Posted on 09/26/2019 6:12:56 PM PDT by grey_whiskers
Brands attempt to move upmarket all the time, but few succeed to the degree Lexus did with its first luxury car. I was 9 years old when my father traded in his 1988 Saab 900 Turbo for a new 1991 LS 400. I would invite my fourth-grade classmates over to the house and ask my dad to start the car—you could not believe it was actually running unless you looked at the eerie “ghost” dials. The Lexus was silent. It seemed so soft, so fast and quiet, that it was all that much more unbelievable when I told my friends the price.
(Excerpt) Read more at roadandtrack.com ...
Nice!
I had Pontiac G5 and it was very good car, similar to your Cobalt.
I have heard that a double oil filter and an oil cooler..and a pump which shoots oil into.position before firing up engine really extends life of engine...also assembling engine in clean room( very little dust) helps also.
"crawl up inside the" ...?
Musta been a bug.
Put over 400k on two GM Trucks, gassers. Just reached 200k on the latest. Good for another 200. Change my own oil. Love my trucks.
I believe that in general if you buy a car with few gizmos...less goes wrong...just keep revs max at 3000 rpm unless rapid acceleration needed...change oil...coast when safe..they last long time...even relatively inexpensive cars can last..cant get much with 150k miles...so i keep em till they blowup...sell as junk. Wish i could part them out...
Actually, you and I have been doing exactly the same, with me doing it for about 10 years.
My last 2 vehicles have had 67,000 miles and 55,000 miles. I don’t trust that the bills after that kind of mileage will be the same as they would be for the first 4-5 years.
BTW, the 67,000 miles vehicle was a Jeep, and the 55,000 vehicles was a Ford. I don’t trust buying a vehicle from GM, especially after the Obama ‘takeover’ of GM.
And I didn’t have any big repair bills on either vehicle. The “only” repair was body work on the Jeep, which was a high-end Jeep, and those repairs ended up being HUGE just because it was ‘considered’ luxury by the repair shop and the cost of the body parts were high. NEVER again a high-end model for me. I’d rather purchase the lower-end models and switch them out after 4-5 years. Could end up being costly, but not as costly as the high-end Jeep ended up being. BTW, I didn’t pay for the Jeep repairs, since insurance paid for all of it, but I didn’t appreciate my insurance rate going up, even after it was proved that my wife was not at fault in the accident.
Great post. Thanks.
Good looking car. I’m a little envious. I hope it brings many many miles of smiles.
No question new cars are nice but some of us are still old school and like cars we can still work on. A lot of new cars are dealer-only for getting anything mechanical done or repaired.
I read the whole thing...great story with a nice personal interest touch. Thanks for posting it.
I love the classics. I’m just much better at breaking them than fixing them. New or old... someone with smaller hands and more patience is going to have to do the work.
Lexus can kiss my @$$. I'll never own another one.
I’ve owned my Impala LS since Spring of 2001. Now nearing 21,000 miles; that’s right... 21,000.
Never have used dealer for any maintenance, as their parts’ prices and labor rates are excessive.
Most maintenance has been done by Pep Boys and Christian Brothers, at a fraction of the cost if done by a dealer.
Other than routine maintenance, they replaced a worn tie-rod, a serpentine belt with cracks and the ABC (auto body computer) that had gone totally haywire.
You're giving it too much credit. As I said in 1991, and I stand by today, "It's a nice little car, but...…"
Lexus has just never reached the status of "Luxury Cars" in my mind. Nor has it is sales volume and in broad opinion. Price is not true a measure of luxury, but to a fool.
I can understand the belt needing to be replaced but not the rest for so few miles.
An 01 domestic or Japanese brand is well within the range of years we can still work on. European brands are status symbols but crazy expensive to get repaired and many times they require dealers to the work because not many others have the expensive specialty tools. After 2010 they started getting computer crazy with all kinds of complicated systems on some cars.
I consider tires and fluid changes to be routine wear items anyone (smaller shops and owners) should be able to take care of.
Is this car special to you as a weekend rambler? Just wondering why so few miles for the year... I have a 90’s Mustang GT w/105k miles I use as my fun car. My daily driver is an 01 Toyota. Being retired I don’t rack up the 150-500 commuter miles a week I used to.
Lexus is a luxury car, and it’s sold that way, via price and advertising. Sticker-price-wise, it doesn’t look that expensive, but after adding options and taxes and fees, you’re driving out the door with a car that costs you over $50,000. There isn’t a Lexus model available that sells for $35,000 or less, which is the sweet spot for most people looking to purchase new; in fact, what I saw looking at local dealers, were prices that ranged between $39,000 and over $50,000, and that’s before options and taxes and fees. Not overly expensive, but out of range for most regular folks.
My daily commute to work and back was only 20 miles. The car was only 8 months old when I was retired by my employer in 12/2001. ...For the next 5 years only trips to play golf at my CC and run local errands would add ~120 miles/wk.
I stopped the CC membership in 2007, so local errands about 3 times a week are only ~15 miles/wk. ...For the past 12 years, I’ve averaged less than 1000 miles/yr. I don’t drive at night and avoid all freeways. ...I’m 77.
Ahh... makes perfect sense.
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