1994 Lexus SC400: Regular Car Reviews

Fake Supra? How dare you! The nerve of someone to refer to the 1994 Lexus SC400 as a fake Supra. Okay, sure, they share components and even run on the same platform, but I'll have you know that the Lexus SC400 came first! But is it the better car? Or will it forever live in the shadow of the Mk4 Supra, the Mercedes-Benz CL Class, and other luxury sports cars of the 1990s? Regular Car Reviews is back with an all-new edition of Race To the Bottom, as The Roman continues his search for the worst cars in the world – by reviewing a car that is famously considered not bad at all. Kind of counterintuitive, but here we are.

For Brian's thoughts on this 1994 Lexus SC400, head on over to our second channel:

For more deep dive content, check out these investigative videos:

Chapters:
00:00 My Lexus Is Best Lexus
01:00 Giveaway bumper
01:49 Fake Supra? How DARE You!
02:44 What was Lexus trying to do here?
05:43 Is the Lexus SC400 a good car?
07:25 Problems with the SC400
09:42 Retro luxury at its finest
12:41 The argument against modification
14:05 Unfair comparisons to the Mk4 Supra
15:43 Fragility and fatherhood
18:38 Final Thoughts and Current Standings
21:17 Outro song

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[cavedog]

Correction - the SC400 never came in manual transmission. The SC300 was available with a manual, but never the SC400.

[jacobdexter]

i don't wanna win that 370, i wanna win that sc400

[CGJ]

As someone who owned an SC400 from age 19 all the way to age 34, I squeeled with joy when I saw RCR was doing a segment on it... this is amazing.

[thatf_inguy]

I grew up in a lower middle class household located in a lower middle class town. For the vast majority of families, it was the caprice wagon, an old pickup, an old suburban, maybe a cavalier or other mid 90s domestic shitbox. Its all we really knew. In my early high school days, I became friends with a kid whos father was an eye doctor. His father had purchased a brand new 1992 SC400 in 1992 and had it for about 5 years when I first had the chance to ride in it. I will never forget it. He drove 3 of us to a concert. I remember every detail of that car. The soft, supple leather, the amazing sound system with an actual subwoofer (we were listening to Moby and it hit just right). I remember noticing how well the car handled. It legitimately felt like it was on rails. It just glided over the road. The interior build quality and materials were like nothing I had ever seen before. My friends were all just focused on whatever nonsense young teenage boys are yapping about while on a car ride and I was entranced by the sight and feel of this car. It left a real imprint on my brain. I would later go on to own an GS400, which I loved dearly, but I never had a chance to own the SC. I still think about that car. I suspect that if I were ever to own one, it would not live up to the hype that exists in my mind from that first experience. So I will let that memory live on, untouched, forever.

[aaronswink]

No snark: What do you get when you start with a bar of soap and a huge block of clay and let some experienced designers get creative? You get one of the most beautiful designs of the 1990s combined with a stellar interior and legendary reliability. For the under-25s here who weren't alive when this came out, the seismic shift (shot across the bow) that Lexus did with the LS400 and the SC400 was unreal. It was the ultimate middle finger to the Germans that forced them to up their game and take notice.

[Emucratic]

The perfect car for middle aged Japanese middle managers going through midlife crisis. That's who they were marketing this too.

[logicerrormusic]

We all know that Race to the Bottom will find its crown jewel of trash once The Roman gets his hands on an Hummer H2

[LukusCannon]

Roman I’ve been subbed for around a decade, RCR videos being a regular part of my Monday for most of that time. I used to always skip your outro music, I wouldn’t watch video’s you narrated… But I’ve warmed up to you and your style, and viewers like me have really liked watching you come into your own. I look forward to your videos now, and I appreciate what you bring to RCR

[RafiiV]

The leaky power steering fluid on the alternator hit home 😂

[Sepi-bxqd]

Unpopular opinion: unlike MkIV Supra, this actually looks good (extremely good to be precise) and I'd rather have a V8 than a straight 6 no matter how legendary the 2JZ might be.

[Pyjamarama]

I loved my Soarer

It was so well built

Just to open the fuel cap, you had to remove ten screws, eight bolts and twenty four clips

[Nightwalker]

The Lexus SC430 is a fantastic car. It's well built, styled well, is very comfortable like a luxury car, and then they set it to a convertible. It's the ultimate geriatric Sunday cruiser. It's just not sporty, and was never built to be. Case in point, my dad bought a convertible Mustang as a retirement present to himself- the 4 cyl turbo, automatic. It's never going to be driven in any sporting way, it's just a convertible Sunday cruiser. The Lexus SC430 performs that job brilliantly.

[TheMeanmarine]

One of Romans better videos I would say. I don't know what you changed but this one actually made me laugh out loud. Good work bro. I think you've found your sweet spot.

[Snicker]

Even now, people ALWAYS seem to miss the point with these types of cars. I had a 2000 Accord V6 coupé I bought used in 2004 and I remember folks down here in Puerto Rico mention to me how "sporty" it was, and I always ground my teeth in the back of my mind because even then my 25-year old self always thought: "this isn't a sports car or even a sporty car just because it has two doors, it's just a PERSONAL car". You know, that car that's just for you and a passenger, with a big enough boot that you can actually see utility in it, but something that doesn't invite everyone aboard like a sedan or an SUV does. Comfortable leather seats, a lazy automatic transmission, reasonably quick, but with just enough verve in the chassis to make you feel safe if you do indeed decide to drive briskly. And seeing this car reminds me of that car in so many ways. And even though they may have the same bones as the Supra, that's the last thing that comes to my mind when I see one of these. This is a personal car, just like the other coupés mentioned in the video. The world really is poorer now that there are none of these types of cars left available for purchase brand new...

[Valkyrie_Coach]

“I miss him for all the things he didn’t get to teach me”

I lost my dad when I was 19 (c.2011), and since then I have become a father, and a husband, and there are so many questions I wish I could have asked him.
We enjoyed railroading and aviation when I was growing up, and I have since become a locomotive engineer and I am working on my pilots license, and there’s so much I wish I could tell him.

I’m sure it’s been brought up before by you, Roman, but I guess this time around it finally stuck that you lost your dad as well. You are seen and your emotions valid. 🍻🖤

[ocratitude]

Iv owned my 98 SC400 for over a decade now, and I still absolutely adore it. Your comentary was spot on.

[rcfp]

The official car of "Yeah, it's basically a Supra"

[jja]

I've liked the design of this car much more than the mk4 supra because it lacks the childbearing hips the supra has. I'd even say that it would be much more on brand if this would've been the "supra" instead of the mk4.

[nagasako]

Roman when cybering, the CAPSLOCK STAYS ON

[gordonmills]

Sales manager at the radio station I worked at in the mid 90s had a green SC400. He thought he was the cock of the walk. He was like, 50 then, and is probably dead now. Too dark?