I just drove this one this afternoon as I was heavily considering it. Still am, but....
Here are my observations to go along with the previous ones...
Good:
Seems to run & drive tight. Alignment is dead on straight, handling is good, engine fires right over, throttle seems quick, and EVERYTHING seems to be working fine (signals, radio, lights, A/C, switches, power windows & seats, latches, etc..)
Questionable to Bad:
Above mentioned weak rear glass hatch struts. No biggie.
This car has had paint work. I missed the fender lining over spray and the mis-aligned rear bumper cover (as per pics posted earlier above by JS2K), but yes, the front nose has been repainted (seems normal to "pretty-up" the front from regular driving rock chips) but inside the front grill there is definite over-spray (not too professionally done, IMHO).
The entire driver's door, alone, has been repainted for whatever unknown reason. I could very clearly compare the front fender and driver's rear quarter reflections to the driver's door and tell that the door suffered from major "orange-peel", as opposed to the crystal-clear reflection of the other body panels. This is obviously from not being properly color-sanded after painting...it looked like a brand new Corvette does in the Chevy showroom...
Driver's side rear wheel rim has been repainted as evidenced by the obvious showing of silver paint over-spray on the rear brake caliper. Again, not done too professionally.
Driver's side inside plastic ivory door sill had been repainted and showed lots of scratches showing about 50% of the paint having already come off. Upon moving the driver's seat all the way forward, I could see ivory paint over-spray on the seat rail. Again, not professionally done.
While I was down there viewing the seat rail over-spray, I also noticed two distinct cigarette burn marks in the carpet along side the driver's seat between the door sill & the seat edge. It didn't smell like a smoker's car, but still, not good.
I was informed that the PPI done by a previous potential buyer ("Booyah" here on prime) only turned up that the timing belt was needed simply due to age, not mileage. The seller said that they had no records and no idea about the clutch ever being done. Not sure why a previous poster read that the then-current auction around early December stated "TIMING BELT CHANGED, AND CLUTCH UPDATE". The stories don't seem to follow here.
Last thing was a very small (mini hail-sized) ding at 12 o'clock on the passenger front fender...along with a few minor nicks that had been clearly painted over, but still were visible when focused on.
Previous eBay auction question posted from bidder, and answered by buyer: when buyer was offered $22K for the car, they replied that they "own it for $25,297" & couldn't take $22K. Current "buy-it-now" on eBay is $24,700...
Last curiosity: seller stated that this car originated in Pennsylvania (I think they said Philly), yet there was a pre-owned dealer window sticker in the glove box from 54,141 miles (current mileage is 55,619...so almost 1,500 miles ago) showing that the car was in inventory & offered for sale by a Lexus dealer in Margate, Florida...& the Lexus store was so high on drugs that they had this car listed at $41K & some change!
Note: current eBay auction states 55,028 miles. Apparently there has been 600+ miles of test drives lately
The after-market stereo wasn't bad, but I'd rip it out asap & dump it on eBay in favor of a stock unit. Also seems to have been some kind of car phone system in the car at one time from the panel & buttons inset into the coin tray by the shifter...
Over-all, not a bad car, and certainly a beautiful color combo on a low-mileage & clean(er) example. All that said & all things considered, I would probably take it for the right price.
This would make a great daily driver. I just wish there were some answers to explain all the paint work...
