I recently checked on a 95 ES300. I just wanted to know if it is a going to be a good buy or not. I've been looking at a whole lot of sites. And yet to find a es300 at a decent price w/ low milage.
This is what i found on the car.
- 114,830 miles
- scuff on driver's door (see picture)
-old ass car phone
- cracked taillight (see picture)
- RPM bulb is out on the dash
- another minor scuff on driver side passager side (see pictures)
-1 super scuffed rim (see pictures)
- no wheel lock key
- no orginal key. he has some dinky piece of crap.
- no idea if it had 6 cd changer
- on the reciver/dryer on the AC system the sight glass was solid green. no idea what that means
The online price was quoted at $5999. i asked him in person didn't play high low he said 8000
Every car over 2 years old is going to have cracking/chaffing on the corners of the seats. So that you shouldn't notice...
Tail light is cracked... That can be expencive to find another in good shape.
Give the rubber intake hose a good shake and look over...They're normally cracked.
Light the dash lights... Normally the gauge needels start flickering around year 6. The good news is http://lextech.org can do the entire backlight + needles for what one needed costs from toyota/lexus. It's run by a clublexus.com moderator & all around stand-up guy.
AFA the paint, wheels and stuff... Dude it's more than a decade old now, shit happens!
Take the VIN and call a Lexus dealer, they've been keeping Lexus service records for years. Call lexus/Toyota and see if it ever went through the great head-gasket recall. (if not and it blows, no biggie, if so and it blows... eh, see if it gets to go again! hah!)
$6,120 is a highball I got from kbb.com... Tell the guy he's smoking serious crack if he wants $8000 out of it.
On another note, you will never find a deal on an ES, even tho they are re-made camry's. They're still a lexus, and hold value as such. The only good deals are mechanical defects, and extremely high mileage vehicles.
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i'm not all picky and shit about the body damages maybe the taillight. the head light looked cracked too but my gf forgot to take pics of it. because how the taillight had moisture going it. so did one of the headlights.
Hows does the engine picture look?
you think i can run it thru lexus to get a set of factory keys and possible the keyless entry that i think it on the car?
yea i got about $6k going thru kbb.com the site quoted 5999.
I need advice now. I never played high ball low ball. How do i start this up? Thru out the whole time i looked at the car and test drove it. I never spoke of the price. Then i asked him the price as i was about to walk away. Seeing if he would give me a lower price to make the sale now. I told him i had cash one me and its was for my mom's.
wow i really like the lighting thing. in terms of the car giving me trouble what are the odds as compared to a camry. My camry hasn't given me any trouble for 10k miles that i had it. its at 85k on the clock now.
Also what about my AC question issue. i forgot what it meant to have the sight glass full of green.
oh as for maintence. i peeked in the service book. looks like the last thing the guy did was a 60,000 mile serivce. This is a used car lot so they really dont know crap.
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96 Camry Le I-4
Last edited by bowlofturtle; 01-29-2005 at 10:24 PM.
these are just cosmetic problems that can be fixed. I know some are really bad, like the tail lite. You mite have to replace that. Just make sure the car runs well, I think thats the more important thing.
anyone big on A/C systems to help me out on that? the green stuff in the sight glass?
Seeing as how its like 30º in chicago i can't really test out the AC system. I didn't try out the passanager side heated seat as well.
The taillight and headlight would be the biggest issue with me.
Also price talking. Someone give me a crash course in price talking please.
In all honesty i have $5500 to give. Thats included tax and title. i want $4500 out the door with everything
I'm thinking something in the lines of this. Since he told me $8k i wanted to start off saying the blue book states $6k i'm willing to give you $4,000.
Offer him $4K. The worst he can do is say no. You can always slowly bump the offer up discreetly. If you start out with $4K, you can only go up. If he starts at $8K, he can only go down.
Print out the KBB and bring it to him. If that doesn't work, go ask another sales person. As evil as it sounds, turn them against one another so they can sell you the car for the price you can pay.
As for AC, it'll be hard to test that at this time, but we should be seeing some 40f+ weather at the end of the week. But that's not helping you right now.
Does the tranny shift nice and smooth?
Does the motor seem to struggle at all? Even if you've never driven a V6, you'll know when the engine is struggling.
car runs smoothly. engine doesn't struggle at all. from what i can tell. i wasn't paying that much attention. i was looking more into how smooth the ride was. i didn't get to drive it that hard cause the test drive route was kinda small streets with stop signs. at normal speeds car shifts nicely like my 4 banger. hoses look pretty nice didn;t bend and play with them. car sounds smooth nice and sound. i didn't check any fluid tho. I'll take a peak at it. i'ma walk there tomorrow since my g/f lives just right there and offer him $4k and meantion the blue book. SHould i do it all blunt or what. thats my biggest issue. i duno where to start
Don't be blunt, be honest. And don't think that it's too good of a deal to walk away from. He may make you think that way if he see's you're too interested in the car.
Or take a shot with another salesman.
Ask them to take it out on the expressway. If they refuse, you shouldn't buy from them. I don't think any car will have problems driving around on the streets. But when you get out onto higher speeds on the expressway, that's when you can really feel the engine differences.
And check the small stuff like tread and brakes. Tires can get expensive if you have to replace them. Brakes are easy to do but you shouldn't have to do that when you're buying the car. They should be relatively fresh.
Reliability is higher than a typical camry. They don't even bother putting a light in the engine bay.
^ You can't tell anything from that engine bay pic other than it's been steam cleaned by the dealer with some crappy rubber trim stuff rubbed on the hoses.
__________________
"The lamest twice banned, non-female member of-all time." -Ekam, Thanks, I <3 you too! AIM/Yahoo Toysrme257th
for anything, anytime; including camry turbos Now with Turbo!
Sounds like some ideas that i have to do the following day.
How much more is it to fix a lexus then a camry. Isn't it the same. Only thing would be if you go to the lexus dealership it would be like $10-20 more per hour then a normal Toyota one.
what do you mean buy " They don't even bother putting a light in the engine bay."
i'm not in any rush to pick up a car. We still need to do away with the old 88 rolla.
Before you upgrade to a Lexus, make sure you do your homework and be aware that if something does break- it will cost a fortune to fix. I know some of the parts can be replaced with lower cost toyota ones, but some parts are Lex specific. If you aren't in any hurry to replace your current car, I'd hang onto it until it breaks. Every month that goes by, just keep dumping money into your "new" car fund, and then you can get one that you don't have to worry so much about. Lexus ES300s are great cars, but you have to be especially critical when you are looking at used ones- because rather than pay to fix any expensive problems, shady dealers often just try to hide the problems.
If you really want this car, check EVERYTHING. Take it to your mechanic, TAKE IT TO EMMISSIONS. For like 10 bucks (at least in WI) you can have any car tested, and it can save you tons of money if something is found. It's a very nice car, but the clean engine bay might be an indication of a problem the dealer is trying to hide.
i would figure most of the stuff is interchangable with yota parts. But more of the electrical stuff is Lexus only.
I'm not in a hurry but i need to get one say end of feb. because my mom is getting my camry and i'll be getting w/e car i can with $5500 max. And that $5500 is diping into my saved uped funds. Ever since i gotten my camry the more i read about how everyone loves there v6 and how smooth is it. the more i wanted a v6. It really is smooth comparing to my 4 banger. I want to get a cmary v6 but aint nothing on the market thats under 100k. only 4 bangers. I'm not the type to modify a car just to drive it with a little heavy foot :P.
I did research for the same price i can either get a 150k v6 camry 94-98 or go with a 96 and lower es300 with just about 125k.
I have 94 ES with close to 150K miles. Its a nice car, but they are expensive; if all you have is $5500, i'd suggest a 3rd gen i4 camry with really low miles? nothing wrong with ES's....if i were to do it again, i'd much rather buy a car with lower miles than a v6 and milage!
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