Congratulations! I’m happy that I was wrong!
Land cruiser buying advice - not running (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter alscott000
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- 100 series
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Congrats @alscott000! Happy for you that it worked out. Being that you're in college, start planning some great adventures w your new rig. If school is online - all you need is WiFi. There's WiFi in Ouray, right guys?
Well done, even if you had to part it out it was work 3k, put up some pictures
Eyedaho
SILVER Star
Yeah, I'm happy for you too! I can't believe the PO parked it for two years over a fusible link. I wonder if there's anything special you should do to help out with the seals getting dry for that long? I don't know if there's any protocol for that, like drive it a little and let it sit for a bit to let the seals absorb lubricants, or preemptively add AT-205 or whatever that seal conditioner is that people like? Just thinking that would be my one concern at this point is that if seals have dried out and you drive it a bunch immediately, maybe they would get damaged? Maybe I'm just paranoid though. 
That was me, you're welcome. Do i win anything?
That was a heck of a buy!
Nicely done!
I am downright jealous. $3k for a 100 with 100k miles.
That's the laziest Land Cruiser seller I've ever heard of, coupled with what is probably another example of how many shops don't know how to work on them.
Good for you on recognizing the potential in the situation, scoring what sounds like will be a good deal for you, and finding a decent shop. All difficult things to line up.
Good for you on recognizing the potential in the situation, scoring what sounds like will be a good deal for you, and finding a decent shop. All difficult things to line up.
I sold cars for a short time back in the late 90's, and this is quite common here, guy brings in LC to trade on new suv, trade in value is always a joke, they usually will only offer 1/2 of low KBB. He says nope, I'll just keep it and sell it myself, buys new car and old sits in driveway. He puts on Craig list and after the 3 BS tirekicker, and countless scam calls he lets ad expire and it sits again, maybe one of the kids will want it when they turn 16. Two years goes by and he tries to start it to move it out of the way of other cars, car won't start! He looks into donating it, but before he does he lists it again cheap, doesn't run, been sitting for 2 year. Guy comes by, offers 3k, seller (wow, only $200 less than the dealer offered me 2 years ago) shakes his hand.
- Thread starter
- #51
So, I know I asked a lot of "stupid" questions here, and in some people's cases I may have really 'summoned your satan' so to say, and for that I apologize and hope we can still be friends. I'm gonna write a little more here about the story behind finding and buying this truck just to provide some closure to anyone that may be curios and to maybe somewhat prove that I'm not a TOTAL idiot.
This may be on the longer side, so read as you please. These details aren't very important anymore since I've already purchased the truck. Again, this is just to provide some closure and answer any questions that some of you may have.
One of the most important aspects of this story is that the guy who had this LX on his property didn't speak the best English (I think he was from Cape Verde?) so if you ever thought to yourself while reading my forum posts here "Man, this dude really doesn't know what he's talking about," it's probably because I couldn't understand what the guy I was trying to buy the truck from was talking about. Nonetheless, like I said he was very helpful and did the best he could at showing me around the vehicle.
The second most important aspect of this story is the fact that the guy who had the truck on his property wasn't actually the real owner. The owner of the truck was a friend of his. The friend is the one who used the LX to jump start another vehicle, then the truck died on the guys front lawn, and there it stayed for two years. And don't worry, the real owner of the truck was totally ok with selling it, I have the title already and everything. However, he doesn't really play a part in the story because he (the owner of the LX) told his friend (the guy who had it on his property) to just sell it for whatever he thought it was worth. Hopefully that all makes sense.
Next, the reason I was comfortable with the idea of lowballing this guy was for a few reasons. For one, he wanted it gone. For second, his wife REALLY wanted it gone. And lastly, the town he lives in told him last month that he needs lessen the amount of vehicles on his property (he has a big family, there were like 7 cars there) so in actuality I came in at the right time to help him avoid getting fined by his town.
The reason I wanted to give him an offer so quickly was because, simply put, I didn't want him to realize how valuable the truck was. Think about it, all it would take is for him to mention to another friend of his something like "Hey some kid wants to buy that LX I have" and then that friend could say "Oh that thing is worth X amount of money" Call me a crazy paranoid psycho, but I didn't want to take my chances.
I know I initially didn't have the VIN#, which I got a lot of heat for on here and I totally understand why. And yes, I did know about the free Lexus service on their website already. I texted the owner that night (the night I initially made this forum post) and had him send me the vin. Not only did I plug it into the Lexus website, I even payed the $40 to get a full Carfax report on the vehicle. Needles to say, I knew the whole history of the truck before buying it. And if you're curious, the Carfax report was far more helpful than the Lexus one (although I had to pay for it) and for this particular LX, the report I got was quite lengthy but in a good way. I am the third owner the truck, the previous owner owned it for 15 years, and the person before him owned it 2 years on lease. For the past 15 years this guy had owned this truck, it only driven about 2k miles a year and was serviced often at a local Toyota dealer, so that's great.
The way I found the LX was just pure luck. I was driving through this town for a completely unrelated reason and got lost while trying to find my way back to the highway. I went down this very narrow, wooded street and saw the LX parked on the grass in front of this house. I recognized how clean it was, so I got out of my car and looked inside the window and was amazed at how perfect the interior was. I also took note of how the car was covered in branches and leaves, so it clearly hadn't moved in quite some time. I luckily had a pen and some scrap paper in my car, so I slipped a note with my phone number on it in the house's mailbox. Two days later he called me and that was that. The truck didn't have a for sale sign on it, nor was it listed for sale anywhere online, so there was no competition with buying it, which was obviously a big plus in my case.
My plans for the truck now are to get it home and do a ton of preventative maintenance on it. I'm gonna take it on a few long day trips first just so it can prove itself to be loyal, and then I would like to use it for longer trips all over the country with my girlfriend. As @RND1 pointed out, I am a college student and with all classes being online these days, I can totally make this happen. Also, as I stated before I will not being selling this. If anything, I'm gonna drive the hell out of it. Once it proves itself to be loyal, I will sell my Accord and use this as a DD. I believe in the saying about "not driving a car is just making it better for the next guy"
I think that is it. Once I get my hands on the truck and give it a deep cleaning, I'll make another post about it. Until then, thank you all for the information and support you have given me. Wish me luck!
This may be on the longer side, so read as you please. These details aren't very important anymore since I've already purchased the truck. Again, this is just to provide some closure and answer any questions that some of you may have.
One of the most important aspects of this story is that the guy who had this LX on his property didn't speak the best English (I think he was from Cape Verde?) so if you ever thought to yourself while reading my forum posts here "Man, this dude really doesn't know what he's talking about," it's probably because I couldn't understand what the guy I was trying to buy the truck from was talking about. Nonetheless, like I said he was very helpful and did the best he could at showing me around the vehicle.
The second most important aspect of this story is the fact that the guy who had the truck on his property wasn't actually the real owner. The owner of the truck was a friend of his. The friend is the one who used the LX to jump start another vehicle, then the truck died on the guys front lawn, and there it stayed for two years. And don't worry, the real owner of the truck was totally ok with selling it, I have the title already and everything. However, he doesn't really play a part in the story because he (the owner of the LX) told his friend (the guy who had it on his property) to just sell it for whatever he thought it was worth. Hopefully that all makes sense.
Next, the reason I was comfortable with the idea of lowballing this guy was for a few reasons. For one, he wanted it gone. For second, his wife REALLY wanted it gone. And lastly, the town he lives in told him last month that he needs lessen the amount of vehicles on his property (he has a big family, there were like 7 cars there) so in actuality I came in at the right time to help him avoid getting fined by his town.
The reason I wanted to give him an offer so quickly was because, simply put, I didn't want him to realize how valuable the truck was. Think about it, all it would take is for him to mention to another friend of his something like "Hey some kid wants to buy that LX I have" and then that friend could say "Oh that thing is worth X amount of money" Call me a crazy paranoid psycho, but I didn't want to take my chances.
I know I initially didn't have the VIN#, which I got a lot of heat for on here and I totally understand why. And yes, I did know about the free Lexus service on their website already. I texted the owner that night (the night I initially made this forum post) and had him send me the vin. Not only did I plug it into the Lexus website, I even payed the $40 to get a full Carfax report on the vehicle. Needles to say, I knew the whole history of the truck before buying it. And if you're curious, the Carfax report was far more helpful than the Lexus one (although I had to pay for it) and for this particular LX, the report I got was quite lengthy but in a good way. I am the third owner the truck, the previous owner owned it for 15 years, and the person before him owned it 2 years on lease. For the past 15 years this guy had owned this truck, it only driven about 2k miles a year and was serviced often at a local Toyota dealer, so that's great.
The way I found the LX was just pure luck. I was driving through this town for a completely unrelated reason and got lost while trying to find my way back to the highway. I went down this very narrow, wooded street and saw the LX parked on the grass in front of this house. I recognized how clean it was, so I got out of my car and looked inside the window and was amazed at how perfect the interior was. I also took note of how the car was covered in branches and leaves, so it clearly hadn't moved in quite some time. I luckily had a pen and some scrap paper in my car, so I slipped a note with my phone number on it in the house's mailbox. Two days later he called me and that was that. The truck didn't have a for sale sign on it, nor was it listed for sale anywhere online, so there was no competition with buying it, which was obviously a big plus in my case.
My plans for the truck now are to get it home and do a ton of preventative maintenance on it. I'm gonna take it on a few long day trips first just so it can prove itself to be loyal, and then I would like to use it for longer trips all over the country with my girlfriend. As @RND1 pointed out, I am a college student and with all classes being online these days, I can totally make this happen. Also, as I stated before I will not being selling this. If anything, I'm gonna drive the hell out of it. Once it proves itself to be loyal, I will sell my Accord and use this as a DD. I believe in the saying about "not driving a car is just making it better for the next guy"
I think that is it. Once I get my hands on the truck and give it a deep cleaning, I'll make another post about it. Until then, thank you all for the information and support you have given me. Wish me luck!
Good call on putting the note on the vehicle. Sometimes all it takes is being lucky, and more often than not if you take enough shots you'll get one through.
Well done @alscott000 and welcome to the Hundy club! Which shop did you bring it to?
Well done. It must have been destiny that the cruiser is in your hands now. The randomness of finding it and following up, you did it right. Enjoy the Landcruiser!
Don’t worry about grinding people’s gears, it’s not your fault, they’re just mad at their dads. You’re not leveraging us on this forum, nobody is obliged to respond and help you. They chose to. If you flip the truck that’s none of their business. If you keep it and learn lots and use that knowledge later to help others, that’s a win for everyone. Congrats on your purchase and I hope you enjoy doing whatever the heck you want with it!
I'm dying to see those pictures. Congratulations on your new Cruiser.
