Going to look at this tonight.
https://tulsa.craigslist.org/cto/4883503705.html
According to him, the front seat does have a few tears in it, which tends to happen after 225,000 miles. Depending on severity, I'm trying to gauge what to offer based on the price and difficulty of reupholstering it. I'd like to have a shop do it.
If the rest of the seats are faded or worn, I may not bother. My best guess after some internet research is in the $300 ballpark, but I think I may be low.
These cars need wheels worse than any car ever. With the possible exception of the sc430
No really, just new ls430 wheels are a tremendous improvement
or
If they turn out to be just split seams, that could be repaired inexpensively. I pulled the back seat skin off one car and the guy re-stitched it for $45.
I also did a quick fix on my GTI's driver's seat for free with a few #0 silk sutures borrowed from work.
Maybe a JY swap? Having new skins sounds like it would end up uber expensive, even for one seat.
And, carbon's right - original wheels always looked like AutoZone wheel covers to me.
I think these are the best value in cars right now. Picture driving the car on the top for 3k, then picture the pos regular economy used car you get for 3k.
carbon wrote: These cars need wheels worse than any car ever. With the possible exception of the sc430
yo dawg I heard you hated SC430 wheels and LS400 wheels so I put SC430 wheels on my LS400 so you can hate while you hate 
XLR99 is right, if it's split seams you can peel off the skin and should be easily done at any upholstery shop, hell I'd probably try my luck at any dry cleaner that does alterations.
If they're cracked like most I've seen (why do the Japanese seem to use inferior leather than the Germans?) then I have no idea how much to reupholster a single seat. But $300 for one seat doesn't make too much sense when I hear you can get a complete set of skins from Leatherseats or Katzskins for $600, if you removed the seat and took it to a shop, and used leather look vinyl, would it be cheaper?
Also might check Ebay, I saw those skin kits for under $400 shipped from time to time iirc
Do the 95+ LS400s have the automatic headrests the earlier ones do? I found a nicely redone 1st gen interior in the JY but couldn't get them as I didn't have a power source or anything to cut the headrests off. Not to mention the first few weeks of owning the car and having no idea how to adjust the headrests. Automatic headrests. In 1993. DaBerk.
Call Poe-boy? Lol, must be a literature fan.
Talk to any used car dealer. They know who to use for quick leather repair. I had one seat repaired on my 911 and it matches the 27yo skin in the car. YMMV
I am in the process of refurbing a set of Saab 9000 Aero front seats. I am using the Leatherique kit to work on them. They turned out much better than I had ever expected. The seats had wear and some cracks, but no tears. The only issue that I ran into was their stock beige dye wasn't an exact match for the seats. I ended up having them make me up a custom match bottle of dye to redo the color. It will have cost me a little over $100 to do the seats this way.
If the seat is the only issue, sounds like a deal to me. I sew leather on my grandmother's hand crank Singer.
Haven't seen the car yet, but he says it was optioned with a nav system, which means it should have air suspension, which makes me a bit nervous. Anything I should look for as far as suspension issues?
Neither of mine have the air suspension, so can't help you there. Look on the clublexus, etc. forums. I don't think it is really a problem. I know that you can buy a chip and slam it strictly with the chip, y0.
If they're bad, why not just pull junkyard seats?
Car pulled up beside me at the gas station and immediately died. An older black gentleman jumped out, equipped with a jump pack and snakeskin boots, and asked me to hold the undersized alligator clips on the battery terminals. I guess this was Poe-Boy. A cursory glance around the exterior (as he struggled to keep the car running) solidified my suspicion that this car had been Myspace-angle'd. One look in the interior and I was just about done, when the shifter trim fell off in my hand. I thanked him for his time whilst inconspicuously chucking it into the backseat.
He took off across four lanes of traffic with the engine redlined and tires squealing.
I feel like I got my full entertainment value.
Wow, what a pile of E36 M3. Time to keep looking.
Tires shouldn't be squealing unless the VSC is disabled or broke.
A really nice one is gonna cost 7-8 large, and worth every penny.
OSULemon wrote: Haven't seen the car yet, but he says it was optioned with a nav system, which means it should have air suspension, which makes me a bit nervous. Anything I should look for as far as suspension issues?
The thing about the air suspension is you can hack it with a $200 controller that lets you control ride height to the tune of about a foot of ride height, like dragging frame or monster truck. IIRC it works with 400 body style cars too. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-f3DuqmOXk
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