Is this damage?

[Grundletaint]

Looking at a 2000 w 75k miles.

This looks a little weird to me. In rear passenger wheel well

 

[2000UZJ]

I would carfax it. Is it located in the rust belt? Looks like some hefty rust coating to me. There looks to be overspray on the exhaust resonator in the first picture. The fender liner can get very dirty and discolored it not washed. It's a OEM "bedliner" paint, mine is stained brown and rubbed off in a few places from tire rub. Any more photo's of the vehicle? Specifically the rear frame crossmember? Any obvious non-OEM welds? All windows on the LC/LX have the original VIN number on them, same goes for body panels. Easy way to check if anything has been replaced.

 

[Grundletaint]

Yeah the vins are on the windows and doors. Supposed to be on rear panels somewhere? Here's a pic of the other side for reference. Clean carfax owner reported in houston so I wouldn't expect rust to be an issue. There's a dent in the tailgate but I doubt it caused frame damage. I reckon I'll need to just run it by a mechanic..

 

[Grundletaint]

And I can't wrap my head around this mileage at all

 

[slimbuddha]

Looks like it was their primary vehicle for the first 5 years, after that the usage drops. It could be for tons of different reasons:

moved out of country, but kept vehicle.
Changed to a new vehicle, but kept it as a backup, or at a vacation home
The owner was elderly, and stopped driving around 2005-2007, but didn't want to get rid of the vehicle.

This is all assuming a single owner, however for me it would be a possible red flag if you start seeing other problems, and it was a multi-owner vehicle.

FYI, I have a minivan we bought new in 2004, that only has 58k miles... and since January of last year, maybe put a total of 2k total.

 

[super90]

Keep in mind, not all accidents end up disclosed on Carfax. I can attest to this first hand as a vehicle I bought turned out to have been in an accident and I discovered it after the fact.

 

[04UZJ100]

Run, Forrest, run.

 

[KlausVanWinkle]

Looks like the undercoating melted. Drove over Lava?

 

[Grundletaint]

Yeah something happened to this thing. They're asking damn near 19,000 based on mileage and I doubt I could get them down to anything near reasonable, even with the dent as leverage.

 

[KlausVanWinkle]

I paid $15,000 for my 2000 with 80k miles, no damage like that. And that was 2 years ago.

There are plenty of clean cheaper cruisers in the sea. Where are you located?

Save a bunch of money and buy this one. I've already checked it out for myself. http://losangeles.craigslist.org/sgv/cto/3457904302.html

I know I know. Save it for the buying thread. Sorry, mods.

 

[Grundletaint]

I'm in Austin and they don't turn up too frequently around here, or at least not lately.

 

[12guns]

Wish I was closer to look at it for you.
I would go by a reputible body shop along with a mechanic. Mechanics are great, but 90% of them don't look for prior body work, they just check to see if it runs good and such. Any body shop or body tech can pick any vehicle apart that has had any body work done at all.
I agree it's kind of odd for them to spray the frame rails like that. I guess a can of undercoating or bedliner makes it look shiny and new, but it also conceals the true condition of the vehicle. Is one of the rear track bars new? It may just have fresh paint, but on that vehicle, I wouldn't think they would be as clean as it looks. Good luck!

 

[Grundletaint]

Thanks for the input, everyone. Looks like I'm going with an 05 LX. A little more coin than I wanted to spend but it's 1 owner, has full service records at lexus, and no damage anywhere.

I still may run this LC by my guy just to see WTF is going on with it.

 

[ckkone]

To my eye looks like it had a fire? Does the whole frame have new undercoat or just the rear?

 

[super90]

I'm in Austin and they don't turn up too frequently around here, or at least not lately.

If need be, extend your search to Dallas and Houston. Heck I drove up to Norman OK to buy my '03 TLC