I woke up this morning to realize that I bought a car yesterday. 2005 Lexus GX470, 280k miles, control arm mount is separated from the frame.
Perusing FBMP as one does I see this for sale without a price so I inquire, $100 is the answer, ok I'm interested. After some messaging and getting the correct price of $1000 I'm still interested. David is a small used dealer and is super sick of all the calls from Chicago, I tell him I am local, can be there in an hour.
Story is, he gets batches of 10 cars at a time from a local new and used dealer. This dealer finds this approach cheaper and easier than sending them off to auction. This particular car was sold at the dealer and returned due to a clunk coming from the rear, that car happen when the axle is not attached to the frame. David doesn't have time to process, repair or what ever the amount of cars he receives so some get dumped on FBMP, that's where I come in. Yes, I did tell him to keep me in mind for other light repairable vehicles.
A quick test drive told me it runs, shifts, and drives well. Has clean oil, new battery, new rear brakes and at this point missing the right rear jump seat, I forgot to check the front brakes. Tires all match with the front showing more wear than the rear, AC and all functions that I tested work, no lights on the dash.
Issues are, I have to wait for the title to get from dealer A to dealer B so B can C about transferring it to ME.
Now what to do with it?
Flip for profit to a wanna be overlander? Use profits for the next flip.
Sell the super reliable BMW X5 5MT that the boys are driving and let them use the Lexus? They are going off to College fall of 2025 this is not what I want to send them with. Could be handed down to my daughter who gets her license 08-2025.
Is the bracket easily replaced? Welder needed or what exactly? Fix that and it appears to be a real easy flip...
Well bought!
Very lucrative part out possible as well at a grand. Is it crusty?
In reply to OHSCrifle :
Not mine but this is a typical 4Runner issue, looks like a super easy repair. Replacement sections with mount are redily available.
Whatever you do with it, it sounds like you've just discovered an amazing source of low priced yet fixable cars!
Does he have any Mercedes? lol
In reply to dyintorace :
For sure, with all the teenagers and other young adults around that need cars I may stay busy.
In reply to yupididit :
I think he is especially adverse to BMWs and refuses to sell them to actual customers due to the return and complaint rate. That leads me to believe his aversion may spill over to other german brands. I am on his mailing list.
When I pickup the GX I'll post my number in his office and mention to not be shy about his offers.
I am fascinated at how the used car business works.
Just noticed that it has GX460 wheels on it, 18" solid spoke vs 17" split spoke. And Mark Levinson Stereo, with six disk changer, no auxillary input that I can find.
It's not a gas station picture but it is home now. These are butter smooth and quiet on the highway for a stupid truck.
That strap is holding the axle back for extreme 60' times. Dad would have called it shaky pudding. Definitely super sketchy.
Got in and played with this last night, the Multi Function Display /touchscreen works while driving but mostly just dark when not driving. When it comes to life the touch part works so it's not a digitizer problem from what googles tells me. The touchscreen has HVAC, NAV and audio controls, that would be nice to use. It does have actual buttons for Auto climate control and all of the defroster functions as well as minimal audio controls so it is not rendered useless as a vehicle.
Dead screen or digitizer is a common problem intermittent black screen is not as common.
On the lift and started making patch panels. I'm using .130 plate and some 3" square tubing.
Excited to watch the progress!
These are freaking cockroaches afaik. Good buy.
Nice grab. If you don't really need another big vehicle that gets lousy gas mileage, i'd be real tempted to flip it. The Toyota tax + Overlandbro tax should net you some awesome profit. I wouldn't be shocked if you could sell that thing for $10k as long as the inside is decent
Made some progress this weekend. Left my phone at work all weekend so I didn't get any pics.
3" tube fits inside of the frame rail, the portion where the control arm mount sits has a 20 degree compound bend. I cut two pieces of 3" square tube to fit in place of the rusted area, the missing mount left a big enough hole to shove them in. I have that about 60% welded in, control arm mount is on and the 40" patch I made for the bottom of the frame is in place with several small welds. I'll be adding two more small patches and one more long one to another soft area.
Drivers side frame rail is fine, passenger side has the bottom rotted out. These are a full boxed frame and the other three sides are still intact so It will be plenty strong when I'm done.
At my current rate I'll have about 10-12 hours into this and maybe the cost of a couple of rattle cans.
A similar GX in my area is asking $5500, at this point I'm inclined to start out asking $3995. GRM price $3500.
Front brakes are good, rears are new, battery and alternator are new. It has had the ride height delete done. Tires are round and black. Issues are the touch screen works intermittently, $200 on Ebay. There are buttons for the important features.
What's new with this one?
Wow that is a fantastic buy. I'll be interested to see your work when it's finished.
And if I were you I wouldn't be shy on the asking price. Why take $3995 when you advert at $5k and let somebody work you to $4500? It doesn't matter what you paid for it, just what it's worth to someone else.
