Damn.  You almost can’t not afford to buy that car.  What is it about full-size luxury and catastrophic depreciation?

That LS is probably an 8 out of 10, which I’m betting is roughly the same condition of this ES when you actually get to see it in meatspace.

Not sure what current pricing looks like, but yeah, I’d hazard you could buy a comparable German car and have money to spare, aka spend over at ECS or FCP.

You’re telling me. It’s a total steal, and looks at least as clean as the NPoND car, with similar mileage. If I could justify it, I’d be on a plane right now but a big luxobarge isn’t something I remotely need. There’s actually a few LS’s at that pricepoint around the country which makes our ES seller completely…

Hmm, could’ve sworn the SC showed up a few years later but damn, 1991 apparently. Not a bad choice but I’ve done that near-luxury GT drug. If I head back into that well, I’d sooner grab another GTO or lose my goddamned mind and get a manual E63 M6. Both of those’ll probably appreciate in value faster, and for the…

Exactly, and as I said, why the hell would I buy that when I could fly on down to Florida, buy this far better notion of old-school Lexus, just keep on truckin’ to the Keys, hang out for a few days, then drive home and still have money left in my pocket? That price isn’t even nostalgia, it’s just plain…

It’s in amazing condition, but for that money I’m willing to bet you could easily find a 6-8 out of 10 example of its contemporary LS 400. If I’m gonna blow a load on an OG Lexus, that’s where the money goes.  No dice.

In another life, one of the wrestling camps I went to back in high school had a belly flop contest off of the high dive platforms. (I actually won.) Speaking from experience, hurts like hell but you absolutely know where and what the fuck is going on.

Obligatory.

Heated seats in northern latitudes are a Godsend come winter, though.

Which is why I compared it to owning a Subaru. So true, not as reliable as a Camry but certainly not the “best friends with all the local tow operators” that some think.

In proper context, this Camry is a deal, and I NP’d it for a Toyota/Radwood collector/enthusiast. As a daily though, as Shane’s discussing in this…

Same here. I was looking at Legacy GTs and newer WRX’s when I made another search at the better half’s behest. (The Subie tax is real.) Stumbled across a super-clean E90 335i xDrive with a manual. Also, it had the generally reliable N55 versus the N54. It was a no brainer.

Right church, wrong pews. The XF10 LS was the apex of Toyota quality, with this car’s successor, the XV10, being peak Camry. Well, unless you want to count the Century, but that’s a whole ‘nother beast. I sometimes wonder if Toyota’s reputation was, at least in part, due to how bad the rest of the auto market was at…

Which makes some of these NPoND’s tough as there are legitimately two answers. When we’re talking from a Toyota fanboy’s perspective, the price makes sense, absolutely. If that was my wheelhouse, I’d probably already have contacted this seller. When we come from the perspective of someone wanting a solid AWD daily,…

I’ve found labor rates are the killer. I wince when people post receipts in the BMW groups. If you can spin a wrench, most common issues are straight-up shadetree mechanic stuff. Just need to get torx and e-torx sockets.

It’s roughly a $700 stretch to that 330xi, which has twice the power, an extra gear, heated leather seats, sunroof, the nifty-adaptive HID headlights. . . and you’d actually survive if some mouth-breather hit you. Do you buy the 1600sqft Queen Anne at 200K or do you buy the 1750sqft recently-renovated Cape with…

Might want to re-evaluate that wrong-ness.

For comparable money, you can’t swing a dead cat without hitting a manual trans, xi/xDrive straight-six Bimmer any given day at that pricepoint. Easy 42 hits nationwide on Car Gurus. And this was just E90s.

I’ve got a few scenarios that make this a nice price: Radwood glory. Toyota fanboy collector on a modest budget. Maaaaaaaaaybe that late stage Millennial/early Zoomer looking for a ‘round town daily that enhances their “quirky normcore” image.

Otherwise, yeah. There is a lot of depreciated Japanese and German AWD iron…

Nice price, if you want a Radwood oddity and/or you’re a Toyota fanboy.

That said, there’s a lot of much newer all-wheel-drive sedans, even with manuals, that can be had for comparable money if you’re looking for a car to actually use.

In this particular case, there seems to be a way around it as they’re virtually the same. I feel there’s a small bit of a blind eye being turned, but there’s a company that federalizes them. Something, something, Holden-chassis-is-a-repair-part. One of those technically correct type deals.

Very, very expensive.

Seriously. All my heavy lifting happens off hours. Given the size of some of these recent game installs. . . Fuck, blowing out 5-10% of your cap in one go. Ouch.

Also annoying: the “pressure” on residential service they’re crying about is going to evaporate shortly as more and more companies go “hey, underlings, get…