Finding my own RC200t for sale

[Linas.P]

It is funny when there are so few RC200t and I notice my old one on sale, hard to miss really. Kind of weird feeling, reminds me of the car and makes me wonder whenever I should have sold it when I did.

Barely 11 months later and 5000 miles of driving and new owner given-up on it as well. Which seems be weird considering car has every possible option, is in near perfect condition, FLSH and "perfect colour combo" (that is according to me and current owner). Basically what I am saying - I brought it as a dream car and was highly disappointed, from the discussion I know current owner brought it as dream car... and less that 1 year later is up for sale. I don't know the reasons, but I suspect the engine, gearbox and fuel consumption for no apparent "fun factor" will be high-up in the list. Still looks good thought:

I am not sure about the price however, "good margin for negotiations" I think. When I sold it for £18k it was the cheapest RC anywhere and the only argument for price being too high was that the next one-up for £20k had only 40k miles vs 70k on mine, but mine had ML, Sunroof and better condition. Still took 6 months to sell. Now being listed at £20k I just can't see it happening, it is interesting as well considering that originally I paid 15.5k. But today there are RC300h selling for as low as £14k and fairly decent once with 40k miles still only £17.5k. I still wish all the luck in sale for current owner, but is hard to see it happening in current market.

In short - I am just surprised how Lexus managed to make car which looks so gorgeous, has real appeal, but never fails to disappoint. With many cars it is true to say "don't worry it will grow on you", not with this one... doesn't even need a year to get disillusioned with it.  

[Shahpor]

There could be other factors, like you say, which might be the reasoning behind the sale.  Given the current state of energy bills and my new mortgage deal, I can certainly sympathise if it is the case!

Having said that, the problem, in my opinion, is that the 300h (IS or RC) is a much better car for everyday driving, so why go for the niche product when the 300h is so readily available?  From the couple of days I had a IS200t, I can say that I don't think it would grow on me either.

So, for people that do buy them, either there is something about the 200t that they prefer or they find a deal on a car that they like that is too good to ignore.

Either way, shame really as the 200t could have been a fun alternative to the hybrid models.

[MartinH]

Yerbut IS250 for a quarter that money

[serbarry]

Linas but what did disappoint you in the car? Performance? Fuel consumption?

[Linas.P]

On 10/2/2022 at 8:28 PM, serbarry said:

Performance? Fuel consumption?

Both. It is slower than IS250 0-50 and only at 60 it really overtakes it (and IS250 wasn't particularly fast car to begin with) and on normal day to day driving it uses more fuel than RC-F (I am serious, it is that bad). Obviously, RC-F has potential to burn more fuel if it is really pushed to the limit, but that is ok, because RC-F is actually fast car and secondly in normal driving condition it doesn't need to be pushed to the limit.

On 10/2/2022 at 4:39 PM, Shahpor said:

There could be other factors, like you say, which might be the reasoning behind the sale.  Given the current state of energy bills and my new mortgage deal, I can certainly sympathise if it is the case!

Having said that, the problem, in my opinion, is that the 300h (IS or RC) is a much better car for everyday driving, so why go for the niche product when the 300h is so readily available?  From the couple of days I had a IS200t, I can say that I don't think it would grow on me either.

So, for people that do buy them, either there is something about the 200t that they prefer or they find a deal on a car that they like that is too good to ignore.

Either way, shame really as the 200t could have been a fun alternative to the hybrid models.

In my case it was dead which was too good to ignore indeed... and it played out perfectly. It was £15.5k for what was at the time 2 years old car. As well as "perfect colour combo" and fully loaded. So I thought to myself - if I don't like it at least I am not going to lose much money on it and as it happens I earned money on it.

And it is exactly the reason why I think it will be though sell for £20k. Nobody in their right mind would spend £3k more on RC200t compared to RC300h. And that is even before we consider that RC300h is available for £17k from dealer who can offer warranty, finance and is obliged to fix the car in case of any issues with the car. 

That was another negotiating tactic people used on me when I was selling i.e. they would call and say - "yes your car is £2k cheaper, but you are private seller and £18,750 still has to be paid in cash without any warranty". However, in my case at least it was £2k cheaper, but now he is selling the car for £2k more! It just does not make sense.

The one thing I know that market doesn't know is that the car is literally in perfect condition, or at least it was when I sold it 11 months ago with 5k miles less. So I think this is where owner would be inclined to ask for more money, however it will be hard to market the condition of it. So I made money on it, but not because I was selling it high, but because I bought it very cheaply and could still sell offer it for least money on the market and still profit from it. And when you car is the cheapest on the market there is certain advantage you get. However, to get more than dealers charge for hybrid... I don't see it happening - there are certainly nothing that good about specifically RC200t for people to chose it over 300h.

 

[doog442]

Strange you bought it as a 'dream car' after slagging off the engine for years😄

To me that was a bloody weird decision, something to this day I simply cannot get my head around.

 

[Linas.P]

11 hours ago, doog442 said:

Strange you bought it as a 'dream car' after slagging off the engine for years😄

To me that was a bloody weird decision, something to this day I simply cannot get my head around.

Dream car was any RC, F-Sport, black, with dark rose interior, sunroof, ML... and for the right price. Put all these requirements together and that makes it very rare find, Lexus sold probably less than 10 cars like this in UK. If it would have been RC300h which was offered at £15.5k I would have got 300h... and probably still hated it. If it would have been RC-F listed for £21k, I probably would have got RC-F, but on top of that RC-F should have had TVD and DCC. I mean I know rational thinking sounds like oxymoron in the same sentence with dream car, but I just hate overpaying for anything... so one of my dream requirements is "good deal" as well. 

Besides I honestly thought it can't be that bad, thanks to you and few other characters on here who fought me for years telling me that I am wrong and that "IS200t would leave IS250 in the dust and you would not even know which way it went". So despite in principle not liking downsizing and turbocharging I thought "how bad could it be"... Yes it will not sound great (that I knew), but it must still be more fuel efficient than IS250 (on paper it is) and it must still be faster car, so it should be an "upgrade". In reality it just isn't more fuel efficient and in most circumstances it is slower, despite again on paper looking like slightly faster car, with much faster shifting and more modern gearbox, and more power.

[serbarry]

Excuse-me Linas what are TVD and DCC?

[Linas.P]

3 hours ago, serbarry said:

Excuse-me Linas what are TVD and DCC?

Torque Vectoring Differential and Dynamic Cruise Control also known as Radar Cruise Control. To be honest I probably could have lived without TVD in RC-F, because RC-F still has mechanical LSD which probably is more than enough on public road, TVD only really makes a difference on the track and I have no plans to take fat RC-F anywhere near the track. As for DCC - it is nice to have, sadly RC-F had old gen TVD, so it is only useful on motorway.

[doog442]

12 hours ago, Linas.P said:

Besides I honestly thought it can't be that bad, thanks to you and few other characters on here who fought me for years telling me that I am wrong and that "IS200t would leave IS250 in the dust and you would not even know which way it went". 

lol..slight exaggeration .I think we were simply trying to negate your view that the IS250 was a rocket ship 🤣. No one was comparing the 4 pot in RC form either.   

[Linas.P]

On 10/6/2022 at 10:12 PM, doog442 said:

lol..slight exaggeration .I think we were simply trying to negate your view that the IS250 was a rocket ship 🤣. No one was comparing the 4 pot in RC form either.   

That is just not true, because I myself said that IS250 is borderline slow. So you just made this one up that I ever had a view it is "rocketship".

What I did say was only that 200t is "trashy" engine, which it is. V6 simply sounds better and more your rev it the better, whereas L4t makes it's power low down and just makes noise when revved high... Generally speaking no L4 engines ever sounds good, they may be loud (4G63), but it never sounds good. 8AR-FTS neither sounds good, nor it is very loud due to turbo and generally silent Lexus exhaust... so it is just quiet rattle under the hood (it is kind of funny that even Lexus fittingly called it 8-FARTS).

It is moot point now anyway. I didn't buy the car expecting it "to be so fast that I would not know where it went". I bought it I bought it for spec, colour combo, looks and price... and hoped the engine will be about the same, little bit more fuel efficient, little bit faster, but does not sound as good - this is reasonable expectation. But at the same time I did not expect it to be literally slower all the way to 50MPH, I did not expect it will use more fuel than RC-F and I did not expect Lexus to be so lazy to even sell such poorly integrated drivetrain where car never knows what gear it should be in and just constantly shifts backwards and forwards. They put no effort in "polishing" it at all, to the point where I would call it "undrivable" from drivers engagement perspective.

[DamianLEX]

What about modding 200t? If you take it to around 300hp + some Nm then it could make sense. 
I really like is250 around Swansea. With all these bumps, potholes etc. And when I park it I completely don’t care if it gets scratched. 
Blue one is completely different story…