Home » Why Buying An Old Japanese Luxury Car Might Not Save You Much Money Over A Less Reliable German One

Why Buying An Old Japanese Luxury Car Might Not Save You Much Money Over A Less Reliable German One

German Japanese Car Parts Cost
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Here’s a sentiment likely held by my parents, the internet, Consumer Reports, mechanics, radio hosts, YouTubers and just about anyone who can drive. Japanese cars are generally more reliable than German cars. To an extent, this is largely true. After all, it doesn’t take a lot of searching to find that the Germans can’t always make timing guides, bearings, intake manifolds, variable valve timing systems, electronics or seals work flawlessly. However, just because old German luxury cars might not be as reliable as old Japanese luxury cars doesn’t mean that every German car is much more expensive to run than a comparable Japanese car. What the internet doesn’t tell you about old Japanese luxury cars is that parts costs are often insane. Don’t believe me? Read on.

2007 Ls 460 1500x900
Photo credit: Lexus

Let’s start with two flagships from the midst of the Great Recession, the 2009 Lexus LS 460 and the 2009 Mercedes-Benz S 550. Both of these executive sedans are quiet, cossetting and absolutely brilliant on long road trips. They both have V8 engines, they both have air suspension and they both have a bewildering array of gadgets and gizmos. But what do typical consumables like struts and brake discs cost? Let’s start with the Lexus.

Vidframe Min Top
Vidframe Min Bottom

[Editor’s Note: Thomas is obsessed with BMWs, so — as someone who believes writers should be allowed to fly their weird flags — I figured he could go nuts on this post about German versus Japanese luxury car ownership, even if it’s not something that applies to Torch or me. I do wonder if German car parts are cheaper because they fail so often, and have necessitated a more solid supply base. -DT]

Air struts — come on, they’re going to wear out eventually and they’ll cost a pretty penny to replace when they go wrong. From Lexus, front air struts are $1,658.40 each. Ouch. Blow out a pair of those and you’re looking at $3,316.80 just in parts. If you’re the DIY sort, you could hit up a reputable online seller like mylparts and catch a slight discount of $1,406.97 a strut, or $2,813.94 per pair. Decent savings but still not cheap. Meanwhile, the S-Class has a major perk of superior parts availability. Forget dealer pricing, let’s head straight over to a reputable online vendor like FCP Euro to find brand new OE front air struts for $1,220 apiece. That’s $2,440 for a pair or a savings of $373.94 over the third-party vendor’s OEM Lexus struts before factoring in shipping, a really solid chunk of change.

W221 Left Front Three Quarter
Photo credit: Mercedes-Benz

While air struts are hopefully something you’ll only need to replace once, brakes are more of a going consumable. On the Lexus, OEM front discs from mylparts are going for $76.82 apiece while rear discs retail for $94.41 apiece. Add up all four and you get a total of $342.46. Not bad. Still, the Mercedes proves cheaper once again with FCP Euro offering OE ATE-supplied front discs for $106.99 and rear discs for $43.79. Add up two of each and a set of discs ends up totaling out to $301.56. The last time I checked, $40.90 in savings isn’t exactly insignificant.

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2007 G35 Sedan
Photo credit: Infiniti

Okay, so maybe you’re not in the market for a flagship. With these gas prices, who could blame you? Maybe you’re more of a compact sports sedan person who’s cross-shopping a pair of stylish and sensible rear-wheel-drive three-pedal options. The 2007 BMW 328i and the 2007 Infiniti G35. Let’s see what major consumables are like on these things.

How about a set of dampers? OEM front dampers from Infiniti’s official parts site retail for $297.68 each. Yeah, I needed to collect my jaw off the floor as well. Third-party vendors of OEM parts can certainly do better, with typical pricing of $238.68 each. Strangely enough, rear dampers are cheaper through Infiniti’s official channels at $160.65 apiece. That’s $798.66 for a full set. What are these dampers made of, myrrh? Let’s contrast this with OE sport pack Bilstein dampers for the BMW because of course you’d find one with the sport package. Each front strut retails for $115 through FCP Euro which each rear damper retails for a sensible $73. Add it all up and dampers for the BMW cost $376, or $422.66 less than a set of dampers for the Infiniti. Holy crap. If you’re the wrenching sort who values high-quality OE or OEM parts, you could replace the dampers on the BMW, replace the electric water pump and thermostat preemptively and still have $55.99 in the bank.

Thomas 325i
Photo credit: Thomas Hundal

Alright, let’s move onto brake discs. OEM front and rear discs for the G35 retail for $90 apiece from Infiniti, but third-party vendors are legit with the savings. We’re talking $69.30 apiece, front and rear for a grand total of $277.20 for all four. Hey, 23 percent off isn’t bad. So what about discs for the BMW? Well, OE ATE-supplied discs retail for $59.99 up front and $50.99 out back, or $221.96 for the set. I don’t know about you, but savings of $55.24 buys like half a tank of premium.

Now you may be wondering why I’m using OEM parts for the Japanese cars and OE parts for the German cars. You may even wonder what difference the letter M makes. Don’t worry, I’m here to break it down for you. OE or original equipment parts are usually identical to the parts installed on cars at the factory. They may have gone through a few revisions but they’re guaranteed to fit every time and not be any worse in quality than the stock parts you’re pulling off. OEM or original equipment manufacturer is just an OE part with the car manufacturer’s name on the box as opposed to Bilstein or ATE or Continental.

Img 2187
Photo credit: Thomas Hundal

We know who supplies OE parts to German car manufacturers, but who supplies OE parts to Japanese car manufacturers? As ever, it’s a mix of brands. Denso supplies a lot of electrical components, Exedy moves volume in OEM clutches, Akebono offers brake pads for several factory applications, and Tokico manufactures a lot of dampers. However, it can be difficult to trace a supplier to a manufacturer and sometimes it’s almost impossible to buy OE parts. Not every manufacturer uses the previously-listed suppliers and some suppliers don’t even have a consumer web presence in North America.

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For instance, many Toyota trucks use Sumitomo brake pads that are almost impossible to get outside of heading to the dealership parts counter. It’s a similar deal with Tokico, a brand that doesn’t even have a web presence in North America. Meanwhile, suppliers like Mahle and Lemförder that supply to German manufacturers are much more forthcoming with OE status and have a huge presence in North America, often through distribution deals with independent retailers. Ergo it’s much, much easier to get OE parts for a German car than OE parts for a Japanese car.

Lemforder Oe Control Arm
Photo credit: Carpart24

So there you go. Sure, the average depreciated German luxury claptrap will require more fixing than the average old Japanese luxury car, but if you’re handy with a wrench, total cost of ownership using good parts might be closer than you think. Believe it or not, I found this out the hard way. My old G35 was lovely but parts costs were abominable. [Editor’s Note: One of the reasons why I sold my Lexus LX-470 was that parts pricing was absurd (Also it was a bit boring and it sucked gas like you wouldn’t believe). -DT]. For instance, not only did the radio fail, the radio was discontinued when it failed, a pretty poor practice for a common failure point. Replacing the radio with an aftermarket unit required changing the entire center stack. When I sold the G35 for a slightly slower 3-Series, everybody thought I was crazy. Well, I’ve now owned the 325i for a little more than two years and I’ve saved thousands of dollars over my first two years with the G35. As ever, your mileage may vary, but it really does pay to look at total cost of ownership. You could end up with a posher, nicer-to-drive vehicle for very similar overall money.

Lead photo credit: Thomas Hundal

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TransCour Limo
TransCour Limo
1 year ago

A combination of power and fun. This is the best way to describe this vehicle. Limousine luxury with SUV power. Large groups visit cruise terminals, Orlando Magic games, Kennedy Space Center, Bush Gardens in Tampa Bay, local attractions, graduations, and special events. Vans don’t appeal to you (even ours transcourlimo.com?). No problem! Are you power-hungry? You’re welcome to do that together! You’ll love our vehicles!

Peter Barrett
Peter Barrett
2 years ago

Completely unconvinced by this article. I hope I never own another BMW, but would be happy to drive someone else’s. I notice no mention of cooling systems in this article, or window regulators, or shrinking plastic intake components, more let me find the bits I can find cheaper and highlight those. I jumped in my 2005 Sequoia and delivered a car from Houston to Tucson over the weekend without a worry. Years ago I was worried to drive my relatively new 2003 X5 outside of Houston city limits as it had such a tendency for failure. Fancy Nissans are not the pinnacle of Japanese cars either.

Dave Horchak
Dave Horchak
2 years ago

Maybe they just don’t want to pay that much for a domestic auto?

RacerFree aka -C hris Flack
RacerFree aka -C hris Flack
2 years ago

I would take my 3 consecutively owned W212 Benz sedans over any of the dozens of Japanese cars I had previously…. And I love me some Hondas, but the Benzes have been absolute dreams to own and have been so much cheaper to maintain than I anticipated…. Granted, I’ve had 3 E350 4Matics in a row so we’re talking about the German equivalent to a Crown Vic; they’re indestructible tanks. Something like an AMG specialty model would be a bit more to deal with I’d imagine but even then, the smile-to-cost ratio is totally worth it.

Jsloden
Jsloden
2 years ago

The writer point out a couple of examples of German vs Japanese Ownership. I’ve owned about twenty of each. I assure you owning and maintaining a Japanese car is considerably cheaper than maintaining a German one. This is of course assuming you’re keeping them stock. When you start tuning anything is fair game. When I was in German cars a few examples were a w210 e55 or an e39 sport wagon along with a slew of e30’s. Rarely a week went by that my indy didn’t see me. This was because he could order parts and have them next day at cost. I also had a few integra’s and rsx’s scattered in there as well. Indy could still get anything I needed for them as well. While the prices weren’t a whole lot different the trips were much less frequent. The point I’m trying to make is my indy specializes in German and Japanese cars. Guess where almost all of his income comes from. It’s not the japanese cars. These aren’t old cars either. Most of what he and his staff work on is less than ten years old. They’re just out of warranty. His entire parking lot is filled with Audi’s, BMW’s, Range Rovers, Mercedes’ and even a couple of Bentley’s occasionally. I’m currently driving an 01 lexus land cruiser with 440k miles on it. My wife is driving a gl450 with less than half that. Guess which one’s air conditioning decided to stop working yesterday.

KalleSp
KalleSp
2 years ago

I don’t know where you got the price for the S-Class. On the German configuration website the diesel S-Class costs 107.671€ including tax that’s $112.688 including tax

05LGT
05LGT
2 years ago

I’ve been told that the big Lexus sedans, even without air suspension, need front control arm replacement around 100k miles. It’s not a 100% (likelyhood of hazard=1) thing. The cost isn’t nothing (harm of Hazzard not =0). Thing is, without air suspension not much else is likely to go wrong. Comparing the price you can find after becoming an expert on BMW DIY to – not the equivalent on a Lexus is big bias. At least find out what the fan websites say is the best value source of parts, or compare dealership to dealership costs.

Vanillasludge
Vanillasludge
2 years ago

The price of parts means nothing if you never need to buy them. I’ve been burned too many times before by my love affairs with old German barges.

Lexus, for people who actually expect to use their car for transportation.

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