Short answer is that 400 hours is not a lot for a Toyota Epic. There are plenty of users on this site with 1000 hours or more on their boats without any serious issues. The 4.0L Toyota V8 in the Epics is rock solid. It runs super smooth and provides a ton of power for pulling skiers or just cruising around.
As far as the boat you are looking at in DFW, I highly recommend finding someone familiar with inboard boats to give the boat a look over. I also wouldn't ever buy a boat without taking it out on the water to run in through the paces. Running the engine on a hose is not enough to give you the confidence to buy. The price on this one is really low so you really want to make sure the drivetrain is in order, hull hasn't been damaged, or other serious issues. Typically a good V-drive boat like this with a tower will bring $20k+.
The parts situation isn't as bad as it sounds. Capt. Rick still has many OEM Toyota parts in stock here on the website and many of the marine parts are common to other inboards and can be found just by googling around. The Toyota engine is a marinized 1UZ-FE which was also found in a 1999 Lexus GS400 so some of the engine parts that are not marine specific can be crossreferenced with it and picked up through tradional auto parts channels.
Last thing is the guages that are broken. I think nearly every Epic owner has had issues with their guages at some point in time. There's plenty of info about fixes on this forum and in the maintenance section and I'm sure you'll be able to get them fixed. I wouldn't let this alone deter you from making the purchase.
Good luck, boating season is just around the corner !
