Buying A 2nd Hand Altezza

[hansc]

hi all,

i am planning to get an altezza (2nd hand) in malaysia....... just wanna get some general advise, wat are the areas of concerns/problematic areas that i should pay extra attention to?

would appreciate some feedback on this matter.........

thanks!!! :winky:

[BernardTamHK]

good question. I thought the same thing when i considered buying an altezza ..... (but finally decided to go with an IS)

the biggest concern by far is to find out if it is a flooded car from japan (u will have to check under the carpeting to be sure). If any traces of water, walk away as u r guaranteed to have electrical problems in the future

the 2nd one is to check if its been in a collision. It sounds funny, but there have been cases, where they join the front and end of 2 cars (where 1 was in a front colision, and the other was in rear), and just welded it in the middle to make a complete car. If you bring the car to your mechanic and jack up the car, all will be revealed.

Other things to look for is starting problems and idling problems. I have a few altezza friends who've found they have difficulty in starting, and also have unstable idling. They still cannot find the root cause (even after extensive checking/replacing).

Check the condition of the throttle body, and also take a long test drive.

I have at least 1 friend that had premature wear on the camshaft bushing, causing vibration and sound at moderate speeds.

And of course, you need to check for Err3 on the radio. But even if there is, its not a problem as 80% of altezza's experience this problem. You can just use this point as a bargaining chip to get a bit more discount.