Imagine you are an American Mercedes-Benz Salesperson in the winter of 1989-1990, looking over your warehouse W126-chassis 560 SEL… And then you glance across the street with that brand new Lexus agency and flinch when your opponents gloat over so much luxury sedan accommodation price less than half cost of the top of your pyramid S-Class. This is how it looks when mighty Toyota, ascending just before appearing Japanese asset price bubble, immediately broke into the US high-end luxury car market, and the result of that development took six years, worth 145 billion yen is the original Lexus LS. This is one of the first years LS 400s, used up at 32 and resides in a self-service car graveyard in Denver.
Toyota has sold reasonably luxury rear-wheel drive Cressidas in North America since model year 1978 (actually, Cressida sales will continue here until 1992), and before that we have Luxury crown. Those well-built cars are comfortable and may have made a few sales from Oldsmobile or even BMW car, but car shoppers here associate the Toyota brand with reasonably small cars and Warlord level truck. Honda’s motobike sell very well, sell best Luxury Agreement and Civil Education with Acura badge, starting in 1986, and Toyota following up with the Lexus branding for the LS 400 (as well as ES 250 is based on Camry).
In Japan, where the Toyota badge appears on everything from sewing machine arrive The Emperor’s Personal Century (actually, Emperor Akihito’s daily driver is a Honda Integra sedan), there was no need for a separate luxury brand, and the LS 400 was sold as Toyota Celsior. However, as the Lexus brand has grown globally, Toyota final start using it for car for sale at home. You can even buy a new Lexus bike in Japan today!
Cressida has a large straight-six engine, but the LS Yes to have a dual cam V8 suitable to fight with S-Class, BMW 7-Series, and Audi V8 (yes, the 7-Series didn’t have a V8 until much later, but 750i with V12). Toyota built the V8 hemi-head engine out of block aluminum for the Crown Eight and century from the mid-1960s, but it’s an outdated pushrod design and clearly too old-fashioned for the LS. LS has 4.0 liter DOHC V8 engine, designed from the ground up just for the occasion; it had a six-bolt main bearing cover and made 256 horses in the 1990 version. Now that we’ve had three decades to evaluate the 1UZ-FE, we know it is one of the most durable automobile engines ever made; when the Junkyard Gem was new today, it was known only for being very quiet and quite powerful (that year, the 560 SEL’s V8 made 238 hp, the Audi V8 had 240 hp and the V12 made 238 hp, of the 750iL won the arms race with 296 horses).
I own a 1997 jade green Coach Edition LS 400and so far it is best car I used to own (I have to admit I wish I had entered a JDM CelsiorHowever, instead of looking for an LS 400 with a good interior for years, the right-hand drive and fabric seats are cool). I don’t need to buy parts for it (other than a good set of factory wheels for winter tires), but I do keep my eyes open for other 1990-1997 LS 400s transparent my trip to the scrap yard. Judging by the old LSs I’ve found, owners will stick to them until the interior is dumped in the irrevocable trash. I can’t tell how many kilometers on an old car with a digital odometer (you need to increase ECU to show the odometer in the LS 400 and older cars that don’t have the battery), but I bet more than 250,000 miles have passed under the tires of this car in its lifetime.
This generation of LS 400 comes with a Pioneer Sound System as basic equipment, with a Nakamichi rig as an option. This car had a Pioneer, and it played both cassettes and compact discs.
The last owner installed what appears to be Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor steel rims with cheap plastic wheel covers, as the LS 400 used Detroit’s good ol’ 5 x 4.5″ wheel bolt style (also known as the 5 x 114.3mm style). is a lot of Ford, Chrysler and AMC wheels from the last 60 years or so will start on the LS 400, as long as they can clear the big front brake propeller.
The most aerodynamic luxury sedan in America. Assuming, these cars will go over 150 mph, which is impressive at only 256 hp.
Starting at $36,000. That’s about $74,780 in 2021 dollars, similar to $76,000 MSRP on base 2022 LS 500.
The LS 400 was designed with the US market in mind, so Toyota didn’t market its Celsior as aggressively. After all, why compete with your own top?
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