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The stats are: 2005 with 109k miles. At least 5 owners on the Carfax. Current owner has had it since 2019 with 87k miles. It seems to have been a daily driver for the owner to go back and forth to work a short drive away.
Current owner is not an enthusiast and was unable to answer questions on maintenance history beyond oil changes (timing belt/water pump/etc). I’m going to ask what grade fuel they use as a way to gauge how serious they are about maintaining the car. I’m going to do as deep a dive as I can when I go inspect it this afternoon. I’ve read the buyers guide in the sticky.
Current car market has thrown the old pricing guides out the window, and this one was posted at $15,000 and recently dropped to $14,000. It’s been posted for at least a month. Can anyone give any input on what things would influence their decision to drive the price down further or walk away entirely?
For comparison, I recently (last month) purchased a 2002 with 110,000 miles for 14,000 (they were asking $16,000). Also had multiple owners, but within the same family for the last three owners. Most of the maintenance was listed either via the Lexus site or on the Carfax, and had a recent timing belt/water pump done a year ago at 106,000 miles. Ended up putting approximately $2000 worth of repairs to get drivability & suspension issues sorted.
I experienced the same issue you are; that the current market renders the pricing guides useless.
If you get it for $14,000 and pay for a new timing belt/water pump, you’ll be in it for near the same as my costs. Sounds like a fair deal to me. 👍
Thanks for the input and the cost comparison. That helps a lot. It’ll be a 3rd car for my wife and I so I don’t mind a little work. I fully expect any car this old to need maintenance on age alone. I can do much of the work myself in my spare time since I won’t be relying on it for transportation and that may bring the maintenance cost down.
Either way I’ll be factoring in the full value of deferred maintenance in my negotiations.
Any accidents? How does it drive anything weird or not working? Is that a factory colour? It looks like it has some pearl to it, I've only seen like flat white before but white SC is rare. I paid $14000 for my 04 with 86k miles, local car last year in like the peak of the market. And I kinda feel like I paid top dollar cuz I see cheaper ones pop up now. But then mine needs a timing belt too and I'll be doing it shortly.
I misjudged the owner. Super nice guy. The car is in excellent shape for its age. Newish Michelin tires. New pads and rotors. Owner only uses premium fuel. Definitely the type of owner you want to buy from. The car drove great. Motor ran so smooth I could only hear the belt whirring. Shifts were fast and barely noticeable. All the switches worked. Top operated well. Wood trim varnish was only very lightly cracked in a couple of places. A good detail and it’s a perfect “5ft car”.
thanks for the input
Im definitely going to have to do timing belt and water pump, but I’m going to finalize the deal tomorrow.
Sounds like a good deal. I recently bought my 2005 with 89K miles for $22,000. not a scratch on it, everything works as it should. I know what I paid is on the high end but these cars are not easy to find in SC. You can get a good idea about maintenance from carfax and if you go to Lexus.com and register the car. The lexus site will show you the dealer maint. history and they will send you an owners manual for free if you ask for one.
Thanks to everyone for the input. I picked up the car this past Friday. There’s a few minor issues that the forum’s history has already provided solutions for and I intend to fix them over the next couple weeks. In the near future I’ll also have to figure out if I want to take on the timing belt/water pump job or have it done at a shop.
I have always liked the Pearl White but not the Black interior. I just assumed it would be too hot. Which is strange because my 02 I thought was black with a camel interior which turned out to be Midnight Pine Pearl. Love the color shift of Forest Green in bright sunlight to Black on cloudy days and after dark. Congrats. I absolutely love my SC and have been since the first time I saw one up close.
04-12-23, 01:29 PM
Gut Check on a 2005 SC430 Purchase
