Buying An Is200 Sport

flappinganimal · March 18, 2010

Hi. Great forum!

Appologies for posting when I don't actualy own a Lexus yet.

I am looking for an is200 sport, probably 1999 - 2001 reg. Can spend up to £3000

Is this realistic? Ive been looking on Autotrader and eBay to get an idea of price. The asking prices seem to vary quite alot. Would I get a decent, good condition example for 3k? Hope fully with a mileage of around 100k

Is there anything I should be looking for specifically? Any common problems?

I love these cars, and having driven around in a ford focus for the past 6 years I need some joy back in my motoring!

Any advice would be appreciated greatly.

Thank you :)

wahid hussian · March 18, 2010

Hi. Great forum!

Appologies for posting when I don't actualy own a Lexus yet.

I am looking for an is200 sport, probably 1999 - 2001 reg. Can spend up to £3000

Is this realistic? Ive been looking on Autotrader and ebay to get an idea of price. The asking prices seem to vary quite alot. Would I get a decent, good condition example for 3k? Hope fully with a mileage of around 100k

Is there anything I should be looking for specifically? Any common problems?

I love these cars, and having driven around in a ford focus for the past 6 years I need some joy back in my motoring!

Any advice would be appreciated greatly.

Thank you :)

hi and welcome mate

common problems

you can try looking on here

good luck :) :)

BRUC3 · March 18, 2010

Welcome to the forum :)

Ive only recently bought mine, well sunday to be exact!

When I was looking for a car, I decided I wanted one with under 100,000 on the clcok, and started off by dismissing cars with over 95k miles. I ended up with one that has 105k on it!

The service book for an IS200 says the cambelt needs replacing at 100k, but from what I read on here the independants say 60k... With this in mind if you buy something over 60k you will need to spend £7-800 on a cambelt and waterpump change...

I found this a good barganning point and as soon as I mentioned this to people they would knock £500 off the price straight away. Well, the 3 I previously looked at did!

More miles is not necessarily a bad thing as i found out!

Check for the keys. You want at least 2 fobs with the 3 buttons. They can be expensive to replace!

Also check everything works electric wise, you may find the cd player doesnt work due to the Err3 code which is common. Also I found people would knock off a hundred £ or so due to the wheels needing a refurb. If they havent already been done, they will need to be!

They were the main 3 points I found to knock sellers down, but I used the search button a hell of a lot on here and found out some usefull information!

Hold out and wait for the right one! I looked at 3 before I picked mine, even thought I had to wait 2 weeks :(

Also do the hpi check and VOSA check to see what the car failed on in previous MOT's! :D

I found that posting the cars I was going to look at on here gave a lot of neutral feedback from members who know a hell of a lot moer than me!

Good luck with your search!

Bruce

flappinganimal · March 18, 2010

Hi. Thanks very much for the warm welcome :-)

Some great info there :-)

I'm really glad I asked here now.

I'll keep you updated on my search. Got to sell my Ford first :-(

Cheers :-)

flappinganimal · March 23, 2010

Hi again :-)

Ive been casually looking around the internet for an IS200 (very difficult not to just go and buy one but must be pacient). I was wondering if anyone could tell me the main differences between the S, SE and Sport?

As far as I can tell the engine is all the same so I guess the performance will be the same? Is it just the trim and interior that are different?

Thanks in advance :-)