Review: '96 Lexus LS400

Throughout my life I've been told I'm very original and this is how I came up with the car I'm going to review today. This website was inspired by the LS400 - a legend - and will always include something about it. Now let's get to it, unbiased as possible.

My precious...

The LS400 was Lexus's flagship car and the vehicle that started the brand. In the 80s, there was a rise in people looking for good luxury sedans. The problem was that the best you could get was a Buick or something, and it wasn't very reliable. There was a new market for nice luxury cars that are also reliable. More young people were buying them.

While Mercedes was working on their S-Class and BMW on their 5-series, Toyota spent 1 billion dollars to research and develop this luxury sedan (hence LS). Fun fact: the very logo for Lexus came from the codeword for the car as it was being developed. The engineers used "L-1" in a circle as a designation and that later became the L in the circle that we know as Lexus's logo.

In case you didn't know, Toyota started Lexus. They priced the LS400 at such a low price point that they only made back their money - they didn't actually make any profit. They did this so the car was also cheaper than its competition. The plan worked because Lexus is now a household name in luxury. The other companies were pretty upset.

The car was a hit. It was reliable unlike the Jaguar, BMW, and Mercedes counterpart. It also had more room inside yet was smaller outside than at least the S-Class - I'm not sure about the other two. It came with the 1uz, a legendary engine owing to the fact that it was one of the first high revving, aluminum block V8. It's respectable to this day. The first generation, 1990-94, had about 250hp while the first and a halfth (is that a word? 1.5 gen) generation of 1995-97 boosted that to 265 and finally Lexus came out with VVTi in 1998-2000, further boosting the horsepower up to 285. While not fast, per se, compared to cars these days, it was a rocket when it came out.

Lexus was forever cemented as the reliable luxury car brand and was starting to appear in rap lyrics (apparently there's people [he uses a different word...] doing time for that white Lexus). Everyone wanted one in the 90s.

As far as everything else goes, the quality is amazing through-and-through. The interior is beautiful and pretty ergonomic. Although the leather seats tend to crack from heat, they do okay in white tinted cars. Otherwise they rip, get hard, and pieces start breaking off.

But that is the only complaint I can think of. I had to use a Ford Focus as a daily driver recently and getting in that car really made me realize just HOW luxurious the LS is. Every single part of the interior is better and I'm not exaggerating.

You step in the Lexus at night and there's a light around the keyhole that immediately shows you were to put the key while in the Focus, you go ahead and find it with no light (nope, a light doesn't even come on when you open the door). The seats made my back hurt the first couple days. In the Lexus, you can adjust them so many ways that it's almost overkill. They're also soft and just perfect. Same goes for both armrests.

You get not one but two gloveboxes. The sunroof is amazing. It tilts upward or goes back - whichever you prefer. There's a clock in the middle right there for you to see when you're busy driving somewhere.

Those are just some things that the Ford Focus doesn't have. The Ford also makes every noise it can. Everything rattles and there's little sound deadening so it's just loud inside just from car noise.

I will say that the Focus obviously gets better mileage (7-10 in a similar year, even ten years newer). It's not extremely reliable like the LS400 but it does okay. Should get to 250k miles if taken care of. There's a million mile LS400. And don't think parts are cheaper. They are the same price. I know this because my parents have three Focuses. I don't understand.

The Lexus LS400 is refined and beautiful. It's already a classic and will eventually be a collector's car because of the history. It beats cars that are made today and will forever live on as a Legend.

LS400 Update: I Turn a 95 Into a 96

Someone will get the reference.

My dear readers, you have seen me go through a year and a half of headaches but also happy times with my 1995. I've put so much work into it and learned so much. However, the car is far from being reliable and I'm selling it. Why? It's because I have a much better base to work off of.

Meet the 1996 Lexus LS400. This is a beautiful car. I bought it with a misfire as the coil pack is bad and the timing belt needs to be changed. Good thing I have both. Extras too!

What happened was I hit a point in life where the problems with the car became just a little too much to handle financially and I had no place to just park it. Although I've been using a Ford Focus (bad) as a daily driver... Every time I get in, I want to be in my LS400.

Call me blessed or whatever word you want to use but this white one that I got, well, let's say it showed up in my life free. At least it will be when a nice woman from Georgia picks up the '95.

Yes, The Chariot will live on! That car has a will to live. This person that contacted me to buy it is also an LS400 fanatic so I can't wait to see what she does with it. I'm glad it's not going to be crusher food.

There's a lesson in here. It's something I've learned recently in other situations.

Sometimes, it's better to take a loss and bounce back.

I started selling my '95 before I knew that I was going to be able to get this other car. It just so happened that I got it before I sold the first one, even. It's that Law of Attraction.

I will never forget The Chariot. It brought me into this world of the LS400 - still one of the most perfect cars ever made. At least in my opinion and that of thousands of others. I think I will always own a Lexus. I see now why Lexus was literally built on the LS, a vehicle that cost one billion dollars to research and develop. No wonder they call it a spaceship (who calls it that? rappers).

I put probably $3,000 into the '95 that I'm selling for MUCH less. It still needs a lot of work. Do I feel like I wasted that money?

Not one bit. I learned more about fixing cars in the last year than I did paying more than that to go to technical school! I went from being able to change my brakes supervised to being able to do a timing belt. I've learned (well, started learning) upholstery and it has become a great hobby.

The interior is in an unbelievable state.

And I can appreciate the new car much more. I feel very lucky to own this car. It's extremely clean. The outside has a couple dents but the inside is a different story. Kudos to the previous owner because I have never seen an LS400 interior this nice in person. It looks brand new.

There's no cracks on the dash from dry rot. All of the lights work, including the cluster. All of the buttons work (and not only when they want to). One of my favorite things is that it's tinted. Overall, I am very happy and I want to thank Anais for being so nice when we did the transaction. Thank you for keeping the car running good aswell.

My friends, if you feel like you want to do something like this then I encourage you to do it. Buy a beat up car and get to work. What you will learn and your experience will be priceless.

Upholstery on a Budget plus Making Your Car Unique

For someone like me who wants to have a unique car, auto upholstery is a worthwhile skill to learn. Not only will it allow you to completely change the look of your interior but you will be learning a marketable skill. Auto upholsterers make a lot of money although it takes a lot of time and practice to get to that level.

In the beginning, you want to start with small items like the shift knob. One of the first things I did was wrap my old shifter in nice leather and stitch it together. Although lacking in quality just a little, it looked pretty good and helped change the inside of the car.

One perk of upholstering something in leather is that you actually get some of that new car smell back. The new car smell is made up of adhesives and materials used in the making of the car and that's what you're using. My 23 year old car smells like leather inside.

You can go my route and start with seat covers - this way you can always take off what you did if you mess it up. This is opposed to completely reupholstering the seat the proper way which includes taking off the old material.

This skill is easy to learn, hard to master. You have to know how to sew although that is extremely simple. You should be able to figure it out by yourself and if you can't - auto upholstery probably isn't for you. Just saying. I'm talking about sewing. Upholstery is hard and will require patience.

Sewing
To begin, you get the thread through the needle hole first. Pull out six inches or so. That will keep your thread from coming out of the needle as you stick it through your material. There are different stitching patterns but the most basic way is to lay the two pieces of cloth on top of each other and stick the needle through both, come out of the other side, stick it back through to the first side a short distance further, and continue like this. The thread goes down through the cloth, comes back up through another hole, goes back down yet another, and continues to create a sturdy basic stitch.

A sewing machine does this automatically and quickly. It will eventually become a must. You can still create a lot with just a needle and thread. You should also think about the fact that Ferrari, Lamborghini, Pagani, and so many supercar manufacturers still hand stitch everything. That's a nice job...

Make sure to use strong thread. I like to use fishing line although you can't see it. If you want different colors, you're gonna have to go to a fabric store and find some good, strong thread. Simple string will always eventually rip, even if you double up on it.

The same goes for the material you will be using. Try not to use thin cloth as it will start ripping. You can find leather and different types of fabric in the form of couches that have been thrown out by their owners. It's free and the fabric is literally meant to sit on. Not only have I gotten large pieces of good leather but expensive microfiber cloth that looks and feels like velvet aswell. Take a razor and cut the biggest pieces you can. A large couch provided me with enough material to upholstery all the seats in the LS which is a big car. Get every inch!

Some microfiber cloth that came off a reupholstered couch someone was throwing out. I also saw zebra print... Thought about it... 

On to the good stuff. There's two basic ways of reupholstering a seat, just to use that as an example. The methods are really a variation of the same thing.

The idea is to figure out what pieces you're gonna need to put together a complete seat, cut those out, and sew them together.

You would typically use the original pieces to stencil your new pieces. You have to carefully separate all of the original stitching, leaving you with the pieces of fabric that make up the whole seat, and trace around those on top of the new fabric.

Here I'm marking a straight line to cut but the idea is the same when you use a stencil. Say you cut your piece from a piece of paper you overlayed, you would place that on top of the backside of your fabric and trace around it in order to create the shape you want. Remember to add that half inch afterwards.

You can also overlay paper, set it on each panel you need (you can do this without taking apart the seat at all), and carefully trace the exact shape you need. In this way, you can actually upholster the seat directly on top of the old fabric. That's something you may want to do on your own cars when you first start.

You're going to mark an extra half inch around each one of these stencils. This half an inch of fabric is what you're going to be sewing to other pieces. It is necessary to make up for the lost length created by the fold you get when you sew these pieces together. It makes up the fold in between layers. If this doesn't make sense to you, well, it takes a certain amount of space to sew two fabrics together and this is it.

It is a good idea to mark which piece attaches to which. A is next to A while B is next to B and so on. Use a marker or something like that and make sure you mark everything on the back side! That should be obvious.

You're going to be sewing inside out. In order to get that hidden, folded in stitch, the sewing has to be done from the backside of the fabric. What do I mean? Let's say I have two square pieces that I am attaching together. Both pieces are black leather on one side and the dull gray part you're not supposed to see on the other side.

To create a hidden seam, I would lay these two pieces leather-face on leather-face. If I then sewed one side together, I would be able to 'open' this piece to reveal a leather rectangle with folded-in stitching in the center.

This illustrates what I'm talking about. The line in the middle is where these two big pieces were sewn together into one. See how it folds in?

I hope I explained this in a way you can easily understand.

That's the half inch you're not supposed to see. Notice also how I have these two pieces laid leather face on leather face.

Like I said, you can also cut your own pieces but you have to measure everything very accurately to have it fit the seat perfectly. Although it IS harder, only somewhat. It takes longer and you have to pay a lot of attention to detail. You will be rewarded with something custom. Something one-off and something that has had sweat and time put into it. Something no other car has. I think that's worth pursuing.

If you want to see what can be accomplished, an inspiration to me was a company called Stitched by Slick. Started by a man who was taught to sew by his grandmother, it is now one of the highest quality upholstery shops out there. Here are a couple pictures but you should really look the man up.

Anybody that steps in that car is at least going to be thinking about it if they don't say anything. Google him, though - he has much better stuff.

Making Your Car Unique
I didn't buy my Lexus LS400 just because it's an amazing luxury car but also because it is suprisingly customiseable. I was able to easily turn the back seat into a bench seat - something that suits my style - but you can do a lot more.

The back seat of my car. The back will stay leather while the cloth will be replaced by microfiber and the leather will flow through the seat even though the bottom will be cloth so it doesn't get so hot or cold.

Have you ever heard of interior swaps? Indeed, people change out whole interiors. Pontiac GTO dash in a 1970 Charger? Sure, no problem. Actually it's amazing what some people can do with interiors.

To switch out a back seat, for example, you have to locate a different seat that has the same measurements as yours or that you can at least fit and secure somehow. Starting with a back seat would probably be the easiest. I don't have much experience doing this but I thought I would bring up something unique that will really make people go "Wait... Is this the original interior?"

Think about other parts. Door panels, headliners, and just about anything can be customised. It takes time, dedication, and imagination.