Is It Live Or Is It Memorex?: 1999 Mercedes S320 vs 1998 Lexus LS400

Good morning! Today we’re looking at a couple of luxury cars, one of which “benchmarked” the other, which is a nice way of saying “unabashedly copied.” Is the copy even better than the real thing? We’ll find out.

Yesterday, we looked at a boring but clean car and a rough but interesting one, and it looks like condition won out over potential fun. I expected this one to go the other way, frankly, considering this group’s general dislike for J-cars, and the fact that it was up against a car that’s a stickshift and turbocharged and rear-wheel-drive. But sometimes I get surprised, and this was one of those times.

I’d take the Cavalier, to the surprise of probably no one, for two reasons: One, I hate rust, and two, I would enjoy it more on my local roads. We don’t have much for fun twisty roads around here, but we do have lots of flat, straight two-lane blacktop going between little towns, which sounds perfect in a small, leisurely convertible.

Now then: You only have to take a quick look at the luxury car market in the late ’80s to know where Toyota had its sights set with the Lexus LS400. The Mercedes-Benz S-Class was it, the top of the line, the fanciest, nicest, and at the time, best-built luxury sedan you could get. Did Toyota rise to meet the challenge? Oh yes. And then some.

But it has been decades since then, and both the LS400 and the S-Class have reached the bottom of their depreciation curves, letting the rest of us enjoy their fine qualities on a budget. Which one is the better beater? Let’s take a look and find out. Apologies if either or both of these cars are sold by the time you read this; I have a feeling they’ll sell quickly.

1999 Mercedes-Benz S320 – $2,500

Engine/drivetrain: 3.2-liter dual overhead cam inline 6, five-speed automatic, RWD

Location: Marina Del Rey, CA

Odometer reading: 191,000 miles

Operational status: Runs and drives great

The Mercedes-Benz W140 chassis S-Class had some gigantic shoes to fill. Its predecessor, the W126, was the car of choice for Wall Street tycoons, rappers, and tin-pot dictators around the world, and was well-known for being not only smooth and luxurious but also phenomenally well-built and reliable. The W140 upped the ante on technological features, and in doing so, lost a bit of the reliability, and ushered in the modern era of extremely complicated German cars. This is either the last “good” Mercedes or the first “bad” one, depending on who you ask.

The W140 was available with a wide range of engines, all the way up to a 6.0 liter V12. But this one makes do with a 3.2-liter twincam six, backed by a 5G-Tronic automatic transmission. One does not deign to shift one’s own gears in an S-Class. It may not be the fire-breather that the V8 and V12 cars are, but it will do nicely, thank you, and uses a lot less fuel. Like many Mercedes drivetrains, with proper maintenance it is capable of racking up some serious miles, and this one is approaching 200,000 and still runs just fine.

This S-Class wears Massachusetts plates, but the seller says it was “mostly a Florida car,” and now resides in California. Like Hank Snow, it’s been everywhere, man. The seller is now moving overseas and is therefore unloading it cheap.

It looks pretty good, but not great, as you might expect from a cheap twenty-five-year-old luxury car. There’s a bruise on the rear bumper, and it looks like there might be a little water intrusion into the taillights that should probably be addressed. Once again, we don’t get a photo of the driver’s seat, which probably means it’s damaged. People think they’re being so clever not showing it, but it’s literally the first thing you’re going to notice when you open the door. Just let us see it, so we can act accordingly.

1998 Lexus LS400 – $3,000

Engine/drivetrain: 4.0-liter dual overhead cam V8, five-speed automatic, RWD

Location: San Gabriel, CA

Odometer reading: 89,000 miles

Operational status: Runs and drives great

If you’re old enough to remember when Lexus began, you probably remember this commercial, in which Lexus showed that it came to play. For one thing, 145 miles per hour? In a car built by Toyota? Such a thing was unthinkable to the average Camry owner. But beyond that, it was smooth enough to not disturb a stack of wine glasses on the hood, with the engine howling along at that speed? Now that was impressive.

Unlike Mercedes, Lexus offered only a single engine in the LS, a four-liter V8, available only with an automatic transmission. This second-generation LS400 gained a fifth gear, bringing it even once again with Mercedes. These engines and transmissions are known for their incredible longevity, and for retaining that smoothness even with hundreds of thousands of miles on them. This one, at 89,000 miles, is just getting broken in.

Of course, it’s quiet and comfortable inside and loaded with all kinds of cool gadgets. This one shows some splits in the leather of both front seats, probably due to that warm California sun, and it also looks like the driver’s side headrest has been removed. It’s also missing a speaker grille on one rear door panel. I would say you could pop into a junkyard and find one, but I imagine LS400s are few and far between in junkyards.

It looks pretty good outside, except for the plastic wheel centers, which always turn yellow and look like hell on these cars. I don’t know if it would be better to repaint them to match the wheels again, or just take them off, but they look awful and make the car look older and more run-down than it is. That not-really-a-color paint makes it look old and tired to me too, but maybe that’s just because I had a Corolla the exact same color that really was old and tired.

Both of these cars strike me as pretty good deals, and that’s not often something you can say about cheap used luxury cars. But they both represent automakers at the top of their game, making the very best four-door sedans they could possibly make, and building them to last. I’d be happy to park either one in my garage, but I want to know what you all think. Do you want the real-deal German sedan, or the highly-polished Japanese interpretation?

(Image credits: sellers)