Thinking Of Buying A Gs 400/430 With A Salvage Title. Your Thoughts?

[Reysc]

Topic says it all. This will be for my daughter. Ever since I got the LS 2 months ago, she has been wanting to get one and we found this @ CL.

Current owner said his wife bought it 3 or 4 yrs ago and he did not realize it has a Salvage Title until they bought a new family van and was trading/selling the GS. It's got 80k unbelievable for the age.Seller said he is a mechanic .... hmmm red flag? Anyway, price is right and gonna check it up this afternoon. Would appreciate inputs and Happy Father's Day to all father's out there..

http://dallas.craigslist.org/dal/cto/3854389888.html

Let me see if I can attach pics of this GS

[1990LS400]

The seller's story sounds fishy - how can someone not understand he/she is buying a vehicle with a salvage title?

Are there any maintenance records to verify the odometer? Does it drive and look OK? Do all electrical devices work?

Has it ever had the timing belt and related parts replaced? (Replacement interval is 6 years or 90,000 miles - whichever comes first.)

What does your gut tell you? If it looks to good to be true ...

[Reysc]

Thanks for the reply. As I mentioned he claims his wife bought it and did not know what a salvage title is. He called off meeting this p.m. due to tight schedule ( Father's Day surprise). We are planning to meet tomorrow. He's an immigrant from Asia ( so am I ) but his accent is so thick and english hard to understand. He said he is a mechanic ( that's the one that scares me..LOL).I dont think it has service records he will say he takes care of maintenance.Looking at the picture of the dashboard, I thought it was the airbag light that was on. Will know more when and if I see the car..

Gut feel ?? Car was totalled by the insurance company and was rebuilt in an inexpensive way.Might need a bodyshop inspection and of course Lexus prebuy inspection. Dont know how much that would cost.Can't figure out the super low mileage though... Can't think of a possible scenario for that to happen. Can something be disconnected to prevent the odometer from working with compromising the car's operation?? Anyway the more I think about it, beginning to look like a waste of time...but..LOL!

Will definetely update you if I get to see/drive the car.

Thanks again.

[1990LS400]

The electronic odometers can be altered - some instrument cluster repair shops offer that service as I found out recently when searching for a company to repair my occasionally sticking speedometer needle. There are plenty of older low mileage Lexus and other brand cars out there - sometimes owned by older drivers or used by "snow birds" only in winter or summer. I owned a car in the 80's that I drove only about 5,000 miles/year during the five years I owned it. My wife drives her car about 5,000 miles/year. 80,000 miles over 14 years isn't that all unusual.

[SRK]

Once you have a salvage title, everything else is irrelevant. So the low mileage means.....nothing. The issue is that the car was hit badly enough to be written off. In BC a car can be written off as salvage only or rebuildable. If rebuilt it must undergo a stringent inspection before being re-registered. And usually the car is photographed before and during the repair.

I don't buy rebuilds, or deal in them, and neither do car dealerships.

I do all my own work and document it in a log book. When I sell a car the log book I create goes with it.

My advice on this one? Run Like Hell.

[Reysc]

Thank you for all the great info/advice. I very much appreciate it..

[Peroxier]

If you have any doubts I think you should have it checked by some mechanic. I owned 2 salvage cars and never had any serious issues with them, the only problem was to find someone who'd buy the cars when you decided to resell it, as many people don't want to deal with salvage cars, so if you're planning to resell it in 2-3 years it can be a problem.