They say there’s no such thing as a cheap luxury car, usually because the car is either expensive to begin with or because it’s so cheap that its maintenance becomes expensive. However, in the case of these two old V8 luxury cars, a BMW 735i and a Lexus LS430, Carwow wanted to see how long they’d last without maintenance.
Both cars were deemed no longer roadworthy, but both of their engines still work, so Carwow decided to see not only exactly how long they’d run, but how long they’d run without any oil. As soon as they started them up, it wasn’t hard to tell that something was off just based on the sound alone. Both survived 30 seconds idling by themselves, then another 30 seconds held at 3,000 rpm, but after they were brought to redline, the Lexus died after 10 seconds, marking a total time of 1 minute 20 seconds without oil.
See Also: How Bad Can Cheap Old Luxury Cars Like The BMW 7, Mercedes S And Lexus LS Be At Off-Roading?
The BMW made it out of the first round alive, so they took it for a bit of off-roading, and it kept going for quite a while. Then, almost as an act of karma (or should we say “car-ma”), after a set of celebratory donuts around the LS, the 7-Series began to lose power. They then continued to play around in the dirt with the 7-Series a bit more, but after 7 minutes 34 seconds and a single cough out the intake, the engine finally died.
Given that it lasted five times as long as the Lexus, the BMW might not be as unreliable as the stereotypes suggest, but then again, it’s not really clear as to what condition each car was in before the test started.