Sorry if this has been talked about before. Before anybody tells me to search , I did and I found less threads in the results than the few that I found on google. Also, kind of looking for my own advice.

I'm looking at an 09 460L with about 139k mi. Decent shape, small locally owned dealer wants 8500. Won’t get to test drive until tomorrow evening after work, but owner told me sometimes there’s a VGRS warning light, but still drives fine. As a matter of fact, he drives the car himself so I know I can’t be too bad (again, I’ll be able to know a little more once I test drive)

But I did a little homework and on the Lexus Drivers website I found all of the service records , and the most recent one (which I’ll attach the screenshot as long as I’m able) says the dealer recommends a new rack, steering control ecu, and electronic steering motor.

Anyone else have had this issue ? Trying to hold on to faith because I’ve seen a couple of guys say they were told they needed new rack and fixed their issue with a reset / reprogram , or sensors. Also, at that price , long as the car drives well would you guys recommend I still get it and fix it myself if I have to ? I’m pretty mechanically inclined. But of course, I’m going to try and get the dealer to fix it before I buy.

 

Walk away and wait for a car with no warning lights and a good maintenance history. This car has the same mileage today as from 2 years ago. It's been sitting because it's expensive to replace the steering rack.

 

Wow, all the looking I did and I didn’t notice that , that dealership visit was in 2020. I’ll have to check the exact mileage myself when I go look tomorrow because the guy claims he drives it, which I have reason to believe because when I looked through it his personal items were in it. But thanks a lot for bringing that to my attention. If this doesn’t work out I think I’m just gonna try to up my budget and go for an IS F

 

Stay away from that car unless $4-8k is okay with you to get it moving again.