H3XME

That's a good sign! Very well, bargain.

These are all the specs.

Lex, most of these things you can find using google. You'll find it much quicker than asking everyone. Yes, F-Sport has staggered wheels. Normal IS250 has 17x8J ET45 wheels. F-Sport is 18x8 and 18x8.5 IIRC

For handling and fuel economy - 225/40R18.. 245s are an absolute overkill. GOOD 225s are more than enough, the car isn't tail happy, it's heavy, it sticks to the road like **** to a stick. No idea why Lexus are putting 245s on them.

If the foglight shape/area is the same, it will be fine. Only IS-F had a different bumper/wings.

That's exactly it! Except you'd probably need the rears. Fronts tend to be fine 🙂

Best thing to do, what I do with suspension arms etc. Find a JDM toyota cross-compatible car. Toyota bits are cheaper, especially when you're buying bits for let's say Toyota Mark II JZX110 rather than Lexus IS250

Not gonna lie, wouldn't trust my IS250's sat nav to take me to the park around the corner let alone finding a restaurant 😂 I think, in this day and age, everyone knows that Google/Apple Maps are just better. Even manufacturers know it now, hence Apple Car Play function in majority of new cars.

3 Series E90 definitely doesn't look as fancy inside as the lexus, neither are the features. BMW in general have really stiff suspension imo. It's not quite the same level. I would put IS250 on a 5 series level in terms of features. While still being similar to 3 series in size. I've never seen air conditioned seats in any other car, and mine has it. Same with touch screen head unit etc. I've got a GT86 as a fun car, but that's going soon as I fancy Nissan 300ZX. Just need to find one I like.

Luxury saloons are generally "dull", quiet, comfortable cars that not really driver orientated. But I don't feel disconnected from the car or the road driving the IS250. As luxury as it may be, and I know it's probably just because it's Lexus's entry level saloon, it's still enjoyable to drive and you can go for a blast in it. You just can't forget it's not a sports car. It's still fun to drive with some modifications. It does burnouts, donuts, it drifts a little too with some clutch encouragement. Overall, a great car that does bits of everything 🙂

I've never driven IS220D or G35. I have driven 350Z (same as G35) and E92 330i manual. Neither of them can be compared imo. Completely different cars. Can't exactly compare 200hp saloon to 280bhp coupes. They are within 100kg of each other, but of course the IS250 lacks power compared to them. In terms of driving, IS250 is a very nice, comfortable cruiser. Steering is too light for my liking and the car is too heavy for the power it's got. Like I said, completely different, but very enjoyable. You just can't get into an IS250 expecting something fast. Mine is lowered on coilovers, it's got aftermarket exhaust, different wheels, seat, intake and as much nicer as it is to drive now, you still can't compare it to my GT86 or my friends 350Z or my father's 370Z.. completely different car, built for different purpose. Nevertheless, it's almost a perfect daily. I say almost because the rear sets don't fold. All that being said, the IS250 does drive like a Japanese car rather than a german despite being "luxurious".

Jack it up, leave it in neutral and spin the wheels. If they're easy to spin, don't worry. If they were sticking, it's a £20 eBay pin & seal job. I did it myself, it's fairly simple. It's basically like changing pads. Slide the calipers off and change the pins. OR even better, grease them up if they're still okay. Hard to tell what causes them to stick, time or mileage.

They are highly sought after these days, in the UK anyway! It's one of the few RWD, LSD equipped, Manual cars out there that don't cost you an arm and leg. The guy who runs Birmingham Wheels (Learn 2 drift place) got like 4-5 of them in the past few months for practice cars. Two of my mates who own FD3S RX7 and Silvia S15 got IS250 for a daily too. Another friend is currently hunting for a black, leather, touch screen spec manual as well, so it's falling into hands of car enthusiasts slowly. Market prices are all over the place. When I was buying mine 2 years ago, there was a bunch for sale for under £2k with just over 100k miles on the clock. Now even cars with 100k+ miles are going for £3k+.. Covid didn't help used car market though.

I wouldn't worry then. It's just me being anal about oil changes.

Probably not, best thing to do is to see it in person before getting too deep in this rabbit hole online. I'm not sure if there is an easy way of checking.. I wasn't sure about mine, so I run my car on high octane fuel and boot it where I can. It mainly builds up when you don't get the car hot enough so I rev limit the **** out of it where possible 😂 but I've got a nice exhaust on mine, so I do it for the sound mainly. You can clean the throttle body yourself though and it should be a good indicator. That's not great. It should've had at least 3 oil changes in 23k.. 😐 Seems like he got it cheap and didn't care about it if he hasn't serviced it in his ownership. Better go through the receipts during his ownership.

I'm not sure. I did it myself, I can talk you through it. Might even have some pictures.

Probably just the VVTi rattle for 1-2s IF there is that. It's common, harmless tbh, my friend's did that but it's gone away after an oil change. It just doesn't sound very appealing. That's not too bad. Given the mileage, I would be changing the oil religiously every 6-7k or 1 year, whichever comes sooner. 5W30 good synthetic oil. If the plugs have been changed, that's also a good sign, it's costly on this car if you don't do much DIY. Not really, mine is 2008, and it was on its original battery until last year.. they say batteries only last like 5-7 years anyway? I wouldn't worry about that. Can always put a volt meter against it and see, but mine started acting up, thought the alternator was the issue but after 150k it was still fine. Turned out to be just an old battery. I'd probably just ask about / check the rear calipers.. they might be sticking if they ain't been attended yet, but it's a cheap fix if you DIY. £20 worth of slider pins and seals and a bit of hammering to get the calipers off.

The car sounds okay. Rubber boots on the shocks are cheap to replace, but it is a whole shock out and strip it kinda process, so expensive in labour/time, but cheap in parts. As for the video, it sounds fine, BUT notice the water temp gauge, it's not a COLD start. High mileage, i'd be looking for an extensive service history, two keys and price of less than £2k.

Momentum99 seems like the best bang for buck. Been using it for years, available mostly everywhere, price is good too.

Yep, IIRC only '55 plate manuals are cheaper to tax. Anything after that is £550/year. All automatics are around £300. I've driven the automatics and ended up getting a manual. It is a good, old school auto box that doesn't think it's smarter than you so I like it, and I would even recommend it, but my personal preference is manual, even in the IS250, so there's that. Really down to preference, neither is better or worse.

If you've never driven a "luxury" car, then IS250 even on 18s is very comfortable. I noticed very little difference in comfort going from 17 to 18s.. Well refined cars 🙂

It's a chain, not a belt. I wouldn't bother changing a chain that isn't broken. It's a big job and something that should potentially last forever if driven well. You can stretch the chain with improper driving, aka driving like a lunatic on cold engine, but even then cars like this have tensioners. Never heard of a chain being a problem on a 4GR-FSE or any other chain driven car tbh. RARE fault.

Every car has potential problems. I got my '08 250 Manual 2 years ago with 128k on the clock.. I'm on 157k now, no issues whatsoever, only had to replace the clutch at 145k as it finally gave up (original clutch). Nothing wrong with that car at all. Two of my friends have also swayed towards IS250. They both had automatics, with 70-80k miles 2007 models. Again, no issues other than a slight VVTi rattle upon start on Will's car. Oil change sorted it. I would say, if the car you want to buy has a good service history, and doesn't look abused (which 90% of them aren't) I'd go for it. They are very good cars, but not invincible. Very reliable nevertheless. As for chain, I wouldn't worry, again, no need to fix something that isn't broken. Anything more serious would come up on a diagnostic reader, so bring your £7 amazon ELM OBD2 reader and plug it into the car to make sure.

Do you regularly clean the camera lens? I find the same issue with mine when it's dirty.

I help out with that, yes. Had to put some examples in. There will be hundreds of other cars using the same grade, but it is "universal" product at the end of the day 😄