GTP Cool Wall: Lexus LS400
- Thread starter BKGlover
- 30 comments
- 5,091 views
Mini Stiggy
Premium
- 4,202
- Grove City, Ohio
- I__like_oranges
It just looks like some car. Meh.
- 3,202
- Murcie LP710
If this was the early 90s this car would be Sub-Zero but here in 2013, it's Seriously Uncool, as these days it's pretty much treated as a plush Toyota Avalon.
MedigoFlame
Premium
- 6,221
- Maine
- MedigoFlameX
I'd say it's cool. It's subtle and a great bargain these days. Buy a cheap one now and people who don't know cars might find think it's worth a lot, of which it was worth quite a bit. Would have bought one as a daily myself... 
- 5,198
- UK
- marunda/GTP_FordMKIVJ5
Uncool. Overwhelmingly bland, plus it's pretty ugly in my opinion.
- 6,092
- Phoenix, AZ
Not a car that really sets your heart on fire, but I still like the LS400 quite a bit. The early ones were a bit cosmetically challenged; the '94-'97 models were my favorite. But still, it's comfortable, quiet, is rear wheel drive, has a V8 and will probably outlive your children so long as it doesn't fall into the hands of an up and coming gangsta. I'd say this is a cool car for the impact it made to its market, its success, and its engineering feats.
- 13,291
- GTPlanet
- Street-King-07
- Quattro Saltire
Uncool. Boring, comfortable, dull to drive, quiet and boring. There's just nothing exciting about it.
- 5,551
- Controls set for heart of sun
- GTP_RogerTheHors
So uncool that it goes past seriously uncool and comes back round to sub-zero again.
- 19,675
- Alabamamania
And hah, hah...they still run despite myriad tech-too-good-to-be-true options that try to stop it. They either run perfectly, or have scads of issues at this age, and can be terrific money pits. Like it or not, they put Mercedes-Benz and BMW and Cadillac on serious notice, whereby they couldn't use the same design for ten years anymore. There was seven years of development on the Celsior/LS/F1 (Flagship 1) project, including a moment whereby engineers even wore fake nails to test out interior switches and controls...most everything still operates with the same fluidity as when new. UZ engine has life expectancy of thirty service advisors.
Still, rather boring to drive; any car that size feels tedious to me. Probably great for long highway stretches and being stuck in traffic, a rare moment when isolating qualities are wonderful. Probably a secondary-echelon historic car, but the knock-on effect is that Lexus stopped innovating in such huge strides for many years, and their clientele's buying average age rose for the next decade.
Meh...although if you want a biased answer, darn if they didn't make me boatloads of money.
What happened to you? Worst argument ever.
Still, rather boring to drive; any car that size feels tedious to me. Probably great for long highway stretches and being stuck in traffic, a rare moment when isolating qualities are wonderful. Probably a secondary-echelon historic car, but the knock-on effect is that Lexus stopped innovating in such huge strides for many years, and their clientele's buying average age rose for the next decade.
Meh...although if you want a biased answer, darn if they didn't make me boatloads of money.
Famine
What happened to you? Worst argument ever.
- 87,318
- Rule 12
- GTP_Famine
There's a bigger backstory to this. Stuart Hall is one of the UK's most famous radio personalities and voiceover men, with absolutely iconic appearances on It's A Knockout - sort a team version of Total Wipeout, only with more foam and stupid costumes - including It's a Royal Knockout, where the royal family participated in same. He's also famous as a Manchester City support and florid voice of Match of the Day.
At the same time, the stuff he did was incredibly tacky, lowest common denominator stuff - and he was associated with the tacky Lexus LS400. It was the Division 2 manager car - the car for the people who hadn't quite made it but felt they had, or just had a sense of expense while not having a sense of style.
Only it turns out he was boinking kids the whole time*.
*We have a large, ongoing story at the moment in the UK known as "Operation Yewtree". It was sparked by the resurfacing of sexual abuse allegations against Jimmy Savile, one time ubercelebrity of TV and Radio, credited with the creation of music television, amongst other things.
With the allegations suggesting an endemic supply of underagers for sexual abuse by Savile courtesy of BBC fixers, the investigation soon spread to other celebrities employed by BBC1 and Radio 1 at the time, some of whom were found to be similarly on the take of child groupies - including Stuart Hall, Dave Lee Travis, Rolf Harris and other superstars.
- 19,675
- Alabamamania
There's a bigger backstory to this...
I figure if we had to judge the cool of cars by matching them up to their worst owners, we'd never be able to rate anything. Mercedes-Benz has had their share of despotic rulers that were also great customers, but that's also an unfair argument. (I had to make some example.) Now if Lexus advertised that their car was impervious to crimes against children:
it's so quiet, cops won't hear the muffled screams inside
innocuous looks deflect your troubled past
the relentless pursuit of other troublemakers
(because you've got a Lexus, not some clapped-out white commercial van)
Then holy crap...we've got a problem.
- 87,318
- Rule 12
- GTP_Famine
Soundproofed boot, eh?
No, it was simply that he was kind of an icon of tat and the XF10 kinda met his tat head on (along with many other tatmeisters that characterised the car). It's just that whereas before it was associated with tat, now it's forever more associated with a meganonce.
No, it was simply that he was kind of an icon of tat and the XF10 kinda met his tat head on (along with many other tatmeisters that characterised the car). It's just that whereas before it was associated with tat, now it's forever more associated with a meganonce.
- 4,040
- UK
- ReTyger
I give this a cool, but because I oddly like how vulgar it is. It seemed a pretty brash foray (or it was at least an earlyish Lexus model?) for Toyota. I think in the future folks might look on it more kindly, a little like some of those old boxy Japanese cars often used as state limos etc. in the late 70s and early 80s.
Oh and extra obnoxious props for the ones with gold bits, not sure if that was a factory option but a few seem to have gold badges etc.
Oh and extra obnoxious props for the ones with gold bits, not sure if that was a factory option but a few seem to have gold badges etc.
- 6,041
- Puget Sound
- Crash852
Though, as far as I understand, they are bullet-proof in reliability, these have gotten to the point where all the ones you see are beaten, run down examples. It also conjures up the image of people who want a nice car but can't really afford one.
If this was the second gen LS, it would be a cool, if not sub-zero. This unfortunately, is kind of uncool.
If this was the second gen LS, it would be a cool, if not sub-zero. This unfortunately, is kind of uncool.
