Howdy Gang.
I finally took the plunge and joined the forum after hanging out and reading/learning for the past couple months. Specifically joined because I just started an adventure with a 2000 LX so that my wife and I could have, well, adventures.
A little background: I’ve been intermittently working on a variety of cars, snowmobiles, small engines, and boats, first with my dad and then on my own through the years. I grew up in Michigan and my first major project was a beat up Jeep Wrangler that my dad and I rebuilt and modded at lot in our garage. We’d go wander around trails in Northern Michigan and I fell in love with working on all things mechanical and also going out and exploring uncharted territory. My now wife and I would take that Jeep around the woods when we first started dating and discovered many magical and serene places. We’ve since become avid in many different outdoor activities, but national park trips and backcountry hiking have become a major staple of ours. We've used some pretty off-road incapable sedans as base camp before, including this trip to Bryce Canyon, Utah:
I’ve had too many cars to count over the years, primarily Audis and a couple other Germans, and have been active on the Audi forums through which I’ve learned an incredible amount. I get the itch for something new every year or two. I’ve always been drawn to cars that offer practicality while still being rare or unique. One of my personal favorites in this category was an Audi Allroad that went on some pretty deep off-road excursions during our time together. Google “Offroad Allroad” sometime and you’ll find a really different build thread; not mine, but I wanted it to be for many years. I recently sold an Audi TT that I considered a “utilitarian” sports car (AWD, hatchback, has “4” seats). Since that Allroad, we’ve always had a wagon in the fleet, currently represented by a Volvo V90 Cross Country, which has been the “adventure-mobile” up until this purchase.
So how does one go from that history to a 3-ton Lexus SUV? Well, we took a trip to Maui late last year and rented a lifted Tacoma with a rooftop tent to camp all over the island. We took it to some pretty amazing unmapped locations that we couldn’t have dreamed of with a generic rental car. It made me realize how badly I wanted a real off-road vehicle that I could build back on the mainland. I thought about various options and was originally pretty interested in a Tacoma to have the practicality of a pickup and the reliability of a Toyota. But it doesn’t meet my “unique” criteria; I mean there are hundreds of thousands of them out there. So I kept digging and of course fell deep into the 100-series rabbit-hole. Perfect combination of capable, Toyota reliable, long-haul comfort/luxury, and most of all, fairly rare.
Exploring Maui:
Shockingly, when I mentioned scratching the time-for-a-new-car itch to my wife, she said yes without even too much of a sales pitch. That’s because the premise was to find a 100-series, LC or LX, in the $5-10k range that could slowly be built for some long-haul trips and off-road adventures to augment our hiking/camping habit. I wasn’t looking for anything special or in amazing condition, but something that had good bones and hopefully at least decent maintenance history. Wasn’t too picky about the year, cosmetics, options, or even rust at that price point. I find the LX front end pretty ugly compared to the stoic LC, but kind of endearingly ugly. After learning a bunch about what to look for in this forum, I discovered the LX I ultimately purchased from a dealer in Cleveland two days ago.
Except that it isn’t really from Cleveland, and so the story gets a little more interesting. I found it online from a small independent dealer as one of the cheapest ones for sale, especially considering the mileage. Not much info in the listing, the pictures were pretty crappy. But after talking to the guy, he said he picked it up in South Carolina from the original owner who was a family member’s neighbor. He came across the car while he was down visiting his family and planned to bring it back to Cleveland to sell. Except with the pandemic, he got stuck down there and couldn’t really get it advertised well. We texted and he sent me lots of pictures and it was so much cleaner than I would have anticipated for the year, mileage, and price. I confirmed using the Lexus dealer records that it was a FL then SC car its whole life and was dealer maintained up until 3 years and 9k miles ago. Carfax also suggested what he was telling me added up. I put a deposit down and he eventually got it back to Ohio where I bought it off him. I won’t say exactly what I paid here, but I’ll note it was very much near the lower end of my original budget range. I do think it’s currently a buyer’s market for most cars given the pandemic, even though gas has never been cheaper for a guzzler like these are. Lots of comments on the classifieds about what different LCs and LXs for sale are worth right now. My only comment: don’t assume anything about a car without digging a bit deeper, as there are some real deals to be had out there. What I thought would be a mediocre Ohio rust-belt car, turned out to be a one-owner impeccably-maintained gem from the South just because I asked for more info.
With that, meet “The Beast” the newest member of the family fleet. Named because we’ve definitely never had a vehicle anywhere near this size and stature. She’s a 2000 LX, 181k miles, in Riverrock Green. Completely OEM minus some janky satellite radio wiring coming down the passenger A-pillar. That last dealer visit was for the “180,000 mile service” which is such a hilarious concept for any vehicle other than an LC/LX in my opinion. Timing belt and water pump done at that service, fluids and all other maintenance done regularly except the trans and AHC fluids. Thank God for the new dealer timing belt and pump, as I’ve had two of them go in my Audis and bent valves both times. One of those catastrophes was right after a complete belt/pulley/tensioner/water pump change by an independent guy (also a friend of mine) and disaster struck when the dust cover came off one of the pulleys and wedged in the crankshaft gear, causing the timing to skip. That spelled the end for that Allroad I’m so sentimental about. Got it rebuilt reasonably cheap and sold it immediately. Fingers crossed to avoid any and all of that with my LX, though it’s some reassurance that valves rarely seem to be damaged in the 2UZ despite being officially labelled an interference engine.
Initial plans are to baseline the car and drive it as is for a bit. It’s got brand new Michelin Defender LTX tires, which although boring are worth a good bit of coin, so I can’t justify getting rid of them yet. Almost makes me mad, given that I really want to put a good set of 33s on it (I’ve read plenty of threads, still deciding on KO2s vs something else). After that, I’ll starting building a “go bag,” which will really be a large med kit, toolkit, some spare parts, and some simple recovery gear for some mild adventures. I’m a big AHC fan by the way and plan on keeping it. My Allroad had a finicky and problematic but also super fun and frequently useful air suspension back in the day that I loved too. AHC rides better and is more reliable, so I definitely can’t justify swapping it out. Again, it’s that unique factor that just draws me in, so I’m going to take some pride in maintaining that.
Once I get the itch to do more, I’ll probably start with a rooftop tent +/- a new roof rack. HID upgrade with the lens swap will be a must; I consider that a safety upgrade in addition to just being cool. I have some younger family members in town that I hope to get interested in turning wrenches with some of these projects as well. It might stay mild, it might get wild. Who knows. No real plans to do major crawling, but I would like to get places 98% of other cars can’t. Mostly just looking forward to the adventure of building and the adventures my wife and I can go on with it. Appreciate everything I’ve learned on this forum and plan to continue to update this thread to keep telling Beast’s story. Shout-outs to all those who have contributed to the FAQ threads and others who have provided some amazingly detailed build threads that have given me many great ideas and dreams. Looking forward to being part of a new community. If you’re in the SW Ohio/N Kentucky area, shoot me a message so we can meet up and talk “local” places to explore and get lost.
More to come...
I finally took the plunge and joined the forum after hanging out and reading/learning for the past couple months. Specifically joined because I just started an adventure with a 2000 LX so that my wife and I could have, well, adventures.
A little background: I’ve been intermittently working on a variety of cars, snowmobiles, small engines, and boats, first with my dad and then on my own through the years. I grew up in Michigan and my first major project was a beat up Jeep Wrangler that my dad and I rebuilt and modded at lot in our garage. We’d go wander around trails in Northern Michigan and I fell in love with working on all things mechanical and also going out and exploring uncharted territory. My now wife and I would take that Jeep around the woods when we first started dating and discovered many magical and serene places. We’ve since become avid in many different outdoor activities, but national park trips and backcountry hiking have become a major staple of ours. We've used some pretty off-road incapable sedans as base camp before, including this trip to Bryce Canyon, Utah:
I’ve had too many cars to count over the years, primarily Audis and a couple other Germans, and have been active on the Audi forums through which I’ve learned an incredible amount. I get the itch for something new every year or two. I’ve always been drawn to cars that offer practicality while still being rare or unique. One of my personal favorites in this category was an Audi Allroad that went on some pretty deep off-road excursions during our time together. Google “Offroad Allroad” sometime and you’ll find a really different build thread; not mine, but I wanted it to be for many years. I recently sold an Audi TT that I considered a “utilitarian” sports car (AWD, hatchback, has “4” seats). Since that Allroad, we’ve always had a wagon in the fleet, currently represented by a Volvo V90 Cross Country, which has been the “adventure-mobile” up until this purchase.
So how does one go from that history to a 3-ton Lexus SUV? Well, we took a trip to Maui late last year and rented a lifted Tacoma with a rooftop tent to camp all over the island. We took it to some pretty amazing unmapped locations that we couldn’t have dreamed of with a generic rental car. It made me realize how badly I wanted a real off-road vehicle that I could build back on the mainland. I thought about various options and was originally pretty interested in a Tacoma to have the practicality of a pickup and the reliability of a Toyota. But it doesn’t meet my “unique” criteria; I mean there are hundreds of thousands of them out there. So I kept digging and of course fell deep into the 100-series rabbit-hole. Perfect combination of capable, Toyota reliable, long-haul comfort/luxury, and most of all, fairly rare.
Exploring Maui:
Shockingly, when I mentioned scratching the time-for-a-new-car itch to my wife, she said yes without even too much of a sales pitch. That’s because the premise was to find a 100-series, LC or LX, in the $5-10k range that could slowly be built for some long-haul trips and off-road adventures to augment our hiking/camping habit. I wasn’t looking for anything special or in amazing condition, but something that had good bones and hopefully at least decent maintenance history. Wasn’t too picky about the year, cosmetics, options, or even rust at that price point. I find the LX front end pretty ugly compared to the stoic LC, but kind of endearingly ugly. After learning a bunch about what to look for in this forum, I discovered the LX I ultimately purchased from a dealer in Cleveland two days ago.
Except that it isn’t really from Cleveland, and so the story gets a little more interesting. I found it online from a small independent dealer as one of the cheapest ones for sale, especially considering the mileage. Not much info in the listing, the pictures were pretty crappy. But after talking to the guy, he said he picked it up in South Carolina from the original owner who was a family member’s neighbor. He came across the car while he was down visiting his family and planned to bring it back to Cleveland to sell. Except with the pandemic, he got stuck down there and couldn’t really get it advertised well. We texted and he sent me lots of pictures and it was so much cleaner than I would have anticipated for the year, mileage, and price. I confirmed using the Lexus dealer records that it was a FL then SC car its whole life and was dealer maintained up until 3 years and 9k miles ago. Carfax also suggested what he was telling me added up. I put a deposit down and he eventually got it back to Ohio where I bought it off him. I won’t say exactly what I paid here, but I’ll note it was very much near the lower end of my original budget range. I do think it’s currently a buyer’s market for most cars given the pandemic, even though gas has never been cheaper for a guzzler like these are. Lots of comments on the classifieds about what different LCs and LXs for sale are worth right now. My only comment: don’t assume anything about a car without digging a bit deeper, as there are some real deals to be had out there. What I thought would be a mediocre Ohio rust-belt car, turned out to be a one-owner impeccably-maintained gem from the South just because I asked for more info.
With that, meet “The Beast” the newest member of the family fleet. Named because we’ve definitely never had a vehicle anywhere near this size and stature. She’s a 2000 LX, 181k miles, in Riverrock Green. Completely OEM minus some janky satellite radio wiring coming down the passenger A-pillar. That last dealer visit was for the “180,000 mile service” which is such a hilarious concept for any vehicle other than an LC/LX in my opinion. Timing belt and water pump done at that service, fluids and all other maintenance done regularly except the trans and AHC fluids. Thank God for the new dealer timing belt and pump, as I’ve had two of them go in my Audis and bent valves both times. One of those catastrophes was right after a complete belt/pulley/tensioner/water pump change by an independent guy (also a friend of mine) and disaster struck when the dust cover came off one of the pulleys and wedged in the crankshaft gear, causing the timing to skip. That spelled the end for that Allroad I’m so sentimental about. Got it rebuilt reasonably cheap and sold it immediately. Fingers crossed to avoid any and all of that with my LX, though it’s some reassurance that valves rarely seem to be damaged in the 2UZ despite being officially labelled an interference engine.
Initial plans are to baseline the car and drive it as is for a bit. It’s got brand new Michelin Defender LTX tires, which although boring are worth a good bit of coin, so I can’t justify getting rid of them yet. Almost makes me mad, given that I really want to put a good set of 33s on it (I’ve read plenty of threads, still deciding on KO2s vs something else). After that, I’ll starting building a “go bag,” which will really be a large med kit, toolkit, some spare parts, and some simple recovery gear for some mild adventures. I’m a big AHC fan by the way and plan on keeping it. My Allroad had a finicky and problematic but also super fun and frequently useful air suspension back in the day that I loved too. AHC rides better and is more reliable, so I definitely can’t justify swapping it out. Again, it’s that unique factor that just draws me in, so I’m going to take some pride in maintaining that.
Once I get the itch to do more, I’ll probably start with a rooftop tent +/- a new roof rack. HID upgrade with the lens swap will be a must; I consider that a safety upgrade in addition to just being cool. I have some younger family members in town that I hope to get interested in turning wrenches with some of these projects as well. It might stay mild, it might get wild. Who knows. No real plans to do major crawling, but I would like to get places 98% of other cars can’t. Mostly just looking forward to the adventure of building and the adventures my wife and I can go on with it. Appreciate everything I’ve learned on this forum and plan to continue to update this thread to keep telling Beast’s story. Shout-outs to all those who have contributed to the FAQ threads and others who have provided some amazingly detailed build threads that have given me many great ideas and dreams. Looking forward to being part of a new community. If you’re in the SW Ohio/N Kentucky area, shoot me a message so we can meet up and talk “local” places to explore and get lost.
More to come...
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