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Hello all, this will be my first post. I have been a lurker for a while and am quite impressed with the quality of this community thus far. Anyway, on to my plea for help. I am in the market for a winter/daily (I have a C5 Z06 for the summer and when I feel like blowing off some steam lol). I live in the Chicagoland area and have been looking for something relatively affordable, comfortable, and reliable. To preface this, I am handy enough with a wrench to do brake, suspension, and top end engine work. I take pride in working on and maintaining my vehicles. I came a across a vehicle in my area that is basically all of what I am looking for and then some. It is a 2005 LS430 Ultra Luxury Package. As the car sits, it currently has 200k miles. The information that I have gathered so far is as follows:
-It has three owners (me being the potential fourth).
-The car has spent all of its life in the Midwest.
-The air suspension has NOT been replaced. I do not see any sag in the photos. The seller states that the height adjustment functionality still works and there aren't leaks. I plan on riding it out until it dies and replacing it with coilovers (which I can install on my own).
-Timing belt, water pump, and thermostat were replaced this summer and the seller has the accompanying documentation.
-Carfax shows that the vehicle was damaged in the rear earlier this year. Seller states it was minor and the damage was fixed by a local body shop.
-All electronics work on the car aside from the parking sensors. Not sure how much parts would cost but I see it as more of a minor inconvenience than a deal breaker.
-Comes with a set of winter tires which is key for my climate.
-Comes with both keys and owner's manual.
-Seller states the vehicle drives the way an LS should. I drove a clean example a while back at a dealership so I know what a sorted LS should feel like.
I ran the carfax and the Lexus vehicle maintenance history on the Lexus website. The car was serviced by Lexus until 2013 when the second owner transitioned to an indy shop. I contacted the indy shop and they were able to give me some good feedback about the service history from 2013 on. Shop seem to have an excellent reputation to boot. It was brought in for at least an oil and filter change every 5k miles almost religiously. These servicing intervals continued from purchase to the present. I feel very good about this but I am looking for some general feedback on the car before I proceed. What else am I missing that I should be looking for? Does the maintenance history seem conducive of a potentially long life? And ultimately, what do you all feel the value of this car to be? For context the seller is asking $6,000 even. Thanks again to anybody that is willing to provide feedback. I am going to post a few photos below to give you an idea of what I'm looking at.
Last edited by joeshannon; 09-21-19 at 02:32 PM.
Reason: title adjust
It looks cleaner and nicer than I was expecting. Sounds like you have researched it pretty well and are comfortable dealing w repairs and the current mileage. Guess it comes down to price. If I had to have it..I would offer 4k maybe? Then leave a little wiggle room to come up to maybe 4500 max if I had to have it. As I said earlier....it looks clean and well taken care of...which are important to me. Also....service records are present....so thats a plus. Good luck and let us know how it works out.
Looks like a nice example and a great color combo as well. You have certainly done your homework and investigated the history. Key here is that you are handy and can do work yourself. The UL has everything extra that can potentially become problematic and with 200,000 miles, it will eventually. Of course you are already prepared for the eventual suspension issue if/when it occurs with coil overs. You also have soft touch door actuators, but you should be familiar with the motor replacement in lieu of the actuator. I'd make sure the rear damage is not structural and repaired properly. I'm wondering why the sensors don't work, unless they knew they were selling and didn't want to incur and additional expenses. Go over everything........and then if all checks out, look for a lower price as $5,000 would be on the mark for a 200,000 mile car with previous body work. Good luck and let us know how you make out. It looks like a nice car and if it hasn't seen salt you are ahead of the game. Keep us posted.
nice looking example and your analysis seems thorough. However, I think the 6k price is way high. He would be lucky to get 4k. The fact is, very few people would give this car even a first look because of the miles and year. You are unusual in that you seem to recognize LS quality AND you have DIY skills, thus making it an attractive proposition. How long has the car been on the market....if not long, let the seller stew a while because he's going to get very few inquiries. You are unusual use that to your advantage.
nice looking example and your analysis seems thorough. However, I think the 6k price is way high. He would be lucky to get 4k. The fact is, very few people would give this car even a first look because of the miles and year. You are unusual in that you seem to recognize LS quality AND you have DIY skills, thus making it an attractive proposition. How long has the car been on the market....if not long, let the seller stew a while because he's going to get very few inquiries. You are unusual use that to your advantage.
If this very same car was going through any Lexus service line at the dealership, it would be gone in a snap. All techs and their friends know these cars and know what to look for and how to repair for the least amount of expenditure. The advantage of the OP is that this car is not currently at any Lexus dealership. Good luck and keep us posted.
nice looking example and your analysis seems thorough. However, I think the 6k price is way high. He would be lucky to get 4k. The fact is, very few people would give this car even a first look because of the miles and year. You are unusual in that you seem to recognize LS quality AND you have DIY skills, thus making it an attractive proposition. How long has the car been on the market....if not long, let the seller stew a while because he's going to get very few inquiries. You are unusual use that to your advantage.
Originally Posted by joeshannon
Hello all, ... ultimately, what do you all feel the value of this car to be? For context the seller is asking $6,000 even. Thanks again to anybody that is willing to provide feedback. ...
Agree, toddmorr is absolutely correct. [value maybe $3750 pp (for private parties transacting) if car is clean with 0 issues (subtract for any unresolved issues) ... seller is asking more than full dlr retail and any interested dlr may only be willing to pay him maybe 40% of his asking price]
If seller is reasonable, seller already knows and should be very happy to get close to 4 regardless of any antics seller may pull to try for higher price. Doubt any reasonable seller would let a buyer at 4 walk away.... And, for someone like yourself, who is not afraid to turn wrench, a reasonable seller may recognize you as an ideal buyer for a 200,000 mile car and may be quite happy to deal with someone like you....
If this very same car was going through any Lexus service line at the dealership, it would be gone in a snap. All techs and their friends know these cars and know what to look for and how to repair for the least amount of expenditure. The advantage of the OP is that this car is not currently at any Lexus dealership. Good luck and keep us posted.
funny you say this as the last time i was at Lexus, the service manager told me that they took a trade in on a LS or GS or something that had 350000kms and one of the techs snapped it up. He said they know the cars that come through as they are regularly serviced and no one there is afraid of high miles with the Lexus.
It's a UL, all the bells and whistles. My friends are blown away with the technology that my car has for a 2004. four of my buds went on a long road trip a few weeks ago and the back seaters threw up the blinds on the side windows and rear and chilled while cruising on the hwy listening to tunes. The UL is worth the extra price.
i have a front parking sensor that's intermittent with working. No big deal to me if it starts going off randomly, i just turn off the feature till i need it.
At least they washed and vacuumed the car before taking pictures, but they couldn't let it dry before taking them? Odd but that doesn't necessarily mean anything.
That car looks nice if the paint was in good shape I'd have no problem giving them 6k for the car. I paid 4k for an 01 UL with 186K on it and I wish I had paid more for a cleaner car mine has a few dents, scratches, and paint chips.
Finally had an opportunity read through these responses. Work/life has been keeping me occupied as of late. I read every reply and I thank everyone that did. Added a few more photos as the interior ones were pretty poor quality. As you can see, there are two spots that are starting to rust. Seller states that those are the only spots. I was also informed that the rearview camera was not displaying an image when put in reverse and the CEL came on today. Seller stated that he brought it to his mechanic and they believe it to be a failing cat or an exhaust. They say the car is not noticeably louder than usual. Hoping it isn't a cat. All of this information leaves me a bit more conflicted. The rearview camera is not a big concern to me but the CEL is. The seller seems to be an honest person and I believe his mechanic's assessment but I would still like to see which fault codes are being thrown. My biggest obstacle now is price. Seems that half fall in the camp that $6k is a fair price (idk if that is still the case given the new information) and the other wouldn't pay more than $4,500. As a buyer I would obviously like to pay the lowest possible price but I alway don't want to throw a perceived lowball offer to the guy and it completely sours the potential deal. I guess my question is now, what should I do next? I am likely going to go drive the car and potentially buy it next Friday. I have time still, but not too much. Please let me know what you all think! Again, I appreciate all of your feedback.
The interior is mint (seriously I can't believe that's a 200k mile car) and the timing belt has been done. As long as the car drives well and sounds right I would offer 5500. Take the $500 you saved and get the rust spots fixed. I would like to see under the car as well as you are in the salt area. As far as the bad cat what exactly was the code for the CEL? It's easy to look at a catalyst effiecency code (P0420 or P0430) and think the cat is dead. In my case I had a P0420 code and it was because there was an exhaust leak after the cat and before the downstream oxygen sensor. Do you have inspections in your area? Maybe if it doesn't pass inspection due to a catalytic converter I'd pass on the car it'd be expensive to replace the cat especially if your state doesn't allow you to use aftermarket cats. As for myself I live in an area that doens't do any sort of inspections so I would only walk away if the rust is bad under the car but the rust damaged paint while disappointing wouldn't keep me from buying the car.
There is a trick you can use to make an ecu pass a failing cat, installing a spark plug non fouler on the downstream oxygen sensor usually fools the ecu to think the cat is still performing well.
09-19-19, 01:37 PM
2005 LS430 UL - Please Help!! Potential purchase
