Greed over supply & demand

[Telco]

The number is closer to 35K made per year as an average. Your top figure suggests only 175K LSs were ever made.

I admit it, I didn't look it up and tried posting from memory.

I wouldn't mind picking up a reatta - there's quite a few on CL local for pretty cheap. I also like the olds trofeos
too.

If finding parts for the LS is too much of a problem for you, no you wouldn't. I liked the car, but you've really got to like scavenger hunts to own a Reatta. I don't like scavenger hunts at all. On mine, the headlight motors failed, had to ship them off to one of the other board members to have him rebuild it. I sold it because I was using it for a work car, but the car needed too much work and to do the work I had to spend way, way, way too much time not looking for parts but looking for someone who could make the parts. The only way to have a Reatta is to buy three of them. One to drive, two for parts. I strongly suggest LS owners do the same.

 

[M4rk]

It's not all about the production numbers. Lexus produced less than 12k IS-Fs and the car has far more aftermarket than the LS. My '14 is 1 of ~300.

 

[LS4me]

... and hard to find tow hook covers, Ha!

You mean impossible to find??? :lol::lol::lol:

 

[FDR]

It's not all about the production numbers. Lexus produced less than 12k IS-Fs and the car has far more aftermarket than the LS. My '14 is 1 of ~300.

Multiply number of running vehicles, percentage of enthusiast owners, and market value of the vehicle and somewhere in that range is a border between profitable and non-profitable aftermarket parts.

The more vehicles there are, the more potential buyers there are.

The higher the percentage of enthusiasts there are, the more potential buyers there are

The more valuable the car, the more the enthusiast owners are likely to fork over (see: BMW's Dinan, Alpina parts)

Your IS-F is an enthusiasts car from the start, so the number goes up. And sure, they -F may have relatively low production numbers, but it's still just a hopped up IS so swappable items will sell much better (presumably wheels, body kits, lights, suspension, etc), so that raises the number of vehicles on the road. It's also an international model, further increasing the number of vehicles.

Meanwhile, the LS likely had a low enthusiast portion when new, and now the percentage is likely higher but the total road-going vehicles is much less. There's also very few cross-model parts. Some drivetrain and suspension parts are shared between the LS, Thunderbird, and S-type and not much else.

 

[1LoudLS]

not to mention its a Toyota, and that means that there is pretty much a guaranteed huge aftermarket from the start...