Zacharias

1996 Lexus es300 217,000 kms (134k miles) Sunroof, leather, CD changer (inop), sunroof Canadian cold weather package (heated seats, heated mirrors, block heater). Maroon with black leather, aftermarket tint. Purchased for $300 (yes, $300) in a private sale on October 17, 2015. I am the third owner, but the second owner passed it around among his extended family (wife, daughter, son). Last driver was his son, who from what I can tell drove the snot out of it and did nothing to it for what I guess to be three years. Just about everything works, except for the CD changer and the passenger outside door handle. Replaced so far: front stabilizer bar links, front rotors and pads, PCV valve, alternator belt, front valve cover gasket. One CV boot and one complete axle happening next week. Rear brakes soon. Body has significant rust on outside panels and rockers, some of which is patches lifting from a previous, incompetent body job. Thus the $300 price. If the car serves me well this winter, which I expect it to, I will attack the body issues next summer and give it a new timing belt kit. So far I am immensely impressed by how the car drives and I like the seats, though frankly I am a bit oversized for them (I am 6ft 4 ins tall). In particular I like the visibility from the driver's seat, which is a sore point for me on lots of modern cars. If I keep it I will likely have it resprayed white or silver, as I dislike cars in any shade of red. The heated seats are great and heat up 3x faster than my only previous car with leather heated seats (Dodge Magnum).

In terms of the mileage, I just purchased a 1996 ES300 with about the same kms. My car came from a family that had it for a decade but weren't too fussy about maintenance. I can only tell you that -- even with the issues the car has, due to some stuff that needs to be caught up with -- I am blown away by how my car performs. I have had it three weeks now, and on Sunday went for a 3-hr highway trip and ended up loving it even more. The main issue with it is rust in some areas underneath (floor pan is clean until you get to the back of the tub, rear suspension area). You folks out west use a lot less road salt then is the case here in Quebec, so you shouldn't have that issue. Always have a car this age checked out by a competent mechanic, preferably one familiar with Toyota products. In my case, the vendor was a customer of my mechanic, so I got a pretty good rundown of what I was looking at.