Potential purchase

[HoofHearted]

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202112160564385?advertising-location=at_cars&price-to=6500&postcode=g445la&model=IS 250&page=1&radius=200&make=Lexus&include-delivery-option=on&sort=relevance

 

just seeing if this car was in the possession of anyone on here. Going to see it tonight but a bit dubious as it had been on a private plate previously so can only see the most recent MOT (which passed with no advisories) the dealership have also just revealed they only have service history up until 2011. Says he’s trying to find out more but I’m skeptical.

 

just chancing my arm on here to see if the car had belonged to anybody or if anyone’s been to see it. 

[Linas.P]

You will have to run check (ideally even before you go to view it) on this car to see what the previous plates where and proper MOT history.

Seems clean inside and out, with exception of few thing which caught my attention - never seen start button so worn down, volume button missing on radio and the chinesium tyres require immediate replacement. 

I would keep this in mind when negotiating the price - start button is like £100, not sure about radio button and what is required to replace it - worst case scenario £200 for used unit, decent tyres ~£400.

 

[AntC]

Definitely have it checked out like Linas said. Id you plan on purchasing, I would also suggest taking it to a Lexus dealership just in case.

The start/stop button looks like someone was hired to press it all day 😁

[wharfhouse]

On all our previous cars that have carried our private plates for many years, when I sold the cars and put normal registrations back on them they all show the MOT history using the cars current registration including the MOT history when they had our private plates on. It may be that it takes a few months for the DVLA system to catch up though.

[Mr Vlad]

If that cars at the BOC car centre in Bolton then it more than likely is a guddun. I've bought from there and the car was mint, MG ZT (yes I miss that car but hey ho) and friends have bought from there too. They've been in business over 40 years that I know of. Car looks really nice and a SE-L. 

[H3XME]

@HoofHearted

To be honest, if the car is a good nick inside out, looks looked after, the lack of SH wouldn't really put me off. I do my own servicing so no stamps in the book.. however, 112,000 miles for £5k+ is too much and I wouldn't pay that... My friend is selling his ~60,000 mile facelift in the same colour - automatic, screen, black leather if you want? I think he's asking for £6k? He bought it for that much last year, but going back to an estate as figured out it's not the most practical car for him because the rear seats don't fold.. 

[Linas.P]

26 minutes ago, H3XME said:

however, 112,000 miles for £5k+ is too much and I wouldn't pay that...

Seem to be market price now - I paid £3950 8 years ago for 2008 SEL with 120k miles. That was 6 years old car then! Nowadays prices have increased significantly, so £5k doesn't buy you much now.

However, for that price I would expect immaculate car without missing buttons and with decent rubber on the wheels. When I see anything with chinesium tyres that instantly has to go before any deal can be made, or discount for full set of tyres has to be made.

I hate when dealers says "yes, but they road legal" and that just drives me mad. Not everything that road legal is good and chinesium tyres are literally dangerous to use at any speed. I would argue they should be illegal and found it funny that insurance cares about aftermarket wheel shape, but don't care that the only thing holding you on the roads is not up-to standard. 

[H3XME]

10 minutes ago, Linas.P said:

Seem to be market price now - I paid £3950 8 years ago for 2008 SEL with 120k miles. That was 6 years old car then! Nowadays prices have increased significantly, so £5k doesn't buy you much now.

However, for that price I would expect immaculate car without missing buttons and with decent rubber on the wheels. When I see anything with chinesium tyres that instantly has to go before any deal can be made, or discount for full set of tyres has to be made.

I hate when dealers says "yes, but they road legal" and that just drives me mad. Not everything that road legal is good and chinesium tyres are literally dangerous to use at any speed. I would argue they should be illegal and found it funny that insurance cares about aftermarket wheel shape, but don't care that the only thing holding you on the roads is not up-to standard. 

Meh, tyre companies have to go through some tests. You say some Chinese tyres are bad.. look at Michelin Primacy that come on GT86 & Prius from the factory. Worst tyre ive ever experienced. (everyone will say the same thing) No grip what so ever, yet it's a good brad.. it all depends on compound. I've used Landsail budget tyres - £60/pop at 225/40R18 and I found them stickier than Proxes TR1 I normally go for. Mismatch tyres on the same axle are worse than a set of cheap tyres in all 4 corners. 

[Linas.P]

No difference, Lainsail may as well be called Landfill.

Michelin Primacy is low rolling resistance "ecodrive" tyre, meaning hard wearing compound, less grip, but it is not "dangerous" tyre. Grip is not the only thing that matters for safety, much more important is consistency and predictability. On Primacy you simply know you have to take each corner 5MPH slower, you feel when it is starts to loose grip, it does it predictably and you back-off before you are in any trouble, on Land**** (or any crap tyres) in one corner they grip, on other corner it catches you out and you wrap around the pole, in the morning it grips, in the evening after slight rain it suddenly doesn't... so you can never predict what tyre will do and that what makes them dangerous. When these cheap tyres lose grip they lose it suddenly and unpredictably, so even correcting the slide is difficult. Or they loose grip momentary, upsets the car balance and then grips-up again and in that case you over correct it - not good situation to be in.

Kind of accidentally my auction IS250 came with 1 Land**** on OSF and some other crap on other side and two Fastroad tyres (235 for some reason) on the rear. And the first time I drove it caught me out in completely random place, literally slow 20MPH corner, I accelerated on the exit and had massive tankslapper out of nowhere. Car does not start at the moment, but once it does these tyres will be very first thing to go to the bin for sure. 

Besides I don't see value in "saving" £20 per tyre, when @~ £78 one can fit excellent tyres like Dunlop SportMaxx RT2s, which on top of being safer and more enjoyable to drive will last twice as long as well (so they are cheaper per mile). If I ever in the pinch for money then I would go for Debica, Sava or Uniroyal tyres (although Uniroyal costs more than Dunlops now). First two are part of Goodyear (as well as Dunlop) and all 4 are literally made next to each other in the same factory in Poland or Slovenia. Uniroyals are made by Michelin. So I am not some sort of snob for whom the only tyre is PS4s, but budget tyres could be bought with some sense. Buying literally cheapest available Landcrap is not sensible. 

By the way we have these ones around UK now, so be careful 😄

[HoofHearted]

1 hour ago, H3XME said:

@HoofHearted

To be honest, if the car is a good nick inside out, looks looked after, the lack of SH wouldn't really put me off. I do my own servicing so no stamps in the book.. however, 112,000 miles for £5k+ is too much and I wouldn't pay that... My friend is selling his ~60,000 mile facelift in the same colour - automatic, screen, black leather if you want? I think he's asking for £6k? He bought it for that much last year, but going back to an estate as figured out it's not the most practical car for him because the rear seats don't fold.. 

where’s your friend based mate? 

[HoofHearted]

Went and seen it. Bodywork had a lot of noticeable dings and scratches, idles at 1200 and a few other bits like one headlight being changed and there being gaps between the bonnet have me thinking to look elsewhere.

 

guy in the showroom was brand new and sent all the info I asked for before a drive down but doubt I’ll go for it.

 

en route to see the second one of the day.

[Linas.P]

Idle at 1200 is normal for cold start, should drop to ~700-800 once warm. 

[H3XME]

16 minutes ago, HoofHearted said:

where’s your friend based mate? 

Leicester

[HoofHearted]

Just in the off chance anybody’s looking in. Seeing one now and the back bumper will probably need taken off and put back on and the car had a fair bit of condensation in it when I arrived to view it. Cleared now. Is this anything to worry about? Also if anybody knows the price to get two new callipers as there’s uneven wear on the discs 

[Mr Vlad]

Hi Graeme. Shame about the Bolton car. Re back bumper. If it looks like where the front of it meets the wing then more than likely the mount lug is broken but easy fix. Someone on here has recently posted about front bumper not fitting right. Rear calipers from euro car parts are between 65 and 105 each. Not original but Pagid brand and I use their discs and pads no issues at all. Condensation is a normal bugger on our cars. 

[J Henderson]

Got my rear (vented disc) calipers from this eBay seller - £200 a pair.

Ebay Listing

 

[Linas.P]

1 hour ago, HoofHearted said:

Just in the off chance anybody’s looking in. Seeing one now and the back bumper will probably need taken off and put back on and the car had a fair bit of condensation in it when I arrived to view it. Cleared now. Is this anything to worry about? Also if anybody knows the price to get two new callipers as there’s uneven wear on the discs 

Regarding condensation - hard to say, if car was sitting on the lot for a while then it could be damp. As well if previous owner didn't use A/C regularly. But you can only know if there is a leak after a while. Normally if you turn temperature to the hottest for say 30 min and then turn A/C on and set it to coldest for another 15 min, then AC should clear all humidity. If it comes back then there may be leak somewhere or A/C drain may be blocked. Sadly you can't check this during test drive.

Replacing callipers is not cost effective - much better to refurbish them. Simply because you basically going to get remanufactured one anyway and they going to rust within a year. Whereas if you get them refurbished, then you can use any coating you like in any colour and they will stay clean and shiny for years as long as you maintain the pins yourself. 

[Thelongterm]

Nice colour imho, don't see many bottle green ones.

As to the start button, I have seen this before on a car that someone with long nails was the main user, she use to start by pressing not with the finger tip but with the nail tip. The same worn out signs were evident on the driver door handle.

SH will be nice but a good check by a dealer could point out any faults.

[HoofHearted]

In the Lexus club. Bought an 08 SR last night. It will need work done but that’s reflected in the price. Can’t help but look out the window and smile seeing it in the parking space.

thanks to everybody for your help and advice.

[cruisermark]

3 minutes ago, HoofHearted said:

In the Lexus club. Bought an 08 SR last night. It will need work done but that’s reflected in the price. Can’t help but look out the window and smile seeing it in the parking space.

thanks to everybody for your help and advice.

Great! - looking forward to some pictures - the SR ones do look good with the extra bodykit

[Linas.P]

I thought SR was only available with manual and cloth interior? Sort of SE + bodykit.

https://www.motor1.com/photo/62805/lexus-is-250-sr-special-edition-uk-62805/

I think the bodykit looks great, would be great to put it on SE-L. 

[J Henderson]

Congrats. Will echo the above about the SR kit looking great. 👍

@Linas.P I think you're right about basic spec being SE-like with cloth seats, but you can definitely get one with AT.

[HoofHearted]

I’ll get pictures up soon. Needs a bit of work done but I’m in love. 
 

 

[Linas.P]

1 hour ago, J Henderson said:

Congrats. Will echo the above about the SR kit looking great. 👍

@Linas.P I think you're right about basic spec being SE-like with cloth seats, but you can definitely get one with AT.

Maybe I am mistaken - I remember there being some weird limitation on it, probably can't get it with Leather, but you can get it with AT.

Lexus is always strange with these limitations - for example one could add optional leather on SE, but not SR... bizarre. 

Putting leather interior is not big deal, just memory seats going to be difficult to retrofit. 

[Mr Vlad]

Eh up Graeme. Great news you've finally got an is250. Did you get the one in Poulton? What needs doing to it then?