03whiteLS430

I was bidding on a nice 2001 LS430 in Wayne, NJ that sold on eBay for $12,900 with NAV and ML stereo and excellent service records, new tires, etc. I became impatient and paid the price, no pun intended, for a low mileage 03 LS430 that I could have done much better on. Be patient, watch ebay and get an 02 LS430 with 90K miles and where they have already replaced the timimg belt and water pump. you won't be sorry. Oh, and be patient. Learn from my mistake.

Great question, I have the same after bring home my 2003 Crystal White LS430 on Saturday. I clayed the hood and polished it by hand and a ton of swirls remain. I was looking at both of the buffers this morning and if that decision isn't hard enough, the many options of various pads with the buffers made my head spin. Keep us posted on what you buy.

Thanks, was wondering if they had to be heated and then resealed. I know some guys on the 300C forums baked their headlights in the oven to get them open. Guess I should keep reading threads to see if anyone had added halos while I have them open. Your car looks good.

That $250 Garmin is $100 off at Best Buy. Good idea, thanks.

Let me guess, $1500? But then you would have had a free carwash, too.

Has anyone removed the yellow plastic turnsignal lens that is embedded in the headlight assembly? I had chrome turn signal bulbs that illuminate yellow on my Silver SRT8 that looked great and would like to remove the yellow on the front of my white 2003 LS430. Gee, and I promised my wife no mods on this car . . .well, at least not expensive ones.

I drove it 265 miles from Houston to Dallas today and that is one fantastic car. Quiet beyond belief and the Lexus "standard equipment" stereo is better than any other factory stereo I had, including a Bose system in my Acura MDX. I miss not having NAV and if I had a do-over would have definately held out for NAV but if it bugs me too much I'll go get a TomTom or something at Best Buy. The cooled seats were great and after driving for 4 hours felt like I could have gone another 4 hrs very easily. The car has 33,000 on it now. The previous owner spent almost $800 for the 30K mile service. Only major problem is the drivers outside mirror that had the front plastic housing dislocated and in trying to pry it back on, the shop busted out a chunk of the plastic on the outer edge where they must have benn using a screwdrive to try to fix it. The dealer wants almost $500 for both the front and rear plastic housings, gotta figure out how to fix that for less.

OK, rub it in. No NAV or ML but I'm still happy. Maybe you should sell me your screen name! :)

I'm flying to Houston tomorrow morning to pick it up. I'll post some pictures when I get it home. If I could have found an 04 UL for $21K I would have bought one but I'm happy with my deal.

Jim, The 03 has chrome wheels but not NAV or ML stereo. The 01 has ML stereo and chrome 17 " wheels. I've been searching cars.com, AutoTrader, eBay and Sewell Lexus and the 05's are going for $33K. Most 03's are listed for $25K+ with NAV and ML and have 50,000+ miles. The guy at Sewell thought it was a good price for the 03. The NADA book on it was $25,9 according to the credit union. My price ceiling has continued to creep up and has now doubled from $12K for an 01 with 100K miles to $24K and that's about all I can go. Overall condition and service history are really important to me so I'm OK if the 03 is the "best" I can find now. Not to shabby IMHO. Thanks for the comments.

Last night I put a deposit on a 2001 LS430 with 91K mikes and perfect maintenance history, including the timing belt/water pump replacement. About $15K and in decent condition but hey, it has 90,000 miles on it and it shows a bit. Today I found a pristine 2003 LS430 with 33,000 miles for 50% more ($23K), which is about the max I want to pay. Is the like new condition of a 2003 with heated and vented seats and 60K less miles worth the extra $$? Are the seats more comfortable in the 03 vs 01? I plan on keeping this car for a very long time.

Randy, please send me the pictures, etc as i need to do this. I tried to PM you but can't.

Did you ever find replacements? I just bought a 01 430 and may be checking it out as well. Something is definately tore on the sub or something else.

I read your post with interest. The 2001 lexus I bought last night also had rather lame trunk struts. I'm going to call the dealer today to see if they will replace them for me when they do the detailing today. I guess I'll find out how much they are to replace when they squawk about this request.

Woohoo, I bought a 2001 Parchment color LS430 at Park Place Lexus in Plano tonight. The previous owner took it in for the 90K service yesterday, had all the fluids changed, new spark plugs, etc. and I guess when he saw the $1000 bill he decided to trade it in. The timing belt and water pump was replaced at the 85K service back in September. It's a two owner TX car with 15 pages of routine service records that they printed out for me from their computer. This car was well maintained. It has 17" chrome wheels and the Mark Levinson stereo and drives like a dream. They are detailing it tomorrow and I'll be picking it up on Friday and will post some pictures. I'm an official owner now and that is no April Fool's joke!

Rick, I drove over to Sewell today to look at an 03 LS430 amd met Jonathan who does some of their eBay business. They fully disclose everything and IMO are worth a few extra $$ for the knowledge of what it is you are buying. I'm like you on finding a car with excellent service records, seems like a lot of Lexus owners have pride in ownership and it shows on the maintenance. It's just going to take a bit of time to find the right one, good luck in your search as well. I originally thought I'd be happy finding one with 90,000-120,000 miles but the lower mileage cars are really nice, too. I hope I can be patient enough to find the right one.

Jim, Thanks for the links, I was hoping to find the original window sticker info from 2001 and that helps a lot. I walk past a nice 01 or 02 LS430 in the parking lot at work and am hoping to find out who owns it because they should be ready for an '09, LOL. I'll keep my eye out at gas stations, too! Hoping to find a nice one for $12K or so.

Hello, figured since I plan on buying a 2001 or 02 LS430 I should join the "club". Just sold my 300C SRT8 and want something different. I'm checking eBay, cars.com, autobytel.com and Craigslist for my car. Not in a hurry, just want to find a great deal on a well maintained car. Any other ideas on where to look would be appreciated. I also promised the wife I would not join another forum and mod the heck out of my car like I did with the SRT8. After looking around on this forum, it might be a promise I can't keep! :D Regards, Wez from Dallas