kevinf

first of all i am sorry if this is the wrong board to put it in. i have a friend who is selling her lexus rx-330 2005 with about 140000 miles. she always takes it in for regular maintenance and never has a problem. would this be a good buy. i looked up the KBB site and it's about 11000

mandyfig

140K is a lot of miles. You will be taking a higher risk. If you want an RX, try to get a sub-50K miles, max 60K miles. 2005 and up, would be preferred.

It is all about the money. If you can buy a certified one.

salimshah

Have the vehicle inspected (compression test etc and not the 5 min checkup). Look for leaks and prior history. See the usage history ... was it used as a delivery vehicle (in-town trips) or long distance lesure trips.

Doing business with friends can be good or bad. Weigh that out too.

Last of all, be prepared that repairs are expensive. Parts and labor both.

Salim

biff44

There are some on this forum that report phenomenal miles on their RX. I get the feeling, unfortunately, that it is not going to happen for me. Too many bells and whistles on it to go wrong. And Lexus parts are very expensive. The good news is that they do not fail often. But at 140K, you have to expect things to start going wrong. If you are the type to just ignore things like the left passenger window not working any more, etc, then you can do ok. Also, if the price is so dirt cheap that you can just junk it if the tranny falls out, go for it.

If you are more meticulous, I would go for one with 60K on it.

dave2K

If you are looking for the best value possible, I think a high quality model with high miles is the way to go. Usually the high miles have come on the highway. These miles are much less stressful to a vehicle than stop and go miles. If you look at reliability profiles for the RX in consumer reports, the reliability does not drop much over the years shown. I don't believe highway miles have much of an impact on parts failing or wearing out, except for the obvious things like tires and timing belts, i.e. the parts that are affected by every mile. My non-certified '04 RX had about 90,000 miles on it this summer when I bought it and I've had no problems at all, but I saved thousands in purchase cost. Good luck with your decision.

lxus4xms

It pisses me off that some will say to stay away from a deal like this. Everybody wants to buy a used car today with under 50,000 miles. Toyota and Honda made a solid name for themselves selling cars that go forever. I look at the year and the over-all shape of the vehicle. Most people drive 15,000 miles per year. So in a perfect world, this car should have about 60,000 miles on it and if it did you would be paying around the 20 mark for it. With 140,000 miles this car was highway driven. No big deal if it was well maintained. If you can buy this for 11 go for it. You have $9,000.00 in your jeans for repairs. Remember check the body look for dents and scratches if it's clean it is well taken care of.

Scottydog

Your friend will find it difficult to sell this car. First off cars aren't selling at all these days. KBB prices seem to be way high, haven't been adjusted to the new economic reality. Nobody can get loans for used cars, so 10k cars just sit on the lots.

A friend of mine just sold his rx330 with 100,000 miles for $8,000, and it took weeks to do that. My guess is the car is worth 6-7k.

Things will start to break at that high miles. Be prepared for repair bills: starter, transmission, wheel bearings, shocks etc etc. The list goes on and on.

The other problem is buying from a friend. When the car starts to break is that going to affect your friendship?

salimshah

lxus4xms, there is no reason to get upset. The buyer needs to enter the deal with eyes open.

There is going to be wear and tear on items .. specially the ones that are not serviced ... like the starter, alternator, shocks, many bushings and many bearings which are lubed for life. The A/C system can develop leaks due to various O'rings drying up.

Then all the plastic and rubber items also dry-up and become rigid with age.

The manufacturer warranties for 60K and with 140k one is near 2.5x of that amount.

Our message is, be aware that there might be problems and have enough money to pay for them. At this milage, you may be facing not one but multiple visits for another thing that might fail.

I have a '99 RX with 140k miles on it and I have reasonable expectations at this time as I bought it with 2 miles on the odo. When some one just makes the purchase with 140k on the odo, they may have unreasonable expectations.

Salim

Ravezzi

Is it a bad idea buying an rx330 with a mileage of about 91083 mileage?

matts6887

if u are considering buying it; make sure all the routine maintenance has been done on it. Especially things like spark plugs which have to be changed out every 120,000 miles per lexus. Short of that like i think one of the others eluded to; might want to do a compression test to make sure all the cylinders are ok.

Felix

What kind of price?

Lees4me

I have a Lexus 2005 rx330 with over 330k. I've had it for a year and it's a dream.

matts6887

whoa!!! 330,000!!!! wow!!! amazing!!! my 07 rx350 just got paid off finally so im gonna drive mine til the wheels fall off lol; just hope i can get as far as yours! mine only has a little over 160,000 on it so far

Lees4me

I bought it last year for $1800 but it was 1 owner, no accidents, same motor etc. Well kept. Good luck

matts6887

well as long as ya maintain it and replace parts that wear out as needed it should keep going. At this rate i wouldnt be surprised if yours goes til 500,000 or even more.