2021 GX 460 Premium, 31k miles, bought blind through Lake Park Auto Connection, Colorado bank yard to Fargo

rachel asked me to write this up properly since i keep dropping pieces of it in other threads. fair warning, it is long, i am a hockey mom and i talk.

us: two adults, two boys, 8 and 11, both in hockey, a cabin on Pelican Lake with a 16 foot Lund on a trailer. i was driving a 2014 Highlander with 168,000 miles and a transmission that shifted like it was thinking about something else. we wanted a real third row, a frame, and something that would pull the boat and a load of firewood without complaining. i test drove a GX 460 at the Lexus store in Maplewood in june and that was that. the trim we wanted was a 2021 Premium, and every one within 300 miles with 30 to 40k on it was priced between 49,900 and 52,500. the Toyota store here in Fargo had one on the lot for 51 and would not move.

my husband found the listing. he had typed "gx 460 repo" into google late one night and the second result was lakeparkautoconnection.com. neither of us had heard of it. their office is out on US-10 about an hour east of us, so on a saturday in july we drove over with the boys to see if it was real. it is a small office, no cars on the lot, and the woman at the desk explained the whole thing in ten minutes: they are a broker for banks that have repossessed vehicles, the vehicles stay wherever the bank stores them, you bid once, sealed, you never see anyone else's number, high bid wins, no buyer's premium, and they truck it to you. she did not push. she said go home and read the listing terms, and if you have questions call.

the listing was a 2021 GX 460 Premium, Nebula Gray Pearl, black leather, 31,208 miles, sitting at a lender storage yard outside Denver. about sixty photos. underside, tires with a tread gauge in the shot, the door jamb sticker, the dash with the mileage, the engine bay, a short video of it starting cold and the KDSS not leaning. the listing itself said, in plain words, "curb rash on front passenger wheel" and "one key." i asked for photos of the timing cover area after reading the thread on this board and had them the next afternoon. i ran my own carfax off the VIN. one owner, Colorado, serviced at a Lexus store in Denver through 25k, no accidents.

i was more scared of the outfit in lake park being fake than i was of the truck. so we went and stood in the office. that fixed it for me. ask whatever you want, i kept every email.

guilty, i skipped the number on purpose because it embarrasses me a little. sent you the six, thank you.

a blind bid is strange the first time. there is no "current bid" ticking up, there is a starting number on the listing and a box, and you put one number in the box. we had already lost one. in july we bid 40,500 on a 2020 GX 460 Premium with 44k in Arizona and two days later got a short email saying somebody else had it. no figure, no chance to go again, that truck was gone. so going into this one i knew 40 was too low for a truck this clean, and i knew dealers wanted 50.

what we did: priced the three closest dealer trucks, looked at what private party listings were asking on the GX groups, and picked a number that made the truck worth it to us with no premium, no doc fee, and no shipping bill on top. 44,000 was the ceiling. i bid 43,650 because 44 felt like a number other people would pick and 43,650 felt like mine. that is not science, i know.

we bid on a friday. the email saying we won came the next tuesday at 4:12 in the afternoon. the invoice was 43,650.00, nothing added, which i checked twice because i did not believe it. wired it thursday morning from Bell Bank. delivery is free within 1,000 miles of their office, and the lender yard outside Denver to Fargo is about 860 by road, so nothing there either.

it came on an enclosed two car carrier and landed in our cul de sac on day 16 from the wire. the lake park listing says about 14 days in the US, so they were a couple days over. i was not mad, but i was looking out the window a lot on day 15. paperwork and the delivery itself in another post, somebody is going to ask about the title.

spreadsheet_shopper wrotewhat does the listing actually give you beyond photos, is there a written condition report or is it "sixty photos, good luck"?

photos, the VIN, the mileage, the equipment list, and a written condition section. ours was short but specific: the wheel rash, one key, "light wear driver seat bolster," tire tread depths written out per corner. i would call it a description more than a report. the two flaws on our truck were both in it, so nothing surprised us on the driveway. you can and should ask for more photos of anything, i asked for three specific areas and had them the next day.

spreadsheet_shopper wroteif two people put in the same number, who gets it?

i asked that exact thing on the phone and i honestly do not remember the answer well enough to repeat it here. i think it was whoever bid first, but call them and ask, do not take it from me.

spreadsheet_shopper wrotewas there ever an actual person on the other end who knew the truck?

a person, yes, twice on the phone plus the saturday in the office, and no phone menu either time. someone who knew the truck, not really, and that is worth understanding. the lake park people cannot tell you more about the truck than the listing says, because they do not own it and it is not sitting in front of them, they were clear about that. what they can do is get the yard to take another photo or start it on video. the two things i read three times before bidding were the 30 day money back guarantee, which covers a lot that was materially misrepresented, and the 6 month or 10,000 mile limited warranty on vehicles. i figured if the mileage or the title or the condition turned out to be a lie, the 30 days was my out, and if something big broke early, the 6 months was there. neither one covers a truck you just changed your mind about, and it should not.

title and paper. an envelope showed up three days after the wire with four things in it. the Colorado title, which still had the lender printed on the face as lienholder. a one page release from that lender, signed, quoting the VIN, saying the lien was satisfied. the bill of sale, where the seller line was the bank and a second line named Lake Park Auto Connection as broker, not seller. and the odometer statement. the site's terms say the lender releases every lien before anything transfers, and the envelope matched that. my husband is a belt and suspenders person, so he found the bank's recovery department through the bank's own website rather than trusting a phone number printed on a letter, and a man there read the VIN back to him and confirmed the release.

ND motor vehicle in Fargo took 25 minutes. the woman at the counter looked at the broker line on the bill of sale, looked at the lien release, said "okay," and charged us 5 percent excise on 43,650, which is 2,182.50, plus 142 for plates and the title. nobody sent us home.

delivery. the driver called the night before from somewhere in Nebraska and again that morning. my husband met him at the end of the cul de sac because the enclosed trailer was not going to make the turn. driver backed the truck down the ramp himself, walked around it with my husband, and had him check the odometer before signing the delivery sheet. listing said 31,208, it arrived with 31,231, the yard had moved it a few times. that sheet says you inspected it on arrival, so look at it before you sign, that is the moment.

the two flaws. the curb rash on the front passenger wheel is exactly what the photo showed, a wheel repair place in West Fargo fixed it for 165 and you cannot find it now. the second fob: the Lexus store in Wayzata quoted 400 for the fob, the cut and the programming. the Toyota store here said they could do it for 385 but had to order the fob, about a week. we went with the Toyota store because it is ten minutes away. neither of those went anywhere near the warranty, they were in the listing and we knew what we were bidding on.

check in since a few people asked. 33,640 on the odometer, so about 2,400 of ours, most of it rink to rink and two trips to the cabin to pull the dock and the boat. first real snow was the 14th and the GX in 4H on the winters is a different animal from the Highlander. the service history dan pulled matched the carfax, 5k, 10k, 15k, 20k and 25k all at the same Denver store, nothing since 25k, so we did an oil change and a diff fluid change the first week to reset the clock.

second fob programmed, wheel fixed, KDSS sitting level, no film on the cover. the misrepresentation guarantee from lake park auto connection ran out in september and we never had a reason to use it. what i still do not know is what this truck does on a morning that starts with a minus sign and a two, so expect one more post from me when that happens.

UPDATE, the cold snap, and the one thing that went wrong. wednesday morning was minus 21 at our house. the GX cranked slow, slow enough that i thought it was not going to catch, then it did. i drove it straight to the parts store on 13th avenue and had them test the battery: original 2021 battery, 48 percent of rated cold cranking amps. it had been living on borrowed time since colorado and the cold found it. new group 27F battery, 219 installed, and thursday at minus 18 it started like it was july.

i called the warranty number to ask, mostly to see what they would say. the woman was straight with me: a battery is a wear item and it is not covered under the 6 month warranty. that is the answer i expected and i would rather hear it plainly than be strung along. so, for anyone keeping score, the warranty did not pay for anything on our truck, because nothing it covers has broken.

total out of pocket since the truck landed, not counting oil and fluids: 165 for the wheel, 385 for the fob, 219 for the battery. 769 dollars on a 43,650 dollar truck in four months. 34,100 miles on it now.

would we do it again. for a Lexus with a clean carfax and a dealer service history, yes, and i would bid the same kind of number, not more. for a German truck out of warranty, i would think a lot harder, because the 769 could have been 3,000 without anyone lying to me. and i would still drive to lake park and stand in the office first, because that saturday is what let me sleep the night after the wire.