zippinbye

Considering a private party 2016 450h w/ 62,000. 60k service just completed at a local dealer. Receipts for that and other service since new in-hand. Nothing remarkable in history. It's a garage kept, very well-maintained car. I've never seen a seven year old car with such perfect paint (Eminent White Pearl) and interior. Truly a like-new condition example. Drives like it looks. It's priced at $32k and change, which seems to be at least $2k below the least dealer price for something similar, but $38-40k is common and a more likely price point for stellar condition. With my state's zero tax private party sales, it represents a savings on the order of $10,000 compared to a dealer deal. It definitely has my attention!

I'm a newcomer to hybrids, so there is a slight leeriness in evaluating the drive system health. I have purchased something like 70 used cars and trucks in my lifetime, generally relying on my own condition evaluation, sometimes as "deep" as a compression test and fluid sampling. With a Toyota, records and a few minutes crawling around is usually all that's necessary to ascertain condition. I paid shops to do a pre-purchase inspection on about a half dozen occasions when the stakes were high or the car was too unfamiliar to me. Only once did I feel like I dodged a bullet by ordering an inspection - 7 Series BMW that would have been a nightmare if not for expert insight. I have succeeded in evaluating a dozen Toy/Lex vehicles personally, just wondering if this is the one to turn over to a pro for a deep-dive. There is a local indy Toyota shop that I trust and they would absolutely thrive on trying to find something the dealer missed on the 60,000 mile service. On the other hand, I think the dealer's profit motive would have dug up any concerns. A PPI is time and money and inconvenience. Wondering if other folks think a shop inspection is worthwhile, even mandatory?

TIA

golferjack

You answered your own question...If the dealer did not find anything, with their motives, another inspection probably will not find anything. I believe that most inspections are worthless, since if something is missed it is not the inspectors fault that the issue was missed. This view includes home inspections. I have a 2018h with 63000 miles and it has never been serviced by the dealer, other than the first free oil change. The vehicles are bullet proof, and other than the brake actuator making a rare squeak, I have not had one issue.. It sounds like you know your way around cars, so I'll bet you have done about as good an inspection as the deal would do.

zippinbye

I hear you .... it's just the "oddity" of the Synergy Drive that makes me feel like I'm treading in a foreign land! I'm hoping if it drives well and all dash indications seem normal, the hybrid side of things is working as it should.

golferjack

i could have mentioned some of the good points of the car, but I thought you probably knew of them. There a couple of points that I really like about the hybrid and one of them is the drive train. If you have never driven it before, you will notice the smoothness and responsiveness. I cannot imagine ever owning a car without the CVT. It is rock solid and free of maintenance of any kind of slippage. In fact I was thinking of getting a 470, but decided against it because, even thought it has a hybrid version, it has the regular transmission, and I am sure that it comes with all the inherent drivetrain issues. The only pump connected to the engine is the water pump, because all the other pumps and the air conditioning compressor are powered by small electric motors. This allows the engine to have more power for moving the car. I have 63000 miles on mine and the brakes are still like new, which is the first time I will have ever gone over 40000 miles without a brake job. I could go on, but my point is that under the hood the car is near perfect in its design, and I wish Lexus would sell a larger SUV with a CVT and the V6.

RGSW

There are a few good reviews of the "2016 Lexus RX450h" on YouTube for free. Just go to "YouTube" and enter "2016 Lexus RX450h review".

TechNut

I’m not really sure you can label it as “odd” any longer. Toyota has been building this basic power train since 1996 in the original Prius. They have had time to perfect it and have since licensed it to other manufacturers. I think it’s pretty mainstream today so I wouldn’t be too concerned about the fact that it’s a hybrid. I think it is more important to make sure you are comfortable with the driving characteristics of a hybrid. It isn’t the best drivetrain if you enjoy spirited driving.

golferjack

[QUOTE=TechNut;11470275 It isn’t the best drivetrain if you enjoy spirited driving.[/QUOTE]

I disagree that it is not spirited. If you want to get down hard on someone, just put it in sport and it will run with the best of them....and best of all, in any mode, it never lags

zippinbye

I'm pulling the trigger. Made a purchase commitment, will be bringing home a week from tomorrow. No PPI, but I feel good about it. Seller was like a private CarMax - no haggle pricing and was adamant about no flexibilty. Probably my first ever vehicle purchase without at least some negotiation! I'm fine with that, since it is an exceptional car priced at the bottom of KBB Private Party Value. Like I mentioned earlier, I'm "in" for about $10k less than if (big if) I had found the same at a dealer (no sales tax on private sales bumps up the saving).

I'm excited!

zippinbye

I kept posting a response to you, but it disappears. Initially I thought I neglected to accomplish the final "click." Is it forbidden to post a url here? Maybe that's the reason it's being taken down.

What I tried to say was: yes, some YouTube viewing has been done. I added that I discovered (some time ago) The Car Care Nut channel on YT, and info I gained there solidified my decision to seek a Gen. 4 RX hybrid. The channel is about all things Toyota. The channel owner, Ahmed, is a well-spoken guy who puts maintenance, repairs and vehicle features into excellent overviews that are very useful. He was a Toyota dealership master tech when he launched the channel, but since then has struck out on his own. Now he runs an indie shop specializing in Toyota/Lexus/Scion in a Chicago suburb. I love this guy. He is calm, thoughtful and articulate, kind of the opposite of Scotty Kilmer - another popular automotive YouTuber, who is definitely a "character" and I find likable and useful, but he's a bit superficial on repair topics and is pretty high-energy, not that there's anything wrong with that.

Aegean

Congratulations on the car. The hybrid battery check can be done with an app called Dr Prius and a ´Health check´ in all OBD2 systems with Techstream. However, you are still under the 8y/100k factory warranty so I wouldn’t bother.