davispb

That door is badly misaligned. Also, any private seller should include the "as-is" clause in the bill of sale. Once the buyer signs that document, the responsibility for everything rests on the buyer. The OP doesn't seem to want the responsibility of owning a car, much less the responsibility that goes along with buying a used car. Good luck, buddy- I wish you the best!

OU303

Paint does get destroyed pretty easily if a car is left in the sun. I am sure the stock paint on the LS is better than my Camry but my Camrys paint got annihilated because I didn't have a garage or any shade. Since he is a realtor, owns his own real estate company, and also owns other businesses, I imagine there is s possibility that he has shuffled around town a lot and parked inhabitants lot of uncovered places. I just don't know. Makes me nervous what you guys are saying about it being in an accident with that misaligned door. Hmmmm... That makes me nervous because allthough He did tell me he backed into a low lying trailer backing out of his driveway, he said he hit it with the rear of the car. The way he explained it made sense and I tens to believe him with how hospitable he's been, letting me take the car by myself and even simply leaving the car unlocked with the keys in it yesterday for me to take to Firestone..

Greyhorne

Pass on it bro. Its sounds right because this guy is a professional sales person.

johnnyg66

Pull a car fax. If you have the vin your bank might run it for free since you are considering buying it. I know my bank will if thats the case.

OU303

I did run the Carfax and AutoCheck. Only accident on file was way back in 1997 when it was a lease vehicle. Even though CarFax says one owner is technically a two owner but the current owner has owned it since buying it off lease in 1998.

johnnyg66

well i guess its time to decide.

OU303

A 1998 LS 400 with 54K just posted on Craigslist!

$9500. Doesn't look like timing belt has been done. Owned in Colorado by the 1st owner 19998-2005. 2005-present 2nd owner/seller said the car was in AZ.

Autocheck shows: 45,767 in 2007 and seller lists it as having 54000 miles now. So basically 1000-2000 miles a year put on by the 2nd/current owner.

This is the absolute top of our budget and we had been hoping to spend more like $7500 total with car price, taxes & tags, + any fees at a dealer. Sales tax is only 3.5% here, though

RA010623

iTrader: (1)

interior looks clean the leather definitely need conditioning
my 95 with black interior look similar in that condition i been rubbing leather conditioner on it since i bought it it's getting better.

j2b4o

Atleast you have another 30-40k before the timing belt needs to be done. As a long term investment 54k is much better than 160-200k. I personally dont care all that much about doing maintenance when I buy a car, as long as its not way behind because of neglect.
The low miles would make the extra price worth it for me. I put quite a bit of mileage on cars though. It's easy for me to put 25k a year on a car so lower miles means I can likely keep it longer without major repair.

OU303

Is the timing belt not an either/or proposition? Like mileage or time? I thought it was.

j2b4o

In the manual maybe but I have yet to see one break on any car before the mileage was up. I would probably wait till 80k myself.

OU303

Hmm. Well of course I would wait on this if I can That would help a lot with being able to afford this.

Anyone else?

Worth $9,500? Seems very uncommonly low miles. I have seen some at like 77k or 82k but that is the lowest I have seen. KBB says the value is $14,500

PureDrifter

iTrader: (10)

it sounds like it's a solid $2k out of your budget, and will still need some work since rubber will perish due to age not just use.

If i was buying it i would absolutely have the TB/wp done, manual calls for 90k miles OR 7 years iirc, and it's been nearly double that.


and strut rod bushings/balljoints/suspension bushings/motor mounts.... just because it's low mileage doesnt mean you can categorically rule these things out.

OU303

If it is that killer of a deal we can make it work. It isn't out of our budget, just more then we were planning on spending based on what we had been looking at. Anything more would be out of our budget. We have a budget of up to $10k for car + taxes and tags. Would probably have to offer $9k. In addition to that we have $1k set aside for initial repairs and miscellaneous.

mspearl95

yeah I've always heard 9 years/90,000 miles, although the last time i called lexus i was told 6 years/60,000 miles. I figure thats just trying to sell service tho.