Ttkelly

see below, this first post was accidentally submitted before I finished.

Ttkelly

Hello all, this is a great user group here! I look forward to officially joining the Lexus club hopefully in the next few days. I'm have found a low mile 2007 GX470 local to me (under 35kmiles!). I test drove it to day and everything seemed to check out. The truck has all options except KDS suspension and rear DVD. When it came time to talk price the seller and I were a bit to far from each other to make a deal. I was using edmunds and blue book as proxies for my offer. Those two sites, adjusted for the low miles they came out to ~$22-23K for the at the very top for private party. He held strong on his asking price pointed to the low miles.

What would be a reasonable price? How much of a premium should be expected for an 8 year old car? I may sweeten the deal a bit but don't want to over pay.

Any help / advice / wisdom would be appreciated.

Cheers!

BlackCat81

It's really hard to put a value on a truck due to mileage. Sure, low mileage is great, but how was it maintained? Did it sit outside in a driveway? Is it clean? A truck is only worth what somebody is willing to pay, and while you're trying the get the most truck for your money, low mileage doesn't necessarily mean it's going to be more problem free than any other GX. 35k or not, it's still a 2007 and it's still out of warranty.

6080prado

I'm with BlackCat81. For me, very low mileage actually starts to become a negative as it indicates a car has sat or is only taken for short trips - both are bad for vehicles. While low miles may mean the car is a in great condition, I would only pay for condition, not the low miles alone. So in the case of the car above, if it looks like new due to the low miles (and has been maintained!), I would pay whatever a 2007 in great shape was going for. Even with low miles, the car has still been exposed to the elements/UV/road for 8 years. A garaged 100K would be better than a 32K vehicle that is left outside year around, IMO.

Now somebody else, or even you, may very well be willing to buy $5K over market for a low mileage vehicle. I wouldn't, but if it is worth it to you, that is all that matters.

One more note - even though the timing belt service is 90K miles, I believe there is also a year interval as well (maybe 10 years). So even with the low miles, it may be coming due for the timing belt service anyway.

Ttkelly

Thanks for the feedback!
The truck was driven as a kid hauler by the kids grandparents (owner is the dad). Mostly short trips which I tend to agreat are not the best for a vehicle. The price he seems to not want to budge from is 25k. I am torn! I want to buy it but am afraid of both instantly loosing residual value by over paying and the potential issues with a the vehicle sitting and not being used much.

sheikhmax

I checked the wholesale price for the truck. For the best condition and lowest miles 19K is the highest (Data from latest auction sales in last 2 months. This is the price a dealer will buy it from auction) add 1K or 2K as his profit. 25K is a lot. If this person were to trade his truck at the dealer he is looking at 17K max as per my calculation.

Usually i don't comment on prices but I was intrigued to reply to this thread related to price as I felt it might be a good idea to share some insight with you before you make your decision. Reading your comments it almost looked like you'd pay him 26k if he pushes you to do so.

So Now you got wholesale price but still Choice is yours, if you really want it then do it. Otherwise wait and get something which is more aligned to your price point.

Good Luck.

Ttkelly

Thanks all, I passed on the gx. I appreciate your input!