My wife always laughs at me when I go knock on people's doors to buy something off them that isn't for sale. Most people don't mind talking to me about what ever I'm interested in. This time I drove by this business every day to and from work. After about five months of seeing this Lexus sitting in the same spot every day I decided to go take a closer look. What I found was a pretty rough looking truck, since the bumpers were both broken, the tires were all basically flat and the interior was a mess. The first thing I think of is how cheap I could probably get it for. Bumpers are really no big deal, and tires probably just need to be repaired. I know how reliable these trucks are, so any basic maintenance would also be no big deal. I went into the shop of this business and asked who owned the Lexus, they pointed me towards the front office and I found the nice lady who owned it. She ended up just buying a brand new Acura and had no need for the Lexus any more. The Lexus started having some small issues and just needed love. If you take a vehicle like this to a dealership you will end up paying thousands and thousands of dollar. She owned this Lexus long enough and was ready to move into something smaller. Thats when I come in and offer two thousand dollars, she says three and we settle at twenty seven hundred. I am actually very excited to buy this because I love Lexus's just as much as Toyota's (same thing). Here is the Lexus when I found it.
It's hard to tell how dirty it is in the photo's but it was kind of gross.
This was my first time taking a vehicle to a full service car wash, for a hundred dollars they did a really good job.
This was the instagram photo showing everyone what I bought, obviously I had to take a photo of the best corner haha. Looks pretty good doesn't it?
First off I had to sort out some of the problems, like the engine light being on. The code told us that it was the O2 sensor.
I changed out both of the O2 sensors and the engine light went away.
The hood shocks were shot, I tried ordering new ones off of Amazon but for some reason they couldn't get them shipped to my house. I gave up on trying to get new ones so I just use a piece of wood to hold the hood up every time haha.
Every once in a while I was able to hear this sound coming from underneath. I was quick to realize it was the compressor for the air suspension..... but some one else in the past removed the air suspension and replaced it with a typical coil spring, so the air compressor does not need to be running any more. I was able to find the fuse that ran the whole system so I just unplugged it and now the compressor stopped trying to fill up.
Next up is the running board lights, I noticed that the passenger side worked but not the driver side. I found the plug that it plugs into and the wires were broken off. I did a half-ass fix since I didn't have much wire to play with. As long as it works though.
This day was the real eye opener on how amazing this Lexus is. I took my family into this beautiful valley and we did some adventuring and four wheeling. The first thing you notice is how well that 2UZ engine performs, next is how awesome the four wheel drive system is too. Just to add to the enjoyment of this truck, is how comfortable the leather seats are along with how quiet the cabin is.
The next day we had to come back here and see more of what we were missing. I found another trail to go down that I've never been down, nothing too hard and pretty simple to start out. Next thing that I notice is a couple side by sides coming up up from behind and I notice them filming me with their phone. They end up just passing by and giving a friendly wave. I keep up behind them on the trail and they keep looking back to see if I'm still following which I am the whole time. By this time the trail is getting much more difficult and I can see they are looking back to see if I am conquering the same terrain as them. They eventually speed away and I can no longer keep up. I end up coming down a fairly steep hill and rubbing the front bumper ( no big deal since I bought the truck with a wrecked bumper anyways). I see them in the distance and I head their way. I eventually some how got ahead of them and they come up from behind me again. This time it wasn't just a friendly wave but they had to stop and tell me that they were joking around about "what if that SUV passes us, well sure and behold there is the SUV in front of us haha" They asked how I got down the hill and around the corner and I told them I had no problem rubbing the bumper along the hill. They also asked how I got over the culvert and I told them this Lexus has full time four wheel drive with a V8. They were so amazed by this mama-mobile. After all of this, it is no problem to make its way back home with a two hour drive.