RX330inFL

At that age of mileage you will not be trouble free, however, I do not think it will get as bad as what you saw with the Ford.

ephisig764

Thanks for all the advice. I have another question. I was taking a loan out on the car and did not get approval because it had over 100k miles. That started making me think, "am I making the wrong decision buying a car with 109k miles." So I continued looking and found another '05 priced about the same, but white w/ tan interior and 92k miles. The carfax is good, but I looked up the service history on lexus.com and the owner never took it to the dealer for service. On the other hand, the '05 Thundercloud took it in for every scheduled service recommended. I wouldn't get the white one because I'd rather have silver or black. But if I was considering it, would you rather take the car that has 17k miles more with a history of being taken care of or the one with less mileage and no service history?

Adamjeeps

Better service history, hands down, unless you could contact the owner of the other vehicle and they could document service history.

I still think you should keep your Mounty, you have already fixed most of the problems!!

ephisig764

I would love to keep it and not have a payment, but I'm sure I'm not through all my repairs. I didn't think I would have to rebuild a third transmission at $3500. I'm also getting tired of the gas gauge, cruise control, 4-wheel drive, rear parking sensor, cd player and keypad not working.

Adamjeeps

Yeah I can see your point... its still a gamble on any vehicle with higher mileage, repair-wise.

ephisig764

Pulled the trigger and bought one. I decided against the higher mileage of the TC and the fact that it was just an independent dealer. It came down to a 2005 black/tan 330 with 65k miles and a 2005 silver/black 330 with 88k miles. I went with the silver. I thought I liked the tan better until I really inspected the interior. The tan was just not doing it for me. I think the silver one, even though it had more miles, just seemed in better condition. Also the difference in price made the decision easier. They wouldn't go below $21k on the black and I got the silver for $18k (been on their lot longer and the black just came in off trade.)

I overall feel more comfortable making my purchase at a Lexus dealer. They took care of a lot of little issues on the car, changed oil and filled up the gas. It is the little things that add up and save me a money vs. an independent dealer. And also the fact that they make sure the car is up to their standard to sell at their dealership vs. wholesaling it. Thanks for the buying advice!