01LEXPL

iTrader: (10)

Based upon all of the above replies there are a few answers to give.

A NINE YEAR OLD timing belt should be up for inspection, no doubt. With temperature and time rubber will degrade.

A NINE YEAR OLD set of tires is highly questionable, it is your discretion again.

I can go on; seals, gaskets, oil change intervals ...

In NA, it is firmly recommended to NOT have a set older than 10 years on a car [including the spare!] and in Europe they enforce a 6 year rule...

The ES300 is heralded as an over glorified Camry, but it is not. Frankly the ES300 shares the same frame/motor... no more. All else is completely different.

The ES300 can use regular, that is what the manual insists, you can use higher octanes if you please, it has been reported on Clublexus that there are no apparent advantages to this practice.

Last observation is that you sir, are cheap.

"I need to change xxxx " guess what, we all do, its something called car ownership.

Take my suggestion as you will, but keep that LS430. I would seriously not go for that car... But what do i know?

mukarram20

Thank you both for your thoughtful and thought-provoking comments. I do appreciate what you all have said in terms of opinions and advice

onslaught

LOL. I just love that car with a passion since the day it came out in like August of 1999. I love that generation period. I remember seeing it for the first time towards the end of 1996 and fell in love. Nothing more than that. LOL. Most of you will be like you're an idiot...theres no substance to your answer....but I just love the car. I'm on my 3rd ES300 from that 97-01 generation. Drives awesome, sounds system is nice, looks amazing, smooth, good on gas, light but powerful, low maintenance costs, can put 87 octane gas with no problem, excellent commuter car.

mukarram20

Thanks onlsaught Of course, there are those of us who love our car passionately. Passion is a very good reason!

rlx101

if you trade - you are going to end up paying $1500 anyway and since ES is 9 years old i am sure you will have to spend some $$ to fix it up on top of this. i say put this money into LS and enjoy it. LS will retain better value when compared to ES in the long run, especially since you put only 3000miles/year on it!!!!

jscarrozzo

Besides all of the checkups the es will need..i can safely say the interior on your LS is so much nicer than the es even without knowing the color of either.

mukarram20

I agree. I am out of town for few days so could not meet the owner on Saturday. I am going to ask him to let me know and show me the copies of maintenance records. The ES is platinum edition. Both cars are black on black.

B Dot

at the end of the day your going to have to put money into both cars. It kinds seems like you want the ES so get it. If you say your not enjoying the LS because of a short commute then why not get rid of it? The LS is the better car but it comes down to what u want when its alll said and done. just my 2 cents, maybe see if you can talk him down from the $1500 he wants

onslaught

Check out the carfax!!

mukarram20

Hi B Dot. I love the lexus. I would not have traded it for the fact that I will be spending a lot of money and then still have a car that has 90k miles. I was hoping to get the ES and then spend a $1000 and then have a car which is almost brand new.

You are right that I do not enjoy the Lexus for the drive as mine is 4 miles.

However, I did get valuable advice on this forum that I DO NEED to check on if the owner did service his car regularly or not as it has less than 10k in 9 years.

mukarram20

Hi onslaught. I did run a carfax and it is one owner car and infact was bought two days after it arrived at the dealer. It was inspected every two years and on the average, the "old lady" did only 1000 to 1500 to 2000 miles as per the record depending on which years I look at. I do not see any service records but then again when I ran the carfax, the only one I saw on mine was the oil change that I did at a Midas of all places. No other service records shows up even though I took the car to lexus dealer for oil change two times as well.

omarg

to be completley honest, your LS430 will be FINE if you don't do all that maintenance. If you only drive 4 miles a day, just make sure to use all synthetics fluids and your car will be fine. I've seen ls400's with 200k on the original timing belt and it looked fine After 17+ years!

If you only drive a couple thousand miles a year, just save $200 a month for a year, then do all the work it needs. or get a 0% credit card and pay for it in a year!

I know i'm gonna get get blasted but its the truth.

B Dot

Yes u should find out the service records on the car then make your decision and lets us know what u decide.

mukarram20

OMARG... thanks for the suggestion. If this does not go through, I will do exactly what you said and just do everything slolwy rather than one shot. I am also looking for a dealer service techinician who works on weekends from his garage to do the work.

rlx101

post an ad on craigslist in your area looking for someone who works on toyota/lexus cars. you may get pointed in the correct direction.