Should I buy this SC400?
#1
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Should I buy this SC400?
The car:
1993 Lexus SC400 Auto with 134,000 miles on it. The story is this...
The guy is a contractor, he works for "well to do" families and this one family he has done house work for a long time had the car, the guy owns a jewelery store and bought it for his wife in 1993, it was garage kept, no rust, didnt see winter. Just this year the lady offered the car as partial trade on the project because he had been bugging her to sell the car to him for a while. He took it and has 9 cars now, he said he'd take $5,500 cash for it.
This is what I need out of the car:
Rock solid, reliable, daily driver that can handle winter just fine with snow tires. Something nice looking, turn key, basic maintenance reliable. That is it. I don't plan on modding it I just want a nice looking DD that I don't have to worry about.
Some pics.
1993 Lexus SC400 Auto with 134,000 miles on it. The story is this...
The guy is a contractor, he works for "well to do" families and this one family he has done house work for a long time had the car, the guy owns a jewelery store and bought it for his wife in 1993, it was garage kept, no rust, didnt see winter. Just this year the lady offered the car as partial trade on the project because he had been bugging her to sell the car to him for a while. He took it and has 9 cars now, he said he'd take $5,500 cash for it.
This is what I need out of the car:
Rock solid, reliable, daily driver that can handle winter just fine with snow tires. Something nice looking, turn key, basic maintenance reliable. That is it. I don't plan on modding it I just want a nice looking DD that I don't have to worry about.
Some pics.
#2
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Beautiful car! Those 1UZ engines go forever, but remember they have a timing belt that needs replaced around 100,000 miles. The mileage is low but the age is still there for lower control arm bushings, rack and pinion bushings, and power steering leak onto-into the alternator that may cause it to fail. The climate control displays are known for bleeding, everybody is looking for a good ac compressor and a heater control valve under hood that works and doesn't leak, but If all of these check out than you should be ok for a long while! I've had 3 sc400s, and currently have a sc300 NA-T 5speed. All of them with over 225,000 miles and have seen some with 300,000 locally. hope this helps you get an idea of what to look for, and if you buy it get ready for..."Hey... what kind a car is that?" and " Are those LAMBO doors?" Good luck!
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Is there a way with the vin I can look up service history? He doesn't have records but I'm pretty sure it was dealer serviced all it's life so I could bring it up to the dealer and they could print off the records?
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#9
Lexus Test Driver
Looks clean, but the only SC's people really want are ones with black interior, 5 speed manual, or if its a 98+ (those years have all the nice stuff, notably VVT-i upgrade to the engines). I would pass on this, especially if you want a good daily because the SC is not a good daily car at all. Sure it looks nice, but its not a practical car at all. If you want it to be a good car you have to make it a good car.
#14
Used car prices(especially on the low end) are stupid right now, for $5,500 you are lucky to find anything with a clean body, interior, reasonable miles, and no mechanical issues.
As far as it being reliable, these things are tanks. That being said, it is 20 years old, so expect to plunk some money down from time to time on it(things like the gauges going wonky, suspension bushings, tires, brakes, etc)
#15
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That is one clean 93!
It would be everything you wanted and more, only thing i suggest is negotiating on the price more, other than that looks to be a awesome find!
It would be everything you wanted and more, only thing i suggest is negotiating on the price more, other than that looks to be a awesome find!