janet

Wise words from Stirling Richy, remember" all that glisters is not gold" it would be four things up front i would want to clarify. 1. No drive no buy 2.Why was it on sorn? 3. Does the seller live where the car is parked up ? (incidentally if he does not own the verge it should not be there!) 4. Is it a verifyable Lex service history,or reputable garage in the area, and whats the situation of the MOT..and where was that carried out?. In my previous reply I said i bought a volvo 240 and ran it cheaper than my older car, however this did not stop me, a few years later, making a right prat of myself by buying a rubbish 240 off of the roadside that was really being sold by a back street trader....I paid the price! Not suggesting this is the case here,of course!

Superb thanks mate, hopefully I will have a proper look at it next week sometime. I know one of the headlights was a bit faded, whether it had water inside was hard to tell as it was hot that week. I couldnt believe it when i saw it, its only 20 mins away which is handy as well. The only thing I do worry about these cars is that they are expensive to repair if things go wrong. This is coming from someone who has owned a fiat sinse i passed my test lol. Its been good to me though Yep, well I'm a bit of an old dog, and in the past I used to run crappy cars, cost a fortune....then I risked buying a decent car (at the time) which was a full spec 240 Volvo injection (when Volvos were proper cars)and it was so reliable that it cost less to run than the cheapos....you are thinking of buying an old car in todays terms, designed in the mid to late 90's probably, but we have 2 cars..the other is a newer Mazda..thats a pretty good full spec motor, but if one had to go....no contest!

Hi, Welcome to the club. The car looks pretty tidy to me, and the wheels look as I would expect! At 64000 miles it hopefully has just had a cambelt/waterpump change, have a look at posts on here for details on that as if not you will be urged to have it done by us forum members! Other things to check...Make sure the cd player loads and unloads properly, if you see an error3 message come up, you will need to have a repair/replacement (expensive) or add an ipod interface or w.h.y. Check for uneven tyre wear...search for Dr Bones on here for background info. Assume you would check all the usuals/history/miles, check for waterleaks in the drivers footwell (screen leak can upset electrics), uneven engine running (coilpacks sometimes go)rust/water in the spare wheel well, water in the headlights......Im sure others will add/advise too. If you get a good one they are brill cars, and despite how it sounds above(!)are uba reliable.

OOOhhh that looks nice, I hope the laser fix works or i might be tempted to spend serious money.....er souldn't admit this but Ive had the S/C for about 3 years now,and I have only just noticed that there is a 'cig lighter' socket in the boot too! No actual lighter in it though, so can't supply one to grace stavs hi tech dash!

Yep, I reckon it's the box as the screen reports a dvd fault,and when you listen in the boot you can hear it 'cycling' trying to work. I got told off by the local guy for using a disc cleaner in it by the way, as he said it can make it worse! The reworking of the display unit looks great,but i reckon i will remove the player and take it in for a play with the laser alignment....watch this space!

Hi all, My sat nav box is giving problems, either laser or worse, and my local expert wants 100 to check laser....it seems I can get a decent satnav for about 100, but ideally if i am going for a new one, I would like to integrate it into the existing sat nav screen housing. I am tempted also by the more up to date features, postcodes etc. Recent posts from exotic locations have been interesting, but I have no idea on suitable satnavs, costs, difficulty of installing....does it mess up the electronics for instance if you then remove the satnav control panel to blank it off? (I want to keep it all neat and tidy and avoid plonking a tomtom or suchlike onto my windscreen, and a decent sized screen) Any advice welcome,to help me make up my mind on a limited budget ??

Hi Handbrakes do need adjusting quite often on both 200 and 300. On my auto there is hardly any creep, and so holding on the h.brake (properly adjusted) is not a prob....is your tickover speed correct? if its a bit high it can cause creep!

Just back from me 'ollys, and I have rushed out to have a look. Both seats look the same, the back of each seat is made up of three panels...sort of top, middle and bottom,and on both seats they are pretty well in line, unlike me they exhibit no unsightly bulges!! I would photo but it's too dark,and I haven't the faintest idea on how to post a photie. Hope that helps....?

Hi, I first had a plat-ice 200, she was a great car....when I wanted to move on, I wanted a change and wandered the dealer and trade forecourts, sitting and checking out them all, but none of them felt quite like my girl. My mistake was to test drive a 300 sportcross....no contest bought on the spot. Dont expect raw power, but do expect a superb smooth and progressive power that makes you smile, add this to the virtues of the 200 series 1, and I have the perfect 8 year old car. I have not noticed a significant change in mpg, unless I am paying attention to the odd Celica, Golf etc..and depreciation is now low so I look at the overall cost of owning rather than putting £50 of petrol in the tank. I'm keeping her standard too as I see the 200/300 as a future classic and she has all the knobs and switches, the onslaught of the eco car starts next year from Renault and Nissan and the chancellor may well get out of his cot for long enough to put up gas guzzling motor bills again, Im hanging on though unless redundancy prevents me from occasionally enjoying the few roads in the British Isles where there is still no speed limit!

You are all being so silly! It's obvious to any expert that the car was in a flood, and was not cleaned before the pictures were taken. Listen and learn from the expert!

Have a search round on the 200/300 section rambo,there seem to be a number of alarm probs around, on mine I had to disable the internal roof sensor, but I only had random alarms going off, not your other symptoms.

Dead right, I have used them 4 times,excellent each time....way better than the competition and you pay nothing until the work is done!

I started off by buying sprays and laqs from Halfords, it was OK but not great, however over the past couple of years I have used Plasti Kote Fast dry enamel Silver B30 (you can get it at some DIY or off ebay). I sand off the wheels, not much just to level the bubbles, and then wash the wheels, fully dry then 2 coats of the above. It drys even and without brush marks, and the finish is a subtle eggshell silver that reflects the light. I reckon all in it costs about £1 to £2 a wheel, and now i have a few coats on I do it once a year. To finish off I black the tyres and stand back...by the way I do all this on the car

+1 I find the fold down seats really useful. Not sure about the LPG suggestion though...where would the tank go?

If you have an i-pod, consider getting a grom adapter, just search on here for it.....so easy to fit even I can do it !!

I just had MOT, and had an advisory that the inside treads were gone on the fronts, so I have had them replaced. I have been down to WIM and had the geometry done a couple of years ago, but there was a few thousand miles on the tyres before WIM, so I assume the damage was already done. I wonder if the geo is forever reset, and not influenced by speed humps, kerbing etc, I have never heard of a need to 'REWIM' but a certain Tony always seems to have his eye on posts like this !!!!

Just a thought, There is evidence that the screens on 200/300's can leak in the corner and mess up the electrics...search on here for more....suggest you have a word with the fitter and ask him/her to especially careful as it is a known problem. Cheers !

I and many others have agonised over this, and it keeps coming up....I was trying to satisfy myself that I need not touch till 100K (it's a 300) but then I realised the belt was now 8 years old anyway....end of debate...got it done. I reckon we are really lucky to own such a reliable car, if you are keeping it then swallow and get it done....It will soon be a non-debate, as no-one seems to argue that the 6 year recc to change is sensible, and how many of us own post 04 IS200/300 anyway? If I was buying another 'older' IS I would insist on proof of a belt change, or knock the cost off my offer...and get it done straight away, water pump n'all !!! There are so few real 'issues' with this car (manky wheels,coil packs,geometry,few other bits) if you take care and get a good'un they are worth keeping properly even if money is short IMO.

OOOOOOO Must join in!! I have a so called private plate. I used to drive a 10 year old car, but owned my own business....buying a cheap Northern Ireland plate, 6 digit, for £200 quid allowed me to disguise the age of the car....yes clients DO care about such things (although i don't) it worked, and saved me buying an image car for thousands of squids ! If you want a private plate, and you can still pay off the credit card...fair enough.

I just gently rub down and recoat mine every spring, using a Humbrol silver enamel paint (tried the sprays this is better IMO), lasts the year fine and you dont notice unless you bend down and examine...costs me about a fiver a year and when done they look (IMO) good. Takes about 2 hours and no masking.

Hi Guys, My sportcross needs new blades all round before the looming MOT, I searched on here and went to wiperblades.co.uk as per advised. They are telling me that the screen blades are OK, but that the rear screen blade is a special shape and a dealer jobby. Can anyone confirm/advise? Cheers.

When I went to a 300, at first the handling seemed vague, but after geometry, it's secure and well planted. Handling as good as the 200 but I reckon the extra power and auto box would change your driving style (to 'positive but smooth' ?)...usual respect shown to the back end in bad weather, but again no dramas since the geo...so maybe that helped the back end too.

I went out for something different to my 200, tried volvo, audi, suchlike...then like a prat test drove the 300 sportcross and bought it....damn!!!

I bought mine direct from the UK distributor, they are based just down the road from me in Derbyshire

A good pointer for the 200 engine is that when you are accelerating, you should find that you feel a surge of acceleration from about 3000-3500 rpm upwards, this is a characteristec of the engine, it could be that your perception of engine noise, corresponds with this 'optimum' power band...if you want to 'push on' this is where your tacho needle should be pointing.... if you can't detect better urge in that rev range then I would have the engine checked out...but there are others on here that know much more than me !!