Anacronyms Revisited

I bought a 1994 Lexus LS400 with 140,000 km on it from a guy yesterday. It’s a bit of a beater, but I hope it will be a reliable beater for the next 3-4 years.

Known issues:

1. She needs new shocks, badly. That isn’t unexpected in a car this age. However, other than the groaning of the left rear (when the oil gets low, the shock makes a groaning sound when depressed, rather like people), the suspension is noiseless. The car has a soft suspension, and so shocks are very important. I will have to remedy this pretty soon.
2. The instrument lights (actually, the whole dash) doesn’t illuminate in the morning until Sometime Later. This morning, it was about 15 minutes after starting. This is a known problem with 91-94 Lexus LS400s. The fix is to replace the instrument cluster (about $1200 from Lexus), or to replace three capacitors in the instrument cluster power supply, either $5 and a Saturday, or $200 if you pull the power supply and get someone else to do it. I’m thinking I’ll be trying one of the latter two.
3. The driver’s side seat belt doesn’t retract properly. Apparently this is due to a solenoid gradually wearing out. The fix is to take it apart and clean it: if that doesn’t work, disconnect the solenoid. A new solenoid is apparently $200 from Lexus.
4. The driver’s side seat springs are going soft. It sags on one side, and the seat depresses more than it should. The fix, probably, is to replace the seat – a new one will be out of the question, so I will have to try to find a used one. Either that or find someone that fixes such things – I wonder, in our replace-the-whole-unit age, whether such a thing exists any more.
5. The automatic antenna is frozen. Might just need cleaning, might need replacing. We’ll see.
6. Overhead light – out. Probably just a bulb. The footwell and door lights still light, so it’s not that bad.
7. Various dents and scratches – will not be fixed.

All in all, not too bad for a 17 year old car.

We will shortly become a 3 car family.

Christine drives Delilah, the pretty blue Mazda 3. I like her to have a new(ish) car – she needs a reliable vehicle. I drive Lola, the now-elderly 97 Miata. Lola has 300,000+ km on her now, and she’s starting to have a few issues. There’s a coolant leak inside the dash somewhere, there are rattles and she always has at least one slow leak because the wheels are corroded and old. She desperately needs a new top, which she will get soon.

So I need to think about replacing Lola – the problem is that she is worth very little on the market now. She is worth far more to us than the $1500 I might get for her.

We now number five half the time, and while we can fit five in Delilah, it is tight and all the children are growing like talkative weeds.

So I need to get another vehicle, one that will 1 not cost too much (I am looking at $5000 maximum) 2 be a reliable daily driver for me for the next 3 years or so 3 will carry 5 comfortably.

I have been looking at Toyota minivans – I can get a 12-14 year old Sienna with 150k km for anywhere between $2000 and $5000. Since most Toyotas are good for 350,000 km, there’s still a lot of life in something like that.

I have also been looking at Lexus LS400s. Depending, you can buy a 92-94 with 150 – 200,000 km on it for $3000 to $6000, and since Lexus is about the most reliable car made, even an 18 year old Lexus should be good for 400,000 km easy.

So now my internal argument comes down to this: A Lexus would be nicer to drive 95% of the time, when I am commuting to work. A minivan would be more practical 1% of the time, when I need to carry 5 people and their gear, or when I want to carry something large. Both should get about the same mileage, and cost about the same to insure.

I suspect that my decision will be made when the first acceptable vehicle appears.