanted this car. She paid something like 47,000 dollars for it brand new 19 years ago, she still had the original window sticker in a folder, and all the maintenance records. Certainly is very good quality car. These engines were so good they were certified for aircraft.
@@KevRalph I've read on forums the mass air flow sensor is common to need cleaning or just replace it once in a while, all the basic condition of the common tune up stuff like spark plug wires / spark plugs. Also the throttle body is common to need cleaning periodically. It's best to take the the throttle body off the car and clean it that way then install it again, not super difficult from what I see.
