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First of all a BIG shout out to all the people of this great forum that helped me pull the trigger on this beauty. Club Lexus for life!
I have a week to test out the car so I'm wondering if I should get a PPI for my ISF. Looking at the the Carfax, I can tell that the previous owner took very good care of it, almost too good (45k service was done twice!). At this point I'm looking at good mechanics in the San Jose area that will be able to perform a PPI but struggling to find one that I can trust. I've called the Lexus dealership in the area and they quoted me $130 for a PPI. Basically its what they check when you go in for an oil change (break pads, fluids, etc). Not detailed at all. I also had an extensive conversation with one of their service department people who said I should consider getting the 161 point inspection which they perform for CPO'ing a vehicle. But the cost of this is a whopping $500! Would this be overkill? Any advice on how I should proceed would be helpful fellas! Also, any recommendations on mechanics in the bay area would be greatly appreciated. Cheers!
Looks to be in excellent condition! When we purchased our '02 SC430 a few years ago we had our Lexus dealer do the "post" PPI inspection (I purchased the car from a Toyota dealer in FL and had it shipped to NC). They didn't find anything wrong. The Lexus dealer would be my choice just let them know of any problem areas you want looked at (for us it was suspension components, motor mounts and shocks struts). These cars are bullet proof (we have 4) so I was relatively confident it was good by looking at the history but you never know.
its weird how many of the same services were done more than one time, doesn't really make sense.
that said, the car looks very clean, its low mileage and the service looks good.
I would probably feel comfortable skipping the PPI on this one.
Just to put this into perspective, you're on the fence for a PPI on a 7 year old 416 horsepower car that will cost $500.00. Have you priced out what it would cost for just the brakes?
Though, admittedly 500 seems a bit much. I'd call around some other lexus dealerships and ask them what it would cost for a lease turn in level of PPI. When I called one literally in another time zone they ended up doing that inspection for the cost of an oil change, all before I even flew in to take a look.
The whole ordeal was very smooth. On delivery date a truck showed up with the car. I showed I had inusrance on the car and they took it down. Then I went for a 20 min test drive. Once everything looked good I went ahead and signed the papers. The person then took the keys to my fiesta ST and drove it onto the truck bed and off he went!
Pull the VIN on the Lexus Drivers website. If the car was serviced at a Lexus dealer you will be able to look through the service history. That coupled with the carfax will give you a pretty good history of the car.