Friend of Hooniverse Mack Hogan reviews a lot of cool stuff over at Road & Track. And when he’s not doing that, he’s driving his own older stuff. One of those older things just went down though, and Hogan isn’t ready to pay the money necessary to keep it rolling. But maybe you might be… because it’s a 2004 Lexus LX470 with 196,000 miles on the odometer, and a suspension issue in the rear.

The 2004 LX is from the second generation of our luxed-up Lexus version of the Toyota Land Cruiser. That would originally be the 80-Series Land Cruiser, which gave way to the 100-Series upon which this LX470 is derived. And this one specifically is fitted with the Adjustable Height Control system which raises and lowers the LX as needed. This is where the problem with Mack’s Lexus lies.

I will let Mack say what’s going on in his own words:

It’s a 2004 LX470 with 196,000 miles on it. There are service records through 2019, then again starting when I bought it in late 2021 (so just one oil change since). No other lights on, just passed California emissions, only other issue is some grease once came out of the CV axle when I climbed a rock but nothing was busted on inspection. Has driven cross country this year. Shop reports that a hose connecting to the rear AHC shock split and that caused the leak, but it means AHC is not holding pressure. You can probably rig a solution by fixing the leak, but the shop doesn’t want to jerry rig and I’m not smart enough for it.

Paint is good, some bumper rash though and a crack on the right rear bumper. Paint in good condition otherwise, bit of underbody rust as shown in pictures. Tear in driver’s seat.

Mack Hogan via Twitter Messaging

So what we have here is an otherwise extremely clean truck, albeit one with high miles. But that amount of mileage on a fancy Land Cruiser does not scare me even a little bit. A repair to the AHC, however, could prove costly. It might be an easy enough fix to get it to a good driving height, and then seal it all up to hold that height, before fixing it properly down the road.

Or you can delete the AHC completely:

Whatever path you choose, fixing or deleting, you’ll wind up with a super capable truck with plenty of factory and aftermarket parts support. And this might be your chance to get one for far less than others on the market. Mack isn’t sure what it’s worth in this shape. So I offered to post this here and see what everyone thinks.