I purchased my 2001 LX last year with 107,000 miles on it. In my opinion anytime anyone sells a car after 8 years, it normally has a problem.
The reason why I say this isn't anything to do with the mileage or years but, more with financing and peoples desire for something new. I for one love my vehicles, normally only purchase 3 years to new vehicles, I never finance buying and keep them forever as long as I don't have to work on them every month.
So anyway, my LX has in great interior and the smallest amount of rust. I think it was driven at least partial by an older woman based on the long gray hairs I found in the crooks & crannies. I wanted a 2001 or older LX because I wanted to install a custom sound system. So I couldn't figure out why they would be selling a 16 year old vehicle.
After owning it, I finally found out why I think they sold it. It had two problems that were intermittent. After they appeared and I re-read the history, I understand what the Toyota dealerships were trying to fix but, they never openly said it. They also never fixed it either.
1.) Was a stalling issue. It would stall sometimes as soon as you applied throttle from an idle. The idle could be a red light or coasting down a hill. My local Toyota dealership finally found the problem after I left it with them for over a month. They ran it everyday until it finally did it to them. My MAF sensor was slow to respond. $190.00 new MAF problem is solved!
2.) The alternator sometimes would run wide open 16v. When I purchased the LX it had a brand new Toyota factory refurbished alternator on it. Because I was doing a new stereo system, the first thing I did was replace the alternator with a 250a High Out alternator. After a few months, it developed the wide open problem. I thought it was my HO alternator going out, so I changed back to the OEM alternator and sent my HO alternator back for service.
About two months after putting my new warranty alternator back on the LX, it ran wide open again. So my guess was it couldn't be another alternator. So I started looking elsewhere. My problem ended up being the Alt-S fuse holder must have had the smallest bit of corrosion on it. I cleaned it with DeOxIt and haven't had the problem since. No money spent just a lot of labor to change the alternators in and out.
My point behind this long post is there is mostly likely something wrong with it. But if you are able and willing, you could very well end up with a vehicle that you will love for a long time! I would drive mine on a 3,000 mile road trip tomorrow and not worry about it!