I like to have my second thoughts before I buy rather than after, and that's where I am. I'd like to get your thoughts on this...
I have found a 100 with my wish list:
99 with factory locker,
clean exterior
all the expensive maintenance done recently, within 2000 miles in fact: Tbelt, water pump, new radiator (not sure why), brakes and rotors, shocks, tires
Drives great (doesn't feel remotely used up)
Front seats are still in decent serviceable shape
Even an upgraded stereo
All in my price range -- $12k is my price limit.
I took it down to my friend/mechanic to lend me some confidence before I pull the trigger. Looked great mechanically: tranny fluid looks and smells right, undercarriage checks out, engine does its thing smoothly, verified new looking water pump, so probably not BS on tbelt. Computer didn't show signs of recent clearings for undisclosed repairs. Check, check, check.
But here's where it gets fishy. 4 things:
1. Seller's story: selling for his uncle who bought in May but got transferred for work with long commute and doesn't want to pay for gas. (bad luck is reasonable enough) His family is Vietnamese and I can understand if his uncle doesn't speak English as a first language, but I'd rather deal directly with the owner. I can live with that, but first flag.
Second, tons of air fresheners. Smelled like the perfume counter in the mall. Yikes. Carpets were shampooed between first and second test drive, but even more fresheners on second ride. Previous PO used it as a camping rig with 3 dogs. Well, that can make for some stink and I was glad to have the carpets clean. Then I also hear with further questioning that the PPO parked it outside and the exterior was covered in pine sap and moss. (They did a great job cleaning it up.) But supposedly original PPO "was a rich guy that didn't care about his stuff." Car Fax doesn't show much maintenance history, so now I'm wondering how well it was maintained for those first 110k.
Third, is just weird: Above the drivers seat in the headliner, there is crystalized crusty something. Goes from visor, around the side of the sunroof to the top of the driver's seatbelt mount. It's also up in the sunroof mechanism. We spent some time speculating: maybe it's salt from the ocean (I got some on my finger and tasted it and it was salty, but no detectable rust in the sunroof mechanism just dust and a smidge of grease. (The sunroof doesn't open: motors try, but it is stuck for one reason or another. Perhaps from lack of use.) What is this crusty crud though? Maybe hair gel from a tall driver, or perhaps hair spray. That's where our ideas ran out. I wish I had taken a picture of it. We almost didn't notice it, but it certainly caught our attention when we did. If it is something that just needs to be cleaned, no biggie, but what the heck is it?
Last, there's some surface rust here and there in the interior: front seat tracks and cigarette lighter for example. The lighter doesn't look super rusty but there is some, enough that the plug and socket are rusted together. The power seats work fine, so if it got wet fording a stream, it was flooded high enough to get into the seat mechanism most likely. Bu there was moisture inside and enough of it to make the car stink and rust out some components. Dog pee vapor was speculated as good rusting agent.
Maybe all it needs is to pull the carpet and clean it proper, replace any gunky batting, and that will do it. If so, then I'm OK, but all together, I'm not sure how much of a basket case may be hiding under the surface of this "deal".
I had him at $11k before I took it to the mechanic and the seller is open to another offer, but he doesn't claim to be in a hurry to sell so I'm not going to knock too much off the price. Around here there are a few more 100s with less than 130k, but they are all listed around $14k and will need some stuff like brakes and tires. I think the most I can probably take off is the costs of the sunroof repair and having a detail shop do an out-of-vehicle deep carpet clean. I'd like to take care of these things myself, but the reality of my life is I don't have time to play mechanic or detail shop.
One of the main reasons I drive a Land Cruser is because they don't spend much time at the shop or apart in my garage. I can deal with the inconvenience of dropping the car with a couple pros in the next couple weeks to get this hundy dialed in. But what I really want is something that I can use on family adventures (forest service roads with a lifted camper) and have confidence in the machine for the next few years before I start building it up for more serious off road play. I'm looking for my next long term ride.
Thanks for reading this far. If you have an opinion, I'd be interested.
I have found a 100 with my wish list:
99 with factory locker,
clean exterior
all the expensive maintenance done recently, within 2000 miles in fact: Tbelt, water pump, new radiator (not sure why), brakes and rotors, shocks, tires
Drives great (doesn't feel remotely used up)
Front seats are still in decent serviceable shape
Even an upgraded stereo
All in my price range -- $12k is my price limit.
I took it down to my friend/mechanic to lend me some confidence before I pull the trigger. Looked great mechanically: tranny fluid looks and smells right, undercarriage checks out, engine does its thing smoothly, verified new looking water pump, so probably not BS on tbelt. Computer didn't show signs of recent clearings for undisclosed repairs. Check, check, check.
But here's where it gets fishy. 4 things:
1. Seller's story: selling for his uncle who bought in May but got transferred for work with long commute and doesn't want to pay for gas. (bad luck is reasonable enough) His family is Vietnamese and I can understand if his uncle doesn't speak English as a first language, but I'd rather deal directly with the owner. I can live with that, but first flag.
Second, tons of air fresheners. Smelled like the perfume counter in the mall. Yikes. Carpets were shampooed between first and second test drive, but even more fresheners on second ride. Previous PO used it as a camping rig with 3 dogs. Well, that can make for some stink and I was glad to have the carpets clean. Then I also hear with further questioning that the PPO parked it outside and the exterior was covered in pine sap and moss. (They did a great job cleaning it up.) But supposedly original PPO "was a rich guy that didn't care about his stuff." Car Fax doesn't show much maintenance history, so now I'm wondering how well it was maintained for those first 110k.
Third, is just weird: Above the drivers seat in the headliner, there is crystalized crusty something. Goes from visor, around the side of the sunroof to the top of the driver's seatbelt mount. It's also up in the sunroof mechanism. We spent some time speculating: maybe it's salt from the ocean (I got some on my finger and tasted it and it was salty, but no detectable rust in the sunroof mechanism just dust and a smidge of grease. (The sunroof doesn't open: motors try, but it is stuck for one reason or another. Perhaps from lack of use.) What is this crusty crud though? Maybe hair gel from a tall driver, or perhaps hair spray. That's where our ideas ran out. I wish I had taken a picture of it. We almost didn't notice it, but it certainly caught our attention when we did. If it is something that just needs to be cleaned, no biggie, but what the heck is it?
Last, there's some surface rust here and there in the interior: front seat tracks and cigarette lighter for example. The lighter doesn't look super rusty but there is some, enough that the plug and socket are rusted together. The power seats work fine, so if it got wet fording a stream, it was flooded high enough to get into the seat mechanism most likely. Bu there was moisture inside and enough of it to make the car stink and rust out some components. Dog pee vapor was speculated as good rusting agent.
Maybe all it needs is to pull the carpet and clean it proper, replace any gunky batting, and that will do it. If so, then I'm OK, but all together, I'm not sure how much of a basket case may be hiding under the surface of this "deal".
I had him at $11k before I took it to the mechanic and the seller is open to another offer, but he doesn't claim to be in a hurry to sell so I'm not going to knock too much off the price. Around here there are a few more 100s with less than 130k, but they are all listed around $14k and will need some stuff like brakes and tires. I think the most I can probably take off is the costs of the sunroof repair and having a detail shop do an out-of-vehicle deep carpet clean. I'd like to take care of these things myself, but the reality of my life is I don't have time to play mechanic or detail shop.
One of the main reasons I drive a Land Cruser is because they don't spend much time at the shop or apart in my garage. I can deal with the inconvenience of dropping the car with a couple pros in the next couple weeks to get this hundy dialed in. But what I really want is something that I can use on family adventures (forest service roads with a lifted camper) and have confidence in the machine for the next few years before I start building it up for more serious off road play. I'm looking for my next long term ride.
Thanks for reading this far. If you have an opinion, I'd be interested.