So here's the deal. It seemed more or less fine except for the rear shocks were done and it was definitely dripping SOMETHING. Took it for an alignment and found out:
* CV boots were shot
* Tie rods frozen on 3 of 4 corners
* Brakes about gone
Couldn't get the axles out without dropping the engine. The inner tie rods were frozen beyond impact wrench territory so had to swap the steering rack. Exhaust was leaking anyway. So... do all the seals, do new motor mounts all the way around, do stuff that is easy to get with the engine out like O2 sensor, then replace every piece of the suspension. Done!
If you are willing to drive it for 10 Years you will get great service from it and it will still be worth $3500-5000 when you are done with it. So the value play is to drive it forever. Unfortunately for, uh, people like us ACF’ers, the value play isn’t always worth it.
It took me a long time to realize that even though I don’t buy things expecting to keep them a long time, it always works out that way, especially with cars.
The last car I bought cost $30k, so I justified it by saying to myself “I will own this car for 10 years, so is it worth $3000 per year?” The answer is usually yes. This can be a dangerous justification method, so be careful!
I like used Lexus' because you can often get the whole service history from the Lexus dealer site. Many old GX's and LX's I'm looking at are often 1 or 2 owner mall crawlers with ALL the service having been done at the dealer. Makes 200k miles seem very palatable suddenly.
You can, simply by entering the VIN into the Lexus owner’s portal as thought the car is yours.
Had I done that, I might’ve avoided overpaying for a 2008 LS 600h L with a dying hybrid traction battery, which cost $4,200 to replace with a refurb unit, and which still never drove to my satisfaction.
Before I bought the Range Rover, one of the things I looked at was a 2018 LX 570 three-row.
I thought it was so underwhelming (wallowy, slow, thirsty, and bouncy) and so expensive for all that ($53K with 80K miles) that I ran screaming toward European cars.
I will put up with all that on a GX, and have owned one of those, because they are a lot less expensive and a lot less complicated. But I think the LX is profoundly overrated for what it is.
We have just under 280k on our 2009 LX570 and use it almost exclusively as a tow pig. It’s all those things you said. It’s not interesting to operate. Sucks down unleaded like a pirate sucks down rum.
All that said, I’m pretty sure it’ll be going long after the Range Rover is crushed. And the Range Rover after that one. Does the tow pig thing pretty elegantly. I would drive it to Mars tomorrow without a second thought.
One of my wealthier friends has a ~2006 LS430 and a ~2010 GX460, both bought new, both low 100k miles, “paid cash and kept forever”. Not a bad way to do it if you have a lot more money than I do.
At least your experience has landed you with a serviceable car that you enjoy. I’ve dumped thousands or tens of thousands into cars, actually paying shops their full labor rates, still hated the way they drove or presented, and sold them at a loss.
But yes, I remember making that exact same point when the million-mile LS 400 was in the news cycle. Here you are with what is a zhuszhed-up Camry and arguably the least complicated thing that could credibly call itself a luxury car at that time…and you still put thousands into it.
That’s not something most people could or would do, and it’s why even if you find a supposedly clean car like this, it will likely be victim to some sort of deferred maintenance.
—
I did, last week, acquire a lovely 2020 Range Rover Autobiography 5.0 LWB. It came from a JLR dealer—who took the Lyriq for way more than it was worth, for some reason—and is in fantastic shape. It’s also black over “peanut-butter,” which is a classic color combo.
I purchased a very expensive warranty from my local dealership that should have me all the way out to 6 years and 80K miles from now, so I can pretend to be Doug DeMuro.
Maintenance costs and fuel are expensive for it, but…well, I like it, and so that’s that. Being the LWB with rear seats that move every which way, it sates my usual desire for a LWB flagship sedan, although I still have both the Phaeton and the XJ12…which are exactly that.
Me: A little. I wouldn't say I'm the foremost expert but I've replaced head gaskets in the driveway in the dead of winter and worst of summer before.
Co-worker: My wife is looking at this Range Rover at X's car lot. They have a really good price on it, 23 grand.
Me: Here's what I want you to do...go to the bank and take $5,000 out in cash, then put it in your front yard, cover it in lighter fluid, and set it on fire.
Co-worker: **hard blinking**
Me: If you can burn that $5,000 without a thought or a care, then you have the right mindset to burn at least that much money every year or so to keep that Range Rover running. If, on the other hand, the mere suggestion of it makes you mad then you tell her you'll sooner pound your testicles flat with a wooden mallet than allow that purchase.
I just did what the dealer quoted as around $4-5k in suspension and brake work for maybe $600-700 in parts.
The LR3, at 165k miles, needs a lot of smaller things done and will probably ring up $1200 in parts this summer after 2 years of needing nothing but oil and front brakes.
No 18 year old car is going to be trouble free, but my parts cost for the Landy has generally fit into the bucket of being "cheaper than 1 monthly Yukon payment per year"
Sounds like the LR3 is the only model in recent history that can be kept going relatively sanely. I've been cross-shopping those vs GXs and LXs and it's not hard to find mechanically sound ones for overlanding for $6-10k.
Agreed. I want an L405 some day so I want every other human on earth to absolutely FEAR buying one. They're already touching $25k for a good one so let's keep this narrative going!
Mine is a LWB and so has the longer rear doors. I dread the day I forget to disable the child locks and one of my godchildren opens the door in a parking lot and carelessly thwacks it against another car.
Yep, just got the Lyriq, but it was annoying and somehow I managed to get out of it with a four-figure check.
Will I keep the Range Rover for six years? We’ll see. It would be nice to prove everybody wrong about how long I’ll keep it. I hear there’s a betting pool going on about how long I keep cars, to include such members at my best friend, my partner, my mother, my Russian car buddy, and my grade-school teacher (screw you, Mrs. Pierce!)
Steve, I feel like the bolt is one of the more underrated light duty cars out there and doesn’t get its due, then again, I have seen horror stories about battery and other inexplicable issues popping up.
In you experience, how has the reliability and maintenance cost of yours been?
The Bolt is a great city car. Easy to park. Fits 4 adults well. Other than the battery recall issue its been trouble free. Almost no maintenance other than tires. Like most EVs it goes thru tires faster than normal ICE cars (or maybe its how we drive it, eeek). We haven’t taken it outside the county so only charge it at home. We have two other vehicles for longer trips.
It’s one thing to burn money frivolously - as Jack has done with this old Lexus - but it’s another thing entirely to incur guaranteed transaction and switching costs again and again and again because you can’t make up your mind!
You may need to call your therapist first (!), but do you have an idea of your sum total transaction / switching costs (surely there will have been some gains too given the sample size) over time?
Every car you own should be equipped with a set of balls hanging from a receiver hitch. Love your taste but damn you play with fire with your Continental trysts and Oriental excursions.
Thanks for doing dumb shit. You ended up with a nice car and hopefully some more stories that you can tell us about how you got it back into shape. Now you need to get some social media accounts for the cats so you can sell a book and do more of these hijinks. I can't afford to do something like this and I would take the newer Lexus but as reader this is fucking great. Also, you got a daily driver out of this.
Hopefully you have an LLC that you can deduct the cost from your income for doing this wonderful project but if you don't monetize the cats. They won't know and maybe you can deduct the car food bills.
I know that but if you could deduct shit wouldn't you better be protected by an LLC. I am thinking you could deduct expenses if you were doing a expose on why you don't want to buy a used car.
Its even ACF Green; perfect for Trick or treating (aka getting a peak in your neighbors homes and chatting up local milfs while getting free candy) in the township!
Jack that is first rate mentorship of the young men (women?) helping with the refurbishment of the Lexus and keeping them from being in the Jiffy Lube pit. Hope they can use the experience to further their future careers as pit crew members for a paying race teams. Memo to file: I have been told that the primary source of pit crew members for NASCAR are formers members of Div-1 Football teams ????
I've read that as well - NASCAR teams recruit college football players who aren't quite good enough to go pro. They're big, they're strong, and they're fit.
Seems like you are the lucky recipient of many years of deferred maintenance. Apparently, deferred until Jacks ownership. Having played with both the 80 Trans Am and the 90 ZR-1 this week, some things become clear. Everything is better in the Corvette. The extra money Chevy was willing to spend on, and charge for, it, plus a decade of develop are huge. It’s just better in every way. However, better also means much more complex and expensive. I get why guys like these old pre computer cars, like the Trans Am. While I might have the most complex American V8 of the seventies, it being turbocharged and all, but it’s still pretty damn basic to work on. And unlike, many more modern cars, it seems that it just wants to run, even if it’s doing that running poorly. GM HEI and a Q-Jet are about as good as old cars got.
That is the danger of the Lexi. When you get them from a first owner with ~ 100K on the clock, you're getting something an older person with money bought to be a comfortable appliance. They took it to the dealer and did what was recommended.
The second owners tend to take them to the dealer once, find out that the Lexus dealer is charging at rates that remind one of what Lisping Lindsay Graham must have been up to in order to spend $400,000 in one week in Kiev (just how many male prostitutes and how much blow *IS* that? Dude must be injecting rhinoceros horn directly into his shaft)
So the maintenance doesn't get done. And then you have that 150,000 mile Lexus that's getting sold for not cheap, but also not expensive because it has hit the point where it needs the purchase price in work to keep it on the road for another 70-100k.
Same applies to my Tundra. I snagged mine in the sweet spot. Over 100K, but religiously maintained by a former engineer who wrote dates on the differentials, transfer case, and engine cover from when he changed the fluids himself. But he'd never done the transmission fluid. It was at the perfect stage where it needed a little bit of deferred maintenance (brakes, for instance, had never been done) I could use to negotiate but a couple of grand later and she's good as new. Beyond that general sweet spot of mileage and price are the Tundras with aftermarket wheels and lift kits and you know that every bit of the money spent on that truck went into the wheels and tires and the custom vinyl logo for their instagram and not things like making sure the transfer case and differential fluids have been changed.
Below that you're into Tundras that cost at least 8-10 grand more for not much less mileage. They haven't been maintained correctly either, but at least with the lower mileage you are well inside the envelope of safety on the items that need doing.
"The second owners tend to take them to the dealer once"
I'll push back very gently on this with "it depends." I'm finding a lot that were 1-owner leased, 2nd-owner CPO'd and the 2nd owner continues to service it at the dealer because they either have the money (but frugal enough to buy CPO) or rolled an extended warranty and/or service plan into the purchase.
Had my 2016 Tundra (41k miles) at the dealership last month for service. Realized that barring accidents it is likely this truck will outlive me (rust not a thing here).
Correct. I think the LS 460 is probably the worst offender, because—while it’s mostly not outrageous—the maintenance is still quite spendy. So a lot of second and third owners neglect things like the valley pan gasket and the control arms. And then it does have a couple of expensive, dealer-only flaws, like the brake booster.
I did a heavy DIY refresh of a '92 Bonneville SSEi around 2016. I think I spent about $4,000 on it all in but I also got the car for free.
Before the COVID times, you could find runner domestic cars fairly easily for under $1,000. That's not really the case anymore unless you want a Northstar. There's still a "Toyota Tax" but it's a lot less than it used to be on things over 20 years old.
I acquired my Grand Prix for free as well. Being a tech, parts is the only thing I've got to worry about. Second on the pre-COVID $1,000 runner price. Lately prices seem to be coming down. Shocked to see Geo Metros going for ludicrous money all smashed out and zero parts availability.
C4C was the beginning, the lack of new car sales during the recession years added to it, then devaluing the dollar approximately 50% over the last 5 years really drove prices up.
I'm reading old forum posts from 2009 educating myself on 4th gen Fbodies and guys are saying stuff like "go buy an LT1 you can get a nice one for $4k." 15 years later those same cars with a lot more wear are going for more than that.
I'm seeing prices really come down on *everything* on fb marketplace. From the "toy" category (motorcycles, powersports, rvs) to daily driver type cars. I hear in certain hispanic-heavy markets, all the ICE stuff is having a very real effect on the cheap used car market (lower demand). After this latest motorcycle flip I really would like to scoop up an LT1 4th gen or something even cheaper/sillier like a clean late model Grand Am GT with a 3.4 or a Beretta GT. I'm hopelessly addicted to 90s GM dreck. Turn up the Limp Bizkit!
Good write-up. In 2017 I bought my wife a 2011 ES350 with front collision damage for $7000, put a couple thousand into a new radiator, front bumper, hood, and other miscellany, and it served us well for about three years and 50k miles. I loved that car because it was quiet, comfortable, and the cheapest way into ventilated front seats. It went to my sister in Dallas next but must’ve taken a rock to a radiator hose at some point and overheated the engine. My post-collision repair may have neglected to properly replace the plastic underbody shields.
As someone who learned the “good enough” type of auto maintenance, I wouldn’t ever spend so much on repairs. But I do appreciate reading about people who do - it must be satisfying in a way to maintain at a higher level without simply learning to live with countless quirks. How many of the ES300 issues were mission-critical?
If it makes you feel any better, my good friend bought his daughter a 2007 Lexus IS with 4WD for Pennsylvania winters for about $7,000. This happened after she got pulled over in her previously beat-to-shit super cheap Chevrolet Impala that they procured for $1,500. Her car looked like it was driven by someone who cooked meth for a living and I joked it was rolling probable cause.
Well, turns out that wasn't a joke. She didn't get searched because the officer who pulled her over had been trained by her father so he recognized her name and her resemblance to the ol' man. Rather than keep hoping for that kind of luck, he wanted to get her something reliable so he went Lexus.
...and then the list of parts that needed replacing over the next couple of years came in, with labor factored in he spent about $8,000 fixing her $7,000 Lexus.
What you undertook was basically a restoration. "Well, while you're in there..."
I tried to restore a 1970 Chevelle coupe in my driveway. I learned the hard way on that one.
On the plus side, in the end you have a really lovely piece of automotive engineering and they literally don't make them like that anymore. A group of men did man things to make it work again, learning and fellowshipping in the process. Good was contributed to the universe.
But you also see the wisdom in my "Next car I buy is probably gonna be a well maintained Lexus ES" plan. It just makes sense.
Try rebuilding a third-gen Firebird with a blown engine at a rate of about a hundred bucks a week, WHILE you're only a year into your car-guy learning curve.
All I got out of that project was memories and a feeling of having been lied to by Hot Rod magazine.
I was tracking the restorations of a couple old Lancias last year and both involved sending them to a specialist in COSTA RICA. And the owners still ended up well into $100-150k just for that part of the resto.
The resulting satisfaction from a job well done and a car that gets fully sorted (or sorted to one's standards) is nice, and good. At 186k, my 08 Outback is getting many of the big/bigger ticket items redone (by me, almost exclusively) that need redoing by such mileage. And fixing other things that were left or neglected. The market in the $5k range (or even a few thousand more) is not great, so better the devil I know...and have fixed up.
looks like my 'might as wells' comment hit home here .
I work with an extremely stable but limited budget so payments are out, as a Journeyman Mechanic I can fix most of what ails older vehicles plus I prefer to be the first one in there, nothing quite like finding wood screws jammed into things destroyed beyond repair by the previous cretin .
Last year my physical ailments became glaringly obvious and in the end I was IMO forced to give away two very nice classic cars that ad much more works and parts thrown into them than they'll ever be worth but neither one was operable and I realized I wasn't ever going to touch them again s off they went, selling non running vehicles is hard, even when rust free, nice paint and upholstery, new tires and brakes, clear current title and tags etc., etc. .
God knows I tried, I even offered them here, not a single response .
This is the down side of fixing all those myriad little niggly things that make owning and operating any motor vehicle a serious bleeding hemorrhoid ~ I expect _every_ thing to work as it did when new if not better .
When you have is apart is the best and often _only_ time to properly address those little things .
Yes, Jack _could_ have purchased a lower mileage cream puff but being 20 years old it's always going to be a crapshoot ~ the drunken bitch who lived next door to me for 40 years and harassed me endlessly because I turned her down when she was drunk and horny (ew) died recently leaving behind a 2001 Kia four door sedan with 21,000 miles, her sister said I could have it for $7K ~ sounds great right ? a true "Little Old Lady Car" that had never been smoked in, wrecked nor driven much, the AC was great, spotless upholstery, what's not to like ? .
The car was red and the entire roof was blistering off the clear coat, figure minimum $1,000.00, I didn't want it but my Sweet did .
21,000 miles and 20 years means time for cam bent, drive belts, struts all four corners, major tranny service........ the tire were *just* beginning to dry rot so add in five new good quality tires and suddenly this thing isn't a bargain .
I'm quite sure Jack could have come to L.a. (his work brings him here regularly) and found a clean similar mileage Lexus with NO RUST and likely no more than the same amount of needed repairs for the same or less $ .
All I'd need tp check is crash damage, rust and does the AC work because "it just needs a charge" means the seller damn well knows it needs a _MINIMUM_ of $1,500.00 in AC work......
Just something to think about when you're pondering Jacks wisdom or lack of same .
When it's finished he'll run the wheels off it and bar looping it into a ditch or smacking a coyote (the furry kind) at speed at 0-DARK:30, it'll be fine for several years .
As someone who is a true professional in spending money on cars in 'useless' ways, I commend your weekly update! :)
I've spent $34k on a Lexus IS300 in order to sell it for just a tad over $15k on an online auction last year, and I'm currently pouring money at a meteoric rate into my Lexus SC400 in order to build something that Toyota should have but didn't. So, I'll show them....yeah, joke is always on me!
Speaking directly about myself, you really have to be a special kind of stupid...errrr...special...errr...yeah, stupid to spend as much money as I have to make my 1992 Lexus SC400 the mechanical equivalent of a 1989 Chevrolet Corvette. But...here we are. :)
I only know how to walk because others ran before me. But, I sure appreciate your kind words.
But, to make more fun of myself...if you've ever heard the old saying "a fool and his money are soon parted", it's me...I'm the fool when it comes to modifying my old Toyotas! :)
My loser dream is to squish together a 2nd-gen Dodge Stratus R/T, Chrysler Sebring Convertible, and the 6G75 3.8L V6 to have myself a Dodge Stratus R/T 5-speed convertible with maximum N/A power. Dodge never really leaned into these cars (nor did Mitsubishi) and they really lost the following they had during the earlier Eagle Talon / Mitsubishi Eclipse model years. Chalk it up to the dissolution of Diamond Star Motors prior to the model's launch, I guess.
We could have had a Stratus SRT convertible, and I intend to make it happen one day.
That reminds me of when I first got into cars 30 years ago, I'd devour Car Craft (or Camaro Craft, if you prefer), Hot Rod, et al. One of them had a section where they'd showcase a car owned by somebody under the age of 25.
The reason this stuck out is because in this issue, it was a '68 Charger with a 440, supposedly owned by a 23-year-old who'd used it for his daily driver in high school. Allegedly, this guy and his dad had pulled it out of some Utah scrapyard for $200 and did all the work themselves.
Yeah right, a B-body Mopar carcass free-and-clear for 200 late-80s dollars?
Double yeah right, a junkyard that would sell you an entire car AT ALL?
So what's missing here?
Well for starters, assuming this wasn't all horseshit, the article was the usual "just a regular guy with a passion for cars" fluff, conveniently leaving out the near-certainty that the guy's dad was the usual third-generation hot rodder who was on a first-name basis with every machine shop owner, mechanic and body-shop guy in the county. And who also had a fully-equipped barn with lifts, shop air and space to work.
So YES, you CAN do a cheap car. As long as you have the tools, connections and will. Which are the hallmarks of a rich man.
I should write a longer post about this, but I got into cars in college, late. I remember cramming projects into late evenings in the apartment garage, and north of a decade of begging, borrowing, and bribing various friends and acquaintances garages for space to use while I wrenched on shit.
Having said that, finally having a barn that cost about as much as a used Mulsanne to put together is a huge enabler for owning cheap cars.
You see this in those woodworking videos and TikToks, “my wife wanted a new $4k buffet, I made it with $250 worth of wood!” Yeah, and $10k+ of woodshop tools.
Sadly I only learned about Red Green a few years back when someone sent me a link to where he mounted a toilet on the hood of some old junker and they thought of me .
Many years ago there was a tool shop in the west Loop of Chicago. I was in there for some reason and they had a literal wall of wood chisels from the size of a telephone pole - I exaggerate slightly - on down to smaller than a pencil. It was at that time I realized that a woodworking hobby was likely as much about the tools as it was about the woodworking.
20+ years ago my company was acquired by another and as part of the transition our payroll was converted from 2x a month to every other week. Every other week resulted in having a three paycheck month twice a year. For the first couple of years that meant I was driving to the land of no sales tax that month and spending close to the entire paycheck at the tool shop. Was always fun to see how quickly in the day I'd get the anti-fraud phone call from my credit card company.
Keep the card. there are instances where it's worth the money to go to a professional. I say motorcycle suspension tuning is one of those instances - it's always struck me as something approaching a black art.
This mirrors my experience owning one of these, virtually identical 2001 ES300 for about 7 years, 2012-2019 from 90k miles up to 180k. I didn't fix everything at once, but put some money into it over time as needed. And because I am me, I bought a new shift lever and had the wheel recovered. And swapped in a set of the optional HIDs, the halogens were so bad...and sourced and installed the Nakamichi stereo bits. It was a nice car, durable exterior and interior that cleaned up nice, my various passengers were continually surprised it was a 2001 in such nice shape.
It wasn't particularly cheap to run, old cars still need fixing even a fancy Toyota Camry. Any OEM parts were not cheap. And the aftermarket parts are of questionable quality. Owning this car made me question the economics of owning an old car for the long haul when your only choice in repair seems to be cheap aftermarket junk that lasts a year or two, or buy the known quality OEM parts for occasionally heart stopping prices, e.g $400 alternator, $1400 brake booster, the steering wheel? $2300. I did most of the repairs myself. If I was short on time, any stop at the Toyota or Lexus dealer was minimum $1000.
I have trouble reconciling the absolute price competitiveness of Toyota and Lexus with the insane pricing of the parts. Is it some kind of Gilette razor model?
So, the best guess I have is that it's a Japanese Industrial thing.
Whoever supplies Toyota with parts has a deal to sell them to Toyota, and that's it. Or Lexus.
So you have Toyota OE and various rockauto brands selling parts. If the aftermarket doesn't make something, you're hosed at the dealer.
In contrast: all the European OEs (or at least my experience with BMW and jagrover). OE parts are available, and the OE supplier will continue selling the part for half the price. Then you have other European tier 1s also selling aftermarket parts, but with a quality level well above the Chinese.
So where something silly like a ride height sensor is $500 from Toyota, it's likely still $50 if you need one for a BMW.
There are a few exceptions I've seen to this, but it's usually weird shit like BMW OE 2-piece rotors you can't get aftermarket anywhere.
"all the European OEs (or at least my experience with BMW and jagrover). OE parts are available, and the OE supplier will continue selling the part for half the price."
My Giulia would like a word.
I kid. It's been (knock wood) trouble free. But there are NO parts anywhere on Earth for it. I've been waiting 6mos for warranty replacements for little brackets inside my mirrors (they rattle sometimes when closing the doors).
But believe me, it didn't matter that the 1.4T in my 500 Abarth was in a slew of Darts, Renegades, etc... if you needed anything related to the Multi-Air brick, you were SOL forever.
I've wondered about this, for example there are many chassis parts you can buy, parts from ATE, Lemforder, Bilstein etc. for my Volvo in European aftermarket parts shops. The OE parts, but distributed outside the mfr. You can't buy those parts in the US anywhere but Volvo dealer. I don't know what the difference is, must be something about our dealer model and the franchise agreements?
If you are an OEM parts operation, and you only have 2 years stock of a part for old cars, but your goal is to have 5 years on hand...I hear one way to "solve" that is double the price of the parts ;-)
$2200+ for an OEM catalytic convertor for my older Outback. No way. $200-500 aftermarket cats are a minefield. Ponied up $800 for a Magnaflow unit (OEM-like with primaries snaking into a specifically-placed catalyst, O2 pickups, and flange) that I had to pull two weeks later and modify to make it flow properly and get back those missing ponies. Works great now, and it allowed me to find two severed grounding straps that I believe now have cured my year-long CEL ghost misfire code struggle. I LOVE CARS AND SAVING MONEY...RIGHT???
I also want to know this. However, the parts pricing was not unreasonable vs anything else.
So here's the deal. It seemed more or less fine except for the rear shocks were done and it was definitely dripping SOMETHING. Took it for an alignment and found out:
* CV boots were shot
* Tie rods frozen on 3 of 4 corners
* Brakes about gone
Couldn't get the axles out without dropping the engine. The inner tie rods were frozen beyond impact wrench territory so had to swap the steering rack. Exhaust was leaking anyway. So... do all the seals, do new motor mounts all the way around, do stuff that is easy to get with the engine out like O2 sensor, then replace every piece of the suspension. Done!
If you are willing to drive it for 10 Years you will get great service from it and it will still be worth $3500-5000 when you are done with it. So the value play is to drive it forever. Unfortunately for, uh, people like us ACF’ers, the value play isn’t always worth it.
It took me a long time to realize that even though I don’t buy things expecting to keep them a long time, it always works out that way, especially with cars.
The last car I bought cost $30k, so I justified it by saying to myself “I will own this car for 10 years, so is it worth $3000 per year?” The answer is usually yes. This can be a dangerous justification method, so be careful!
I was all set to go Japanese when I moved to Hooterville, but I discovered a great German shop here so I bought my E350.
But I can stop anytime.
I like used Lexus' because you can often get the whole service history from the Lexus dealer site. Many old GX's and LX's I'm looking at are often 1 or 2 owner mall crawlers with ALL the service having been done at the dealer. Makes 200k miles seem very palatable suddenly.
You can, simply by entering the VIN into the Lexus owner’s portal as thought the car is yours.
Had I done that, I might’ve avoided overpaying for a 2008 LS 600h L with a dying hybrid traction battery, which cost $4,200 to replace with a refurb unit, and which still never drove to my satisfaction.
The owner's portal prob thinks I "own" every old GX and LX within 300 miles of NYC.
Right?
Before I bought the Range Rover, one of the things I looked at was a 2018 LX 570 three-row.
I thought it was so underwhelming (wallowy, slow, thirsty, and bouncy) and so expensive for all that ($53K with 80K miles) that I ran screaming toward European cars.
I will put up with all that on a GX, and have owned one of those, because they are a lot less expensive and a lot less complicated. But I think the LX is profoundly overrated for what it is.
We have just under 280k on our 2009 LX570 and use it almost exclusively as a tow pig. It’s all those things you said. It’s not interesting to operate. Sucks down unleaded like a pirate sucks down rum.
All that said, I’m pretty sure it’ll be going long after the Range Rover is crushed. And the Range Rover after that one. Does the tow pig thing pretty elegantly. I would drive it to Mars tomorrow without a second thought.
I really wanted to like the LX; I just didn’t. But there’s no denying the fact that it’s built to last.
My wife, bless her, has zero interest in cars. If I could get a nice LX for her next car I would be thrilled.
One of my wealthier friends has a ~2006 LS430 and a ~2010 GX460, both bought new, both low 100k miles, “paid cash and kept forever”. Not a bad way to do it if you have a lot more money than I do.
At least your experience has landed you with a serviceable car that you enjoy. I’ve dumped thousands or tens of thousands into cars, actually paying shops their full labor rates, still hated the way they drove or presented, and sold them at a loss.
But yes, I remember making that exact same point when the million-mile LS 400 was in the news cycle. Here you are with what is a zhuszhed-up Camry and arguably the least complicated thing that could credibly call itself a luxury car at that time…and you still put thousands into it.
That’s not something most people could or would do, and it’s why even if you find a supposedly clean car like this, it will likely be victim to some sort of deferred maintenance.
—
I did, last week, acquire a lovely 2020 Range Rover Autobiography 5.0 LWB. It came from a JLR dealer—who took the Lyriq for way more than it was worth, for some reason—and is in fantastic shape. It’s also black over “peanut-butter,” which is a classic color combo.
I purchased a very expensive warranty from my local dealership that should have me all the way out to 6 years and 80K miles from now, so I can pretend to be Doug DeMuro.
Maintenance costs and fuel are expensive for it, but…well, I like it, and so that’s that. Being the LWB with rear seats that move every which way, it sates my usual desire for a LWB flagship sedan, although I still have both the Phaeton and the XJ12…which are exactly that.
"a lovely 2020 Range Rover Autobiography 5.0 LWB"
Doth thou insist on dying for our sins?
Co-worker: You know a lot about cars, right?
Me: A little. I wouldn't say I'm the foremost expert but I've replaced head gaskets in the driveway in the dead of winter and worst of summer before.
Co-worker: My wife is looking at this Range Rover at X's car lot. They have a really good price on it, 23 grand.
Me: Here's what I want you to do...go to the bank and take $5,000 out in cash, then put it in your front yard, cover it in lighter fluid, and set it on fire.
Co-worker: **hard blinking**
Me: If you can burn that $5,000 without a thought or a care, then you have the right mindset to burn at least that much money every year or so to keep that Range Rover running. If, on the other hand, the mere suggestion of it makes you mad then you tell her you'll sooner pound your testicles flat with a wooden mallet than allow that purchase.
Please keep spreading this gospel to keep the residuals low!
Residuals? You mean the downpayment.
It's very relative.
I just did what the dealer quoted as around $4-5k in suspension and brake work for maybe $600-700 in parts.
The LR3, at 165k miles, needs a lot of smaller things done and will probably ring up $1200 in parts this summer after 2 years of needing nothing but oil and front brakes.
No 18 year old car is going to be trouble free, but my parts cost for the Landy has generally fit into the bucket of being "cheaper than 1 monthly Yukon payment per year"
Sounds like the LR3 is the only model in recent history that can be kept going relatively sanely. I've been cross-shopping those vs GXs and LXs and it's not hard to find mechanically sound ones for overlanding for $6-10k.
Agreed. I want an L405 some day so I want every other human on earth to absolutely FEAR buying one. They're already touching $25k for a good one so let's keep this narrative going!
I actually fear the hell out of the L405. Everyone I know, myself included, has managed to hit themselves in the face with the door on one.
I think you need to be under 5'6 or over 6'3 to be immune.
It’s because you’re supposed to be riding in the back seat!
Mine is a LWB and so has the longer rear doors. I dread the day I forget to disable the child locks and one of my godchildren opens the door in a parking lot and carelessly thwacks it against another car.
Wait, what? Didn’t you just get the Lyriq?
And are you really going to keep the RR for 6 years?
Yep, just got the Lyriq, but it was annoying and somehow I managed to get out of it with a four-figure check.
Will I keep the Range Rover for six years? We’ll see. It would be nice to prove everybody wrong about how long I’ll keep it. I hear there’s a betting pool going on about how long I keep cars, to include such members at my best friend, my partner, my mother, my Russian car buddy, and my grade-school teacher (screw you, Mrs. Pierce!)
So what was annoying?
- EV charging?
- electronics UI?
- general GMness?
I’m still amazed that as a former ELR owner, and current Bolt owner, GM put 0.0 effort into trying to sell me a Lyriq. Nada.
The EV part was fine. The other two things, absolutely they were annoying.
Steve, I feel like the bolt is one of the more underrated light duty cars out there and doesn’t get its due, then again, I have seen horror stories about battery and other inexplicable issues popping up.
In you experience, how has the reliability and maintenance cost of yours been?
The Bolt is a great city car. Easy to park. Fits 4 adults well. Other than the battery recall issue its been trouble free. Almost no maintenance other than tires. Like most EVs it goes thru tires faster than normal ICE cars (or maybe its how we drive it, eeek). We haven’t taken it outside the county so only charge it at home. We have two other vehicles for longer trips.
Do you have a dealer license?
It’s one thing to burn money frivolously - as Jack has done with this old Lexus - but it’s another thing entirely to incur guaranteed transaction and switching costs again and again and again because you can’t make up your mind!
I do.
You may need to call your therapist first (!), but do you have an idea of your sum total transaction / switching costs (surely there will have been some gains too given the sample size) over time?
It simply isn’t that serious. Haha.
I am AMAZED and envious by your ever changing garage. How many miles did you actually put on the Lyriq?
Somewhere around 2,200. Keep in mind that it spent two weeks in the shop.
Great trade! 5.0 supercharged Rover is such a nice ride. ATB is icing on the cake.
I like the cut of your jib.
Every car you own should be equipped with a set of balls hanging from a receiver hitch. Love your taste but damn you play with fire with your Continental trysts and Oriental excursions.
Speaking of old rice cookers, Jack - why did DG and MDG chose the NC over other Miatas? Sorry if it's been covered before?
I'm not sure it *has* been covered before! I'll write it up Sunday because it's too long a story for a comment.
NC are the best ones! Unfortunately I sold mine on July 4th. RIP. I'll prob regret that.
With all the help and experience you’re providing to the young people, you could start a ‘non-profit’ and…
Oh wait. Never mind.
I'll grow my hair a little more, wear a robe, and call it...
JESUS GARAGE
Might be able to double up on the non-profit tax benefits, too!
I'll buy the inevitable patches and stickers.......
-Nate
But make sure that contributions for those are taken in as donations or "tips" to keep 'em tax free.
Actually worth looking into. Chronicle enough of it here, and some of the ACF expenses could be attached to that 501c3.
If you started getting customers who pronounce it hay0soos....
pronounced _hey-sus_
Um, why does the rear wheel in the last photo look way too far forward?
Lens distortion. Look at the front wheel, which looks way too far backward :)
Thats one messed up lens.
Samsung S23 Ultra in portrait mode. I don't fully understand it.
Yeah, just how does lens distortion move the wheel relative to the fender?
It's in fisheye, basically. I'm standing very close to the car.
You should upgrade to an iPhone!
I can bench more than my weight but I ain't using no iPhone!
How can you be a “man” when Daddy signs your checks?
Thanks for doing dumb shit. You ended up with a nice car and hopefully some more stories that you can tell us about how you got it back into shape. Now you need to get some social media accounts for the cats so you can sell a book and do more of these hijinks. I can't afford to do something like this and I would take the newer Lexus but as reader this is fucking great. Also, you got a daily driver out of this.
Hopefully you have an LLC that you can deduct the cost from your income for doing this wonderful project but if you don't monetize the cats. They won't know and maybe you can deduct the car food bills.
I know that but if you could deduct shit wouldn't you better be protected by an LLC. I am thinking you could deduct expenses if you were doing a expose on why you don't want to buy a used car.
True and I would hire you!
If you knew how I ran the rest of my life you wouldn't let me clean the carpets in your office hallway!
Also, a great TED talk.
“Monetize the cats” LOL!!
The cat stories, his rugged good looks and a bit of tik tok magic and the cat ladies would be all over it.
I think Jack is doing just fine as the new face of Mountain Dew.
https://www.marketingdive.com/news/mountain-mtn-dew-dude-refresh-iconic-slogan-campaign/721084/
Nice fur coat!
HOLY GOD I WANT THAT COAT
Its even ACF Green; perfect for Trick or treating (aka getting a peak in your neighbors homes and chatting up local milfs while getting free candy) in the township!
pardon me. we call that "Baruthian green."
What is wrong with you?
he is a man of wealth and taste
Wait. I thought Jack was playing banjo in Billy Strings band.
http://www.billyfailingmusic.com/about
He did. We pay it. Lol
Jack that is first rate mentorship of the young men (women?) helping with the refurbishment of the Lexus and keeping them from being in the Jiffy Lube pit. Hope they can use the experience to further their future careers as pit crew members for a paying race teams. Memo to file: I have been told that the primary source of pit crew members for NASCAR are formers members of Div-1 Football teams ????
sounds about right
you cant be small and run a jack as the japanese nascar team found out in the 90s when they raced there
it was pretty funny
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pkip8PEIIhQ
The guy manning the rear jack for Mercedes at the British GP last weekend looked like he weighed 300lbs.
Good to know that I have job prospects beyond a desk.
I've read that as well - NASCAR teams recruit college football players who aren't quite good enough to go pro. They're big, they're strong, and they're fit.
Seems like you are the lucky recipient of many years of deferred maintenance. Apparently, deferred until Jacks ownership. Having played with both the 80 Trans Am and the 90 ZR-1 this week, some things become clear. Everything is better in the Corvette. The extra money Chevy was willing to spend on, and charge for, it, plus a decade of develop are huge. It’s just better in every way. However, better also means much more complex and expensive. I get why guys like these old pre computer cars, like the Trans Am. While I might have the most complex American V8 of the seventies, it being turbocharged and all, but it’s still pretty damn basic to work on. And unlike, many more modern cars, it seems that it just wants to run, even if it’s doing that running poorly. GM HEI and a Q-Jet are about as good as old cars got.
That is the danger of the Lexi. When you get them from a first owner with ~ 100K on the clock, you're getting something an older person with money bought to be a comfortable appliance. They took it to the dealer and did what was recommended.
The second owners tend to take them to the dealer once, find out that the Lexus dealer is charging at rates that remind one of what Lisping Lindsay Graham must have been up to in order to spend $400,000 in one week in Kiev (just how many male prostitutes and how much blow *IS* that? Dude must be injecting rhinoceros horn directly into his shaft)
So the maintenance doesn't get done. And then you have that 150,000 mile Lexus that's getting sold for not cheap, but also not expensive because it has hit the point where it needs the purchase price in work to keep it on the road for another 70-100k.
Same applies to my Tundra. I snagged mine in the sweet spot. Over 100K, but religiously maintained by a former engineer who wrote dates on the differentials, transfer case, and engine cover from when he changed the fluids himself. But he'd never done the transmission fluid. It was at the perfect stage where it needed a little bit of deferred maintenance (brakes, for instance, had never been done) I could use to negotiate but a couple of grand later and she's good as new. Beyond that general sweet spot of mileage and price are the Tundras with aftermarket wheels and lift kits and you know that every bit of the money spent on that truck went into the wheels and tires and the custom vinyl logo for their instagram and not things like making sure the transfer case and differential fluids have been changed.
Below that you're into Tundras that cost at least 8-10 grand more for not much less mileage. They haven't been maintained correctly either, but at least with the lower mileage you are well inside the envelope of safety on the items that need doing.
Leave lady G out of this!
"The second owners tend to take them to the dealer once"
I'll push back very gently on this with "it depends." I'm finding a lot that were 1-owner leased, 2nd-owner CPO'd and the 2nd owner continues to service it at the dealer because they either have the money (but frugal enough to buy CPO) or rolled an extended warranty and/or service plan into the purchase.
Had my 2016 Tundra (41k miles) at the dealership last month for service. Realized that barring accidents it is likely this truck will outlive me (rust not a thing here).
Correct. I think the LS 460 is probably the worst offender, because—while it’s mostly not outrageous—the maintenance is still quite spendy. So a lot of second and third owners neglect things like the valley pan gasket and the control arms. And then it does have a couple of expensive, dealer-only flaws, like the brake booster.
I did a heavy DIY refresh of a '92 Bonneville SSEi around 2016. I think I spent about $4,000 on it all in but I also got the car for free.
Before the COVID times, you could find runner domestic cars fairly easily for under $1,000. That's not really the case anymore unless you want a Northstar. There's still a "Toyota Tax" but it's a lot less than it used to be on things over 20 years old.
I acquired my Grand Prix for free as well. Being a tech, parts is the only thing I've got to worry about. Second on the pre-COVID $1,000 runner price. Lately prices seem to be coming down. Shocked to see Geo Metros going for ludicrous money all smashed out and zero parts availability.
I think it was cash for clunkers that got rid of the cheap running car more than COVID, although COVID kicked it up a notch.
C4C was the beginning, the lack of new car sales during the recession years added to it, then devaluing the dollar approximately 50% over the last 5 years really drove prices up.
I'm reading old forum posts from 2009 educating myself on 4th gen Fbodies and guys are saying stuff like "go buy an LT1 you can get a nice one for $4k." 15 years later those same cars with a lot more wear are going for more than that.
I'm seeing prices really come down on *everything* on fb marketplace. From the "toy" category (motorcycles, powersports, rvs) to daily driver type cars. I hear in certain hispanic-heavy markets, all the ICE stuff is having a very real effect on the cheap used car market (lower demand). After this latest motorcycle flip I really would like to scoop up an LT1 4th gen or something even cheaper/sillier like a clean late model Grand Am GT with a 3.4 or a Beretta GT. I'm hopelessly addicted to 90s GM dreck. Turn up the Limp Bizkit!
KEEP ON ROLLIN ROLLIN ROLLIN ROLLIN
Also seeing this trend, and I’m even seeing prices come down on cost-insensitive marketplaces like BringATroonler.
Still need GMT400 and T100 prices to come down to where they should be (3k for a good one 🤣)
Rollin' a Fleetwood, that's how I mac!
You can go your own way.
Good write-up. In 2017 I bought my wife a 2011 ES350 with front collision damage for $7000, put a couple thousand into a new radiator, front bumper, hood, and other miscellany, and it served us well for about three years and 50k miles. I loved that car because it was quiet, comfortable, and the cheapest way into ventilated front seats. It went to my sister in Dallas next but must’ve taken a rock to a radiator hose at some point and overheated the engine. My post-collision repair may have neglected to properly replace the plastic underbody shields.
As someone who learned the “good enough” type of auto maintenance, I wouldn’t ever spend so much on repairs. But I do appreciate reading about people who do - it must be satisfying in a way to maintain at a higher level without simply learning to live with countless quirks. How many of the ES300 issues were mission-critical?
Axles, steering parts, rear shocks and brakes.
Everything else was meant to make sure we didn't drop the engine again in 2025.
If it makes you feel any better, my good friend bought his daughter a 2007 Lexus IS with 4WD for Pennsylvania winters for about $7,000. This happened after she got pulled over in her previously beat-to-shit super cheap Chevrolet Impala that they procured for $1,500. Her car looked like it was driven by someone who cooked meth for a living and I joked it was rolling probable cause.
Well, turns out that wasn't a joke. She didn't get searched because the officer who pulled her over had been trained by her father so he recognized her name and her resemblance to the ol' man. Rather than keep hoping for that kind of luck, he wanted to get her something reliable so he went Lexus.
...and then the list of parts that needed replacing over the next couple of years came in, with labor factored in he spent about $8,000 fixing her $7,000 Lexus.
What you undertook was basically a restoration. "Well, while you're in there..."
I tried to restore a 1970 Chevelle coupe in my driveway. I learned the hard way on that one.
On the plus side, in the end you have a really lovely piece of automotive engineering and they literally don't make them like that anymore. A group of men did man things to make it work again, learning and fellowshipping in the process. Good was contributed to the universe.
But you also see the wisdom in my "Next car I buy is probably gonna be a well maintained Lexus ES" plan. It just makes sense.
Try rebuilding a third-gen Firebird with a blown engine at a rate of about a hundred bucks a week, WHILE you're only a year into your car-guy learning curve.
All I got out of that project was memories and a feeling of having been lied to by Hot Rod magazine.
For me it was the car shows on TNN Saturday mornings. I'll never forgive Stacy David.
hes still doing the same thing and basically has not changed at all
pretty neat
I was just going to mention how much my buddy's little brother spent to repair what he thought was a pretty good 2014ish lexus
"I tried to restore a 1970 Chevelle coupe in my driveway"
everyone and their brother wants to restore a car
then they start it and realize how it can nickel and dime you to death extremely fast and how things like paint and bodywork can get wicked expensive
actually nevermind its everything thats expensive
correct option
That's big city thinkin', right there.
I was tracking the restorations of a couple old Lancias last year and both involved sending them to a specialist in COSTA RICA. And the owners still ended up well into $100-150k just for that part of the resto.
The resulting satisfaction from a job well done and a car that gets fully sorted (or sorted to one's standards) is nice, and good. At 186k, my 08 Outback is getting many of the big/bigger ticket items redone (by me, almost exclusively) that need redoing by such mileage. And fixing other things that were left or neglected. The market in the $5k range (or even a few thousand more) is not great, so better the devil I know...and have fixed up.
The "might As Wells" are a motherfucker to be sure .
-Nate
looks like my 'might as wells' comment hit home here .
I work with an extremely stable but limited budget so payments are out, as a Journeyman Mechanic I can fix most of what ails older vehicles plus I prefer to be the first one in there, nothing quite like finding wood screws jammed into things destroyed beyond repair by the previous cretin .
Last year my physical ailments became glaringly obvious and in the end I was IMO forced to give away two very nice classic cars that ad much more works and parts thrown into them than they'll ever be worth but neither one was operable and I realized I wasn't ever going to touch them again s off they went, selling non running vehicles is hard, even when rust free, nice paint and upholstery, new tires and brakes, clear current title and tags etc., etc. .
God knows I tried, I even offered them here, not a single response .
This is the down side of fixing all those myriad little niggly things that make owning and operating any motor vehicle a serious bleeding hemorrhoid ~ I expect _every_ thing to work as it did when new if not better .
When you have is apart is the best and often _only_ time to properly address those little things .
Yes, Jack _could_ have purchased a lower mileage cream puff but being 20 years old it's always going to be a crapshoot ~ the drunken bitch who lived next door to me for 40 years and harassed me endlessly because I turned her down when she was drunk and horny (ew) died recently leaving behind a 2001 Kia four door sedan with 21,000 miles, her sister said I could have it for $7K ~ sounds great right ? a true "Little Old Lady Car" that had never been smoked in, wrecked nor driven much, the AC was great, spotless upholstery, what's not to like ? .
The car was red and the entire roof was blistering off the clear coat, figure minimum $1,000.00, I didn't want it but my Sweet did .
21,000 miles and 20 years means time for cam bent, drive belts, struts all four corners, major tranny service........ the tire were *just* beginning to dry rot so add in five new good quality tires and suddenly this thing isn't a bargain .
I'm quite sure Jack could have come to L.a. (his work brings him here regularly) and found a clean similar mileage Lexus with NO RUST and likely no more than the same amount of needed repairs for the same or less $ .
All I'd need tp check is crash damage, rust and does the AC work because "it just needs a charge" means the seller damn well knows it needs a _MINIMUM_ of $1,500.00 in AC work......
Just something to think about when you're pondering Jacks wisdom or lack of same .
When it's finished he'll run the wheels off it and bar looping it into a ditch or smacking a coyote (the furry kind) at speed at 0-DARK:30, it'll be fine for several years .
-Nate
As someone who is a true professional in spending money on cars in 'useless' ways, I commend your weekly update! :)
I've spent $34k on a Lexus IS300 in order to sell it for just a tad over $15k on an online auction last year, and I'm currently pouring money at a meteoric rate into my Lexus SC400 in order to build something that Toyota should have but didn't. So, I'll show them....yeah, joke is always on me!
Oh, I'm more than a little interested in this SC400 build. Go on...
Take a look my friend:
https://youtu.be/SQK08LsdD3s
https://youtu.be/gP8hbFC04T8
Those SC400s are great cars, and a T56 is probably about the only thing they needed to make them even better to us enthusiasts.
If you guys would like to follow along my journey of transformation from bone stock to "what if Toyota had done this?", here is the appropriate link:
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/build-threads/1028798-1992-sc400-slicktop-build-thread-blanca.html
Speaking directly about myself, you really have to be a special kind of stupid...errrr...special...errr...yeah, stupid to spend as much money as I have to make my 1992 Lexus SC400 the mechanical equivalent of a 1989 Chevrolet Corvette. But...here we are. :)
I mean, you could have just bought a 4th gen Camaro Z28 or SS with the T56 installed from the factory. Pretty much the same thing. ;)
Wow. Not all heroes wear capes!
I only know how to walk because others ran before me. But, I sure appreciate your kind words.
But, to make more fun of myself...if you've ever heard the old saying "a fool and his money are soon parted", it's me...I'm the fool when it comes to modifying my old Toyotas! :)
Ah yes, a real life "What If?"!
My loser dream is to squish together a 2nd-gen Dodge Stratus R/T, Chrysler Sebring Convertible, and the 6G75 3.8L V6 to have myself a Dodge Stratus R/T 5-speed convertible with maximum N/A power. Dodge never really leaned into these cars (nor did Mitsubishi) and they really lost the following they had during the earlier Eagle Talon / Mitsubishi Eclipse model years. Chalk it up to the dissolution of Diamond Star Motors prior to the model's launch, I guess.
We could have had a Stratus SRT convertible, and I intend to make it happen one day.
Well, you know I can appreciate what you're talking about it more than most. I do hope you can achieve your own special dream in time too.
"You have to be rich to own a cheap car."
That reminds me of when I first got into cars 30 years ago, I'd devour Car Craft (or Camaro Craft, if you prefer), Hot Rod, et al. One of them had a section where they'd showcase a car owned by somebody under the age of 25.
The reason this stuck out is because in this issue, it was a '68 Charger with a 440, supposedly owned by a 23-year-old who'd used it for his daily driver in high school. Allegedly, this guy and his dad had pulled it out of some Utah scrapyard for $200 and did all the work themselves.
Yeah right, a B-body Mopar carcass free-and-clear for 200 late-80s dollars?
Double yeah right, a junkyard that would sell you an entire car AT ALL?
So what's missing here?
Well for starters, assuming this wasn't all horseshit, the article was the usual "just a regular guy with a passion for cars" fluff, conveniently leaving out the near-certainty that the guy's dad was the usual third-generation hot rodder who was on a first-name basis with every machine shop owner, mechanic and body-shop guy in the county. And who also had a fully-equipped barn with lifts, shop air and space to work.
So YES, you CAN do a cheap car. As long as you have the tools, connections and will. Which are the hallmarks of a rich man.
the hot rod 30 under 30 is always fun to see and how the fathers are never mentioned
That, and that in three decades of being into cars, I've almost NEVER read about a first-gen guy who got into cars in college.
I should write a longer post about this, but I got into cars in college, late. I remember cramming projects into late evenings in the apartment garage, and north of a decade of begging, borrowing, and bribing various friends and acquaintances garages for space to use while I wrenched on shit.
Having said that, finally having a barn that cost about as much as a used Mulsanne to put together is a huge enabler for owning cheap cars.
'Having said that, finally having a barn that cost about as much as a used Mulsanne to put together is a huge enabler for owning cheap cars.'
And cheap motorcycles!
You see this in those woodworking videos and TikToks, “my wife wanted a new $4k buffet, I made it with $250 worth of wood!” Yeah, and $10k+ of woodshop tools.
Ah yes Scott ;
But then will you ever know it was DONE RIGHT ? .
-Nate
(you're welcome)
"When you go to have your car fixed, you never know if they've done a bad job. Whereas if you do it yourself, you're sure."
- Red Green
Sadly I only learned about Red Green a few years back when someone sent me a link to where he mounted a toilet on the hood of some old junker and they thought of me .
-Nate
Also : if it isn't broken, fix it until it is .
-Nate
All 300 episodes are on YouTube in their entirety!
"If the women don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy."
And just what is wrong with that logic? Every project needs at least one new tool.
Many years ago there was a tool shop in the west Loop of Chicago. I was in there for some reason and they had a literal wall of wood chisels from the size of a telephone pole - I exaggerate slightly - on down to smaller than a pencil. It was at that time I realized that a woodworking hobby was likely as much about the tools as it was about the woodworking.
Tool lust is worse than car (or boat) lust.
BOAT - Break Out Another Thousand.
20+ years ago my company was acquired by another and as part of the transition our payroll was converted from 2x a month to every other week. Every other week resulted in having a three paycheck month twice a year. For the first couple of years that meant I was driving to the land of no sales tax that month and spending close to the entire paycheck at the tool shop. Was always fun to see how quickly in the day I'd get the anti-fraud phone call from my credit card company.
Sir, rather than buy new tools I am going to pay some guy to rebuild my front forks.
Where do I turn my man card in?
Keep the card. there are instances where it's worth the money to go to a professional. I say motorcycle suspension tuning is one of those instances - it's always struck me as something approaching a black art.
* Looks around the garage at the $10k+ of woodshop tools...*
But I don't want to build a buffet.
Wait. You spent $170 on those floor mats?
You’re kidding, right?
Well he did get “two” for that price.
I got four!
Made in the USA. They're really decent. I was looking for something more amusing than the usual WeatherTechs.
That’s fair. I was amused when I saw them :)
? Lloyd ? .
I used to get them for my old Mercedes'........
-Nate
They still make Coco Mats, and you can get them in green! https://cocomats.com/checker-mats/
well, to be fair, they really tie the car together
This mirrors my experience owning one of these, virtually identical 2001 ES300 for about 7 years, 2012-2019 from 90k miles up to 180k. I didn't fix everything at once, but put some money into it over time as needed. And because I am me, I bought a new shift lever and had the wheel recovered. And swapped in a set of the optional HIDs, the halogens were so bad...and sourced and installed the Nakamichi stereo bits. It was a nice car, durable exterior and interior that cleaned up nice, my various passengers were continually surprised it was a 2001 in such nice shape.
It wasn't particularly cheap to run, old cars still need fixing even a fancy Toyota Camry. Any OEM parts were not cheap. And the aftermarket parts are of questionable quality. Owning this car made me question the economics of owning an old car for the long haul when your only choice in repair seems to be cheap aftermarket junk that lasts a year or two, or buy the known quality OEM parts for occasionally heart stopping prices, e.g $400 alternator, $1400 brake booster, the steering wheel? $2300. I did most of the repairs myself. If I was short on time, any stop at the Toyota or Lexus dealer was minimum $1000.
I have trouble reconciling the absolute price competitiveness of Toyota and Lexus with the insane pricing of the parts. Is it some kind of Gilette razor model?
So, the best guess I have is that it's a Japanese Industrial thing.
Whoever supplies Toyota with parts has a deal to sell them to Toyota, and that's it. Or Lexus.
So you have Toyota OE and various rockauto brands selling parts. If the aftermarket doesn't make something, you're hosed at the dealer.
In contrast: all the European OEs (or at least my experience with BMW and jagrover). OE parts are available, and the OE supplier will continue selling the part for half the price. Then you have other European tier 1s also selling aftermarket parts, but with a quality level well above the Chinese.
So where something silly like a ride height sensor is $500 from Toyota, it's likely still $50 if you need one for a BMW.
There are a few exceptions I've seen to this, but it's usually weird shit like BMW OE 2-piece rotors you can't get aftermarket anywhere.
"all the European OEs (or at least my experience with BMW and jagrover). OE parts are available, and the OE supplier will continue selling the part for half the price."
My Giulia would like a word.
I kid. It's been (knock wood) trouble free. But there are NO parts anywhere on Earth for it. I've been waiting 6mos for warranty replacements for little brackets inside my mirrors (they rattle sometimes when closing the doors).
The 2.0t is the same one Jeep uses though right? So at least there's that...
In most regards, yeah.
But believe me, it didn't matter that the 1.4T in my 500 Abarth was in a slew of Darts, Renegades, etc... if you needed anything related to the Multi-Air brick, you were SOL forever.
Interesting to know that the Italians still havent figured out US parts warehousing
My friend waited almost 4 months for a Stelvio windshield.
Honestly, I don't get it. Shouldn't be that hard, but maybe I'm missing something.
I've wondered about this, for example there are many chassis parts you can buy, parts from ATE, Lemforder, Bilstein etc. for my Volvo in European aftermarket parts shops. The OE parts, but distributed outside the mfr. You can't buy those parts in the US anywhere but Volvo dealer. I don't know what the difference is, must be something about our dealer model and the franchise agreements?
I think it is a franchise thing. I have bought non OE branded parts from OE suppliers that have parts numbers and logos defaced off for sale.
Jag upper control arms I just bought were clearly ground where the Jaguar logo is on the casting
Have you checked FCPeuro?
Or more, if we have to overnight parts from Sweden
If you are an OEM parts operation, and you only have 2 years stock of a part for old cars, but your goal is to have 5 years on hand...I hear one way to "solve" that is double the price of the parts ;-)
Its exactly the aircraft model - all the profit is in aftermarket servicing, repair and parts.
$2200+ for an OEM catalytic convertor for my older Outback. No way. $200-500 aftermarket cats are a minefield. Ponied up $800 for a Magnaflow unit (OEM-like with primaries snaking into a specifically-placed catalyst, O2 pickups, and flange) that I had to pull two weeks later and modify to make it flow properly and get back those missing ponies. Works great now, and it allowed me to find two severed grounding straps that I believe now have cured my year-long CEL ghost misfire code struggle. I LOVE CARS AND SAVING MONEY...RIGHT???