Toyota Celsior (import)

[Ron Clarkson]

Bought this fabulous 2001 car just 2 years ago and was horrified at the insurance quote.   It was about 4 times the price of Lexus insurance all for the same car !!!

The car is 2001  but looks , feels and drives like new with just over 60k miles  (in KMS)  but is almost valueless  due to being an import and the insurance cost is about what its worth today.  

Does anybody have any ideas how I can insure this lovely beast , even just RTA  or TPO  just to keep it on the road at reasonable cost please ?

Any help or advice will be gratefully received.

Kind regards,

Ron Clarkson

[messi]

Try Brentacre, they insure imports or even Chris knott. But stay clear of Adrian Flux

[The-Acre]

57 minutes ago, Ron Clarkson said:

Bought this fabulous 2001 car just 2 years ago and was horrified at the insurance quote.   It was about 4 times the price of Lexus insurance all for the same car !!!

The car is 2001  but looks , feels and drives like new with just over 60k miles  (in KMS)  but is almost valueless  due to being an import and the insurance cost is about what its worth today.  

Does anybody have any ideas how I can insure this lovely beast , even just RTA  or TPO  just to keep it on the road at reasonable cost please ?

Any help or advice will be gratefully received.

Kind regards,

Ron Clarkson

Try this company, they insure my Celsior and it cost the same for this year as last year, £295 fully comp with low excess, I've found them very helpful.

 

[Malc]

insuring imports has been a problem for some guys for decades ............,  I remember as a car dealer all those aoens ago the trouble some customers seemed to encounter

BUT there's always been a simple solution ..  trawl the market .......  the market really does want to insure imports you know, someone somewhere does anyway 

Malc

[Malc]

just out of interest ....  does anyone know the cost of a dash conversion from km to mph ?  .........  ( heaven forbid that I'm looking at one now  ......  just out of what's probably idle interest ............ a 1999 year car they say !  )

Malc

[Ron Clarkson]

1 hour ago, messi said:

Try Brentacre, they insure imports or even Chris knott. But stay clear of Adrian Flux

Many thanks.

[Ron Clarkson]

23 minutes ago, Malc said:

insuring imports has been a problem for some guys for decades ............,  I remember as a car dealer all those aoens ago the trouble some customers seemed to encounter

BUT there's always been a simple solution ..  trawl the market .......  the market really does want to insure imports you know, someone somewhere does anyway 

Malc

Thanks Malc.  Already have couple of leads to try.

[Ron Clarkson]

52 minutes ago, The-Acre said:

Try this company, they insure my Celsior and it cost the same for this year as last year, £295 fully comp with low excess, I've found them very helpful.

 

Thanks Phil,  Looks promising. Close at 5.30 so will try first thing.

[The-Acre]

1 hour ago, Ron Clarkson said:

Thanks Phil,  Looks promising. Close at 5.30 so will try first thing.

Let us know how you get on, I tried several companies without success until I phoned Mark Richard.

[The-Acre]

3 hours ago, Malc said:

just out of interest ....  does anyone know the cost of a dash conversion from km to mph ?  .........  ( heaven forbid that I'm looking at one now  ......  just out of what's probably idle interest ............ a 1999 year car they say !  )

Malc

I would think it's just a case of getting the instrument cluster from a breakers.  I don't know how you would change the mileage but it was already done on mine to show the Japanese auction sheet mileage. Its not too bad a job removing it from an LS400.

[Chasdad]

Depends what you call dear.

Ive always got an import of one form or another.

Ive been with mark richards. Tried greenlight. Found them rude and woudnt insure me on a rwd car with over 250bhp.

My heavily modded skyline with 500 plus bhp is with adrian flux. 550 fully comp

[Malc]

17 hours ago, The-Acre said:

would think it's just a case of getting the instrument cluster from a breakers.

let me embellish this slightly if I may ........  just perusing a 1999 Celsior Mk4 from a garage at £5k ...  clearly dealing in lots of Jap Imports coz that's what's on their website ....... NOW, I asked them the same Q ....  they say they don't know coz they don't deal with any of that side of it ......  beggars belief methinks

" Hi Malcolm our Toyota Celsior does not have a sunroof and we don't know how much it would be to convert to mph as we don't do not do conversions . Apologies for any inconvenience."

This garage puts itself forward as a professional set-up on-line .....  OK I now see it has Jap sat nav screen and a couple of blue wires hanging out from aside the steering column .......  I didn't ask about those tbh as I was more interested in the dash KM to mph ........... and seeing the air strut tops under the bonnet is acceptable as that's expected too .

I can't believe they aren't faced with this Q most of the time from prospective purchasers of their stocks of imports .......  Cest le Vie

I'll just stick to me dear old lady  ......

Malc

[The-Acre]

23 minutes ago, Malc said:

let me embellish this slightly if I may ........  just perusing a 1999 Celsior Mk4 from a garage at £5k ...  clearly dealing in lots of Jap Imports coz that's what's on their website ....... NOW, I asked them the same Q ....  they say they don't know coz they don't deal with any of that side of it ......  beggars belief methinks

" Hi Malcolm our Toyota Celsior does not have a sunroof and we don't know how much it would be to convert to mph as we don't do not do conversions . Apologies for any inconvenience."

This garage puts itself forward as a professional set-up on-line .....  OK I now see it has Jap sat nav screen and a couple of blue wires hanging out from aside the steering column .......  I didn't ask about those tbh as I was more interested in the dash KM to mph ........... and seeing the air strut tops under the bonnet is acceptable as that's expected too .

I can't believe they aren't faced with this Q most of the time from prospective purchasers of their stocks of imports .......  Cest le Vie

I'll just stick to me dear old lady  ......

Malc

That really is poor from a "specialist" The other thing to consider is the radio, mine will only pick up radio 2 which is about the only one I can just about bear!  A Celsior without a sunroof may mean it comes from a hot part of Japan like mine so can often mean a really clean underbelly.  If it's something you consider at some point drop Paul Frost a message, he should know if a straight cluster swap will work.

[Malc]

When I'm less bored with life and can venture to pastures new, or even old, my mind will stay with my dear old gal 
Malc

[steve2006]

I purchased my 1994 Celsior back in 2006 and during my ownership have never paid more than £300.00 fully comprehensive (I was 47 back then with full NCB).

For the last five years I have had “classic” insurance costing this year around £180.00 fully comp, agreed value and nil deduction salvage should the worst happen. Mileage is limited to 3000 a year. ( Ron this is with Footman James).

Mine was purchased from a Blackpool landlord who dabbled in Japanese imports, the speedometer was already converted from 62,000km to 38,000 miles, the rear inner cluster tail lights were converted to both tail and fog lights professionally so no ugly aftermarket light swinging under the bumper. Although the original ICE failed it did have the radio frequency changer fitted which then covered most of the UK FM band 2.

The blackened climate control LCD was replaced by myself when you could pick up a RHD replacement for $50.00 shipped.

I paid £3750.00 for the car back then, it still hasn’t reached 100,000 miles and is now insured for £5500.00.

[The-Acre]

35 minutes ago, Malc said:

When I'm less bored with life and can venture to pastures new, or even old, my mind will stay with my dear old gal 
Malc

It's always more comfortable to wear old shoes!

[The-Acre]

1 minute ago, steve2006 said:

I purchased my 1994 Celsior back in 2006 and during my ownership have never paid more than £300.00 fully comprehensive (I was 47 back then with full NCB).

For the last five years I have had “classic” insurance costing this year around £180.00 fully comp, agreed value and nil deduction salvage should the worst happen. Mileage is limited to 3000 a year.

Mine was purchased from a Blackpool landlord who dabbled in Japanese imports, the speedometer was already converted from 62,000km to 38,000 miles, the rear inner cluster tail lights were converted to both tail and fog lights professionally so no ugly aftermarket light swinging under the bumper. Although the original ICE failed it did have the radio frequency changer fitted which then covered most of the UK FM band 2.

The blackened climate control LCD was replaced by myself when you could pick up a RHD replacement for $50.00 shipped.

I paid £3750.00 for the car back then, it still hasn’t reached 100,000 miles and is now insured for £5500.00.

I did buy a frequency changer but it needs to be plugged into the antenna socket at the back of the radio, but when I took it out there was no antenna socket!

[steve2006]

If yours is similar to mine Phil there is no physical aerial as the rear window de- mist elements act as the aerial, there should be a module in the boot where it interfaces to coaxial. 

There again who wants to miss Pop Master at 10.30 am 😀

[The-Acre]

1 hour ago, steve2006 said:

If yours is similar to mine Phil there is no physical aerial as the rear window de- mist elements act as the aerial, there should be a module in the boot where it interfaces to coaxial. 

There again who wants to miss Pop Master at 10.30 am 😀

Good point, including Pop master! I might rummage in the boot over the weekend. I'm guessing there's no way to get the TV to work....

[DAN@ADRIAN FLUX]

Hi.

If you do have any issues with insurance then please feel free to give us a try if you wish but appreciate it if you don't want to.

Regards,

Dan.

[Jaystar77]

Was just about to post that all my imports are insured via Adrian Flux, found them very straightforward and easy to deal with compared to some of the other specialists for import insurance.

 

As for the speedo conversion I wouldn't bother.  Have always preferred to keep mine in KM without muddying the waters with miles involved but that's probably just me.  

[steve2006]

53 minutes ago, Jaystar77 said:

Was just about to post that all my imports are insured via Adrian Flux, found them very straightforward and easy to deal with compared to some of the other specialists for import insurance.

 

As for the speedo conversion I wouldn't bother.  Have always preferred to keep mine in KM without muddying the waters with miles involved but that's probably just me.  

Fortunately mine was already converted (black box job), this apparently also should have removed the speed limiter at 180 KPH (112 MPH) but hasn’t.

[The-Acre]

49 minutes ago, steve2006 said:

Fortunately mine was already converted (black box job), this apparently also should have removed the speed limiter at 180 KPH (112 MPH) but hasn’t.

Same here, I didn't know about the speed limiter until I put my foot down in Germany. That I don't mind but cruise control limited to 70 can be annoying.

[Jaystar77]

First time I hit the speed limiter I thought I'd blown the engine up..  proper brown moment

[steve2006]

I don’t know about later models but the cruise control limit is easily removed on mine by cutting a link on the ECU.

Yep weird sensation when the limiter cuts in .......just feels like the transmission has disconnected drive.