I have looked at an 04 mercury on black CL with 90k miles, 1 owner, all records for $14.8k. It needs/could use both bumpers resprayed, passenger mirror replacement (scratched up and doesn't fold, part of the trim is broken), one front parking sensor is bad and steering wheel doesn't telescope. It is also due for timing belt. The interior is virtually perfect - not even wear on the nav screen surround.

Does this seem like a decent price?

 

Passenger mirror is $700. Parking sensor is $200-300. Steering wheel fix is $350-500. Timing belt is $1000-1700 depending on where and how you have it done. Repainted bumpers is $500-600.

So $14.8k with all the added expense of broken items and immediate TB maint seems like a deal I would pass on. Much better to take the extra time required to find and pay a little extra for a car that does not need any work.

 

Yea price is very high considering what you mentioned. All the problems you mentioned are fairly common for the age and mileage they are just expensive.

Tilt wheel: bad tilt motor. 400 if you fix it yourself.

Mirror: you might get lucky finding a used one for cheap but new is gonna be 700+

Tb/wp: 800-1500 depending on what shop

Silver is extremely hard to match correctly so both your bumpers might look slightly different from rest of car after a respray.

I think 12-13k might be more reasonable

 

Price seems high.

The lower miles and 1 owner are nice features, but it doesn't sound like it was a very "good" owner with all the issues. Both bumpers needing to resprayed along with the mirrors being scratched, he must have parking issues, or it could be more serious.

I would make sure to get some sort of CarFax to see if the car has an accident history and take it to a body shop and have them inspect for wrecks and give you an accurate quote for repairs if you're serious about buying.

I would think $12k is a fair price if there's nothing else wrong, it easily needs close to $3,000 worth of work depending on where you go.

 

I was starting to think $13k with those common issues. There are no wrecks and its a southern car. Its an older couple that owns it so the parking by feel with the bumpers makes sense. I have found a mirror for $250, bumpers painted would be in the $6-700 range, $250ish for the parking sensor and $400 for the telescoping motor. It should be about $1200 for the t-belt at a local place I use which gives a grand total of $27-2800 to bring this car to virtually perfect condition. Just thinking aloud...

 

I would pass on it, it needs to much $$$... I paid $15,900 for my Flint Mica 2006 with 77K miles and I have only had to change the oil/filter. Hold on and keep looking.

 

That's a steal for a 2006 with such low miles.

 

I looked for 2 months and got lucky. So far, it runs and looks great. When you find one, you need to do a Carfax and look up the vin at Lexus .com for the service records...

 

I've been looking for a good 2 months so far too. What package did you get?

 

Hey XJS, how do I look up a vin? I went to the Lexus site and didn't see anything that would let me check my records. Thanks

 

I certainly respect everyones ideas but my last T belt at a Yota dealer was 650 and they will do it again for 650 pump belt etc.

 

650 is a great price for the TB/WP work at a dealer.

 

Go to www.lexus.com and on the upper right you should see owners resources... Click there and then click on My Lexus... Just join and input the vin number...

 

Just to update, I've decided to pass for now.

 

Certainly the wiser choice...there will be better opportunities in the future. Better condition at better prices. That was too high with it needing that much work.