No I can't. I cannot let this perpetuate as fact. Geneally speaking over time, if you need to spend alot of money to keep a hundy running you certainly bought the wrong one. and perhaps were not prepared beforehand to walk away from a potential purchase.
Apparently everyone's experiences are different and mine may change today but as of now mine are totally different than the above quote. Like most any deal one attempts to make, a good one is all in the upfront intial buy, investment, project, etc. And with these ridiculously awesome vehicles that have a worldwide reputation as such, the level of mental OCD one might have goes a long way towards chalking the hundy up as expensive to own. Unbeknowst to some, the 100 series LC/LX does not have to be an expensive ride. You can spend as much as you like in the name of maintenance, mods, etc. Or you cannot. They will still traverse the planet more realiably than anything I am aware of to date. Not perfectly but more realiable
I'd say we first have to differentiate the personal use of this vehicle.
Weekend warrior, toy or 2nd/3rd/4th car. VS daily hauler. My own personal experience is by using it as a daily driver. Actually I got a good sample of a rust free, well maintained high mileage LC and I didn't have to repair it at all, only baseline, regular maintenance and replacement of wearable (and stolen) parts. Non of them were affordable at all.
My First recommendation to Anyone looking to get into any older vehicle, specially a "luxury?" one is Learn how to fix it yourself. That's how I manage to sustain a 17yo daily driver. Every one's budget is different..
But, affordable? The OP's 1999 LX he's looking to buy was $57000 new then, 24 years ago, today it's a $110-120k car? I can't think of a more expensive 4x4, suv, or whatever it's called vehicle available for sale in 1999 (besides the unreasonable expensive g-class benz?). The Range Rover was about the same $, the escalade was 2/3rds of it's price, Tesla was the name of a crazy scientist in europe, Infiniti was making it's first posh nissan primera and Hummer was a military contractor.
Thanks to it's reliability, careful maintenance and $$ spent into those vehicles, we can still buy them in daily running condition, not only as trailer queens.
I don't think that because you can buy it for cheap Now, makes an old $100k car "affordable"..
BUT, if you do the math of driven miles/repairs costs, you might be right, it won't be affordable but maybe a good deal in the longer term? I know I'm keeping mine for the long haul...
Cheers!
