Gang,

What do you guys think with getting a one owner 69K white ES300 for 6.5?
I ran Carfax and it is a one owner ES with minor fender repair with clean Carfax for 6.5K.

The owner did not have much records other than the 30K service was done at the dealer. The owner tells me he changed the oil himself but there is no record of oil changes obviously . I took a look at the oil and it looks ok.



Also the AT fluid was last changed at 30K and T/B, W/P tensioner and camseals , front and rear brakes were never done. The car does look sharp and I haven’t checked the AT fluid but it shifted smoothly. A/C was cold, all windows, radio and condition are very good. I would rate it at a 8/10 with some minor body work.

I figure I will be at least 2-3K In to the car if I bought the car.

What do you guys think? The A/T lack of service and lack of oil change record are concerning. Should I jump on it ?

 

Do you need a car? Seems like about the going price.
https://www.cars.com/shopping/lexus-...os_angeles-ca/

That's a good colour combo for California.

 

Hey Lex2K,

I really don’t “ need “ a car but always liked the 2Nd Gen ES. I had one previously if you recall but sold it

Looking for a Low mileage White 00-01 ES ..
Not in a rush and willing to pay a bit more for a clean
taken care of 1 owner clean Carfax one.

what do you think of this one I found? Not perfect but also not bad

 

23 year old car you're not going to find many in cherry condition at any price. Where was the body damage? Can't be sure but the hood to fender gap on the RH side looks larger than normal. Maybe it's just the camera.

 

Passenger fender. The owner was an older guy and claims the wife had a minor accident Carfax show no accident so it might not have been submitted for claim.
I did look for the vin stickers and the passenger vin sticker was missing.

All the vin was on all the other panels.

 

That explains the gap, aftermarket fenders never fit properly. If you're looking for museum quality then you'll be disappointed but for normal people it's no big deal.

Check the front clip (around the strut and headlight area) for body work. Some body shops do a real butcher job on the unibody.

 

I guess my question is all the work needed to get the car up to par worth getting this one.
with unknown oil change H/X and the AT fluid not changed since 40K ?

As for not finding an 00 or an 01 in cherry condition, I did find one about a year ago with 22k in mileage at a NY Lexus dealer but the dealer wanted like 20K for it and it was complete with all service. I thought it was too much as one of the bottom fenders by the lower panel showed a very slight rust that was touched up. Don’t need one in literally cherry but they are out there if you want to pay I guess for a 20 yr old car . Even saw a few on bring the trailer

 

One other thing, you were correct with this one the passenger fender in the front where the bumper meets the front bumper was split opened slightly as the owner said the wife hit something at that spot. Not sure if it was just a bad repair or they did hit something.

You can see the split if you zoom close to the photo

 

Salt belt cars are not worth buying doesn't matter how nice the paint may look. I've bought many cars since I got my ES (in 2010) not one of them is from an area where they use road salt. Factor in 10-20% of the purchase price for maintenance and repairs. I bought my ES with 36,000 miles on it the transmission was predictably never serviced. The fluid wasn't terrible but certainly needed changing. Car had original tires they were done.

If you like the car buy it you have to take on some risk with any used car. You might be able to tweak the fender for better alignment.

 

Guys

I have a Tesla and this passenger fender alignment is no worse than my Y that is 1 year old from the factory. I guess we are all just spoiled with Toyota quality. You should see how badly the fenders are put together on a S or a Y or X with the Tesla.

My biggest concern is the lack of service on the ATF at 69K other than the 30K service at the dealer and lack of oil change record.

 

After all the fun I've had with my '95 es300 and the brakes , I would wonder how the brake fluid looks.. I can not say when my fluid went bad (almost 27 years), enough to lock up a few of the caliper pistons. I have not determined if that is the cause of the proportioning valve not working correctly...?? Your rotors and pads could be OK, mine were... Just a thought..

 

I have a 01 silver with black 66k OG mileage 1 owner I’ll be selling soon clean title






armrest was the previous owners skin… I cleaned it all up