Ive been searching for a decent deal off and on for an LX for about 2 years, and got serious the past 6 months or so. My goals - find something with lower than average miles, either Charcoal Grey or Black, in a southern state to limit any underbody corrosion. I found a nice 2005 LX with crazy low miles in Florida, one owner (76 yr old man) that was babied, but it was sold out from under me. Determined, I turned my search into overdrive and started checking all sources (eBay, CL, Autotrader, Cars.com, etc) every morning to see what new stuff was listed. Last Sunday, I found what I was looking for.
Listing was By Private Owner for a single-owner 2005 Black LX, 91k miles, plenty of service records, and had spent its entire life in Southern California doing "hard time" taking kids to school and cruising Bel Air and Beverly Hills. Only issue was the owner only posted a few photos, taken with a potato cam. A quick verification of the carfax and service records with the local dealership confirmed I found what Ive been hunting. I got ahold of the owner, overnighted a deposit check, and tried to get a buddy of mine local to the truck to drive the 2 miles to the owners house to check it out. Thanksgiving holiday week shenanigans made him unavailable, so I hit up TaskRabbit to get a photographer out there to get shots of all surfaces and climb under the truck for more photos for a whopping $45 (task rabbit is AWESOME). My Tasker sends me a text when he arrives and says "how old is this truck? it looks brand new." He took plenty of photos, and the underbody shots showed it to be completely free of any corrosion, and has never even seen snow. But it will!
I booked a quick flight to LA to check out the truck in person and hopefully close the deal.
Everything checked out on the truck - AHC works great, tranny shifts smoothly, engine bay clean as a whistle, interior immaculate, tires 1 year old. Cosmetic issues - small scratch on the outside rear door drivers side (already had pics) and a few more small dings that are hard to even see. Only minor issue mechanically - slight leak on one CV boot (its 10 years old, go figure!) and it will need a timing belt in 10k miles or so. Its already had the water pump done. Both CV and timing belt will be some fun weekend projects, CVs being priority. Also planning on doing the typical heater T's, AHC fluid flush, and diffs/etc.
Closed the deal, had the bank notarize a sales contract so I can register it at home easily, grabbed the keys and rolled out to meet the shipper. Shipper calls and says "driver can meet in 20 minutes". I was prepared for them to be super late, and take hours to get to me. I meet up with the shipper, get the vehicle loaded, stash my Spot and put it in tracking mode and off it goes. I grab an Uber to the airport, and here I sit waiting for my flight back to NorCal.
Purchase price - $16,995, shipping home $790, smile on my face from purchasing a clean Hundy $Priceless.
Pics of the new family truckster :
Listing was By Private Owner for a single-owner 2005 Black LX, 91k miles, plenty of service records, and had spent its entire life in Southern California doing "hard time" taking kids to school and cruising Bel Air and Beverly Hills. Only issue was the owner only posted a few photos, taken with a potato cam. A quick verification of the carfax and service records with the local dealership confirmed I found what Ive been hunting. I got ahold of the owner, overnighted a deposit check, and tried to get a buddy of mine local to the truck to drive the 2 miles to the owners house to check it out. Thanksgiving holiday week shenanigans made him unavailable, so I hit up TaskRabbit to get a photographer out there to get shots of all surfaces and climb under the truck for more photos for a whopping $45 (task rabbit is AWESOME). My Tasker sends me a text when he arrives and says "how old is this truck? it looks brand new." He took plenty of photos, and the underbody shots showed it to be completely free of any corrosion, and has never even seen snow. But it will!
I booked a quick flight to LA to check out the truck in person and hopefully close the deal.
Everything checked out on the truck - AHC works great, tranny shifts smoothly, engine bay clean as a whistle, interior immaculate, tires 1 year old. Cosmetic issues - small scratch on the outside rear door drivers side (already had pics) and a few more small dings that are hard to even see. Only minor issue mechanically - slight leak on one CV boot (its 10 years old, go figure!) and it will need a timing belt in 10k miles or so. Its already had the water pump done. Both CV and timing belt will be some fun weekend projects, CVs being priority. Also planning on doing the typical heater T's, AHC fluid flush, and diffs/etc.
Closed the deal, had the bank notarize a sales contract so I can register it at home easily, grabbed the keys and rolled out to meet the shipper. Shipper calls and says "driver can meet in 20 minutes". I was prepared for them to be super late, and take hours to get to me. I meet up with the shipper, get the vehicle loaded, stash my Spot and put it in tracking mode
and off it goes. I grab an Uber to the airport, and here I sit waiting for my flight back to NorCal.Purchase price - $16,995, shipping home $790, smile on my face from purchasing a clean Hundy $Priceless.
Pics of the new family truckster :
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