Looking at a low miles LX470, but it's got rust

[rabble]

Hey folks,

I'm looking at getting a 2001 LX470 to be used for some off roading, some driving to the snow, some expedition traveling. It's $10k and has only 130k miles. The thing is, it lived on the coast of Oregon and has spots of rust.

Seems like a good deal, probably priced as it is because of the rust. The inside is worn, there's scrapes and scratches a bunch of places and a few minor dents. I don't mind the cosmetic stuff, the reason i'm getting this is to travel around and i expect it to get more dented and scraped up.

I know rust is a concern. The engine looked nice, but the used car lot who's selling it clearly cleans things up and makes them look pretty. There was also a very slight 'tinging' 'clicking' sound from the engine. It seemed to run fine. I couldn't get the height adjustment thing to work, and the moon roof won't open. The truck was clean, but i could find chunks of dirt under it, so clearly it'd been off roaded... i mean what's the point of having this kind of truck and not taking on pavement.

My goal is not extreme off roading, i've got a unimog (1986 U1300L) and frankly i've never never gotten it any where near it's limits. I want something i could drive around town or on the highway at more than 40mph. While still being able to get me in to the back country.

So, some rust by low miles, what should i think?

 

[rabble]

Oh, i didn't remember to take pictures of the underside, there was a bunch of rust on the exhaust pipes and muffler but not the rest. I'm not sure if the dealership painted / sprayed the rest. They don't strike me as the upstanding and honest types unfortunately.

 

[CurbsEnthusiasm]

I've seen better deals. Superficial rust is not a biggie but that looks like it might be more trouble than it's worth.

 

[brosama]

They don't strike me as the upstanding and honest types unfortunately.

That'd be enough for me to walk away.

 

[Kigiin]

That's not rust. Come over to the other coast and look at rust. Rust builds character - do you want character?

 

[n55luvr]

Rust doesn't seem to bad at all (compared to what we see in the rust belt) but the fact that the inside is so beat means it's probably had a pretty rough life. $10k now seems cheap but start fixing big things (like possible AHC) and you are quickly sinking a ton of money in a semi-unknown truck.

Any mention of 1 owner, accident free?

 

[JZelnick]

I chose not to compromise on rust. I flew out to texas from nj to get mine. I'd hold off for a clean truck.

 

[Kigiin]

^ so you took a rust free truck and moved it to NJ.... poor truck.

 

[JZelnick]

Will be researching a good underside coating and getting it done well before the salt gets put down.

 

[rabble]

Rust doesn't seem to bad at all (compared to what we see in the rust belt) but the fact that the inside is so beat means it's probably had a pretty rough life. $10k now seems cheap but start fixing big things (like possible AHC) and you are quickly sinking a ton of money in a semi-unknown truck.

Any mention of 1 owner, accident free?

I tried to use the AHC and honestly i couldn't tell if it was doing anything. The lights came on but i couldn't observe that it had been raised or lowered. I've never had an LX with such fancy things. My unimog has none of these creature comforts. Should it be clear it's working?

 

[Ganndolf]

Your rust isn't too bad from what I can see in the pics. But the shot of the interior of that door kindof bothers me. If they beat the thing up that bad I doubt they did much maintenance. You can look up the vin on the lexus site https://secure.drivers.lexus.com/lexusdrivers/info/my-lexus/service/home.do get a free account and you can enter all the vehicles you want. If they don't show consistent service history including timing belt and all that then I would walk away in a heartbeat. There are alot cleaner deals out there for the same money, that haven't been offroaded and beat to hell.

 

[hoser]

The roof rack was removed and perhaps non-OEM bolts were installed. The rust around the brake pedal could be due to bad windshield installation... and if there is rust there, chances are there is hidden rust around the windshield. The tailgate is often caused by water leaking from the 3rd brake light seal. The speaker grill fabric doesn't look like mine, not sure if it is OEM.

The clicking on start-up could be the common exhaust manifold leak... maybe. Some people just live with it. It's $250-300 for each side, plus labor.

 

[rabble]

So, it was regularly dealer serviced for the first 5 years up to 60k, then nothing in either carfax or the lexus listings until it sold again at 120k in 2013. A third owner bought it from an auction, kept it for 2 years and 13k, and now it's for sale again. Looks like that second owner either did their own or little maintenance and that's where it got beat up.

I've got an appointment to have it looked over at Landcruisers NW, but i could cancel and walk away. The most recent owner only keeping it for 13k makes me think it might just be a lemon. That said, the rig is supposed to go 25 years and 300k, and this one's only done 130k...

 

[bucfl]

I would walk away...i bet you could find better.

 

[bctlex]

Your rust isn't too bad from what I can see in the pics. But the shot of the interior of that door kindof bothers me. If they beat the thing up that bad I doubt they did much maintenance.

What he said. Seems to have 3 major issues: rust, unknown maintenance and beat-up interior. Its probably worth it if you can get this for $5K or less, but not at $10K.

 

[rabble]

What he said. Seems to have 3 major issues: rust, unknown maintenance and beat-up interior. Its probably worth it if you can get this for $5K or less, but not at $10K.

Yep, i walked away. Thanks to everybody on the advice.

 

[r3run33]

not sure if you tried but I would have just really tried to low ball the price; I can account for the rust on the tail gate (mine has that) but the maintenance is a bigger issue.

 

[Manhattan]

I just missed a clean, rust-free, 2001 Land Cruiser - one-owner, traded at the nearby Lexus dealership. It had 112,000 and they were asking $9,990. I went to buy it - wife (to drive it home) in car, checkbook in pocket. Gone. The sales guy said "every sales guy has a customer to call when one of those comes in". Moral: They're out there. Hunt.