Despite Lexus’s best attempts to change public opinion, they’re still considered by most people to be a car for boring old executives and lawyers. Even though The LFA blew everyone’s minds, it’s still had too much work to do to prove that Lexus’s were cool.
No doubt they’re some of the most reliable cars topping JD Power’s reliability score for years.
But two cars in particular are starting to get the attention of younger enthusiasts as the performance bargains of the decade, the SC400 and the LS430.
The Lexus LS 430
I reviewed my dad’s 2005 post-facelift LS430 with the ultra-luxury package, which includes a Mark Levinson sound system, soft-close doors, SmartAccess, heated and ventilated front and rear seats, reclining rear seats, rear-passenger sunshades and rear audio and climate controls.
Even today they still look nicer than a lot of cars on the road, and though the design has been around for almost 20 years, they don’t look all that old.
When they were released on 2005, the MSRP on a base model was $56,225, which adjusted for inflation is $90,417 today. Now you can pick these up for around $10,000 or a little bit more if you want one is great condition. That gets you a 4.3L V8 3UZ FE engine pushing out 290hp and 320 ft lbs of torque in a luxurious package that honestly rivaled Bentleys of the day.
This is an absolute bargain for an ultra luxury sedan with an engine this powerful.
Most owners consider this the greatest of the LS models, preferring it over the replacement, the LS 460.
Class Topping Features
The cabin is incredibly quiet and luxurious. The 5.9 second 0-60mph isnt winning races today but its still quick, can beat most modern cars. Back in the day, this was the fastest accelerating in its class.
And people are starting to wake up to the potential of these sedans. If you’ve been looking at cars like the VW Phaeton or the Audi A8, forget those maintenance nightmares and consider one of these instead.
These were built to compete with the Mercedes and BMWs of the era, so add that luxury along with Toyota reliability and you get an unbeatable luxury barge.
In fact the Lexus LS 430 was the fastest accelerating car in its class!
But Are they cool? Maybe they don’t have the cars and coffee cool factor that an older Mercedes or BMW does, but these are still some of the nicest cars on the road for the money, and you’d be surprised at how cool some of these features are.
First of all, the interior. It’s beautiful and the inlaid wood in my father’s car is real Birds Eye maple. Lexus worked with Yamaha (who makes high-quality pianos in addition to it’s motorcycles) to get the wood interior pieces to look and fit absolutely perfect.
The touch screen design is well, vintage at this point but it’s easy to use with the physical buttons to bring you right to the menu option you want. You’ll probably want to swap them out for a car play enabled unit and fortunately those exist so you can bring your car up to a more modern spec
This particular car comes equipped with the Mark Levinson sound system to make your music sound incredible whether you’re listening to Ride of the Valkyries or Metallica.
The Key
Check out the key, now this is an odd shape and you’ll notice it doesn’t have a visible metal blade. You can squeeze the metal blade out from the side, but you won’t need it because it works just like modern keys do with proximity sensors, and that was available even as far back as 2005.
That metal blade can unlock the “Valet Mode” under the steering column to ensure your valet doesn’t go on a joy ride and can’t open the trunk.
Now to start the car, instead of a push button start you have this little paddle you can turn as long as the key is in the car. If you look closely you’ll notice it has a gap in the middle where you can insert the key just like you would in other cars in order to turn it on.
This was kind of an interesting hybrid approach between push button and “insert key here”.
Seat Warmers Dials
One of the neatest features on this car is the pop-out dials that control the front seat heat and ventilation systems. For hot climates like Florida and Texas, cooling seats are essential, and it’s a nice tough that the dials can pop in for safe keeping.
Not only are the dials cool, but your passengers also get controls as they’re in both the front seats and the back seats.
Oscillating vents
This package also came with oscillating vents that help to cool the entire cabin by working like a fan and oscillating back and forth to ensure the cabin reaches the temperature you’ve selected.
It’s a very unique feature you aren’t likely to see in many other cars.
Reliability
When they’re taken care of, these will effortlessly and smoothly get to multiple six figures of mileage without major issues. Yes, the air suspension can be problematic so avoid examples with that feature, but you can comfortable drive this to 250k+ miles and keep on ticking.
In fact there’s another owner in Orlando where my father lives who has a 500k mile example that’s still running flawlessly today. Car Care Nut on YouTube has an example with 600k miles.
This car will outlast just about everything else in its class.
And if you’re like me and like modifying your cars, listen to how good it sounds with a modified exhaust
And folks like Speed Academy did a build with a supercharger added some good power, and just look at this thing. It looks clean and sounds mean
In the Lexus LS430 Owners Club Facebook Group, we posted asking a few questions and got a bunch of replies of 16 to 22 year olds buying these cars and loving them. So it looks like this old man luxury barge is becoming the bargain power house sedan for the younger enthusiast.
So what’s your take? Let me know in the comments if you’ve had one of these and what you think of it, and what your favorite mod for this car is.
