tcbted

Greetings.
Thought I would share this purchase with my friends at Club Lexus.

I've owned a few Lexus products in the past. Specifically, an ES300, an ES350, an LS400 and an LS430.
I always keep my eyes open for a well maintained, single owner, low mileage Lexus.

With a small commute of 50 miles per day, I wanted something smooth and quiet for my highway drive. As my lease is coming up on a 2014 Mazda 3, I started my search.
The Mazda is incredible on fuel economy, but is a typical noisy commuter car. It is best in class at what it does, but I decided I wanted a quiet respite from long days at work.

I came across a one owner, dealer maintained 2004 ES330 with just under 50,000 miles. The original selling dealer has performed almost all service to date, including timing belt at 43k (13 yrs), new alloy wheels, Michelin tires, battery, all fluid flushes, etc. The selling owner just had the car in for an $1100 service (50k), which included iridium plugs and all fluids changed (brake, tranny, synthetic oil, etc).
During safety certification, it was determined that the shocks wouldn't pass our new Ontario stringent safety standards. So, the seller put $2k into replacement shocks.
I pulled up the complete service history, and the original owner never missed a service date, even had the dealer perform annual detailing to the car.

The color isn't my preference, but the light gold will hide the daily battle scars from following trucks and snow plows to work each day. I owned a black ES350, and the dark color developed road rash on the front bumper very quickly. This car isn't perfect, the previous owner managed to put some deep scratches into the rear bumper, not unusual.
I will likely just leave it as .... we have a couple of fun, super clean summer cars, so I don't need to try to make a 12 year old Lexus pristine. It's just a cheap commuter car.

But, as the pics show, it's really a superb find. Even the cream leather has no bolster wear.
In Canada, the wood wheel, electronic suspension, power window shade, and Levinson sound system were a $5k premium.
With this car, the Mark Levinson speakers are still great. It has always been garage kept, the headlight lenses are crystal clear.
I'm hopeful that impeccable service records and a proven platform will add up to a trouble free commuter car for a couple of years.

I purchased the car for the equivalent of $5600 USD.

Typically, the challenge of finding a good used near luxury car is trying to avoid neglected service dates. As cars get flipped multiple times for less and less money, purchasers
end up buying cheap luxury cars, but the cost of major service is still associated to the original high sticker price. So, many people skip scheduled maintenance and just "fix it if it breaks". When the repair costs are too high, then the cars are often flipped.
I've now owned about 73 cars, some good deals, and some terrible mistakes.
When I've obtained complete service records, I usually end up making a wiser purchase.

I think it's a heck of a lot of car for that price.
I hope that some here find it encouraging that there are still some wonderful older Lexus cars out there, occasionally coming up for sale as seniors retire from driving.
This car took about 3 months of searching within a 500 mile radius from home.

I may not enjoy bluetooth connectivity, but the serene environment sure makes up for whatever the car may lack in modern conveniences.

ES300TX

Nice car. Mine is the exact same color, though I only have a 2003 ES 300.

I can't believe how much regular maintenance is on these cars. Wow. How much to change the plugs? $1k?

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RXGS

iTrader: (2)

Car was an absolute steal, congrats.

tcbted

The service up here in Ontario is referred to as 80,000klms.
The Lexus dealer changed the plugs, oil change, and changed the brake fluid. Charge was about $1100 CDN

The shocks were changed out, but the owner decided against OEM electronic shocks at a price of about $1k per corner.
So, they opted for regular shocks, for a total bill of $2100 CDN, including safety certificate.

Although I see no visible signs of rust, I am taking it in for a full rustproof next week. The car will be driving on heavily salted roads this winter.
Its just far too nice to run into the ground.

I always take a certain amount of satisfaction when I can find a great used car for very little money. It's a challenge, but the chase is so much fun.