Cost of ownership IS 350 in UK

Harish_S · September 25

Does anyone in the UK actually own and drive an IS 350. I’ve found a few IS 350 for sale and I’m thinking of buying it but I’m just curious about what the cost of ownership is like. I know parts are probably interchangeable with IS 250s but in terms of insurance anyone have any idea on what insurance group it is?

zoricib · September 26

19 hours ago, Harish_S said:

Does anyone in the UK actually own and drive an IS 350. I’ve found a few IS 350 for sale and I’m thinking of buying it but I’m just curious about what the cost of ownership is like. I know parts are probably interchangeable with IS 250s but in terms of insurance anyone have any idea on what insurance group it is?

Look up an IS350 for sale and get a quote on comparethemarket/ money supermarket etc. It's extremely likely that your details and circumstances will have more of an impact on the price than the insurance group.

Linas.P · September 26

Apart of insurance, there is not much difference from IS250. Obviously IS350 will use more fuel, but in grand scheme of things it is irrelevant. Let's say, IS250 could do 28MPG on mixed use, and IS350 will do something like 24MPG. Average annual mileage in UK has dropped below 8,000 miles, something like 6,800 nowadays, that makes a difference between £1,459 and £1,563 a year respectively. Road tax will actually be lower on IS350, because it will be imported car, IS250 is now £415, imports are £345 if memory serves.

As suggested above, insurance scammers will be your biggest question and complete gamble, it will be the thing that makes it or breaks it, it may be same price, it may be £10,000 a year... in London especially you may not be able to insure it at all, or it may be fine. Nobody can answer this question - you just need to run the quote and see.

Also... the initial purchase price... as we never had IS350 in UK, this means there are only few of them around and the price is almost double compared that to nice IS250. I think ~£4,000 buys you decent IS250, IS350 is like £8,000+ if you lucky, some were listed as high as £11,000 which they definitely are not worth (although I guess they technically "low mile", usually around 50,000 kilometres). If it cost £6,800, then cool, but I only ever seen one for that price and it was in horrible shape, the only good thing left about it was the IS350 badge, the rest of the car really belonged in the crusher. So that said - would I absolutelly love to drive IS350... yes! But not for £10,000 and not if I have to pay £3,000 for insurance. In such case better look for imported IS-F, it will be more expensive, but it will be worth it.