luvthatlex

I'm in the market for a 1st-4th gen ES300 as I like that body style best and it fits my budget, however all the autotrader/craigslist prices are all over the place. You can have 2 nearly identical cars with a 2k price disparity between them. What do you guys feel is an appropriate price for a well kept ES300 96-01 or so, with say 140-180k miles, no tears in the leather (some minor wear ok, but no huge gashes or rips in the drivers seat)?

Also are there any particular service milestones to be worried about? For instance if someone is selling an ES300 with 100k miles is that a notorious transmission failure point that they are likely trying to dump on someone? This was just an example.

ES300NZ

It's a hard question to answer really. Every location in the world has different pressures on prices. availability of cars, etc, and the offered price is an expression of the sellers expected value realization, not actual value. So, some sellers will be waaaaaaaaaaaaay off the actual value mark. There's a model of car i want to buy, and one selling in a local website, i would buy it but the guy wants 100% more than the car is worth, which is why it's been for sale for nearly 3 years. Sure, the car is mint, and rare, it's not worth what he's asking. We've spoken several times, he's never going to budge, but he sure seems to think i will. he's wrong.


Its kinda of like asking how long a piece of string is, well, .. it's the same length from the middle to end in both directions.

luvthatlex

Thanks, I had a feeling it was just seller ignorance. Just wasnt sure if I was finding some cars that were "too good to be true" when they have flawless leather and reasonable miles selling the same for one all scratched and torn up. Speaking of which, what causes leather seats to wear harder than others? For instance one ES300 may have significantly more miles yet the interior is better than a car with much fewer miles. Is it just lack of care from the owner? Sitting in the seats wearing construction clothes? Obese drivers putting additional wear on the leather? How do you get a 120k car with horrible seat condition vs a 180k car with seats that look mint?

RXGS

iTrader: (2)

Comes down to care. My 2001 ES300's leather was immaculate after 240K miles, all of which were driven by either my father or I. My 2002 GS300's seats were pretty beat up after 62k miles and didn't show nearly as well. Based on the car, I don't think the person before me ever bothers to clean, let alone condition the leather.

nsghtbrwry

+1 on the interior care. I have an '01 Coach Edition and it's perfect inside because the guy diligently conditioned the leather every couple months (it's skin, use lotion! Leather lotion! I like Chemical Guys' offerings) and his wife didn't do her makeup in the car. You can tell when a girl spent time doing makeup in the car because everything, especially the steering wheel, will be greasy.

I just posted about one sticking point with 3ES's: the U-series transmission. Link: https://www.clublexus.com/forums/es-...ml#post9786902

Obviously read codes, listed for whining/screaming from the trans when the engine's running (indicative of busted fluid pump), and drive it. You should know as soon as it shifts hard, hangs revs, slips, or fails to upshift: walk away.

Everything else is gravy, the 1MZ is bulletproof except for the sludge problem, which shows up if the engine hasn't seen enough highway miles/is used exclusively for city driving. Take off the oil cap, sludge should be apparent.

EDIT: forgot to address price, lol. Dunno about other areas, but I live in the Bay Area and an immaculate 3ES with 100-200k miles, can expect to buy for $5500-7000.