So, on Saturday April 18, 2015, I follow my wife into the local Lexus dealership to drop her ES-350, Ruby, off for her normal service. I had been looking at a LX-450 earlier in the morning on the local Craigslist for my soon to be 16 year old daughter. Having had previously owned a '95 80-series Land Cruiser, which my second son now owns, I knew that a high mileage 80 would be a solid platform for my girls to drive while in high school, but the $10,500 price tag seemed a bit steep, so I sauntered down to look at the '08 FJ Cruiser to see the price point on it. It happened to be over $15k, which was WAY out of my price point for my girls. As I started back, my wife who had yet to go into the dealership to let them know that her ES was there, had made her way to a 2010 LX-570.
Now, my wife LOVES her ES and we had been talking about the idea of picking up a used 200 Series LC for me, once we had completely paid for hers. We still owe about 8 more payments on that one and I have been paying above the minimum payments for a while. By the time I got back to her, she had the LX opened up and was figuring out all of the "toys", which this one seemed to have no lack of.
As I stated earlier, the truck is a 2010, with 64K on the odometer. The truck has never been off road and has new tires that were put on in December. This is a Lexus Certified Used car, for the sake of stating it. The dealership had marked this one down.... to... $43K.
NOW, we were talking... This was the price point that I was thinking about when looking for used 200s, but had not seen any here locally. All of the used ones were usually still at the $65K mark, which was WAY more than I wanted to pay. We took it for a drive and I came back and finished the paperwork. The attached pictures show how it looks in my driveway, alongside my 2002 100 Series.
My 100 is great and there is no real problems with it, the 200 will just make it that much easier to haul our travel trailer, which is about 5300lbs fully loaded. Elsie will end up serving the girls through high school and may become either my oldest daughter's first car, or my dedicated off road truck.
Here is what I have planned for the LX:
1. New wheels and tires (after these tires wear down). I am thinking 18" rims. If I can find any LC or Tundra wheels, I will use those.
2. Sliders. I am still thinking that this WILL get off road while I have it (by bloody god!)
3. Brake Controller - This has to happen within the next month so I can use it for its purchased purpose - hauling the trailer!
4. Adjust the AHC to make the Normal mode ride a little higher for larger AT tires. I will be reading on this one.
5. Possible replacement of roof rack to allow for roof-top tent, if the daughter takes Elsie.
6. Enjoy the heck out of it. I have been amazed at what Elsie had done while she was completely stock, I expect to see similar results with this one.
7. Name it. Not sure on this one yet... stay tuned.
