I need to purchase a car for my wife in the next few days. I'm a proud owner of a 2004 sc430 bought certified last year- and have been very happy with my purchase. I have an opportunity to buy a 2004 RX330 with nav and moonroof and about 23K miles for a certified Lexus price of $30,000. Is this a good deal? My feeling is that it's pretty good, but by no means, a bargain. It does come with the Lexus certification warranty. One catch though, I'd have to buy the car sight unseen and pay about $500-600 shipping. Anybody done that before? The salesman tells me it is very clean inside and out and he said he'd look the car over for me and tell me if there are any very small imperfections. But assuming not, should I go for it? In my area I (new york new jersey area) I think it'd cost me a couple thousand more for the same deal. Any advice is much appreciated.

 

That's about what I paid for an '04 Certified over the summer. However, that dealer was about 50 miles up the road, so I was able to check it out first.

If this is the same dealer who sold you the SC, then you have a good basis upon which to trust his representations. As for the car itself, "moonroof" is useless information since they all have that. NAV adds about $1,500 to the value. If the car is in the northeast, it probably has AWD, but you need to check that out. You don't want a Front Wheel Drive in your area; AWD cars run about $1,500 more than Front Wheel Drive. The only other big option would be the ML sound system, which some people don't care about, but I was glad that mine had it (you have one in your SC). The miles are very low; mine had over 40,000, but the car looked new, so anything in the 20s is very attractive.

You are in the ball park, but you need to get all the information about the options, and get the "in service" date from the dealer. You will have a full warranty until 4 years from that date; your CPO warranty, which is less extensive, runs for 3 years from your purchase date. The longer you have the original warranty, the better off you are.

Is it a nice color?

 

That sounds a little low to me especially if its AWD

 

Flint Mica with very clean Ash interior, this RX is elegant yet rugged. Loaded with PLUSH leather heated seats, 6 disc in dash changer, power rear tail gate, automatic climate control and LOTS more. Cruise Control, Mark Levinson Audio, Moon Roof, Privacy Glass, Power Steering, CD Auto-Changer, Navigation System, Front Side Air Bags, Leather, Alloy Wheels, Auto-Climate Control, ABS (4-Wheel), Traction Control, Power Windows, Power Door Locks, Tilt Wheel, AM/FM Stereo, Cassette, Dual Front Air Bags, Dual Power Seats, Roof Rack, Vehicle stability control (VSC), Traction control (TRAC), Front ventilated/rear solid disc brakes, P225/65SR17 mud & snow tires, Full-size spare tire/alloy wheel, 17 x 6.5 5-spoke aluminum alloy wheels, Pwr rack & pinion steering, 19.2 gallon fuel tank w/tethered cap, 2-stage acoustic control induction system (ACIS), Anti-lock brake system (ABS), Electronic brake force distribution (EBD), Front McPherson/rear dual-link strut suspension w/coil sprin, Front/rear stabilizer bars, Brake assist (BA), Tool kit, Auto on/off headlamps, Black privacy glass, Intermittent rear wiper, Anti-chipping paint-inc: rocker panels wheel housing arch s, Rear bumper protector, Integrated front fog lamps, Electrochromic heated pwr mirrors, Water-repellent front door glass, UV reducing glass-inc: windshield & side doors, Integrated black rear spoiler, Variable-intermittent windshield wipers, Zinc-plated steel rust protection-inc: hood doors front fe, Daytime running lights, Chrome scuff plates, Scheduled maintenance indicator light, Tire pressure monitoring system, Rear window defogger w/auto-off timer, (2) front/(2) rear assist grips, Lighting-inc: ignition ring front map glove box door cour, Reclining/sliding rear 40/20/40 split fold-down seat-inc: ad, Metallic accents around center of in>

 

09/04/2003 - date car was originally purchased...so I guess I'd have only 8 months to drive with original new car warranty...but that's enough time I guess to detect any subtle problems?

 

Still doesnt say if its AWD

 

$30K is not bad, but not great either. I think you can probably find a 06 with low miles for mid $30K or less. The local dealership was selling their 07 RX350 loaner cars for $35K. I know loaner cars may be driven a bit harder than private party, but that just shows the going rate that even dealerships are willing to sell the RX at. This is the RX350 which is improved over the RX330.

Personally, I'd pass on this 04 and look for either an 05 or newer.

 

Yes the car is AWD. Funny, the factor that really limited my search was looking for the navigation feature. I think I could save some serious money if I were to sacrifice the navigation (and Mark Levinson along with it)- I probaby could get a 2005 for the same price. But after driving a 2004 sc430 for a year, I could not imagine buying a car without navigation, just for the pleasure of never having that frustrated feeling of being lost. I guess I could go for an aftermarket Nav unit, but I'm not that excited to have the loose wires etc. and it just wouldn't have that super sleek look. So that's it, gotta make a decision early this morning. I think I'm probably going to go for it. Any more advice?

 

For your reference, you've described an RX that came with the "Navigation Package".

The RX 330's have basic packages called Premium, Premium Plus, Navigation, and Performance. You add other options on top of those packages.

The Navigation Package includes the features of the Premium Plus package, and also includes Nav and ML; that's the only way to get ML. You can also get Nav as an option with a Premium Plus package, without ML. Except Nav and ML, everything you've listed is standard with the Premium Plus package.

A couple of common options that are not listed are rain-sensing automatic wipers (a feature that replaces the intermittent setting with an infrared sensor) and 18" wheels.

If you go for it, search the forum for TSIB's (what Lexus calls TSB's, or Technical Service Bulletins.) There were many of them for 2004, as the 2004 RX had some first-model-year bugs, mostly rattles. As long as you're still covered by the bumper-to-bumper warranty, any Lexus dealer will fix them for free if the previous owner didn't already have them fixed.

There were a couple of changes for 2005; see that other thread.

 

If I were you, I'd pass. I'd shop around some more. Used RX330 inventory is rising due to returned lease, retired loaners and trade-ins. I'm sure you'll find better deals. Check inventories from out of state Lexus dealers also. Sewell Lexus here in Dallas is very reputable, they'll ship out of state if I'm not mistaken. Good Luck!!

 

I would definitely recommend buying certified used. Our 04 rx330 just came out of some warranty work that could have cost me easily 3G's so definitely would recommend it.

Dennis

 

brnd new rx350's are selling way under invoice, so i would take tha tinto consideration

 

Last summer I wanted an RX, and it had to have NAV and a few of the colors were out. This limited my search considerably, of course, but I finally got one in a color I like with the NAV. It also had the ML and other options I did not really care about (rain sensing wipers) but are nice to have (but no RSES, thank goodness, since I have no use for that).

I paid a lot for it, but it's CPO and is still under new car warranty, with 2 years of CPO after that.

I have no regrets. Maybe I could have gotten one for less, but after driving it for 6 months, I would have paid more.

This is one very well designed car. If you find one outfitted the way you want, grab it.

 

Just about 3 weeks ago, I purchased a 2004 Lexus RX330 AWD - breakwater with ivory interiors, xenon ligts, navigation, backup camera, Mark Levinson Audio, rear dvd entertainment system, heated seats and rain sensing wipers.
I purchased this from a private party who maintained it very well. It cost me $27,500 + tax/title/registration. It has exactly 1 more year of factory bumper to bumper warranty. I would care less about lexus certification especially if the car still has factory warranty. Interior is fairly clean and the exterior has just a couple of dings.

 

this one it sounds like has the VN package, or "Navigation / Mark Levinson" package

other packages:

Premium Pkg - PM
Premium Plus - PT
Performance Package - VP

navigation is not its own package, but an additional option, for example, Premium Plus with navigation - PT NV

just FYI