Box Fresh IS250

[J Henderson]

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202308211051891?atmobcid=soc3

Only 3000mls and looks perfect. Basically a "new old stock" 2IS. Great colour combo too.

MOT history shows it clocking fewer than 200mls per year most of it's life.

[BkS]

Interior colour aside, what a find.

[Linas.P]

Interesting find! I understand the appeal - interior does look brand new and car seems to be in perfect shape cosmetically, but this car was basically standing for 11 years. That is NOT good.

Unless this car magically has 11 service stamps and those 200 miles are somehow very regular of say 5 miles very Sunday going "to the church and back", and rest of the time car was parked in the garage... well then I guess that is good. But otherwise it needs to be treated like barn find, with all dried out and leaking seals, tyres certainly need to go (not that original Turanzas were very good anyway).

Kind of usual case "what is too much is not good" - getting 3000 miles car is always nice, but not when it is 11 years old.

 

[MartinH]

How though?

[Linas.P]

32 minutes ago, MartinH said:

How though?

5 miles every Sunday going "to the church and back" - that would be salesman explanation.

It is lovely car, sadly it is Advance, but it is not £15k in any world. Low mileage alone can't make it £15k.

[Sundance]

Quite bizarre.  Where has this car been and why has it not been driven?

L.P is going to love me for agreeing with him but in terms of future reliability I too find myself equally suspicious of extreme low mileage as I would be of extreme high mileage.  I think future uncertainty are the two words that spring to mind.

It looks amazing and sadly unused, excepting the apparent bodywork chips below the n/s/r light cluster, and with such clean brake discs too.  It does beggar belief as to its history.

Then there's the contentious dealer-speak "mega spec limited edition" for an 'Advance' which does sow seeds of doubt with the absence of even an ML audio system.  The Elite Motor Company are not far from me and knowing their situation they do tend to exaggerate somewhat on both pricing and, evidently, description too!

[Mr Vlad]

Yes stunning looking car but doubts must be cast. £9k tops I'd personally say or the full £15k with an Absolute No Quibble Gurantee on Everything and I mean EVERYTHING.

[Linas.P]

18 minutes ago, Mr Vlad said:

Yes stunning looking car but doubts must be cast. £9k tops I'd personally say or the full £15k with an Absolute No Quibble Gurantee on Everything and I mean EVERYTHING.

I was about to say £8k, but agree - there or thereabouts. Because anything over £10k and you are in a decent mk3 territory. 

[J Henderson]

No way it'll go for 8 or 9K. I reckon it'll sell for 5 figures no problem. Maybe not £15K, but over 10 no doubt.

Just updated my own car's mileage (84K) on the Autotrader app, and it's apparently still worth £7400 as a trade-in or £9000 selling privately. Incredible!

[Linas.P]

Best of luck trying to sell it for that (and I mean it in good faith). Lexus mk2 price is ~£4,000. Give or take, very good examples sells for maybe £6,000... £7,000. So this being exceptional car with such a low miles, despite very low-end trim we can say it is more than that. It is exceptionally hard to sell above that range and you can't double the price of the model range just because car sat undriven for decade.

Could it sells for over £10,000?! I think if the dealer is willing to wait forever, then sure, but this is not privately listed car, they need inventory to manage and rest assured they have got this car from relatives of some pensioner for £6,500 or something like that. So from their perspective it is better to move 10 cars a month with £2,000 margin on top, than sit on this car for a year trying to get £8,000 profit.

For the buyer who is looking for Lexus mk2 IS250, anything over ~£6,500 are diminishing returns. £7000 buys you nice 2010+ F-Sport/SE-L/SE-i with decent miles, say 75k miles which would be expected for the age. Why would anyone spend any more money? It is not like there is any significant difference between the cars, okey 2011 got DLR, but lost ASF - is that really a reason to pay extra £1,000 or £2,000, to get DLR? And overall, what do you get in later car that is not provided by 2006 SE-L for £4000 (assuming both have FLSH and comparable condition)?

As well don't forget Lexus itself is kind of niche, buyers are not lining up for these, £395 for road tax does not help, so this is not exactly desirable car in the market. As well, £10,000 is a lot for 11 years old car, £15,000 is not very realistic. Let's not forget that you have F-Sport which is the most desirable trim, and we talking about Advance here, which arguably is the least desirable trim. So if you list your car for say £8,250 (roughly in the middle of the range) I am sure you have better chance of selling your car, then they have chance to sell their for even £10,000.

So why have they listed the car for £15,000 in the first place? Because they know they can lure somebody saying "look I make you amazing deal of this low mileage car, I give you £5000 discount" and this will look amazing for potential buyer, whereas realistically it is going to be just about alright.

Well I guess caveat to all above - that applies to knowledgeable buyer who did research and know what is what. 90% of buyers have no clue, especially older buyers are completely naive and happy to take advise from sales person, so assuming buyer doesn't know what they are buying and what it is worth there is possibility for them to sell this car at any price. But then they are relaying on buyer ignorance rather than merits of the car.

[T man 545645]

MOT history shows incremental mileage every year, its been MOT'd every year no doubt it has also been serviced. 

Its a one owner car, if all the paperwork is there the dealer probably done crazy stuff like change the spark plugs due to the age of the car rather then the mileage. 

[Linas.P]

1 hour ago, T man 545645 said:

 MOT'd every year no doubt it has also been serviced. 

Why? Just can't see how we can jump to this conclusion. Many cars have MOT, yet hey haven't been serviced at all, we just had this discussion with one member and he did not change even oils for two years, yet car had it's MOT. I actually can check how much it was serviced on Lexus App, but can can't be bothered because I would never be interested in Advance. 

Actually looking at MOT history, seems like car missed MOT several time, it is normally MOT'ed every March, but there are few May, Junes and Aprils... so it likely was standing and somebody forgotten MOT run out and they only realised by June. As well car can be SORN and and MOT'ed, so there is no reason to believe it was even on the road.

The good is that there are no advisories, although it would be very strange to have advisories on 3000 miles car. That said car was likely last used ~2016-2017, since then 89-215 miles a year could be pretty much getting car MOT'ed and parked back home.  

[Thelongterm]

For a 5k less, I'd go for this time capsule https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202309131949624?advertising-location=at_cars&atmobcid=soc5&fromsra&include-delivery-option=on&make=Lexus&maximum-mileage=60000&model=IS 250&sort=relevance

 

 

 

 

[Linas.P]

That it is much nicer car and it is SE-L as well. I am still not sure I would pay £10k just for low miles but in comparison it is much more interesting proposition.