I'm blessed to be alive. Long post alert. (The Questionable Garage on YT made me make all the questionable choices here...or at least that's my excuse.)
The overall timeline for this vehicle purchase is 24 hours. Left the driveway at ~15:45 and pulled back in at 16:05 the next day...
Definitely an experience I'll remember for the rest of my life. And today is Friday the 13th, so by 10:00 it will be my 1st full day of owning this car. Jason must be happy.
It all started with a local family needing a reliable minivan, after their Kia Rondo V6 became undrivable, after sucking the wallets dry in countless random repairs over the past couple years. So, since my Odyssey was mostly used as a cargo van - I unfolded the 2nd & 3rd row seats back up, cleaned it up, and sold it to that family for less than what it would cost them to get the Kia Rondo back on the road. They're happy, I'm happy. Pay it forward any chance you get, it feels great after the fact. And sometimes good karma will pat ya on the shoulder with a reward later in life.
Anyways, this^ put me right back in the market for a daily driver on a small budget. My wife has the Pilot, and I had two scooters. After a quick search I found a 2003 Lexus GS300, with 167k miles, mismatched wheels and a few other cosmetic issues. (Good negotiation points.) Worked out the deal on trading 2007 Yamaha Vino 125cc + $$$$ for that Lexus. (That scoot is a Vespa clone, but actually reliable.) That's when I got the address and realized it's 175 miles away. My math told me I can make it there on the scooter before dark at 50-60MPH. So a few mins later myself and my trusty Ruger P94 were rolling out the driveway.
First couple hours were beautiful. 110 miles down with clear skies, wind therapy at 50MPH, and less than 2 gallons of fuel used so far. Life is great! That's when skies opened up, and my tires on 10" wheels decided that 50MPH was too much in the wet conditions. Had to drop the speed to 30-35MPH. Since I was taking backroads all the way through - there wasn't much traffic. And if anyone was slowed down by me - I quickly pulled over to let them pass. Night came swiftly, I found myself deep in South Carolina game lands with barely any traffic, barely any population, and LOTS of roadkill. Mostly deer, with occasional skunks, opossums, and even one coyote. I kept riding and praying for no encounter with animals and no sideways action on that scoot. Although it kept trying to kill me, while the rain was playing tricks on my vision and fogging up glasses and helmet. Regrets were forming hard, but I was in the middle of nowhere, 2/3 of the way to my destination, and just had to keep pushing.
Then a bump, bike dies, and everything becomes eerily quiet and pitch black as I roll to a complete stop in the grass. Miraculously it happened next to random 4 houses, after many miles of nothing but cotton fields and thick forest. Looked in my fuel tank, something was splashing on the bottom, but I figured it was too low, since the bike refused to start back up. Houses and front yards looked well groomed, so I risked knocking on the doors in search of fuel. Turned out all of those were elderly folks. 1st house no reply. 2nd no luck either. 3rd - granny was scared of some white boy showing up at her doorstep at 8pm (pitch black outside), so she didn't open, but through the window she pointed to the last house across.
The older gentleman in that house likely saved my life. He volunteered to go get some fuel for me (yes, I compensated him for the trouble). By the time he got back with fuel - I was on the side of that road for an hour. With only my cellphone as a flashlight and 30% battery life... ~20 cars flew by, I tried to flag down every single one for help, and only one truck slowed down to yell at me "go f yourself white boy!"
At that point the older gentleman got back and I refilled the fuel tank. Starter kept spinning, but nothing was happening. Now, finally, police pulled up. With a proper flashlight of his I started removing scooter plastics on the side of the road, to get to to the spark plug and/or carburetor. Issue revealed itself quick - on the recent bump the spark plug wire jumped off the spark plug. Secured it back on, reinstalled plastics, and little Yamaha purred to life again! Yay!
The gentleman from the house and the police officer both told me that I am deep in the deer country, it's raining hard, and with 65 miles to go I am on a suicide mission. I agreed, but had no choice. It's 21:30 at this point, as I slowly pull away from these kind human beings in the middle of nowhere.
These last 65 miles took 2.5hrs. The seller of the Lexus stopped replying to my messages around 22:00, he fell asleep. I don't blame him. Soaking wet I arrived at the earlier agreed location to find no Lexus there. Wrote another message to the seller, and went to the Waffle House to refresh, dry off, and charge my phone. Lots of foot traffic at Waffle House after midnight, from all walks of life. From myself on the 125cc scooter, to a well dressed guy in a widebody Hellcat, and about 40 people in between. Around 01:00 the seller woke up and we agreed to meet in the morning. I got a hotel room, took a shower, and was asleep by 02:30ish. This was the cleanest hotel by far, out of all hotels I have ever stayed yet. Aged, but well taken care of. At $120 it is worth every penny and more.
Woke up, checked out, enjoyed "free" breakfast with OJ, somehow that was the first time I even considered snapping a picture this whole time.
Then I went back into the rain, which hasn't stopped since the previous evening. Finally met up with the seller, negotiated some more, and shook hands.
The ride back revealed a few issues. Mismatched Toyota wheels are out of balance, so I was limited to 60MPH on cruise control. Rear shocks are non-existent. Thermostat is either missing or stuck open, as temps take a while to build and float on the lower end afterwards. Which causes to ECU to engage the "heat up" cycle, aka rich burn mode. That rich condition seems to have killed the upstream o2 sensor for the cylinders 4/5/6. Which in turn makes it run even more rich... RIP cat converters, assuming they are still present. Knock sensor is dead too.
I started the trip with topping off the fuel tank, and now after VCS and ABS lights are permanently lit, CEL goes on/off as it pleases. Thankfully oil stays in the crankcase, and coolant stays in it's own system, so head gasket must be good. ATF is darker shade of red, but I've seen worse, and it doesn't smell burned up. Shifts good and smooth. I got my work cut out for me with this thing.
Trip to the car was 175 backroad miles and took ~8 hours. Trip back home was 230 highway miles and ~4 hours. No regrets. Yet...
As Jared from The Questionable Garage (or Wrench Every Day for the OGs) says: "Make questionable choices."
The overall timeline for this vehicle purchase is 24 hours. Left the driveway at ~15:45 and pulled back in at 16:05 the next day...
Definitely an experience I'll remember for the rest of my life. And today is Friday the 13th, so by 10:00 it will be my 1st full day of owning this car. Jason must be happy.
It all started with a local family needing a reliable minivan, after their Kia Rondo V6 became undrivable, after sucking the wallets dry in countless random repairs over the past couple years. So, since my Odyssey was mostly used as a cargo van - I unfolded the 2nd & 3rd row seats back up, cleaned it up, and sold it to that family for less than what it would cost them to get the Kia Rondo back on the road. They're happy, I'm happy. Pay it forward any chance you get, it feels great after the fact. And sometimes good karma will pat ya on the shoulder with a reward later in life.
Anyways, this^ put me right back in the market for a daily driver on a small budget. My wife has the Pilot, and I had two scooters. After a quick search I found a 2003 Lexus GS300, with 167k miles, mismatched wheels and a few other cosmetic issues. (Good negotiation points.) Worked out the deal on trading 2007 Yamaha Vino 125cc + $$$$ for that Lexus. (That scoot is a Vespa clone, but actually reliable.) That's when I got the address and realized it's 175 miles away. My math told me I can make it there on the scooter before dark at 50-60MPH. So a few mins later myself and my trusty Ruger P94 were rolling out the driveway.
First couple hours were beautiful. 110 miles down with clear skies, wind therapy at 50MPH, and less than 2 gallons of fuel used so far. Life is great! That's when skies opened up, and my tires on 10" wheels decided that 50MPH was too much in the wet conditions. Had to drop the speed to 30-35MPH. Since I was taking backroads all the way through - there wasn't much traffic. And if anyone was slowed down by me - I quickly pulled over to let them pass. Night came swiftly, I found myself deep in South Carolina game lands with barely any traffic, barely any population, and LOTS of roadkill. Mostly deer, with occasional skunks, opossums, and even one coyote. I kept riding and praying for no encounter with animals and no sideways action on that scoot. Although it kept trying to kill me, while the rain was playing tricks on my vision and fogging up glasses and helmet. Regrets were forming hard, but I was in the middle of nowhere, 2/3 of the way to my destination, and just had to keep pushing.
Then a bump, bike dies, and everything becomes eerily quiet and pitch black as I roll to a complete stop in the grass. Miraculously it happened next to random 4 houses, after many miles of nothing but cotton fields and thick forest. Looked in my fuel tank, something was splashing on the bottom, but I figured it was too low, since the bike refused to start back up. Houses and front yards looked well groomed, so I risked knocking on the doors in search of fuel. Turned out all of those were elderly folks. 1st house no reply. 2nd no luck either. 3rd - granny was scared of some white boy showing up at her doorstep at 8pm (pitch black outside), so she didn't open, but through the window she pointed to the last house across.
The older gentleman in that house likely saved my life. He volunteered to go get some fuel for me (yes, I compensated him for the trouble). By the time he got back with fuel - I was on the side of that road for an hour. With only my cellphone as a flashlight and 30% battery life... ~20 cars flew by, I tried to flag down every single one for help, and only one truck slowed down to yell at me "go f yourself white boy!"
At that point the older gentleman got back and I refilled the fuel tank. Starter kept spinning, but nothing was happening. Now, finally, police pulled up. With a proper flashlight of his I started removing scooter plastics on the side of the road, to get to to the spark plug and/or carburetor. Issue revealed itself quick - on the recent bump the spark plug wire jumped off the spark plug. Secured it back on, reinstalled plastics, and little Yamaha purred to life again! Yay!
The gentleman from the house and the police officer both told me that I am deep in the deer country, it's raining hard, and with 65 miles to go I am on a suicide mission. I agreed, but had no choice. It's 21:30 at this point, as I slowly pull away from these kind human beings in the middle of nowhere.
These last 65 miles took 2.5hrs. The seller of the Lexus stopped replying to my messages around 22:00, he fell asleep. I don't blame him. Soaking wet I arrived at the earlier agreed location to find no Lexus there. Wrote another message to the seller, and went to the Waffle House to refresh, dry off, and charge my phone. Lots of foot traffic at Waffle House after midnight, from all walks of life. From myself on the 125cc scooter, to a well dressed guy in a widebody Hellcat, and about 40 people in between. Around 01:00 the seller woke up and we agreed to meet in the morning. I got a hotel room, took a shower, and was asleep by 02:30ish. This was the cleanest hotel by far, out of all hotels I have ever stayed yet. Aged, but well taken care of. At $120 it is worth every penny and more.
Woke up, checked out, enjoyed "free" breakfast with OJ, somehow that was the first time I even considered snapping a picture this whole time.
Then I went back into the rain, which hasn't stopped since the previous evening. Finally met up with the seller, negotiated some more, and shook hands.
The ride back revealed a few issues. Mismatched Toyota wheels are out of balance, so I was limited to 60MPH on cruise control. Rear shocks are non-existent. Thermostat is either missing or stuck open, as temps take a while to build and float on the lower end afterwards. Which causes to ECU to engage the "heat up" cycle, aka rich burn mode. That rich condition seems to have killed the upstream o2 sensor for the cylinders 4/5/6. Which in turn makes it run even more rich... RIP cat converters, assuming they are still present. Knock sensor is dead too.
I started the trip with topping off the fuel tank, and now after VCS and ABS lights are permanently lit, CEL goes on/off as it pleases. Thankfully oil stays in the crankcase, and coolant stays in it's own system, so head gasket must be good. ATF is darker shade of red, but I've seen worse, and it doesn't smell burned up. Shifts good and smooth. I got my work cut out for me with this thing.
Trip to the car was 175 backroad miles and took ~8 hours. Trip back home was 230 highway miles and ~4 hours. No regrets. Yet...
As Jared from The Questionable Garage (or Wrench Every Day for the OGs) says: "Make questionable choices."
Last edited:
You gonna double your profits with all the loopholes and lenient-ish cops over here! Jk. I think I honestly just got real lucky. I'm sure that if I didn't have proof of insurance - the outcome of that traffic stop would've been different. And I'm still surprised at the miracle of not having a single police car line up behind me, considering I was in the right lane the whole time, going the same 60MPH as big rigs. With a few of those big rigs passing me... Rest of the traffic was at 70-90MPH in 1-4 lanes to the left of me.
