Oro

So I've been silent a bit as the future of 4ES ownership was in question since April. Around Easter, my ex, who's daily driver this was, decided to splurge on a new(er) GS350 awd (great car).** (see below) The ES300 needed a bit of work, so she just gave it to me to sort out this past Easter weekend. The car has 326K on it now - but it's maintained and just a joy.***(see below) Give the car to a friend of hers, my dad, or...? Personally, I have an SUV and Volvo wagon (I need awd most of the time). I don't have space for a 3rd car for myself currently or I would have just kept it for myself. Fortunately, I found a home for it and maybe in a few years it will be mine, and I can continue to maintain and coddle it. Disaster averted, as it would have felt like ripping out a kidney to let this baby go out of my driveway or to a stranger. I actually lost sleep on this issue. I also strained family relationships as I kept it parked at my parents', where it annoyed the heck out of my mom and she got angry with me. I kept this up as I knew it would work out somehow to keep it around/in the family.

NOTE: My parents are in their mid-70s. Mature, lovely, kind, hosting friends and family all the time. But when not, grouchy and old. Getting them to stop fighting about cars was a moral imperative for me.

Manipulatively, I slow-walked the whole process since April as at first my Dad (who was an intended recipent) was like, "I'm not interested, I like my 1997 Lincoln Mark VIII." EXCEPT he's always taking my mom's Equinox instead, aggravating Mom. So I've been trying to get him sold on it, or any car to make him drive it besides Mom's Equinox. That car may sit for four days without moving, but if he goes bowling and she wants to go somewhere - OUCH. I looked at a BMW X5 for him, a Volvo XC90. Finally I gave up on him taking the car, and in July I started getting the car ready to sell. He'd get the proceeds to put towards a crossover which he was leaning towards, like an X5, XC90, or RX330. Which meant, for this car before sale:

a) new inner + outer tie rods and alignment
b) refinish interior and detail
c) new rear vcg, pcv valve, and (ugh) high pressure steering hose.

If I'm selling a personal car, it's going to be a+. Point of pride and also honesty; I'm not going to hide anything. Also it helps bring top dollar. And since I'm mechanical and KNOW what might be wrong, my disclosure list could run uncomfortably long...

I figured I would sell it, pay myself back all the parts and then give the leftover to her and my Dad. Anyway, after I got a) + b) done, the car washed and shined, My dad was like, "Oh, I like that!" My Dad clearly has an eye for cheap value. A wheel bearing blew up right after the alignment so then there was that headache. But overall, I'm willing to eat $500 in parts and a lot of labor to keep the car in the family. Dad titled it/registered/insured it the other day so now it's his and done, Lincoln Mark VIII up for sale (and it's a nice car).

This ES has just been great for all of us for so long, and it drives so very nicely. I have done crazy maintenance on it along the way. I just don't want to part with it, or until I have a 3rd/4th parking space to take it myself. When I got the alignment done after doing the tie rods, I took it on a long errand all the way down the Lower Hood Canal (feature on the Olympic Peninsula of WA). Had a blast driving it, so I invented another errand all the way back UP the other end of the Hood Canal. Long day of driving it in nice early summer sunshine, back roads, random thunder and hailstorms, mostly all with water views. A joy.

I've had a lot of good cars over the decades, nice models from BMW, Audi, and Volvo (still have one each of the latter two). But no car is more pleasant to drive than this car. The combination of quiet, quality, good motor, good transmission, and superb cabin and comfortable seat make this an all-time winner. Not the best handling (maybe actually the worst), not the fastest (but OK), but just the most pleasant car to drive, whether to get groceries or to run to Montana to see if the Continental Divide is still there (did that 22 months ago in it, pic attached). Love it.

Just cleaned the interior and re-finished the front seats. 326k miles and still very pleasant:



Need to clay the paint and wax, but it doesn't look bad:


Not current, but in Aug. 2019 my step-kids and I went to go see if the Continental divide was sound, this was our car of choice:


If you guys don't know Idaho and Montana, you should get to know them. You find signs like these:
(Lolo Pass westbound, an amazing road)



**- The first time she let me drive it, I flung it over Tiger Mountain (King County, WA) at up to 120mph. She just sat there in the passenger seat letting me do this and said, and I quote," Effortless, isn't it?" This woman knows cars.

*** - I have a client locally with a 2005 ES330, same color combination (mostly), 96k miles. I'd rather have this one at 326k as It's been maintained and his is needing a lot.

FromFL

Those seats do look amazing. Mine (gray also) are terribly cracked and when I do clean or treat them they look worse.

BMeek

Gives me a new appreciation of the 4ES. I’ve only ever paid close attention to ES sedans since I bought my ‘98 a few years ago, and 90% the 4ESs I see these days have those big bug-eye sweeping plastic headlights in ugly faded murky yellow.

Your car looks great (and actually is great from from bumper-to-bumper as a result of your care :-).

Oro

If you want to try to improve them, the materials are not pricey and the labor time is not that extreme. I went into detail on it in this thread at SwedeSpeed. There are some pictures of the Lexus there, too, in addition to the Volvo in particular I was working on.

https://www.swedespeed.com/threads/c.../#post-7766736

The 3S is by far better looking, but the 4ES is just a great driving car. The headlights can be fixed with some elbow grease and not-too-expensive supplies.

My ex (who's 4ES this car originally was, we got it years ago as her daily driver) now has a 4GS (2010) GS 350 awd. A great car - amazing engine, awd, great handling, etc. But the 4ES has a richer/better interior, LOTS more room, and is more pleasant for highway cruising at normal speeds. If you can set aside the mediocre exterior styling and can accept "totally adequate" vs. "high" performance, it's a peach.

BMeek

Hey @Oro,

My memory of this thread helped open my mind to a 4ES, and I just bought one!

It's an '05 ES330 that's not as well cared for as yours - the air-cooled perforated leather seats are in bad shape with a residual cigarette smell, and there's some heavy clear-coat/paint oxidation on the hood with hints of paint oxidation and minor dents elsewhere. But these issues made it more affordable for me (paid $4,500), and it's a rust-free-and-mechanically-sound 'California Car' with just 104K miles on it and decent maintenance records.

I am truly blown away by the smooth & quiet ride as well as the overall build quality of this old car. It's... solid and plush.

Thanks!

Oro

That’s a sharp looking car. I really like that color (and the later wheels). We got my mother an RX330 last year and I have to say, it sure does feel smoother than the 3.0, probably the slightly better torque values. I’ve never driven an ES300 and ES330 head-to-head to compare, but if I went to go get another, I would lean to the 330.

For the oxidation, consider this: I just used this product with a Bauer DA polisher from Harbor Freight ($60). I was really surprised, it brought a very badly oxidized clear-coat on a hood back to a beautiful shine. From what I can tell, it’s about equivalent to the Meguairs 105 cut compound, but just less than 1/2 the price.



I don’t know how it would work with the perforated leather or what yours looks like, but here is how I have restored a few cars’ seats at low cost and effort. I wrote it up at Swedespeed because I was working on a Volvo at the time, but pics of the ES300 are there, too, as an example.

https://www.swedespeed.com/threads/c...ts-too.639602/

You could likely bring the interior back nicely with just a little work (relatively speaking). Again, that’s a nice looking car, with very desirable low mileage.