After my wife confiscated my 03 we decided it was time to find another to replace our well used and loved BMW 325xi Touring. I didn't want to spend a ton of money on another truck as we recently picked up the 03 GX so we set out looking for something reasonable. A black 2004 appeared on Craigslist and I watched as the price dropped and dropped over time. I eventually sent the guy an email and he sent some pics back of the undercarriage that showed it was in ok condition. I was not super excited about it but then he emailed a week or so later with a pretty low price so I decided to check it out on our way camping. What we found was a vehicle that showed reasonably well, had a clean interior, and drove down the road. It did have plenty of issues but I figured for the price I would be foolish not to give it a go. This thread is going to be used to document the wear and tear, various problems, and rust concerns that will come about from 242,000 miles of what I consider "the bare minimum" of repairs and maintenance. I am certain this truck has had nothing better than that for it's entire life.
The dash started out as a christmas tree of lights. Most cleared out but a few came back like the SRS light, and CEL. The level control was inop resulting in the most miserable drive ever. There was one area of rust under the left taillight, some rock chips, door dings etc, a headlight that is nearly new and one that is faded, bad hood struts, crappy tires, paint flaking off the wheels, and a few other things that I noticed before I purchased it.
Despite it's pitfalls I like it, it's pretty clean and the interior is way nicer than my 03. No silly navigation and no Mark Levinson so the stereo sounds good. There is no 3rd row seating in this particular GX which appears to give the rear much more storage capacity. There are little hooks where the 3rd row seat grab handles would be which are useful too. I actually wish my 03 was setup just like this one. The dark interior sharp too. Oh yeah, gotta head over the dealer and see if I can get the cracked dash replaced!
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The dash started out as a christmas tree of lights. Most cleared out but a few came back like the SRS light, and CEL. The level control was inop resulting in the most miserable drive ever. There was one area of rust under the left taillight, some rock chips, door dings etc, a headlight that is nearly new and one that is faded, bad hood struts, crappy tires, paint flaking off the wheels, and a few other things that I noticed before I purchased it.
Despite it's pitfalls I like it, it's pretty clean and the interior is way nicer than my 03. No silly navigation and no Mark Levinson so the stereo sounds good. There is no 3rd row seating in this particular GX which appears to give the rear much more storage capacity. There are little hooks where the 3rd row seat grab handles would be which are useful too. I actually wish my 03 was setup just like this one. The dark interior sharp too. Oh yeah, gotta head over the dealer and see if I can get the cracked dash replaced!
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