Hi all,

I am new to the LX450-70 forum but not to clublexus.com. I have owned an '09 GX470 and still own a 1998 ES300. My sons need a car for college up here in the northeast, something roomy, reliable, and good in the snow. Cue the LX470. From what I understand the LX is extremely reliable (as are most Lexus vehicles) so I am not really concerned with that aspect of the LX. However, I want to receive as much advice as possible for things to look for when test driving an older LX. I found a 1999 LX470 with 84,000, 2 owners, extremely clean and well taken care of for $14k. Is this a fair purchase price? I am going to confirm with the dealership as to whether or not the timing belt has been changed, but is there anything else that I should look for? Thanks in advance for any and all help you guys may offer. I am happy to be back here at CL

 

That is a pretty low mileage vehicle for a 16 year old car. You can enter the VIN to Lexus Owner's site to check out its maintenance history, though as it is under 90k, plan on spending about $1k to do the water pump/timing belt operation.

Suspension, brakes (LX are heavy vehicles) are some of the usual things to look out for with these vehicles...I mentioned in another thread that LX vehicles aren't just readily available (i.e. Toyota sells only 3500 Land Cruisers annually) and I'd assume many dealers know these are rare cars.

$14k isn't too bad, check out the classifieds at www.ih8mud.com as there are some for sale from LX/LC enthusiasts there as well. Explore a Land Cruiser as it is fundamentally the same vehicle which can be had for a little less? Another option is to spend less than $10k and find an also-reliable Toyota Sequoia for your son....similar if not the same powertrain (though Sequoia's are built in Indiana vs LX/LC's built in Japan).

 

$14k for a 1999 @ 84k miles is not a bad price if the body is in good shape, and everything works, such as the moon roof, steering column(up/down and in and out with QUIET movement), hydrolic leveling system, sound system including CD changer and speaker sound(expensive and frequent failures), 4-wheel drive works as it should. Check all power windows, locks, tranny shifting smoothly, color of all the fluids under the hood, tire wear for signs of bad wheel alignment.

My first advice would be to spend $150-$200 and have YOUR Lexus mechanic inspect it thoroughly(there are Japanese car Mechanics that advertise as such). The wheels will be pulled and the brake pads and bearings will be scrutinized. With mine, the brakes were good, but the wheel bearings were a bit loose. That was a $550 job to have the bearings repacked with grease, new seals installed, and a check for 'pitting' on the bearings themselves. had I known this before I purchased the vehicle, I would have offered less than the asking price; maybe agree to split the difference.
The timing belt should be changed at 90k miles, which is a minimum of $800 for just changing that, but the H2O pump is usually changed at the same time. Then there are the engine seals, tensioner pulley, drive belt, that can be changed at the same time since you're already paying all the labor time to remove a lot of engine components to get to the timing belt anyway. So now the job has gone from ~$800 to ~$1,700.

I love my 2002 lx470, but it came with a few issues, and since I bought it from an out-of-town dealership I could not check everything. Fortunately, the timing belt HAD been changed recently and I knew to check for all the other items I mentioned on my own.
CAR FAX report is $40 for a single report. In my opinion, it is worth it because it shows not only previous ownership and accidents, it CAN also show service records depending on where the previous owners had their work done. Not all shops have their work recorded in the CARFAX system.

I see that you are from PA. I would also make sure that this vehicle has not been living in an area where there were devastating flooding problems such as Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, and I think the East coast flood too.

Good luck!