Faults:

Hood struts and battery.

General Comments:

Recently bought a used 2008 Lexus LS460L at my local Lexus dealership. They had two for sale. One was a silver 2008 Lexus LS460L and the other was a black 2011 Lexus LS460. Both were very clean cars. The 2008 was going for $13,888 and the other for $14,888 before taxes and fees. Usually I would have bought the newer one, but the 2008 was so clean and had a lighter color. Both drove very nice, took them around town and also on the freeway with the salesperson. Researched both cars before going to the dealership. Prices vary on these used cars from about $8000.00 from a private party to about $16,000 from a dealership. So if you are a car person with cash, you can get these for a lot cheaper from a private party. Also you can check the Carfax on these and also apply for membership in the Lexus drivers website to look up what has been done at the Lexus dealerships on one you are interested in.

From my research on these Lexus LS460 cars, they had the following problems on some of the early models. Bad A arms on the suspension, melting or sticky plastics on the interior, bad water pumps, some type of soy based covering on the wiring which caused rodents to chew on them, brake actuator issues and other smaller issues. The 2008 that I bought had most of these items fixed.

Pros:

Rides very smoothly.

Good strong V-8 engine.

Very nice solid interior and exterior of the vehicle.

Very smooth 8 speed transmission.

Nice fit and finish.

If you have driven a Toyota or Honda sedan in the past you will be right at home in this LS460; it's just bigger and heavier.

Good strong 19 speaker 450 watt stereo unit with the ML system which is an option, along with a HD unit which can download CDs to it.

Enough tech items to keep most novices happy with it.

Well made seats with every kind of seat adjustments you would want.

Very little noise coming from the car except a little wind noise from the side mirrors and the direct injected engine tapping softly from the engine bay at start up.

Cons:

Silly electronic brakes... it's a pain because you never know if it's on or off.

After you take the engine's plastics off for cleaning, you notice it's the ugliest V-8 you have ever seen... my old 1969 Chevy V-8 350 engine was a beauty queen compared to this one.

Fuse boxes and electronic components everywhere... even on the top of the engine. If something goes wrong with the electrics you better have a good mechanic to fix it.

A lot of very hard plastics on the interior on some of the early models, which had plastics that were sticky to touch on some of the cars made.

The car is always warning you about something being close to you when you back up and the parking assist is always trying to help you when you don't need it... very distracting when backing up or parking.

Specs say this 4.6 engine has 380hp... no way... more like 300-325hp and to get it you have to press the gas pedal to the floor; anything less and it wants to stay in economy mode.

Once you get into its 8 speed automatic transmission on the freeway, it doesn't like to downshift and tries to stay in the higher gears for fuel economy.

In conclusion, I am very happy with it and it's a nice solid driving vehicle, and when new was about $70,000 for the L model and about $60,000 for the regular LS460 model.

Options were expensive and had a lot of them, they had:

Luxury package... $2700.00.

Executive class seating package. $12,000.

Rear seat upgrade package $1600.00.

ML stereo upgrade package $2500.00.

Comfort package $1200.00.

Nav/Mark Levinson package $5600.00.

And probably a few other packages I missed.

Does it drive better than the Toyota Camrys and Honda Accords I have driven in the past. Yes it's smoother and has a great stereo to it. Would I trade in my reliable Camry or Accord for one? No I would not, because even though they drive similar, the LS460 is about 1000 lbs heavier and you feel every pound as you drive it.

But if you are looking for a nice low budget luxury car, the LS460 can't be beat and it's a great bang for your buck vehicle. Did I pay too much for it? Yes I did. If you are a car guy with cash and a good eye for cars and their problems that they might have, you could get this LS460L for about $4000.00 less.

Also tested a couple of other vehicles before I bought this LS460L:

Used 2016 Scion. A very nice little solid economy car except for the CVT that felt like it was stuck in first gear and I couldn't change it. Used price was $12,500.00.

New 2020 Honda Fit. Very well put together little car, but very tight in the interior with the same CVT issues as the Scion. New car price was $18,000.

Used 2011 Toyota Avalon. Another well built luxury car, very nice and good power from the V-6 engine; in fact this V-6 engine could give the LS460L V-8 I bought a run for its money. Used price $12,000.

Faults:

Nothing, just normal wear and tear.

General Comments:

I love this car so much. I love Lexus; this is my 4th Lexus and 2nd LS. I never thought I would enjoy a car so much. I still get compliments on this car and it’s old!!! I think about buying the new one, but nothing is wrong with mine and I love my car.

My only thing is I moved since I purchased the car and I don’t like the dealer where the car gets serviced. I really liked my old dealer; their customer service was priceless.

I travel a lot for work and do not get to drive often. I probably put 5k miles per year on my car. But the smooth ride, classic look and low maintenance this car requires means it was worth every penny I paid.