- When you were a kid, your parents or grandparents
they probably had some sort of Buick
and it was a really comfortable car,
probably the most comfortable car you've ever ridden in.
And so, as you get older, you jump into the tuning scene.
You're buying all the cool sports cars that have
the bucket seats and the terrible suspension.
Until finally, you get a little bit older.
Your hips start to crack.
Your knees are starting to hurt and no longer
is mom's spaghetti enough for you to get in and out
of a car without feeling like you're gonna break an ankle.
So, you end up jumping into the Japanese tuning version
of what is probably a Buick Rendezvous.
This is Steve's 1997 Lexus LS 400.
And today's episode of Behind the Wheel,
we're taking a look on if buying one
of these clouds on wheels is still worth it
considering how expensive they're getting,
and if you're gonna jump into one,
what should you expect actually getting behind the wheel?
(electronic hip-hop music)
Now, first things first, you need to talk about the engine
'cause when it comes down to Lexus being incredible,
it comes down to this specific motor.
This is the 1UZ,
this is known as the million mile motor
and it is the million mile motor for a lot of reasons.
When you're buying an LS 400,
chances are 75% of the cost
of the car is going into this contraption right here.
And here's why the car is so reliable.
It's the fact that the entire bottom end
of this thing is practically forged.
Now, I mean that with a little bit of asterisk at the end.
It has a forged steel crank shaft
with a ton of counterweights. It has two more
than most production V8's had at that time.
You have to remember, this is a four liter V8
and it has six cross bolted main bearing caps
which prevent unwanted particles where the,
like, the actual bearings are contained,
which is inherently, like, unheard of the,
the fact that this thing is sealed tight
and it goes above and beyond
in terms of monitoring the reliability of the motor
while also having forged steel crank shafts there
in there as well. It's an awesome motor.
It not only has, probably, around 270-ish horsepower,
270-ish foot pounds of torque,
but you can see just how smooth it actually is.
You've probably watched the wine glass thing.
All I have is my cup of coffee.
(engine revving)
It's so smooth. Everything about this car,
the reason people love this car, sure the suspension,
all that, the looks and stuff are great,
but the reason you buy an LS 400 is because of the 1UZ.
If you find yourself a good LS 400 in decent condition
with a strong motor, buy that car immediately.
Lexus did a fantastic job with this engine.
All right, so let's get the obvious out of the way.
No, this is not a VIP build.
You're not gonna find curtains hiding around the windows.
You're not gonna find champagne bottles in the back.
You're not gonna find fancy steering wheels.
You're gonna see a relatively stock interior,
a relatively calm exterior outside of the Anovia Titans
that are 18 by 9 and a half plus 35 all around,
and some federal 595's, which are officially,
I believe, the rarest tire, like, to date right now.
What you're gonna find is just a very calm
and collected Lexus LS 400
that has just a couple bits and features.
It's got some updated headlights, taillights.
It's got the wheels and tires, and then it's sitting
on airlift 3p, you know, air suspension.
But this car has made it across pretty much the, the world.
All right, this thing has gone absolutely everywhere.
It's gone to Las Vegas, it's gone to Los Angeles,
it's gone to Texas, it's gone to Atlanta.
It's been everywhere.
This car gets driven absolutely everywhere.
And this was a one owner car outside of the dealer
that Steve actually bought it from
when he went to Las Vegas to go pick it up.
So, you're not gonna see insane modifications on the inside
or the outside, but the inside is insanely clean.
I think the only thing I would've loved to see
is if this came in black,
but I actually don't think this color ever came in black.
But outside of that, this is a crazy car.
I love these cars. They're comfortable.
They're the best thing in the world.
And they're, they're comfortable not just for the motor.
I know I bragged about that a little bit,
but the OEM suspension that came in these cars
was insane to say the least,
and because of the power curve out of the four liter going
to the transmission, it actually did a really good job
at staying balanced throughout the whole thing.
So we're gonna go take it for a little bit of a drive
and see how it does. Now, I know it is old.
It is an older car, but even with it being older,
I really don't care about age.
I do not care about age that much
because once you put in nice little touchscreen like this,
and you got yourself a decent stereo
and an air conditioning that works,
it really doesn't matter.
Like, these things come with GPS
and everything under the sun for, like, $300.
So, I'm not actually that opposed to having an old car.
I think old cars have a little bit of class and style
to them, even though the new ones sound angry all the time.
Now, you may notice I'm not even yelling right now.
There's a reason for that.
It's 'cause we're in a Lexus.
When you're in this car, you imbue class.
You are inherently better than everyone else on the road,
even if they don't know it. You wanna know why?
Say it with me, because you're in a Lexus.
All right? It's Lexus or nothing.
And in this car.
Wow, unbelievable.
What a power plant.
I could still have the coffee on that engine hood right now
and it'd probably be fine.
You have no idea how fast I'm going
'cause you can't tell the difference in sounds.
I'm going 80 miles an hour and you have no idea.
These are one of those cars where
if you are a car enthusiast
and you know what you're looking at,
you'll appreciate all the small details about this car.
You'll appreciate the fact that it is insanely clean.
Now, even though Steve has a tendency
to somehow always get door dinged every 16 days,
Steve still manages to get it all PDR, he gets it all fixed.
And then 14 days later he gets another door done.
So he's either parking
in the worst possible spots imaginable,
or we're just finding more dents as life goes on.
Either way, it's a beautiful car.
And I love the fact that these cars,
especially the ones from, like, the 90s,
you get a little bit of a different color palette.
It sounds weird, but I like the off-white color.
I'm not a huge fan of just straight white cars.
Now, you're gonna look below and you're gonna see
that there is a little switch.
Now, the switch here is probably one of the things
that a lot of people would argue is the reason the 1UZ
gets a million miles if you really, really want to.
There's not a whole lot in this car, but this button,
it means something, okay?
Norm, when you're feeling norm-y,
and you want the car to last forever, that's what you put.
You put it in norm mode, gets you a nice balanced feel,
nice balanced power curve, and you feel like you're driving
in a Lincoln, but better.
You feel like you're driving in a Buick, but better.
But when you put that thing in power,
you may, you may decrease the chances
of you making it to the million mile marker point.
But it does give you a little extra jump in your, you know,
jump in your shorts. You know what I'm saying?
What are the things that we like about the car
outside of the fact that I've named, like, 12,000 things?
it's comfortable, it's smooth. You can take it everywhere.
There's actually space in the back for human beings
that are taller than four foot, six,
which a lot of times these sedans these days,
like the Audi A3 and A4, you can, you can get
in the back seat but you have to remove the lower half
of your body to be comfortable.
This has space. And a lot of the car's comforts are powered.
They're electronically controlled too.
So it's not just, like, oh, you can just sit back there.
Some of these come
with electronically adjustable rear seats as well
which is awesome for a 97.
I mean, Lexus was bringing Mercedes-Benz style comfort
to the Japanese saloon market in the late 90s.
And that is insane.
There are a couple things, all right,
that I don't like about the Lexus LS 400.
I carry a pink coffee cup with me or a blue coffee cup
because then I can spot it
because I have a tendency to forget them in places.
You can ask literally anyone.
But one of the things that I don't like about Lexus
is that unless you're buying a literal soda can of pop,
nothing fits in these cup holders.
I don't understand why car companies have such a tough time
with cup holders. This is a standard bottom size,
but that doesn't fit.
Now, Steve does wanna throw a supercharger on this,
and I know some people are gonna be like, yeah, do it.
And some people will say, absolutely not.
In my opinion, it is whatever you want it to be.
The 1UZ has been used in, in modified
or high performance scenarios, but it is not a motor
that is meant for high performance scenarios.
It, it can do it.
It was one of the first engines to ever be authorized
or approved for, for aircraft usage.
But that doesn't inherently mean that every single motor
can just be a tunable 800 horsepower car.
There are examples of every motor being that,
but typically if you have a 1UZ, you're gonna get more
of, like, a nice, nice power curve, nothing too crazy.
And I would recommend just being comfortable
with that before you buy these cars,
'cause they are not inherently super fast.
They're not inherently gonna feel very spirited.
And even though they sound okay with an exhaust,
I'm not gonna really say
that they're the best sounding car either.
They're just a nice, comfortable car,
and I'm not entirely sure you'd ever really want
to throw an exhaust on one of these.
You could, if you wanted to,
just something to give it a little bit of tone,
but you start to take away one,
some of the greatest value props of a car like this,
and that, that it's comfortable, it's quiet,
it's reliable, and it looks good.
The more stuff you do to these cars,
you really have to be careful
'cause you have to keep it very nice.
You have to keep it very classy.
'Cause when you start changing things out,
or you go multicolored panels, or you go wide body
but you don't finish it, I think these cars drop off
in terms of how they look insanely, insanely fast.
When things start to fade, when things start to look wonky
with the paint, this car looks ugly really quick.
Like, other cars, it takes a bit of time
to make them, maybe, not look their prime.
But with a Lexus, all it takes is, like,
some foggy headlights and the whole car just looks poopy.
I don't know why. I don't know why Lexus falls off so fast
with that regard. This car is perfect for somebody
that's looking for something that can do everything
without being excessive in any way.
You have to be comfortable
with not always being the loudest car in the room
or the loudest person in the room
because this car is not that. But if you're comfortable
with something that looks nice, can drive well,
is comfortable, and can stay that way,
and you can care about maintaining it just a little bit more
than other cars, you'll love it.
And if you slam it on the ground with some air suspension
and you throw some big boy, five spokes on it,
which is what a lot of people do,
and you restore the headlights
and you throw some sequential LEDs,
you will probably never need to sell a car like this ever.
You'll never need to get rid of it
because it's practically perfect.
Now, even though the car doesn't have a lot of power,
and sure it could use maybe a different set of wheels,
this car still is probably one of the most comfortable cars
you could possibly buy.
And I do think that the cars are still affordable enough
to where you can jump into one, really enjoy it,
and not feel completely broke
and that you need to survive on ramen.
If this car was a one liner,
it would be Steve Rogers saying I could do this all day
because the motor is pretty much indestructible.
And if the car was a movie,
it would most definitely be Scarface.
We gave this a rating in terms of the interior an eight,
exterior got a seven, performance a five,
and modifications a four.
That gets us a 26 out of 40, which gets us right in line
with a couple of the other cars out there.
But what I can say about this car specifically
or the platform that you're looking at
is if you're looking for something that can do it all,
you really are gonna enjoy the LS 400 platform.
You just gotta be comfortable with the fact
that it's a little heavy, maybe a little bit slower
than what your friends have, but nevertheless,
they're gonna be the ones piling into this car
when you decide that you wanna take a road trip
to Milwaukee. I'm Alex from Fitment Industries.
Let us know what you think about the rating on this car
below in the comments. And of course,
if you're looking for wheels, tires, or suspension
be sure to check it out over fitmentindustries.com.
We will see you later. Peace.
(upbeat music)