Newbie To The Uk & Lexus

[wagonist]

Hello all.

I'm going to be moving to the UK shortly for about 15 months or so.

I've never lived in London before so if you can help out with any advice, please refer to this thread: Living in Hammersmith

I'm also looking at buying an IS Sportcross to bring back to Australia with me & therefore have the only one in the country (Lexus Oz didn't think we had a big enough market to bring them in ).

What are the kind of places where to find one (ie websites, Autotrader, etc)

[T7RY B]

Hi, and welcome to LOC.

Can't help you with the Hammersmith questions as I am "Up North" Manchester way But I'm sure a couple of the guys from that area will be along soon and help out.

Terry

[wagonist]

Thanks. At least I picked the right time to start my stay (Summer).

Got a local hotel room booked for the first couple of weeks so I can find something, but I need to find a car pretty quickly.

With the way the Aus import rules are written, I need to own & use the car for 12 months before I can take it back. It doesn't leave much slack unfortunately.

[Unregistered_User]

Hi there and welcome to the LOC,

Jamie

[johnboy]

Hi and welcome to LOC.

You will find that the sprtcross is prety rare over here too, i hope you find one soon, check out the Lexus website for used vehicles, you may be lucky, look here used cars

enjoy your stay

John

[Ian M]

Hi and welcome to LOC and to the UK. You’ll fit right in, London’s full of Ozzies. SportCross – good choice! Autotrader has 47 this week, the nearest being just 3 miles from Hammersmith Town Hall. Happy hunting.

[wagonist]

Actually looking to get away from the Ozzies. There's another 20 million or so of them here.

I was in Cambridge all of last year & was hoping to meet some Brits. Mostly found Americans, Indians, etc because they were also studying or doing research.

My user name kind of gives it away why I want a SportCross. I've owned 7 cars. 2 sedans (saloons), 1 hatch (in UK), & the rest wagons (estates).

Kind of looking at the cheaper end of the market. Don't forgot that if you add £1000, it adds about A$2300. For that price difference, I can buy the special JZ series oil sump (so I can fit a different engine), & a larger diff & driveshafts from the IS300 (stronger to handle a turbo or 2).

There's a few things I'm still going to need to or want to change when it comes back here.

ie the engine will be changed at some point, if an auto then a manual gearbox, the speedo will need to be changed to km/h and the indicator/wiper stalks swapped for "proper" right hand drive versions :P

How do dealers go with travelling to meet a prospective buyer? Is it just a case of tough luck, you have to go all the way to them yourself? It seems the cheaper versions are out of London aways.