Used buying guide
The LS400 was the first car Lexus made — and it was so good that it shook up the luxury car world. John Evans says you can buy a piece of this history for £500
Bag a ‘Japanese Merc’ for £500
It’s almost 18 years old, has done 220,000 miles and has just returned from a 3000-mile European road trip, during which, the seller claims, it never missed a beat – and it could be yours for £800.
‘It’ is a Lexus LS400, Japan’s first bullseye on the luxury car market. This one’s the Mk4 version – that is, the second-generation facelifted car. (There were two generations, each of them facelifted.) So it has the uprated 280bhp V8 engine with variable valve timing, and a fivespeed automatic transmission and suspension tweaks. It has a sat-nav and parking aids, too. “They all work,” says the seller.
So £800: not a lot, is it? Actually, you can get runners for around £500 – small change for a last hurrah in this extraordinary triumph of marketing and engineering.
The LS400 arrived in 1990 to the sound of nervous coughing as executives at BMW and Mercedes prepared their excuses. You see, the company behind Lexus was Toyota, which saw its new brand and its maiden model as an opportunity to beat the established players at their own game. It gave itself six years, and an almost unlimited budget, to create a luxury car superior to rivals on most measures.
The original LS400 was powered by a 4.0-litre V8, producing 241bhp and driving the rear wheels through a four-speed automatic. The 0-62mph sprint came and went in 8.5sec and the top speed was 155mph. More important, it was whisper quiet and very smooth. The car wanted for little, highlights being powered leather seats with memory, climate and cruise control, and a sunroof. The soft, floaty ride and light steering weren’t to everyone’s taste but no one could fault the car’s build quality.
Just two years after its launch, in 1992, Lexus wheeled out the Mk2, incorporating more than 50 changes. They ranged from sharpened steering and suspension to an illuminated vanity mirror. Not content with these tweaks, Lexus launched the second-generation LS400 in 1994 (confusingly known as the Mk3 in some circles). It had a longer and stronger body than the first-gen model, with improved sound insulation, revised suspension and stronger brakes. The engine now produced 260bhp, to give 0-62mph in 7.5sec. The seats were comfier and there was dual-zone climate control.
But there were signs that the public’s love affair with the model was fading, so in 1997, a facelifted version, known as the Mk4, arrived, featuring the improvements described earlier, chief among them being that 280bhp V8 and five-speed automatic gearbox. The model was eventually replaced in 2000 by the LS430.
Today, there aren’t many LS400S left and those that remain have usually done starship mileages. The front suspension is the weak point. The engine and transmission should be smooth and quiet, and most things should work. Buy one and enjoy a slice of motoring history.