Not much been going on lately but did want to update you on something car related… Over the past few weeks I’ve been searching for a winter beater to get me around this year. I was originally going to take the Civic back from my sister to use again but realized that lugging a car seat/stroller/child around in a 2-door is not practical, nor is it easy. I’ve been doing that during the weekdays with the FRS – which is about 8.4x more difficult than the Civic and I already hate it. I can’t imagine doing it all winter while it’s cold.

During my searches, I had specific criteria – nothing too narrow but nothing so wide that any old thing would do. The top contenders were the RX, 4Runner, MDX, RDX, and an X3. I came across a few RX’s, very rarely a nice 4Runner without a million KM’s on it would show, MDX’s and RDX’s were a rare sight – especially if you wanted a nice body and clean interior, and finally X3’s were surprisingly cheapest of the bunch but 150,000+km’s on a BMW scares me a little bit. I often complained over Instagram about how no one has a good car, and if they had a good car, they never replied to ads. It is a painful, painful process as I’m sure some of you might know.

Late last week, Howard Lum – a fellow social media friend messaged me saying he might have something and that he’d look around. At this moment – this is when stars align and everything happens perfectly – that’s when I knew my search could come to an end. He mentioned that the Service Manager at Royal Oak Lexus was selling his RX. 180,000km, 2006, practically mint, serviced perfectly, and black on black. What more could you ask for other than to come see it and just take it off the guys’ hands?!

Anyway, some back and forth and we finalized the deal earlier this week. I’ll tell you – in my searches, I saw a lot of shit and it’s literal shit. There are RX’s out there that are – according to the ads – “perfect condition” but always come with a clause. “Only one key”. “Windshield crack”. “Needs new brakes and rotors”… Otherwise, “Perfect condition!!”. That annoys me to no end. As most of you car goers are, I tend to be very particular about the condition of the car. You can’t ask much from an 11 year old car, but you CAN ask that the owner cared for it at least half as much as you would and treated it well. This RX was exactly that and more.

The RX itself is a gem. Mechanically – it’s a buyer’s dream car – maintained at the dealership as intended. Everything done to it that’s ever needed to be done. New brakes, rotors, struts, fluids, etc – all with proper documentation backing it up. The worst thing you can do is buy a car that’s never been maintained or maintained poorly by some hack shop.

The exterior though could use some TLC. That’s something that never really bothered me as long as it’s just wear and tear from use. Swirls, hazing, fogged up headlights, etc. I am actually really looking forward to bringing the paint and headlights back into pristine condition. Over the next few weeks, I plan on tackling parts of it here and there and I’ll take pics as I go of the condition it’s in now and to where I am able to get it.

A lot of the car just needs a thorough wash, claybar, polish and wax. The headlights in particular are kind of hazed up from the sun and 11 years of probably little to no polish or sealant. The top part of the headlight is yellow-ing a bit as you can see above.

The bottom part of the headlight is less yellow but pretty fogged up. You can even feel that thick layer of build up as you run your finger over it. I’m stoked on getting this thing wetsanded and polished back up to new.

The body as you can see is pretty much perfect. No dings or dents besides a few here and there on the side mouldings. There’s a bit of orange peel but I haven’t decided if I want go through wetsanding it as well…

The interior looks like it just stepped out of the showroom from 2006. Unlike some of the other cars I looked at, you can tell whenever this thing was driven, it was literally just to sit in it, drive, and get out.

The only real sign of wear is in the drivers seat which you can see here. No big deal either – it’s not something I look at (or can look at) while driving. OEM rubber mats, no nicks in the wood grain. It’s beautiful.

Same thing with the rear – the tail lights could use some polish but other than that – nothing.

You can see in this pic, the rear quarter needs a polish pretty badly. That’s pretty much what the whole car looks like – not terrible, but not like the FRS lol. Mind you, the FRS hasn’t been washed since Sunday School and it’s still shinier than the clean RX LOL!

It’s actually super exciting for me to have both the FRS and the RX beside each other in the garage right now. I’ve been wanting an RX for a really long time – but just never cared to look into one. This has also been my Dad’s dream car so maybe when I’m done with it, he can live his dream too…