How long should an IS250 last?

[johnatg]

I'm posting this because my old IS250, sold 3 years ago, has suddenly disappeared.

Story is - car first reg April 2006. I bought it as the third owner in April 2012 at 29750 miles. I p/ex'd it for my GS300h in October 2019 at about 74000 miles. It was in excellent mechanical nick with a few cosmetic blemishes. I've followed it on MoT check now and again and it's passed each year with a few minor advisories since. It was due for a MoT a few days ago. But now it says reg not recognised, nor does it show up on most enquiry sites and registration enquiry sites (there's one where you get a list of all registration numbers issued and still current by a local tax authority for example. It lists URA, URC, URD etc. But no URB, which my car was.)

So I speculate that it failed the MoT at a little over 100K miles and was scrapped - could there be another explanation?

Is 16+ years a typical life expectancy? More or less?

I must say, you don't see that many Mk 2 IS models around day-to-day and even fewer pre-2010 models And Mk 1 IS200 have all but disappeared.

What do you think? How long should we expect an IS250 to last? (And extrapolate the answer to GS300h if you like!)

[Pielight]

With just 74k miles in 2019. If looked after it should last longer than that.

Could maybe have been written off in a crash and scrapped?

[johnatg]

Possible obviously. Just that the disappearance coincided with a due MoT.

[Linas.P]

Car last as long as they are cared for. IS250 isn't the most inherently reliable car (like LS400 for example), but it can still easily last 300k miles and 30 years just with regular service and replacement of wear and tear components. So I am pretty confident 16 years and ~100k miles wasn't what killed your car.

My previous IS250 got close to 200k and it was in excellent mechanical condition... why? Because I have maintained it very well... it was still mostly original, suspension almost all original, lower ball joins and drop links were replaced because boot rubber perished, but there were never any knocks from suspension, shocks were still original. There was no rust either, apart of exhaust which is just inevitable. Electrical part was perfect. The engine burned a little bit of oil, but not enough to bother as long as 6k miles services where performed. So I am quite confident it could have lasted another 12 years (it was 2008 in 2020) and another 200k miles.

The story of the car ends with me giving it away to family member who parked it for 2 years during the covid, then after the covid car developed all sorts of issues, gearbox solenoids started acting-up, A/C pump got stuck, generator got finicky... and the end was that it was stolen when he left for holidays. I suspect the scrappers were driving past, noticed the car which looked abandoned (it was parked for ~3 months at the time) and they just quietly picked it up and scrapped it. Obviously never to be found again, police as always didn't even bother looking.

What can kill any car, can kill IS250 and that is neglect! Second part is economics - they car may last 30-40 years with relatively small maintenance, but add little bit of neglect, missed service or two and suddenly instead of being relatively low £300 bill every year it turns into £2000 bill after 4 years, part of what suppose to be done and wasn't and part of the damage it caused. There is simply certain point for any car where it's value is at the bottom after ~15-20 years and combined with neglect it is very easy to end-up in situation where car is worth £2000 and fixing it costs £2000. It is not like it can't be fixed and driven for another 10 years, but it is simply uneconomical to do it... and the car get's scrapped for whatever £1000 or so.

[Las Palmas]

Question is not easy to answer as some take care of their cars and some do not.

The other day I saw a first generation VW Beetle with split rear window, looking very nice. That was quite a lot older than the IS. Do not know it if has been reasonable to maintain it all this time, but possible it is.

[mikey2001]

Could a new owner have put a private plate on the car? I saw something similar with one of my older cars (couldn't find it via MoT checks), and then it reappeared a few years later (when presumably the original reg plate was reapplied).

[johnatg]

A possibility but who puts a private plate on a 16 year old car?

Incidentally, I also run a MX-5 which is 30 years old. I am the 2nd owner except for Mazda Cars who had it registered for 2 days. It's been 16 years with me. Lots of them still around but Mk 1s are very rapidly getting rarer due to rust.

[PRT68]

Somebody may have put a plate on it to disguise it's age! 

[MartinH]

7 hours ago, Linas.P said:

lower ball joins and drop links were replaced because boot rubber perished,

That, together with an annual service, landed me with an £800 bill with Lexus Edgware Road. But the harsh front-end jolts have gone away, and this dealer now offers a zero-cost plan to spread these unplanned interventions. This is a lot less horrible than the prospect of crossing the road to buy a new Toyota Corolla which is, let's face it, all the car most of us really need.

[Linas.P]

1 hour ago, MartinH said:

That, together with an annual service, landed me with an £800 bill with Lexus Edgware Road. But the harsh front-end jolts have gone away, and this dealer now offers a zero-cost plan to spread these unplanned interventions. This is a lot less horrible than the prospect of crossing the road to buy a new Toyota Corolla which is, let's face it, all the car most of us really need.

I did those bits myself and it was quite a bit less - something like £42 for drop-links and £114 for ball-joints. So ~£350 altogether and 2h to fix.  

People who scrap £2000-£4000 Lexus IS do not buy brand new Corolla, they generally buy another £2000-4000 used car and drive it until wheels comes off. On one hand quite sad when nice cars gets into their hands, on other hand they part of "ecosystem", they sort of pre-scrap the car before it is properly scrapped. 

 

[SeanR]

They have to be used and not stood, regularly serviced as pointed out by Linas,

When i was buying, this guy sold it to me lol, with his various vids.

 

 

[Mincey]

17 hours ago, PRT68 said:

Somebody may have put a plate on it to disguise it's age! 

Could well be this. When I sold my IS250, it passed its MOT and then disappeared. It was barely run in so had many miles left in it but yes, I guess it could have been written off. Is there a way to check?

[Mincey]

Just now, Mincey said:

Could well be this. When I sold my IS250, it passed its MOT and then disappeared. It was barely run in so had many miles left in it but yes, I guess it could have been written off. Is there a way to check?

Ooooh yes it's back! 142,095 miles when tested in June. Just a couple of advisories - needs a new left front tyre soon and the exhaust is leaking (that'll cost 'em!) but other than that nothing major. 

[Linas.P]

18 hours ago, PRT68 said:

Somebody may have put a plate on it to disguise it's age! 

That is actually valid strategy - mine was on sort of "private plate" and I was amazed how many people had no clue how old it was, even those who work on the cars and should know. mk2 styling was understated yet modern, it definitely aged very well. Sadly in UK you can't put plate which shows newer year, but probably exactly for this reason - if I would have say 2016 plate on it I have no doubt 80% of people would think it is legit.

[H3XME]

It's either 1) Written off 2) On a private plate

Why wouldn't you put a private plate on an older car? You have more of a reason to put it on an older car to hide its age if you already got the plate. My IS250 was 14 years old ('08) and I also had it on a private plate,  not because I wanted to hide its age, but because it's my plate and I paid for it. Might as well use it.

As for reliability, my car was on 176k miles when I sold it. It's was mechanically perfect, like Linas said, mine too was on standard bushes, alternator, water pump etc. I don't see why it wouldn't do 300k.. It was serviced properly every 6-7k miles. However it will never reach 300k because the new owner wrote it off 4 weeks after buying it off me... 🥲

I'm already looking for another one. 

[PRT68]

It works the other way round as well. Chap opposite me has a personal plate. He gets a brand new car every 3 years. He leaves the new plate on for 6 months to show off, and then puts his personal plate on at the start of the next new issue. 

[true blue]

Funny things private plates most people either love them or hate them , I have an Irish plate on the Lexus ,only time I have had this type of plate ,people regularly ask about the car (being convertible) age etc; The reason for this is it was originally registered in Belfast and when I bought it the dealer said if it bothered me it would cost me £300 for an age related plate to be fitted I Declined his offer .With relation to how long will it last ,it's nearly 12 years old now  gets light use and I maintain it fastidiously ,I'm hoping for at least 20 years before break even and repair value ,besides I haven't a clue what to replace it with on my budget

Dave