My New Is Is Here.

JZS147 · August 27, 2012

Picked up my IS sport this week, thanks to all that gave advice.

Blue near mint 2001 sport with 57k and full lexus history but short MOT for less than a grand because a "kiss" on the NSF corner pushed the light back 10mm at the bottom, bargain or what !!!

The bumper came off yesterday and within 20 mins I had the light pointing where it should again although the strengthening bar below it isn't quite the shape is was :D and the headlight does have an ickle crack at the back

All back toghther now and ready for MOT tomorrow, I've had a good look round and can't see anything drastic it's going to fail on.

The problem is it was ment to be just a standard daily driver to and from work but thoughts of TTE this and TRD that have already started and being as the std bumper has to come off again to replace these parts I may as well see if I can find a TTE one to replace it with (see thats that justified).

Does it always start this way and where will it end ?????????

Will do pictures when it stops bloody raining.

Take it easy.

matt-c · August 27, 2012

Haha, was the same for me. I nearly bought - or rather tried to but they were sold before I could - a couple of Sports with full TTE kits and 18's, so I went for a completely stock one because it looked like its really been looked after etc etc. But now I can stop thinking "what if I did this" and "Oooh, it'd be nice to do that" - I want to do the auto mirror mod, with reversing dip, and HIDs, and TTE/TRD kits, I just bought a sat nav dash unit for it thinking to retro fit a TomTom in place of the stock screen - the list goes on! I even want to turbo it, since I found out you can run a 282bhp turbo conversion on standard internals!

ChrisIS200SportTTE · August 27, 2012

Haha, was the same for me. I nearly bought - or rather tried to but they were sold before I could - a couple of Sports with full TTE kits and 18's, so I went for a completely stock one because it looked like its really been looked after etc etc. But now I can stop thinking "what if I did this" and "Oooh, it'd be nice to do that" - I want to do the auto mirror mod, with reversing dip, and HIDs, and TTE/TRD kits, I just bought a sat nav dash unit for it thinking to retro fit a TomTom in place of the stock screen - the list goes on! I even want to turbo it, since I found out you can run a 282bhp turbo conversion on standard internals!

Turbo or supercharger will cost you more than the cars worth or pretty close to it mate. And that wont double the value of your car. I thought about it. £2000 for the supercharger and about £1700 for a turbo. So it's not a cheap mod. Theres no other mods that will give you more power, they are your only 2 options. Changing exhaust, air filter etc will give you no more power...If the power (or lack of it) is a problem for you, sell your 200 and get a 300 :)

Affordable mods are getting 18's, pop out sat nav, DVD player. I have a ripspeed pop out touch screen sat nav/DVD player waiting to go in. The thing that stopped me doing it myself is all the horror stories of flat batteries after fitting aftermarket stereos! I will get around to it tho and find a very good auto electrician to do it.

north · August 27, 2012

Sounds ace now get it through MOT and enjoy the car ;)

matt-c · August 27, 2012

Haha, was the same for me. I nearly bought - or rather tried to but they were sold before I could - a couple of Sports with full TTE kits and 18's, so I went for a completely stock one because it looked like its really been looked after etc etc. But now I can stop thinking "what if I did this" and "Oooh, it'd be nice to do that" - I want to do the auto mirror mod, with reversing dip, and HIDs, and TTE/TRD kits, I just bought a sat nav dash unit for it thinking to retro fit a TomTom in place of the stock screen - the list goes on! I even want to turbo it, since I found out you can run a 282bhp turbo conversion on standard internals!

Turbo or supercharger will cost you more than the cars worth or pretty close to it mate. And that wont double the value of your car. I thought about it. £2000 for the supercharger and about £1700 for a turbo. So it's not a cheap mod. Theres no other mods that will give you more power, they are your only 2 options. Changing exhaust, air filter etc will give you no more power...If the power (or lack of it) is a problem for you, sell your 200 and get a 300 :)

Affordable mods are getting 18's, pop out sat nav, DVD player. I have a ripspeed pop out touch screen sat nav/DVD player waiting to go in. The thing that stopped me doing it myself is all the horror stories of flat batteries after fitting aftermarket stereos! I will get around to it tho and find a very good auto electrician to do it.

Oh yeah, I know that - I've wasted many many thousands on modifying cars in the past, so I know you won't recoup money on them. The topic of 200 vs 300 and more power comes up a lot; I think both cars are underpowered. The 200 needs to have at least the power the 300 has as standard, but a 3litre I6 with 211bhp is underpowered too. That should be at bare minimum 260+, more like 280/290. The turbo conversion is just a little pet dream, as I miss the turbo cars I've owned in the past, and think it'd change the IS200 incredibly to have a bit more power and a bit more torque under the hood; it'd be ideal with about 220hp and 240lb/ft I think. But to do it properly it'd be closer to £4k, not sub £2k...

I'm trying to resist doing ANY mods to it - it's a slippery slope I've been down too many times before! :D It'd be nice for sure to whack on a set of TTE bumpers and 18's, but I don't want to get into the suspension and brake upgrades/change-outs, and much as I'd love to give it forced induction, I really don't want to, if you get what I mean!

If I'd have been wanting to get an IS200 to modify, I wouldn't have bought the one I did. I'd have bought one for half the price, probably even under a grand - one that would have had higher mileage and been a bit more tired. THEN I'd have rebuilt the engine and whacked a turbo on it, fitted coilovers and all new bushes, bigger brakes and larger callipers, etc etc. Either that, or spent the money it would have cost to do all that (figure, £8-£10k?) on a better, faster, car in the first place ;)

I was just illustrating it can be a dangerous road, the one to modifying, and even the smallest "tweaks" can start the ball rolling ;)

JZS147 · August 27, 2012

I'm sticking with styling and creature comfort mods, TTE bumper, nice set of 18's and hopefully find a sat nav housing to put an android pad into (needs more research) to start with.

The engine will be staying stock as I've got a mildly tuned Aristo for "playtime"

I must admit the IS has got right under my skin very quickly and the bog std daily driver idea has departed already.