rustynut

Never hurts to get a carfax. A friendly dealer might cut you a deal, maybe even free. They pay by the month for unlimited so one more is no biggie for them. A good carfax will show a lot of information, like maintenance history, blow by blow. If nothing shows up that isn't the end of the world.

I do not know the answer to this question. But if the Lexus has a boxed frame than rust can live inside the frame and you would not see it until too late. I mean there should be evidence of rust everywhere on the underside of a vehicle if it is a rusty vehicle. And aluminum on the motor would be corroded if the vehicle has lived in a salt environment vs. a vehicle that did not see that much salt. This kind of thing isn't too hard to detect if you are looking and know what to look for. Also the spring hose clamps on a rust belt vehicle would be rusty compared to the hose clamps on a vehicle that lived in a dry environment. I would say a boxed frame is worse than a open "C Channel" frame due to the possibility of rust living for years undetected inside the frame. And if you were trying to fix a rusted frame the boxed frame would be harder to fix as well.

Rusty frame?

Run away inflation. Out of control. What can any of these companies do? Cannot continue to sell product at a loss so price jumps and more price jumps. And the prices never seem to go back down.

It seems in Canada prices went up $4000 over night. This is from a rumor I am hearing. I went to Lexus website and the list price of my GX460 is up $5500 from a week ago. I guess I am glad my order is in the system already EH!

I am hours into this rim situation and still scratching my head a little. The basic story here is I have cancer and this vehicle is a motivation for me to stay engaged and a reward for coming out of the cancer. So this exercise is working in that respect. I have my operation in 4 days so light at the end of the tunnel on the cancer front. I can say that 17 inch rims will work just fine, but most alloy rims are 17x9 and these are a bit too wide, will work but good chance the tires will rub and I don't want to lift or cut the vehicle. I can find no alloy rims narrower than 17x8 while factory is 17x7.5. So this leaves takeoff Toyota Tacoma or 4Runner rim and this is not a bad option. In the steel rim front I still have not got to my wholesale auto parts store but might go in today. I cannot just call because I can barely talk and people have trouble understanding what I am saying. A company named Black Rock Series 997 makes a steel rim but they are out of stock for months going forward. My normal source would be Dorman but cannot seem to find a rim that would work from them yet! So this is my story at the present time.

I will be getting quality ice radials for the winter. Not aggressive snow grips more for traction on black ice. And not studded.

I am going through the hitch issue right now. I watched a couple youtube installs. I think the little hitch is plenty strong for most people. I think the place it bolts to is plenty strong. I mean, if you can get the bigger hitch for say $350 go for it but I am going to use the little hitch while this is sorted out. As was said above I was ready to back away from this Lexus as it seemed to me parts would be troublesome. And this is how things are working out. Normally I would do all my mods right away and than enjoy the vehicle.

I frequent this web site. They are a good source for information but must be careful. Lexus wants $4500 or so for a wheel/tire package. Not my style, pay them that kind of money for $125 rims and I get wholesale tires. The trailer hitch is another expensive trap for the unwary.

I am a big believer in undercoating. But I do it myself. I use Fluid Film and rust check and a cheap generic brand. And I put lots on the vehicle and I do it every year basically. Best to do it in the heat of the summer and this allows the coating to flow. BUT this makes a h3lla mess of your vehicle and it seeps all over the vehicle so would need to be wiped off outer painted surfaces. You could drill little holes all over the interior of the vehicle and this works up to a point. Or you could remove all or most of the plastic and coat in behind it and reinstall the plastic. Basically this undercoating will stay in place for year after this is done, protecting this area of the vehicle that would otherwise be unprotected. I could go on and on about this topic. My experience is if you want it done right you have to do it yourself.

This is something I looked at hard when I took the leap this week and ordered the 2023 GX460. Comparing Ford and Lexus is not a good comparison but any twin turbo motor is a lot more complicated than a naturally aspirated motor (N/A). And the GX460 has a very fine N/A motor, one of the best Toyota makes. Than you look at direct injection with port injection. The direct injection proved to be a disaster and high maintenance. Adding part time port injection just kicks the can down the road. Say instead of 60,000 miles needing an expensive repair, it might now be 120,000 but you will still need to do the repair. Turbo charging is a wonderful thing but better on a diesel motor. One issue is gasoline is not that easy to pressurize, gasoline does not have lubrication built in for one thing where diesel does have some lubrication built in. The HP injection pumps are pretty expensive to replace. Another thing these days is your seeing a cooling system that almost has it's own computer. The cooling system is sending coolant to various places in the motor at various times, like startup. This is not a simple system and is a new system that could prove to have problems down the road. Same for the oiling system, the modern motors have a variable pressure/volume oil system and it is pretty complicated compared to the old systems. Most motors fail because the (lazy) owners did not check the oil so imagine a system like this with the average owner. And all this is done to save (say?) 1/2 a MPG. Seems like a lot of trouble for not much gain. The new transmissions are another situation. As far as I know GM and Ford are on the outs due to their 10 speed transmission joint venture. New GM trucks are running 6 speeds I guess until GM sorts this out. The new Ford transmission learns how you drive and adjusts itself to your driving style. So my wife has a totally different driving style than I do, how does this transmission learn and adapt to me and my wife? And the above is just touching the surface of these modern vehicles. You have hybreds thrown into the mix as well with all the battery and other issues they will present. I know Toyota is one of the leaders in hybred technology.

I just joined this group. I have on order a 2023 GX460. My unit is the base model and the color is metallic black. I am trying to discover what rim choices I have for winter rims. I live deep in the rust belt and the original rims would look awful in a couple years. I have spent a few hours on this mission and am no further ahead than when I started. I have not received an answer from Lexus at this stage and I have not talked to my parts store. At this stage I am almost convinced I will end up with 17 inch Tacoma rims and tires that match the factory size. I want good rims but do not want to pay crazy prices for this. From what I have been able to learn my factory rims are 18 X 7.5 inch, bolt pattern is 6X139.7 (or 5.5"), the center hub is 106.1mm, lug nuts M12.5x1.5. I have no idea about offset. The order is said to take from 6-12 months. That is all I have. Six months would be perfect, going out till 9 months is fine, but if I get the new vehicle in the dead of winter 2023/24 this is not a good thing. And I would want the rims and tires on hand if this was the end result. I think winter/snow tires are a must, we get a lot of ice around here and have more than our share of bad drivers. What experience does the group have on this?