H3XME

It's a Toyota/Lexus, it will be fine. Plenty of Priuses around with 400k miles on the clock that are 15+ years old. Also nothing wrong with a Camry, very good cars if you don't mind FWD. Warranty is 10 years if you service it with them, so there's that. After that I'm sure you can extend it to 12 🙂

It's not been £180 for a while. Either late last year or early this year it went up from £325 to £345. It may be £180 for old cars over 30 years old, but even my 300ZX & JZX100 (both 90s imported cars) were £325

Incorrect. Imports are now taxed at £345. @SeanR My Mark X IS £345 and as a guide, look at imports here: https://www.justjap-imports.co.uk/cars/lexus/is/is350-f-sport-gse31-3.5-v6/1164885/

The cheapest one that's sold on the auctions in the last 2 months was a 2014 Red on red with 40,000 KM! Sold for £9k which works out to almost £16k registered in the UK.. + whatever they'll charge you for their commission on top. So yeah, high teens, almost £20k for something like this. You can't defend a 200t over 350 at all. There is not one thing that's better but you know, people will tell you different even if they're wrong.

Closer to £20k for a good one. And you wanna buy one as good as possible just because you can't see it beforehand. I was in a similar boat, and I've just bought a 2014 Mark X 350s G's. 39,000 miles, 2 owners car. It's essentially an IS350 underneath with 4" longer wheelbase so more room in the back, and also 60kg lighter overall and the rear seats fold. There isn't much to choose from in the UK because the tree huggers wouldn't let Toyota/Lexus bring one of their best engines ever made, the 2GR.. well, that and people would think it's too big of an engine when in reality, Mark X with the 2GR does 40-41mpg on the motorway at 70mph and mid 20s around town. It's less than 10% worse on fuel than IS250. so again I agree, GS450h 2012+ would probably be the best if one doesn't want an imported car for whatever reason.

They are different to IS seats. They feel more like GT86 seats. Infotainment will most likely stay the same for the foreseeable. It's got an Alpine X8V head unit, which is a £900 unit. The rear camera is extremely good resolution, it has Bluetooth calls & music, DVD player etc. I've already checked with Alpine support and this unit is sold for Japanese market only, so unfortunately there is no way to change the language to English, but other than the language there's nothing "wrong" with it.. I'll see how I get on with it. Might just buy some random Apple Carplay head unit later on, but it's not my priority at all. I'm happy as long as I can connect my phone to it for music 🙂

Thanks Vlad! I do prefer the look of the Mark X over an IS. I could've had a 2014 IS350 for similar £££££, but it's all too much of the same stuff I've had in the past 4 years. While the Mark X is almost the same underneath, it's a different interior and exterior. Fancied something a bit different that's still as good as Lexus.

Thanks! Not much to be honest. The car is fairly well sorted already. Shame it didn't come with the factory wheels, so I'm looking at getting Advan GT Premium in Racing Sand Metallic from Japan. Maybe HKS coilovers, anti-roll bars & exhaust. Keeping it simple.

Thanks @jeffrosie6 This is probably going to be an end of the era on this post. I've purchased a 2014 Toyota Mark X G's (later in 2016 renamed to GR). It's a similar chassis to the IS. Wheelbase 5" longer and overall roughly 8" longer while being 60-70kg lighter. It comes with the 2GR-FSE 3.5l engine and the G's extra chassis bracing, Aero, bigger brakes, body kit and suspension. Just makes more sense than IS350 as it's a lot more special in my opinion. I've been eyeing them up for over a couple of years and now I had the chance to buy one. Should be registered in next 3-4 weeks. It's on 39,000 miles (just under 63,000km) and 2 owners from Japan.

Yeah. Never sold in the UK.

I'm upgrading to the 3.5l 🙂

15mm or even 20mm spacer will not clear the studs, so they will be hitting the back of the wheels. You need 25mm and they look bang on too.

18x8 (ET45) 18x8.5 (ET50) factory wheels are good with 25mm spacers all round. @TadasC put 25mm spacers all round on his car with the F-Sport wheels and it's flush. Maybe he can send some pics.

@DnG you still looking or you gave up?😆 I'll have my car for sale in the coming weeks but it's a manual and I'm after 6k.

Been quiet the past couple of months, but now we have the car "finished". It's how I imagined it and I will not be doing any further work on it. I'm just waiting for my new car to be registered as it's a fresh import and this will be up for sale by the end of July hopefully. The full list of what's been done is rather short. These don't need much to look good if done well. Aftermarket front lip F-Sport style front grille OEM SR/Sport rear lip TEIN Flex Z coilovers MK5 Supra wheels 4.5" exhaust tips (the rest of the exhaust is standard as I didn't want this one to be loud) Vland Headlights Chrome/Clear LED tail lights

It does suffer because of that. They just look at a 2019 Lexus and say "yep, it's a hybrid. Yep, it's expensive" falls in the same category when trying to insure it. That's what multiple insurance companies told me when I was getting quotes (I looked online but I always call a few because they are normally more competitive. And they were, but it was still almost £2k to insure it..) Tell you what is cheaper though. Import. Imported Lexus is cheaper than a domestic counterpart 🤣 For me at least...

Of course, but classifying cars based on the fact they have 2 doors or 2.0l engine when in reality it means nothing it crazy.

It's what you get when you let people who have no f##king idea about cars manage car related things. It's a sh!t show.

I was looking at RC300h recently as my daily driver, but even with prices being reasonable now, the insurance companies give you the "middle finger" because it's a newer lexus and thefts are a big problem... Just for comparison, the cheapest quote I had was £1700/year for a facelift 300h F-Sport. My IS250 or even IS350 is £500/year.. it's absolutely ridiculous. I'd never think I'd be priced out of a car by the insurance at nearly 30 years old.

They are plagued with typical diesel problems + head gasket. Can't compare it to anything French, never owned it, but at this point, it's not that different compared to German diesels. The main difference is that the German diesels are a lot better on fuel than the 220d. Later models, 200d were a lot less problematic when they detuned them. It's a gamble. The UK has / had an unhealthy fixation on diesels resulting in people buying them to do their 5 miles a day short journeys. This is obviously not great for diesels with DPF.. You might be alright with yours if it's been maintained well. Injectors etc are just service items on diesels unfortunately.

That's an option discrepancy. If you get a camera (touch screen, ML) package, you may or may not have sensors too. I had one with a rear camera and no sensors and vice versa. As for the spec you're after with your budget. You can either up the budget or lower your standards. ML isn't much better than non ML. I had both. The downside of ML system is the ever blowing subwoofer if you listen to loud bass heavy music. The screen itself is pointless because £200 carplay head unit will be a lot better, actually usable and cheaper than buying a car with ML. Camera etc can be still fitted. As for low emission zone compliance on the early cars. They all emit the same amount of co2 - 214g/km. I just checked a 2005 and a 2009 facelift. There are no changes to the exhaust system. This can be disputed with Birmingham council if its an issue. Had to do something similar with a different car before.

It is an SE-L and they are ULEZ compliant. He'd take 4m I'm sure. It's worth like 3.5imo. Fair enough on the insurance though.. https://tfl.gov.uk/modes/driving/check-your-vehicle

Why not just use e5 anyway? It's better for the engine and better for mpgs. It's only ~£5 more per tank. Also this one popped up on the FB group.

These are standard on SE-L

Xenons, washers, sensors are standard on SE-L. Touch screen (ML) was an option on all trim levels and that comes with buttons on the right hand of the steering wheel as they have Bluetooth for calls too. Try marketplace. Granted, a lot of scam ads (mainly ones that seem too good to be true) but that's the go to place for a low value car like that. Black on black is rare so doesn't pop up very often.