They just started using salt sporadically in the Portland area 2 years ago mostly in the West Hills and I5. I think they only deployed salt once or twice so far but ODOT has authority to use if needed during winter events.
Would you buy a used car from....?
- Thread starter Bob Frame
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They just started using salt sporadically in the Portland area 2 years ago mostly in the West Hills and I5. I think they only deployed salt once or twice so far but ODOT has authority to use if needed during winter events.
I hate salt more than mud!
In my case, I wanted to purchase my LC locally in So Cal where I could test drive it and there were not many to choose from. So I ended up purchasing an 08 LC that had come from the NorthEast corner of the country a few years ago. And I ended up spending many hours under the truck grinding, priming, replacing parts, painting, etc. just to satisfy my OCD. All is well now, but love didn't come easy.
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- #24
Ouch. Fortunately I am happy driving my '06 LX470 and will only buy a vehicle on my terms. And that won't include a salt car.
Frankly, I'm salivating over a serious fly n drive.
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There aren't many of them anywhere, but California seems to have more than anywhere else.
TX and CA seem to be the best spots and that's where I focused my search and ended up buying one in SoCal. I am flying out at the end of the month and hope to have about 9-10 days to meander back to PA.
(Incidentally, I did the same thing with my 100 a few years ago! Bought from a Mud member in San Diego, fly and take 2 weeks to drive it home)
TX and CA seem to be the best spots and that's where I focused my search and ended up buying one in SoCal. I am flying out at the end of the month and hope to have about 9-10 days to meander back to PA.
(Incidentally, I did the same thing with my 100 a few years ago! Bought from a Mud member in San Diego, fly and take 2 weeks to drive it home)
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- #26
Sounds like a great adventure. Enjoy the experience.
I have had really good buying experience from CarMax.Got our 04 100 from them around 2010 and it was shipped out from Tx.And most recently purchased our 14 200 from them als
ur 200 came from Miami and yes I was worried about floods but with such good service records we went for it.200 only had 29k miles and it’s been perfect,we’ve had it over a year now no problems whatsoever.I would buy from them again,try a search it’s fun to see what they have.I have seen some nice LX’s also!
ur 200 came from Miami and yes I was worried about floods but with such good service records we went for it.200 only had 29k miles and it’s been perfect,we’ve had it over a year now no problems whatsoever.I would buy from them again,try a search it’s fun to see what they have.I have seen some nice LX’s also!As someone who has not bought a car in 30 years, can I ask where you folks find these cars? Websites? Autotrader(.com), newspapers? I have seen the various buying guides, but they do not mention where to buy.
Where would you go for your daily review of potential buying opportunities?
Where would you go for your daily review of potential buying opportunities?
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- #29
See, if I give you this information then I'll be competing with you. AKA, I filter Autotrader for what I am looking for and then refresh it periodically to spot the new listings. If the ad offers a free look at the vehicle's Carfax, I check that for service and accident history. If there's no free Carfax report, I wont look at it. FYI, Autotrader is a free site to browse that features paid ads that both private parties and dealers of all types place. Its a pretty powerful tool that lets you customize and sort your search.
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- Thread starter
- #30
I have looked at CarMax and have seen some LX's, though they tend to be older and have higher miles. I think CarMax may have an upper limit on prices and I have yet to see what I want for what I'll pay. Still, I would definitely buy from them if they had a vehicle I liked.I have had really good buying experience from CarMax.Got our 04 100 from them around 2010 and it was shipped out from Tx.And most recently purchased our 14 200 from them als
Get the listing sites to do the searching for you. Here's what I do when looking for a vehicle:
First, NEVER give a dealer or listing website your real email address or phone number. I only provide this information after the deal is done and we are doing paperwork.
Go to one of the popular free email sites (Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, Outlook.com, etc), make a "burner" email account. Only use it for signing up for things like this. You're gonna get a lot of spam to this account.
Now go to all the popular vehicle listing sites (AutoTrader, cars.com, carfax, etc), create an account with this email, and create a focused search criteria for the vehicle you want. Subscribe to updates. These sites seem to run a "scan" of their listings in the middle of the night, every night, and will email you listings that match your criteria.
Get up each morning, get your coffee and laptop, sit down and check the burner email for listings that have been sent to you. As you eliminate a candidate, delete the email(s). Often you will get the same vehicle from multiple sites. If you find a car you want to look at closer, email the dealer directly with this email, no phone numbers. If it's too far away, see if they will put it up on a lift and get pictures of the underside. If they won't, move on.
My experience is that even when you tell dealers that you have purchased a vehicle and are no longer looking, they will sign you up for all kinds of crap, special offers, sales, etc. They don't get the message when you try to unsubscribe. Hence the burner email account, that you can now ignore.
First, NEVER give a dealer or listing website your real email address or phone number. I only provide this information after the deal is done and we are doing paperwork.
Go to one of the popular free email sites (Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, Outlook.com, etc), make a "burner" email account. Only use it for signing up for things like this. You're gonna get a lot of spam to this account.
Now go to all the popular vehicle listing sites (AutoTrader, cars.com, carfax, etc), create an account with this email, and create a focused search criteria for the vehicle you want. Subscribe to updates. These sites seem to run a "scan" of their listings in the middle of the night, every night, and will email you listings that match your criteria.
Get up each morning, get your coffee and laptop, sit down and check the burner email for listings that have been sent to you. As you eliminate a candidate, delete the email(s). Often you will get the same vehicle from multiple sites. If you find a car you want to look at closer, email the dealer directly with this email, no phone numbers. If it's too far away, see if they will put it up on a lift and get pictures of the underside. If they won't, move on.
My experience is that even when you tell dealers that you have purchased a vehicle and are no longer looking, they will sign you up for all kinds of crap, special offers, sales, etc. They don't get the message when you try to unsubscribe. Hence the burner email account, that you can now ignore.
32cls6speedmt
SILVER Star
bob,
i am in ga as well. There is quite a bit of lx and lc in my area. But I purchased a 2013 lx from a bmw/mercedes dealership in Tallahassee, Florida. I found it on cargurus. I also used autotrader during my search but a lot more sellers were using cargurus. I skipped craigslist and ebay. First question, I would ask is for undercarriage photos. I didn't bother with any northeast or midwest regions during my search.
I usually check everything besides ebay:
www.autotrader.com
www.cargurus.com
www.cars.com
www.truecar.com
www.carfax.com
Good luck.
www.autotrader.com
www.cargurus.com
www.cars.com
www.truecar.com
www.carfax.com
Good luck.
Three seasons of salt won’t be that big of a deal. I bought my ‘13 off cars.com out of TX and I was perfectly rust free. I then researched rust proofing and now I spray the hell out of it with Fluid Film every year. This 200 will be rust free when I’m done with it, even if that’s 10 salty Chicagoland winters from now.
- Thread starter
- #37
Sounds like you have a good strategy to deal with salt. However, given the choice, I'd prefer to have a salt-virgin. BTW, I've driven in Chicago and I fear the potholes even more than the salt. That's combat driving my friend.
I searched far and wide looking for my 200. I found the one I bought at dealership in South Ga. It was sold in Texas 2 years in Texas the owner moved to south Ga. the car was traded in and the second owner was local. Now it is mine.
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- #40
FWIW, I pounced on a 2018 LX with 5k miles and three plus years of bumper to bumper warranty from an independent dealer. It was a Florida car and I had my Lexus dealer inspect it pre-purchase. I hope I'm good for 10-15 years.