Suspicious Low Mile 100 Series (1 Viewer)

[Fzj80 1997]

I’ve found a couple LX470’s in California lately with low miles- sub 60k miles. They have all looked pretty good in the pictures, but they seem to have had their seats reupholstered. I find this suspicious because the trucks have such low mileage they really shouldn’t have their seats reupholstered. I thought I would ask here and see what the consensus is regarding whether the seats have been redone. What do y’all think?

 

[suprarx7nut]

What makes you think they've been redone?

 

[97 AZ LC]

Looks pretty sloppy but we need more pictures.

 

[Porter]

run the VIN through the Lexus owners website- you'll need to register and pretend it's yours. This should yield some info, and should be your first step in the process on any rig you're considering.

 

[Fzj80 1997]

What makes you think they've been redone?

I feel like the factory leather wouldn’t have those folds on the outer bolster next to the seat back.

 

[Kabanstva]

That does look redone for sure. Look at the fitment and wrinkles. That seat skin looks like it was cut too big. Isn’t that the white 07 LX that was just posted here with 55k miles?

 

[Fzj80 1997]

That does look redone for sure. Look at the fitment and wrinkles. That seat skin looks like it was cut too big. Isn’t that the white 07 LX that was just posted here with 55k miles?

No it’s a green one in the Bay Area. I think there was a grey one that was also in the Bay Area a few days ago with around the same mileage. The seats looked like they do in the above pic as well. Maybe it’s the same guy that flipping them

 

[GreenMachine00]

Seats being re upholstered is not a sign of foul play imo. If leather is not cared for, age will run its course. If anything the owner may have put a lot of money into trying to keep the vehicle looking and running nicely. Then again the po of my land cruiser spent a boatload on maintenance but totally neglected the interior so it may mean the opposite.

I’d say run a car fax on it. Best piece of mind you can get when buying used vehicles. Saved my ass on two different instances of obviously run back odometers and questionable ownership history by running a car fax check. You may be right about some person flipping land cruisers, but if it’s legit, it’s legit.

 

[xhifer]

Sorry for the bump but maybe this is important info for anyone looking for a land cruiser or lx470 in the bay area.

There is a group of scammers that roll back odometers on these 100 series. The ad will have bad English and a long story of why the vehicle has low mileage. They also try to make the ad a bit personal, for example say their kids are grown or they have more kids so bought a van, etc.

Recently, a 2006 lx470 with 58k miles was posted on Craigslist. The seller asked 19k cash. Seller posted good quality photographs and blacked out the license plate numbers. No vin was posted. Seller leaves their phone number for easy contact (burner phones).

Seller only wants cash and will only meet in a public place. Seller will not send you the vin but will send you photographs of a fake carfax. Seller will say he has a lot of interest and show you a screenshot of all the text messages. The texts and interests are probably legit. This is a tactic to make you rush to buy it.

Victim will meet seller with cash and probably get scammed.

I ended up catching the last 14 digits of the vin from the scammers fake carfax photo. I ran it and it came back to 160k miles, multiple owners and an accident.

Just a heads up for anyone searching.

After I confronted the seller, he removed the ad for 3 days then reposted it for more. Looks like the ad was removed after a day, possibly sold to a victim. It's unfortunate the victim will be really upset when they find out but there won't be anything they can do to recoup the money.

 

[ramangain]

ANYONE who won't provide the VIN of the vehicle they are selling should be summarily shot in the head. .50 cal preferred.

 

[Fzj80 1997]

Sorry but the bump but maybe this is important info for anyone looking for buy a land cruiser or lx470 in the bay area.

There is a group of scammers that roll back odometers on these 100 series. The ad will have bad English and a long story of why the vehicle has low mileage.

Recently, a 2006 lx470 with 58k miles was posted on Craigslist. The seller asked 19k. Seller posted good quality photographs and blacked out the license plate numbers. No vin was posted. Seller leaves their phone number for easy contact (burner phones).

Seller only wants cash and will meet in a public place. Seller will not send you the vin but will send you photographs of a fake carfax. Seller will say he has a lot of interest and show you a screenshot of all the text messages. The texts are probably legit. This is a tactic to make you rush to buy it.

Victim will meet with seller with cash and probably get scammed.

I ended up catching the last 14 digits of the vin from the scammers fake carfax. I ran it and it came back to 160k miles, multiple owners and an accident.

Just a heads up for anyone searching.

After I confronted the seller, he removed the ad for 3 days then reposted it for more. Looks like the ad was removed after a day, possibly sold to a victim. It's unfortunate the victim will be really upset when they find out but there won't be anything they can do to recoup the money.

I knew it!

 

[boobird]

Lot of risk for not much profit

 

[xhifer]

It's pretty hard to get caught... also, they pick their victims carefully. I texted the number with my Google number and my actual cell number. The scammer only responded to my cell phone number.

I am certain the scammer uses public databases like spokeo to make sure its a legit buyer. They're not that dumb

 

[gregnash]

I noticed this when I was looking for one at the end of last year after selling my 60. There were also a few that came back where I was finally able to convince the seller that I was heading down the next day with cash but needed the VIN for insurance purposes. When I ran it I found that they had multiple accidents AND replaced engines (which had appropriate mileage) so they were "salvage" vehicles. Seemed like it was one group because I noticed that the pics all seemed to be along the same street (even caught one with another 100 down the street in the background).

 

[gatormark91]

Pre-facelift 100s only keep the odo miles in the cluster, nowhere else. Swap in a low-mileage cluster from a wreck, then scam away. Way too easy, unfortunately. Don't know about later 100s, only experience is early ones.

 

[Rpreme]

I say run VIN or request a Carfax to verify mileage and history. That's what I have always done. Odometer roll back and discrepancies are also included in the report.