Hi Everyone,

New to the forum here - I'm from Ontario. I've been looking for a Lexus ISF for a while now and one has recently popped up on my radar. I've contacted a few Toyota/Lexus dealerships in the past few months to have them contact me when an ISF comes up in their inventory. I've been primarily looking for a 2010+ but a 2009 came up recently as a one-owner trade in with 92,000km. I put a refundable deposit on it to hold it until next week to have a look at it. Car looks clean from the pictures, one owner since new, no accidents.

Dealership is looking to get around $34K CDN for it, which seems a bit high. Anything I should be on the lookout for? Price negotiations? Water pump has been replaced but I'm obviously going to have it fully inspected especially for the valley plate coolant leak.

Damn I wish the dollar was close to par again....so many nice deals south of the border for 2011+ models. Oh well....

Glad to be a part of this forum. Lots of good info and people on here!

Allan

 

this is what i can think of...
-Recall is all done and up to date, including the latest passenger airbag recall..
-Sticky dash...
-NAV DVD ROM drive make sure it works or had been replaced... also with latest NAV DVD installed,
-Mark Levinson sound system's subs, make sure its not blown lol...

 

So did you buy it?

 

I decided not to purchase it. At least for that price.

First off, after taking a really good look at the car, I found that the rear quarter panel had some body work done. Apparently it was all original (according to the dealership) and once I asked for the Carproof and reviewed it, sure enough it had a claim for damage to the right side. Not a huge claim, but nontheless it had some work done to it. It was really sunny when I reviewed the car so looking for a color difference on the paint was hard but after a few clouds rolled in, I took a few steps back and could see the slide shade difference on paint.

The biggest thing that worries me about the car was when I checked the oil. It was just below the low line and the oil was actually quite clean so it wasn't changed too long ago. I then checked the exhaust and found quite excessive soot buildup - more than I had ever seen on any ISF. So I'm pretty sure it is consuming a fair bit of oil.

Otherwise it was nice overall, but I felt that the price didn't justify the potential risks with the car.

Maybe I'm being way too picky? Also I noticed the dash was a little tacky to the touch (it was hot and sunny out).

Allan

 

It's good thing you passed on that, Allan. The price asking was too high and certainly the mechanical condition it was in was less than ideal. I would just wait it out and look for a 2011+. You get a bunch of performance upgrades that really change the car's feel.

 

Good call on passing on this one. Car wasn't clean and you dealt with a lying stealerships. Like other poster said, I would go for 2011+ due to updates.