So...

"Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To" (murdersofa) 02/21/2019 at 20:09 • Filed to: None

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Matt Farah’s Million Mile Lexus is supposedly getting a feature, if not a cover, in the next Motor Trend issue. The car is pretty well-known in enthusiast circles, but your average Joe has never heard of it and likely has completely forgotten the LS400 ever existed. Now they’ll back into the minds of a large portion of the public mind as an incredibly reliable used bargain. I wonder what that will mean for prices on the used market?

dtg11 - is probably on an adventure with Clifford > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 02/21/2019 at 20:21

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Probably a very temporary boost, or at least quicker sales rate, before falling back to where it was

jimz > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 02/21/2019 at 20:21

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Now they’ll back into the minds of a large portion of the public mind as an incredibly reliable used bargain.

no they won’t. one example of a car which was continually repaired and limped to 1,000,000 miles doesn’t mean anything. the vast majority of LS400s have been junked already.

I wonder what that will mean for prices on the used market?

nothing. most car buyers have no idea who Matt Farah is.  They buy the best thing they can afford.  And they don’t read Motor Trend.

Nibbles > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 02/21/2019 at 20:28

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His Stigness > jimz 02/21/2019 at 20:48

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For fuck’s sake THANK YOU!

“My car made it a bunch of miles.” Uh huh, and how much did you spend in repairs when SHIT WORE OUT?!?

I absolutely hate the automotive press in this country have put Japanese car makes on some pedestal that makes them immune to shit wearing out.

“My car is so reliable. I’ve gone three hundred thousand miles and I’ve rebuilt the engine three times.” 

dogisbadob > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 02/21/2019 at 20:48

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inb4 a million miles isn’t special for a 90s Toyota, it’s expected :p

No really though, prices won’t really go up that much because it’s still a V8 gas guzzler with a timing belt, and the 95+ LS400 is an interference engine. The first-gen LS is non-interference, but is still a V8 gas guzzler.

Every new car is a luxury car. And most newer cars have a timing chain an d get be tter mpg and ride just as nice.

RallyWrench > jimz 02/21/2019 at 21:11

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I have a client with a 1980 450SLC with 716k on it. But the fuckin’ thing is George Washington’s axe, on its 3rd engine, at least its 2nd transmission, steering box, and driveshaft , 5th repaint, who knows how many suspension rebuilds,   etc, etc. He’s rich beyond belief and is determined to get it to a million, but there are s trong quotation marks around that odometer number. It does not represent its (terrible, they’re all terrible) SL brethren any more than this represents the LS in general.

While it’s impressive that this LS has been in regular enough use to average 45,000 miles a year for over two decades , it’s not without a few caveats. Irv with the 3-million mile Volvo was a different story, t hat was one guy’s lifelong love affair with a cool car . This is just an otherwise boring but good and very used car that a sort of famous internet car person bought late in its life and made A Thing.

Honeybunchesofgoats > His Stigness 02/21/2019 at 21:13

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To be fair, American car makers in the mid-90s made it so Japanese cars could have randomly incinerated passengers and they still would have come out looking better. 

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > jimz 02/21/2019 at 21:24

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The significant part to me is that it’s an auto trans that only required one rebuild to go that distance, and it’s still on the original engine.

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > dogisbadob 02/21/2019 at 21:26

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True, though when people comment on the fuel economy of my LS I point out that it’s still far cheaper than a car payment on a modern penalty box base model Sonic, Fiesta, Mirage, Versa Note, etc. but I get heated seats and double-sealed doors for my money and waaayyyyy cheaper insurance.

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > dtg11 - is probably on an adventure with Clifford 02/21/2019 at 21:28

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This is the most likely outcome.

functionoverfashion > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 02/21/2019 at 21:50

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I hope they cover the maintenance cost, he said he put somewhere around $17k into that car in 4 years / 100k miles, give or take. That’s $354/mo over 4 years.

Most, and I mean MOST people are totally unwilling to spend that kind of money keeping up a nice older car. They think, “oh man it’s so unreliable it’s in the shop again for another thousand ...” so they trade it on a new whatever at the same monthly rate plus massive depreciation.

I’m firmly in the camp of maintaining an older car of lower market value but that I really want, because then I get to drive the car I want and I spend less than I would on a newer, worse car.

What was the question again? haha

jimz > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 02/22/2019 at 03:55

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Most cars get scrapped because they start falling apart around the engine and trans, and it’s not worth the few hundred bucks every month to fix everything which breaks.

jimz > Nibbles 02/22/2019 at 03:57

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the sub-headline should have been “and all the rest of them didn’t.”