The importance of a maintenance history

[Hardin66]

Hey all; new member here. I've been doing insane amounts of research and I'm looking to acquire a GX470 for my hunting/fishing/mushroom/offroad rig. Here's my question: I've got two vehicles I like: 2004 with 157k miles with every single maintenance record going back to original sale. VS a 2009 on ebay with 184k miles with literally no maintenance records other than the 5k check-up. I'm on the Lexus owners site and that's where I'm getting the maint records. They are the same exact price. Both have timing belt/water pump done. Both look great externally. Both say no known issues or malfunctions. I don't care about cosmetics. What do you think?!

Thanks!
-Jim

 

[Rednexus]

Carfax will also pull maintenance records from 3rd parties, so the 2009 should have some history is the POs had maintenance done in a non-dealer setting. If there are truly ZERO maintenance records I might be concerned unless you were buying from the original owner who self-performed all maintenance. In that case hopefully they kept a log (which i do for all of my cars since i do almost everything myself).

All things equal I'd want the 2009 for the VVTI engine, newer plastics, fresher leather, etc.

 

[Hardin66]

Thanks. I've not had good luck with Carfax maint records; way too general in my experience. The 2004 is a good example; very little on Carfax, but lots on Lexus owner site.

 

[GrizzlyClint]

Go with the one that has that history or keep shopping. It isn’t worth taking a gamble with these higher prices.

 

[Rednexus]

Even if the Carfax logs aren't super detailed, it might show something (say regular service visits), which should provide some level of comfort that the vehicle was being routinely maintained. I would have a hard time getting one that truly had zero service history, however.

 

[CGIB]

Maybe other's experience and opinions are different than mine, but I am less concerned with maintenance history now than I was when I bought my GX470. I paid slightly more than I thought I wanted to for mine but justified it because the TB/Water pump had just been done. Come to find out it was done incorrectly so I had to do it again. Moral of the story is maintenance records matter, but not as much as correctly done maintenance.

 

[Rednexus]

As a "why not" I ordered a Carfax for my GX470. It showed lots of maintenance history at Toyota dealers that didn't seem to be fully included in the Lexus service history and regular oil changes at a Big O tires for one of the owners. There is still a gap from 35-100K where it just had registration details and no maintenance info. Some parts (like the alternator) have definitely been changed and aren't showing on the maintenance history. Perhaps that owner self-performed maintenance or used a smaller 3rd party shop where the records aren't getting pulled into the Carfax database. Hopefully it didn't go 65K with no maintenance but it runs/drives great today.....

So the Carfax did show a bit more than Lexusdrivers in my case, but it's still incomplete.

 

[Arailt]

Mine had practically no owner history on the Lexus site as well. It only had 50K on it when I bought it, so I wasn't so concerned with no TB/water pump. Mine runs just fine, but you can tell it was neglected. Stains on carpets under the seats, rusty undercarriage that's gotten worse since I bought it. I think having a detailed history shows the previous owners cared for the vehicle if nothing else.

 

[Hardin66]

Yep to all of that. That's what's making this search so challenging; especially since prices are inflated, people lie, and the vehicles are located all over the country! I tend to overanalyze anyway, but this is a whole new thing. There's some great looking examples out there with 100k maint history gaps.