Do I Bring My Aristo Back To Uk With Me?

[JamesJ]

I live in Tokyo but plan to return to the UK during the first quarter of 2004. I have lived here for four years but only drive in Tokyo so my 99 model Aristo twin turbo Vertex edition has done only 27,000 km. Its a great car and I am thinking of bringing it back with me but I am aware its not a UK model.

I note the comments from other members that many Lexus dealers won't touch the Aristo but our UK house is between Colchester and Ipswich and the Hadleigh dealership appears to have given other members a good service on Aristos and it is not too far from me.

Can any of you guys give me advice on any pitfalls or things I need to be ready for if I bring the car back (insurance etc)? Nothing has ever gone wrong with it but, in particular, I'd like advice on how easy it is to get things fixed that fail.

I'm not a car wizz in any way. I just like this because it is comfortable, seats four and has great acceleration (and don't believe what you hear about traffic in Tokyo. At the time I drive to the office the roads are clear and the acceleration is great to have).

James

[norkep]

Welcome to the Club James,

If U do bring your car back, the Service Centre in Hadliegh is a great place, friendly people who do know a fair bit about the range of Aristo's as one of their Technians owned one for a few a while so knows these inside & out.

Insurance will sting a bit but U can soften the blow my Using the Insurance set for Gold Members, should reduce the cost alot.

The only thing I found was that for the MOT part of things, you'll need to put rear fog lights on to pass, needed to do this to mine on a temperary basis to pass

Apart from that, you'll be joining a few of us here who own these, would nice to meet up as well as I have not really been in the MK II to compare the differences between the MK II & the MK I.

[JamesJ]

Thanks for the welcome. Yes, I did suspect that insurance could be high. I've also assumed that to make it road legal for UK the rear lights will have to be re-wired. Here in Japan we don't have separately operated fog lights. All the red rear lights are linked to the foot brake and I imagine that, in the UK, the two stand-along rear lights get re-wired as fog lights. The speedometer will have to be changed too since the mileage is recorded only in km and the speedometer shows only km/h. My local agent is Tokyo is getting me a quote for the cost of transporting the car and making it street legal in the UK but I may give Lexus Hadleigh a call anyway for that part.

I've seen a few other posts regarding the navigation system. I am not surprised that it would have to be replaced completely. It would be too much to hope that one could just put in the DVD for England and have everything work! When I got my car I asked for English manuals as well as the Japanese language manuals. The English manuals given to me were for US Lexus models and the navigation system is very different. I have no experience of navigation systems in England but I'd be really lost without it here in Tokyo. The Japanese one lets me find my destination by address or by telephone number (public buildings). The TV is also good - even featuring a language selector for bi-lingual TV broadcasts, but, as someone else points out elsewhere on this site, Japanese TV is NTSC so it won't work in the UK anyway.

[Steve]

you will need to get the car SVA tested.. this also means changing the Odometer to MPH.. I think you can buy a switchable converter.. so you can switch between kph and mph.

[ColinBarber]

+ putting a restrictor in the fuel filler so only unleaded nozzles will fit. You need a rear fog light and a warning light that comes on when it is switched on - most people use a switch that illuminates.

[ukgs300]

you say about a warning light when you have the fog light turned on i had an imported celica gt4 but never had this ? is it required is it if so i never knew that

[Steve]

all depends when you brought it into the country... new SVA laws are even stricter

my windom only had a fog light added.. the rest was never applied purely because the car was brought into the country in 99

personal imports were different too i think

[mudzs]

The wiring etc all burnt out on my hiace van so i had to put on new switch etc, the first time i did this i used a switch with no light in and it failed the mot ,so as colin said switch has to illuminate to pass mot

[japanese lowrider]

Or you can have a light on the dash that lights up. My Aristo has been converted with a uk GS fog switch and the light on the dash wired up as i would assume its already there as manafactures tend not to make too many different bits because of cost.

[Guest mark_tsang]

u need to get the car undersealed i beleive?

rear fog lights is optional on aristo & altezza in japan complete with OEM lexus fog light switch

[ColinBarber]

Or you can have a light on the dash that lights up. My Aristo has been converted with a uk GS fog switch and the light on the dash wired up as i would assume its already there as manafactures tend not to make too many different bits because of cost.

I'm not sure if the light is there or not. I know on my MR2 Turbo it was not, something else was there instead.

[ski]

I have had a mk II Aristo Vertex for 3 1/2 years.

I pay £640 fully comp insurance on a value of £25,000.

Rgds,

[JamesJ]

My insurance broker in the UK only got me two insurance quotes. One for 1500 pounds and the other for 1600 pounds. It rather put be off bringing the car back. If I can get something around 600 it makes it rather more worthwhile.

[jdmparts_guru]

Some of the members have experience bringing cars from Japan to the UK, perhaps they can help?

[yoshi]

Bring your Aristo V300 back to UK, it's way better than the GS430.

You will need after import :

- SVA test (MPH convertor, foglight, Cat 1 alarm <new rule>

- wheels re-aligned by professional as the ties on the boat can change the camber

- insurance. Try Tesco as they are v.cheap and Aristo friendly.

When you drive the car here :

- Optimax fuel + octane booster (£10 per tank)

- any Jap tuner will service your car, your engine is a Supra Mk.iv engine, any supra tuner will aid you, very easy to service yourself. Forget ecu readings, you just need to change the sparkies and oil once a year. I have Lex service manual for all the other stuff, so let me know if you need assistance.