90s Japanese Luxury Car Purchase Dilemma Solved: Going VIP!

Murilee Martin
by Murilee Martin

Back in September, I wrote about my search for a 1990s Japanese luxury car as a daily driver, with the Infiniti Q45, Lexus LS400, and Acura RL as the main contenders. Five months later, I’ve made my choice. It’s a 1997 Coach Edition Lexus LS400 in nice shape, 120,000 miles. Man, this car has class.. The reason I’m getting this LS is to allow me to immobilize my ’92 Civic long enough to swap the Integra GS-R engine into it, which means I won’t be doing any customizing that takes it out of commission for long periods. That doesn’t mean I’ll be leaving it dead stock, of course…

I’ve become fascinated by the Japanese VIP Style fashion for car customization, spending a lot of time looking at the Junction Produce site and various Japanese VIP car publications. I won’t be doing anything particularly radical to my Lexus in terms of ride height or suspension mods (I want it to ride the way Toyota intended), but I will need some better wheels, and Celsior grille and badges… and a fusa.

Murilee Martin
Murilee Martin

Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Autoblog, Hagerty, The Truth About Cars and Capital One.

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  • Murilee Martin Murilee Martin on Feb 17, 2012

    I think what I really need is four 'bos, wrapped in four Vogues.

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    • Cheapthrills Cheapthrills on Feb 17, 2012

      @redmondjp I believe he means fo-fos, wrapped in fo-Vogues. Mike Jones demonstrated their superiority in the video for Still Tippin'.

  • Hgrunt Hgrunt on Jul 19, 2012

    My parents bought a '91 LS400, second hand, in the late 90s. The powertrain was incredibly smooth. It was also the one thing in the car that didn't break, as it turned out to be the least reliable car our family had ever owned. It was no fault of the car itself, just a general lack of every type of maintenance from previous owners.

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