$8,000 For A 96 Es300 W/83,000miles?

[92ES300Girl]

Hey everybody. I made a post about 2 weeks ago about seriously considering a 92 ES300 with a smoking problem under the hood. I took everybody's advice and steered clear instead of going through the madness of getting the engine checked out and having a potential MAJOR problem. I came accross a 1996 Lexus ES300 the other day at a Non-Lexus dealer... Excellent condition in/out, very few chips/scratches, less than normal for the year IMO w/no signs of a re-paint. Leather interior is pristine and everything is fully funtional and the car drives like its new... Very tight. Black w/tan leather, fully loaded except phone and Gold Pkg (has factory chrome 15" wheels, heated seats & factory 6 disk CD changer also) with 83,000 miles & a clean CarFax, although I would be the 3rd owner in 8 years. I plan on financing the car, and just wanted to know if $8,000 was "high" for a 1996 ES300 with those particular miles??? (i'll be putting $500 down, so it should be in the high $7,000's after taxes and everything). I looked it up on Kelly Blue Book and it stated about $9,600 in "Excellent" condition for Private Seller value in my area. But as far as resale value... Do you guys think it will depreciate ALOT after a certain amount of time (a year or when it gets to 100,000 miles)??? I really hate to finance, but I guess my little $3,000 wasnt enough to buy a Lexus :cries: Ive seen some 96's as low as $5,500 (although the miles were pretty well above 100,000, not sure of the condition). Please Help!

[SKperformance]

If you have some pics you could take to show the cars interior and exterior for paint finish then it would be easier to tell if it is worth it.

I would only buy it after paying 2 professionals

one is a body shop with a hoist to look underneath for structural damage

second is a mechanic with a hoist, not your dad brother or someone else who thinks tehy know but someone who has a reputation and wouldn;t want it tarnished.

You should get the valve cover removed to check the internal state of the engine and a compression test.

Basically it can run about $200-300 for these test in advance in total but it can save you headache and provide with more peice of mind than you ever could ask for.

[92ES300Girl]

I may have it over-looked by my mechanic since its local. The car is on AutoTrader.com. Just type the year, make, model & "ANY DISTANCE" to search & $8,000 for the price. It's being sold by Factory Executive Motor Cars Ltd. I havent learned how to up-load pictures on here yet :( Let me know what you think...

[Lexusfreak]

$8,000 sounds like were in the ball park.....I couldn't locate the car on the auto trader.com website however. Any chance you have service records for the car?

[es300ed]

We purchased a 1996 es300 a couple of years ago. We were the 3rd owners also. Have 81,000 miles on it. Its a great car. Several repairs/maintenance items have been necessary. These were (1) both cv boots had to be replaced, (2) battery "blew its top" and was replaced, (3) tune up, (4) new tires, (5) new belts. Hoses will be replaced next along with a timing belt. One complaint is the wind noise from the passenger side door - common on these 1996's.

I think its a great car and plan to have it for many years. I have found that local mechanics are FAR less expensive than the Lexus dealer for common repairs and maintenance.

By the way, make sure you get all the keys (two with transponders to unlock the doors; 1 "valet" ket w/o the transponder; 1 "wallet" key). These keys are expensive to get/replace.

Good luck.

Ed

[92ES300Girl]

I just found out today that it only has ONE key :cries: and the key does not have the keyless entry (the dealer wants $260 for a remote keyless entry). Does anybody know if the 1996 ES300's (or older) have the keyless entry system BUILT INTO the key, or a seperat keyfob????? And no, I didnt get any service records with the car (just a free CarFax report), but im going to the Toyota Dealer to get the Oil Changed, Transmission Serviced & Timing Belt replaced right after I get it to be safe. Altogether with my down-payment, the car comes up to $7,931.28 after 6% MI sales tax, plate transfer and title fee. 48 month payment term & $213 per month... Does that sound like a good deal to you guys????

[electro992]

The alarm function is built into the key.

[Leroy]

I just bought a 95 with 118k miles for my 16 yr old son for $5700. Better than the Accords we were looking at. Really in great shape, fully loaded and I like to drive it also! I think you are in the range, we had located a 96 with 100k in Chicago for $5k, but he had a lot of calls and don't see it on autotrader now. You can always say $7500, and walk if you have to. I think you could get one cheaper, but you need to look over closer I think. This one looks very nice. Not a hard rule, but the better the deal, the closer you need to look. We have looked hard for 3-4 months, first one we went to look at.

Good luck!

Pix of car attached. Right click on pix, save pix as and then you can browse to find it and paste in your post.

[Leroy]

Oh, we only got one key with it and ordered a remote entry key from Tom Wood Lexus for ~$150. Expensive key!

[es300ed]

The keys with the built-in button for locking and unlocking are nice but I wouldn't pay too much extra for the feature. I don't know how much the regular key would cost but that may be something you could negotiate for.

Ed

[Leroy]

The plain key is $52! Not like getting a copy of your house key.