2016 Lexus RX350 with salvage title, Need your advice

[Mark walker]

Hello Lexus Family, Thanks for having me here, Straight to the topic:

I'm looking to buy 2016 Lexus RX350 premium package with a rebuilt title, It's selling for $24,500 with 59000 Miles, do you guys think this a good deal?  I am looking to the community to check if there is anything else I should be looking out for while doing my inspection day, and I will purchase the car report to see damage and other details.

Here is the car pictures:

[RX400h]

A vehicle with salvage/rebuilt title has historically been valued at 50-60% of a "clean" title vehicle of same or similar make, model, trim level, and mileage.

Based upon my conversation with a very experienced auto body shop technician, try to stay with those vehicles that had rear damage, not front with air bag deployment. The "before" repair photos can be very helpful. If possible, take it to an auto body shop for inspection.  I bought a 2008 Mazda MX5 PRHT, back in 2012. It was a salvage vehicle with slight front and mostly rear damage. It had 42,000 miles on it and it has been almost bulletproof for all these years. One suspension component had to be replaced but everything else was fine.

 Check with your insurance company to see what value they would place on your possible purchase.

[Mark walker]

Hello @RX400h, thanks for the suggestion I will do as you mentioned, I will getting the carfax report for this vehicle, to see the history of it, before proceeding any further, I will post an update Thanks again.

[Bykfixer]

My son bought a salvaged car that overall has been good. The main issue was the repairs used non oem parts that rusted. We replaced those with oem and it's good to go now. 

[RX400h]

Mike, what kind of vehicle is it?

[Guest]

Generally speaking, you'd want to stay away from rebuilt cars because they've been wrecked, badly in most cases. The issue is that you don't know how they fixed the parts. I mean pics could be provided. But that's not always proof. Some people replace the entire crushed piece, while others try to salvage it. Those crushed pieces arn't as strong as the original. So again, it depends on how they rebuilt it. 

I would try to get a feel for the craftsmenship of the rebuilders. If thats not possible, I'd say go for the purchase. Rebuilt cars arn't throwaway cars. They are still extremely useful for a fraction of the cost of new. Just keep an eye out if parts ever act up. 

[Bykfixer]

On 9/3/2022 at 2:26 PM, RX400h said:

Mike, what kind of vehicle is it?

It's a 2001 Honda Prelude. The lad my son bought it from hit an ice patch in his mountainous home area and wiped out the front end. His insurance totaled it. He bought it back and had the front end rebuilt. Soon after the head gasket blew and sprayed coolant all over the place. He paid to have the engine rebuilt but the shop used a conventional hone of the cylinder walls instead of the method for fiber reinforced cylinder walls. The rings would not seat. 

My son bought it for $800 from the poor guy who was happy to get that much. It ran and could pass a safety inspection. He bought an imported Japanese engine and we rebuilt that with the help of some really talented young Prelude fans. We pulled the bad motor out of the car and salvaged a lot of parts.
 

The car sat a few months while my son saved up for the engine. Then one day he got word of a whole car like it at the local junkyard. We called our bosses and said "see you in a week" and set about stripping the junkyard car for 3 days. The one in the junkyard was in pretty good shape but had a bad motor. About $500 later we had about 50% of that junkyard car at his house.

Once the motor arrived from Japan I restored the engine bay to look like new. Then we set out to restore the suspension. Again it was slow as he saved money for parts from Honda. 

Once the motor was rebuilt we slowly assembled the outter parts of the engine and eventually stuck it back in the engine bay. It took 3 months to go from rebuild to planting the engine then a month before starting it but on start up day it fired right up. No leaks, no drips, no issues. That was in 2014. 80,000+ miles later it still runs like new with only normal maintenance required. My son has slowly replaced nearly every part on the car stem to stern with parts from that junkyard car. It was his daily driver for the first few years but he since bought an Acura TLX AWD SH that I keep offering to buy. He did sell me the Lexus GS 300 he was turning into a left hand drive Aristo when he found a 93 Aristo. That's how I ended up here while looking to learn what kind of money pit I had acquired with an 18 year old car with 250k miles on it. 

[RX400h]

Wow! You must have plenty of space to work on cars. It looks like your son is a shade tree mechanic like his Dad. Those are excellent skills to have now and in the future.👍