Lexus SC300 or 400
 

My daily driver is getting old and a bit tired. Time for a new one! I was looking for a '95 and up S500 coupe, but a friend pointed out the Lexus SC300/400 and it tickled my curiosity. Any SC300 or 400 owners on this board?

http://losangeles.craigslist.org/lac/cto/5152378961.html

craigslist ad picture #21..
 

get a load of the door hinge assembly! It looks like it came off a submarine. I've never seen anything like that before, even my LS430 doesn't come close.

it looks like they were really thinking through the engineering on this car, never really noticed it before.

Didn't notice that, looks pretty impressive.

I have friends with GSes and LSes and the consensus is the 400 seems to be the way to go, chunk more power than the 2JZ and the same fuel economy.

That looks like a nice car.

However I've never owned any of them

That 400 you listed looks like a very good buy. Hard to find in that condition. Great cars too. I briefly owned a SC300 with 29,000 original miles a few years ago.

The radiator is going to be extremely fragile in the car you listed. When they start turning green like that, they tend to crack.

Lexus'es are nice cars, but after a while, tend to get a bit "vanilla and boring."

I owned a '93 LS400, great car, but just wasn't me...

Good you mention that. I was already wondering about that color, it looked odd to me.

Same is true of OEM Miata radiators.... 'tis a reliable prognosticator of pending failure.

For the V8 1UZFE engine, the timing belt is a $1000 job. Much easier job on its IS300-engined brother. The one you listed seems like a clean example, but beware of the rubber bits on the driveshaft... they are ASTRONOMICAL.