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Thinking Of Buying An Is200


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Hi there

I am looking to buy a new car... new to me that is, in reality a decent second hand one!

So far I have looked at Alfa 156's, Astra Coupe's and SAAB 93 Cabrios. All of which I have gone off for various reasons.... Which LED me to the the IS200. I have looked at a few and taken a couple out for a drive and so far it meets my requirements head and shoulders above the rest.

Basically I want a car that is nice, well built, luxurious... but NOT especially fast (I have a motorbike for speed). I have to spend about 2.5-3.0 hours a day in the car and want some nice surroundings. Thats all. I also don't really want to pay through the nose on insurance and fuel consumption.

Can anyone give me any pointers on things to look out for when buying a second hand IS200? any common problems, little tell tale signs that only a "lex person" would know about? Any particular variations of the model to avoid or anything like that would be really handy.

Also - are they all the 2.0 6cyl rear wheel drive models? or are there any variations in the engine options (I know they do the IS300 aswell). Any guidance on particularly good ones to go for would be useful too.

Thanks in advance

Dan

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Welcome to the club. You're in the right place for info!

The IS200's all have the same block. There are 3 spec levels- S, SE and Sport. The S is very standard (no leather/sunroof/16" alloys etc), the Sport has alloy kick plates/pedals/LSD and the SE is in the middle.

Fuel and insurance costs are high on an IS200, but well worth it IMO.

Finally, look out for wheel corrosion, ball joints, disks/brakes, error on the radio, clutch jusser in 1st and 2nd and stone chips when purchasing second hand.

Keep us posted on progress...

Zee :)

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Fuel and insurance costs are high on an IS200, but well worth it IMO.

Depends how you drive Zee!

Insurrance isn't too bad... shop around....

And most drivers can get between 300-500 out of a tank!

True - I guess I pay more for the mods (both insurance and fuel).....

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Excellent, thanks for the tips.

I have already got an insurance quote... I am 23 with 5yearsNCD.

A quote for comprehensive insurance with £0 excess and everything protected and 25000 (Social, Domestic & Commuting) miles a year came out at just under £800.

It may sound a lot but I am currently paying £640 for a diesel VECTRA!

And the cosumption figures of 30mpg (combined) seem fairly reasonable, if they are accurate!?

Thanks again... will let you know when I find one.

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As far as it goes for insurance, i am 23, with a norwich postcode (outside the city in a village), with 3 years no claims, various mods, with both me and my othe rhalf insured to drive it, with an excess of £700 (£250 voluntary, £450 compulsory (£350 under 25 years old compulsory - you might want to check that out!)). The milage i gave them is 10k a year, and it's kept in a garage at night. My premium is £670 a year fully comp, with tesco.

Make sure you double check the excess amount, they never told me, and i had kittens when i asked what the excess was!

Welcome to the club! (has anyone mentionned GOLD membership to you yet?! :whistling: )

Stu :driving:

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Why don't you buy one of here? you'll know then you're getting a good deal and a well looked after car then! 

Well, there are a few reasons for that: Firstly I am looking to spend about £10k, which will limit how new and what spec I can go for. The second is that I don't actually have the full £10k, I will be looking to get the last £3k on finance and finally, my uncle is in the trade so I should be able to get a trade one a little cheaper.

Welcome to the club! (has anyone mentionned GOLD membership to you yet?!  )

Nope... I will worry about that when I become a fully fledged owner... as in ACTUALLY own a Lexus! :-)

Make sure you double check the excess amount, they never told me, and i had kittens when i asked what the excess was!

Just gone through their online system again and the quote came out at £781 with no compulsary excess... I can add excess in, but I am happy with that. I don't live anywhere near Norwhich though and I don't have a garage to keep it in or anything like that, perhaps stuff like that makes a difference.

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insurance cost is good and much better than for a 320 Beemer trust me.

fuel is harsh though

would of offered you my IS but not for £10000 though mate sorry lol

u gettin a good car though wen and if you buy one

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They never told me about it either! When i did find out, i was told that ALL drivers under 25 have a standard compulsory excess of £350. Thats why i advise you to double check it, phone them up and talk to them about it. The number is on the web.

Stu

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They never told me about it either! When i did find out, i was told that ALL drivers under 25 have a standard compulsory excess of £350. Thats why i advise you to double check it, phone them up and talk to them about it. The number is on the web.

Stu

In that case, I will do that Stu - thats silly though as they must know when I enter my DOB on the web site that I am under 25. Although I have had a couple of problems with shall we say... ambiguous information from them in the past.

Thanks for the info.

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insurance cost is good and much better than for a 320 Beemer trust me.

fuel is harsh though

would of offered you my IS but not for £10000 though mate sorry lol

u gettin a good car though wen and if you buy one

No problem Mitch, I am a realistic chap... I know I am not going to get a new new one... but I would rather buy a V, W or X plate IS200 for £10k than a new corsa or something :-)

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Here are my opinions

Plusses

Well built, reliable,attractive and I think reasonably practical/spacious (for its class of car)

Minuses

Poor alloy wheel quality, 1st-2nd gearchange a bit clonky, bottom end performance mediocre (unless you floor it -then it flies), poor fuel economy

Dealers

I have mixed feelings about my local one - they may win awards but don't be surpirsed about average customer service on occasions - I find the little things (like phoning you back and they don't) don't always happen.

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insurance cost is good and much better than for a 320 Beemer trust me.

fuel is harsh though

would of offered you my IS but not for £10000 though mate sorry lol

u gettin a good car though wen and if you buy one

No problem Mitch, I am a realistic chap... I know I am not going to get a new new one... but I would rather buy a V, W or X plate IS200 for £10k than a new corsa or something :-)

u got good taste though mate, 10k better spent on a lex than a corsa

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welcome matey , ive owned my is200 for 2 weeks now and i love it , i usually get bored very quick with cars but i enjoy the thought of going out in it every time.

i only got the s model , the no sunroof factor annoys me but heh cant have everything, at the moment im considering buying some 18s as the standard 16s are pretty poor or if i can get the standard 17s off a sport then id have them first !!!

Also if your a single guy you will collect alot of interest from the females a good selling point for me lol , i paid £8400 for a V reg with 78k on the clock full lexus history and im paying £1400 fully comp im guessin ive been bumped on insurance though , might try elephant.com prob get it for half that

i highly recommend the is200 its a great car and i love the comfort you get in it and its pretty fast and the engine roar is one of a kind lovin it !!!!

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welcome matey , ive owned my is200 for 2 weeks now and i love it , i usually get bored very quick with cars but i enjoy the thought of going out in it every time.

i only got the s model , the no sunroof factor annoys me but heh cant have everything, at the moment im considering buying some 18s as the standard 16s are pretty poor or if i can get the standard 17s off a sport then id have them first !!!

Also if your a single guy you will collect alot of interest from the females a good selling point for me lol , i paid £8400 for a V reg with 78k on the clock full lexus history and im paying £1400 fully comp im guessin ive been bumped on insurance though , might try elephant.com prob get it for half that

i highly recommend the is200 its a great car and i love the comfort you get in it and its pretty fast and the engine roar is one of a kind lovin it !!!!

Cheers for that - its good to know that you are happpy with yours (especially as I am going to be looking at a very similarly aged/priced one).

No sunroof for me is always a benefit instead of a drawback - I am 6ft5 so the extra head room is always welcome.

Funnily enough, I am single at the moment - but I have never found a girl who is interested in cars beyond the fact that it gets them from A to B and is a pretty colour! Perhaps I need to broaden my horizons in that sense.

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yeah they truly are great , ive always liked them but just never been able to afford to buy insure and run one but now im set up all is ok with that , but do be weary i flicked the traction control off last night ( and has been dry and hot for days) so no greasyness on the roads at all and the rear end likes to play if u floor out a corner so id keep the trc on till u get use to the whole rear wheel drive thing but wat fun it is lol

honestly though mate if you buy an is you wont look back , however my mate just bought a brand new subaru impreza wrx sti in january and has modded it he just got it back from subaru last nite with it upped to 435bhp wooweee its scary fast 0-60 in bout 3.2 seconds we had it sittin at 172mph last night but u just run out of road and on the country roads where i live , totally built for it and those brembos stop it as quick as it gets there truly amazing so next year or 2 ill be purchasing one of those

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