2010-2011 ES Yearly cost
 

I leased a new 2010 Red ES 350 with most options in from October of 2010 for 2 years.
In 2010 I spent a lot of time on Club Lexus doing research and it was a lot of fun.

The 2010 ES was a fantastic car, best I have ever driven, including Mercedes S. I put 30k miles on it.
Now I would like to buy a used 2010 or 2011 ES. I live in San Jose CA.
I am willing to drive 500 miles to get a good deal on one.

Currently I have two 1997 Toyota Corollas with about 165k on each.
I have put 100k miles on each one.
They are super reliable. I drive about 4k miles a year on one of them and have almost no repairs.
I have a great mechanic that I have had for 20 years, who when I take it in for a repair, will tell me it does not need it.

Assuming you own a 2010-2011 ES, did you buy it new or used?
If it was used, how did you research it?
What is the yearly cost for regular maintenance and typical repairs.
I would like to spend about 10-13k maximum, but I am flexible.

I got 2012 ES350, new. Its from the same generation 07-12.
It now has 110k miles. It's been most reliable car, and have no plans to sell it. I've never bought any maintenance packages from dealer, DIY oil changes, and selected services like brake fluid change, ATF fluid change, and power steering, radiator coolant. I hate dealer.
The only problem it had is bad CV boot, which was replaced couple years ago.
The next expensive item is spark plugs change.
If you buy this car with recent spark plugs changed and ATF fluid changed and new brakes, you will be looking at mostly oil changes.

Any other expensive repairs around 100k miles?

How did you find a good repair place?

If you live in San Francisco - San Jose areas,
who is a great and cheap Lexus ES350 mechanic ?

Could it be a Toyota Dealer or mechanic?

My most expensive repair was the alternator (touch wood), went about 3k after I bought it (mine is 2007 but with less than 100k miles), labor was more than the part because you had to move the radiator out of the way to get access to it through the passenger wheel well.

Other thing to watch out for is maybe the water pump, it can go a little prematurely (the main achilles heel of the otherwise perfect 2GR-FE I believe)

I recently bought a 2010 ES350 at 90K miles from a local Lexus dealer for 14K. It has all the service records. I love it. I already drove around 5K miles and did first oil change during my ownership. I also did Transmission flush ( not just drain and refill ). Next is to do a Power steering flush. Nothing wrong with this car just want to make sure to do all preventative before it hits 100K. It will be then good for another 75 K. This has a bulletproof engine. I used to have a 1997 ES300 sold when it has 240K miles. No issue with the engine. I love this car

How to buy ES 350 used
 

Thank you for replying !
I am thinking that to be realistic, you need to have about $5k reserves for repairs over 5 years?
How many years have you owned it?
How many miles do you drive a year?
Would you buy it again, and if so what year?
What other cars were you considering buying?

You can't project yearly cost. When things go bad and need to be replaced, they go bad. You are better served estimating the cost of repairs/repalcements to common platform problems. Sparkplugs, CV boots, waterpump, leaking steering rack,, motor mounts, trans flush and rear struts are things epected around 80-150k miles. These are notable items if you are buying used.

It has good reliability, but its 10yr old, so anything can happen, difficult to plan.

See my next post.

Have the spark plugs been changed?
Or any other expensive repairs before you bought it?

Thank you for being so specific!
Can you give an estimate of the repair costs for what you mentioned?

My 97 Toyota Corolla has 165k miles on it and it is 23 years old, but I don't plan on anything happening to it in the next 20k miles.

Those tend to be big ticket items... 1k to get waterpump done, 1k for steering rack,1k for front CV boots, 500+ for rear suspension, 3-400 for trans flush, several hundreds for sparkplugs. Radiator something also to look out for that could be 1k+. Accessory pulleys and the drivebelt tend to go around these miles, too.. to replace all pulleys could be another several hundred dollars.

Add on top of that maintenance that just allows your car to run good, like throttle body/MAF cleaning, power steering flush, brake flush, cleaning out AC and recharging.. these run a couple hundred US each as well.

Some of these things can be DIY, especially oil changes air filters and throttle body cleaning, brakes and fluid flushes if you're mechanically inclined or willing to take a DIY youtube rabbit hole. These are generic prices and are listed at what a dealer might charge. I'm sure you can get better deals but the first owner of my car paid around these prices

You should be looking for a car which has already done these things.

Alternator/starter can go too when its old.
its like any used car, this one is above average for reliability, but its not a guarantee

Can confirm, alternator died 2000 km after I bought mine, was the OG, mechanic says it was probably the age and hours spent idling that killed it.

Yes, but you're unlikely to get any "big ticket" items which require significant engine/transmission work, compared to cars of similar age/mileage from other brands, unless of course the car has been severely neglected.

There will always be "smaller" things like alternators, water pumps, CV boots, ignition coils which will come with the age of the car.
I'm setting aside $600/year on top of oil changes to help cover maintenance, the leftover from one year will go towards next year's pot.