Buyers GuideThe LS400 is really quite a car, it was the first production car released under the name Lexus so to establish the brand it needed to be a good product.
The Lexus range was to be targeted at the highest end of the car market and was priced accordingly. The car has proven to be extremely reliable and in spite of their undoubted thirst for fuel is still a good secondhand buy.
But any purchase of what is now a 10+ year old car has to be made with caution, every brand has had its lemons even when new.
The LS400 can however easily exceed 300,000 miles without too many problems if cared for see my buyers guide.
I'm not really sure why I put this page together, but I hope that it proves useful to someone and even I find it interesting reading sometimes.
The Lexus LS400 was described as follows in the 1996 press release brochure.
"Pre-eminence means creativity, not imitation. It means using all the technologies and approaches of the present, not the criteria of the past. In meeting these challenges, the Lexus LS400 stands supreme as the foremost luxury saloon of its generation.
The LS400 recognises the great saloons of the past and present, but it is not derived from them It was instead conceived from a unique appraisal of what a great saloon must embody and developed, engineered and assessed according to the highest standards of road craft.Engineered without compromise, the LS400 achieves sophisticated solutions to the classic demands of luxury motoring.
Solutions that mean outstanding ride comfort allied with extraordinary handling; breathtaking performance and luxury fulfilling the spectrum of its generation ergonomic seeds. Intelligent, scientific design unequalled among the world's premier saloons, and endowing the LS400 with a unique character, status and modernity. "
