Dealer 2004 LC San Antonio

Good people of MUD please share with me your pricing wisdom. Cruiser Noob here in the midst of my quest for the right 100 as a DD with light mods planned. This truck popped up in my neck of the woods.

It has a good service history and drives pretty well. Based on the modest but visible corrosion and some pretty heavy sun damage to the console wood and front seat I am guessing it was someone's coast truck. Interior is pretty clean with a tear in the driver's seat leather and what appears to have been a bleach spill on the third row floor mat.

After inspection/driving it needs the following mechanical issues addressed:

- Leaking CV
- U-joints
- TBelt/Water Pump due soon
- All 5 tires are dry rotted and one has an unsafe gash in the sidewall

I would do the work myself but for argument's sake I priced out the above work at the local dealership and adding on tires it's $3-4K.

NADA clean for the mileage and equipment (DVD and towing pkg) is $17,100. Based on what needs doing I started the conversation at $13K cash planning to work into the $14's. That was a nonstarter and dealer's comment was "if we were talking about a couple of hundred dollars I could work with you". He didn't dispute the necessity of the repairs but argued that I could get the work done somewhere else cheaper, after we had spent 5 minutes earlier on discussing how great Dealership X's service department was.

So the question is this: Am I off base? Does my pricing brain need recalibration?

TLDR What's a reasonable price for an '04 w/ 165K on the clock and $3-4K in work due or coming due?

 

[sammybones]

Keep looking. Buy from a private individual. Dealers suck.

 

[mordell]

Just as a reference point, I bought mine from a dealer in San Antonio last month for $8,500. Its a 2000 LX with 144k, 90k service done at 100k. Needs nothing and is in amazing condition. His price seems extremely high

 

[mordell]

PS Dont even waste your time looking at this one:
2001 Lexus LX470 4WD

Check engine light on and not taken care of at all

 

[Ninja Cruiser100]

Pass. Dealer may find someone to pay that price...it shouldn't be you.

 

[tacotraitor]

Thanks Mordell! Was considering wasting a lunch break next week checking that out. Did you buy that river rock green one @ WFV on Vance Jackson?

Thanks to Sammy and Ninja. Guessing he's going to hustle some unsuspecting soccer mom at that price.

 

[loganbrew]

He paid $13,300 at auction on 8/16/2016. Considering additional expense of $500 for auction fees and another $200 vehicle prep he's probably in it for $14,000. That's a spread of $3000 he's wanting (reasonable). I think these guys want minimum $2000, so getting him to $16k might be possible. Might not happen soon though because he's only been testing the market for less than a week.

Timing belt and WP shows last done 81,506 miles, so it's definitely due. I discount $1000 for this, even though I do it myself for the cost $340 in OEM parts (but including rad hoses, plugs, valve cover gaskets, etc).

Attached is pic/screenshot of auction with sale price. It's visible to registered users of Edge Pipeline, which is available free to public like us).

Here's the link to the truck's auction, but no sales price unless you're logged in.

Vehicle Details

Good luck!

 

[mordell]

No problem, they're not even a dealership. I drove down there from Austin on my day off and I had to look all over the place for someone. When I did find someone they had to go pull it from the back where their repair shop/junkyard was?? At least that's what it seemed like to me.

That is the one that I picked up! Hopefully you didn't see anything wrong with it that I didn't??

 

[mordell]

He paid $13,300 at auction on 8/16/2016. Considering additional expense of $500 for auction fees and another $200 vehicle prep he's probably in it for $14,000. That's a spread of $3000 he's wanting (reasonable). I think these guys want minimum $2000, so getting him to $16k might be possible. Might not happen soon though because he's only been testing the market for less than a week.

Timing belt and WP shows last done 81,506 miles, so it's definitely due. I discount $1000 for this, even though I do it myself for the cost $340 in OEM parts (but including rad hoses, plugs, valve cover gaskets, etc).

Attached is pic/screenshot of auction with sale price. It's visible to registered users of Edge Pipeline, which is available free to public like us).

Here's the link to the truck's auction, but no sales price unless you're logged in.

Vehicle Details

Good luck!

View attachment 1309636

^^^ That's extremely helpful info if your looking at trucks from the dealership

 

[loganbrew]

Pass. Dealer may find someone to pay that price...it shouldn't be you.

Agreed, but I wouldn't pay the dealer this either...

The Dealer has the most spread taking trades at KBB or Black Book value. They inflate their price for several reasons, one is "we're the dealer and only sell the most pristine cars bull$hit", another is they don't want cars too cheap on the pre-owned lot overly competing with their new car sales. But an established OEM's pre-owned lot will take $2-3k over trade usually, for this age vehicle anyway - especially if you're offering a quick cash transaction without repairs on a 100,000+ mile rig. They'll send it to auction within a month if it doesn't sell, which the independents buy and tack on their expense + profit.

My opinion is the independent dealer buying at auction isn't adding much value to what you can do yourself. Best place to get LC or LX is an MB, Porsche, BMW, Rover, etc dealer who takes the trade from somebody moving into a new high-value luxury vehicle. That person probably took care of the truck at a Toyota/Lexus dealer and doesn't sweat the trade-in value when buying the replacement. But you do have to like negotiation a be effective convincing the salesman you understand his BATNA.

 

[tacotraitor]

@mordell seemed like a clean rig to me. Owner was cool and I would gladly buy from him. The missus suggested something that had LATCH anchors for el bebe's carseat base or I'd have gone for it.

@loganbrew you are a total G; thank you for that resource. I don't fault the dealer at all but like you said, other than a make ready detail he's not bringing much to the party. Recently had a deal for an '02 LX in Houston torpedoed because the dealer paid 10,5 for a trade and sent it to service only to find a leaking rack and issues with the door actuators. We had a pretty frank conversation about what he paid, the in house repair estimate ($2500) and what he could give it to me for. We agreed that him wholesaling it and writing off the loss was the best move. That experience, along with some conversations with LC80 guru John McGraw in Houston, have lead me to believe that auction trucks are projects in waiting and not bargains. If dealers could sell it for more than they paid after repairs it'd be on the lot and one of us yahoos would be paying them for it.

Thanks too for the rec on BMW/Porsche/MB lots and for introducing me to BATNA; I had no clue the concept had a name!

 

[BnvS]

PS Dont even waste your time looking at this one:
2001 Lexus LX470 4WD

Check engine light on and not taken care of at all

Okay I was thinking of getting this same care in the above link. The dealer accepted my first offer. Which got my thinking.. i wonder why he was so eager to okay my first offer. Anyways dealer didnt say anything about check engine light or anything. He said everything is great and that he will not have any issues driving back from SA to Atlanta.

But one other thing it look like this truck has also been hit from the front. I have the high rez pics he send me where u can clearly make out. Stay away from this dealer. this one in San Antonio is very shady.

 

[mordell]

Well I didn't notice what you're talking about but I did take a look under it and there were plenty of leaks. He may have cleaned it up but when I went the thing was a wreck. I always find its best to just pop in on the dealer without them knowing you're on your way. What was your offer?

 

[BnvS]

I offered $7200.. man i dodged a bullet .

btw anyone close to OKC? i have a private seller there that seems to have a decent car. But again i am in Atlanta. taking the word of a individual but this guy seems great in answering my questions at least. here's the link in OKC. Its expensive to fly out to OKC from Atl. So if anyone can go and have a look at it. I would really appreciate that.

 

[sammybones]

Jump on a plane and go buy fumanchu's in Sacramento. He posted it yesterday. Do it. Do it now.

 

[mcewan13]

Agreed, but I wouldn't pay the dealer this either...

The Dealer has the most spread taking trades at KBB or Black Book value. They inflate their price for several reasons, one is "we're the dealer and only sell the most pristine cars bull$hit", another is they don't want cars too cheap on the pre-owned lot overly competing with their new car sales. But an established OEM's pre-owned lot will take $2-3k over trade usually, for this age vehicle anyway - especially if you're offering a quick cash transaction without repairs on a 100,000+ mile rig. They'll send it to auction within a month if it doesn't sell, which the independents buy and tack on their expense + profit.

My opinion is the independent dealer buying at auction isn't adding much value to what you can do yourself. Best place to get LC or LX is an MB, Porsche, BMW, Rover, etc dealer who takes the trade from somebody moving into a new high-value luxury vehicle. That person probably took care of the truck at a Toyota/Lexus dealer and doesn't sweat the trade-in value when buying the replacement. But you do have to like negotiation a be effective convincing the salesman you understand his BATNA.

Thanks for this insight. The BATNA term is new to me, but after googling it, I think I'm already using the concept. This helps me in prepping for conversations with both buyers and sellers. I'm slowly replacing two vehicles in our household and the Pipeline site is really helpful. Now I just need to learn how to qualify to purchase an auction vehicle.