afterburner

Hello, My apologies if this is a breach of forum rules, or if this is in the wrong place. I have a single standard 17 inch alloy wheel for an IS200, which, as I now no longer have a Lexus, is clogging up my shed. So I thought I'd see if anyone was interested in taking it away for free. I bought it a while ago as I had a slow leak on one of my wheels, and the consensus was a crack was the cause. However in the end just replacing the valve fixed it, so I never needed to fit the extra wheel. It is used, and a bit scuffed, but as far as I know it is straight and perfectly usable. However I cannot guarantee this as it was never on my car. If anyone wants it, let me know. Collection only unfortunately, from north Cambridge. Simon

Sure, all yours. PM me your address and I'll send it off. Don't worry about the postage - it's hardly going to be massive...

Hello, My apologies if this is in the incorrect section or I have broken any forum rules with this. I recently bought a genuine paint touch up kit for my IS200 Sport. However I have just traded the car for another, so no longer have any use for it. It is brand new, unused, genuine part from Toyota. It is for the Platinum Ice colour, 1C0 code. Rather than just throwing it away, I thought I'd see if anyone could use it. So if anyone would like it, let me know and I'll post it off. Simon

The IS200 does seem to have relatively low gearing compared to its competition - something I was quite surprised at when I first got mine. I sometimes wish it had a taller 6th gear to enable better motorway cruising. I guess it's so that the revs are kept closer to the VVTi changeover point, which means better performance.

I find this is true of insurance companies in general, not just those who are on the comparison sites. They have 'introductory' offers which they use to lower the first year premium, and then they jack the renewel up in the second year in the hope that people won't notice/can't be bothered to do anything about it. I'm with a company who aren't on comparison sites and are notorious for doing this (think red phone on wheels). For example I took out house/contents insurance, and for the first year it was £160. The second year renewal came in at £480 :o . When I did a quote for a new policy on website of the same company, the same policy was £180. And when I rung up to cancel my renewal, they couldn't understand why. There's zero loyalty for existing customers in the insurance game!

All models had the same grille, the mesh sport grille was simply an accessory option that could be fitted to any model. But the Sport has it as standard, yes? If so, that means that car is an S/SE, unless someone has retrofitted the standard grille onto a Sport ... and who would do that? NO the IS200 sport didn't have the mesh grille as standard. Some dealers did however add them when they were selling that model. They were an optional accessory originally priced around 250 quid. These days though the colours still available can be had for a fraction of that. TG Interesting - every day's a school day :)

All models had the same grille, the mesh sport grille was simply an accessory option that could be fitted to any model. But the Sport has it as standard, yes? If so, that means that car is an S/SE, unless someone has retrofitted the standard grille onto a Sport ... and who would do that?

They've just done this in New Zealand - made the alcohol limit 0 for people under 20. It will be interesting to see how it goes. They've also raised the minimum license age from 15 to 16, which is still too low IMO. I know when I got my license at 15, I was really still too young ... and I had been driving farm equipment for a while by then.

I think the difference there is that if you have the wing mirror 'icon' on the rear window demister button, your heated mirrors come on when you turn on the rear demist. If you don't have this icon (as I don't), then they're on all the time. Could be wrong though!

Followed a nice black late model IS200 (04 plate I think) with a good looking subtle kit along the A14 and then onto the M11 around Cambridge last night. Looked more like an Altezza to me, but had IS200 badges and the standard plate. If you're on here - nice car!

That's because 'service' stations (I hate to use the word 'service', because usually there's very little service involved) actually make very little money on petrol/diesel - usually only 1-2p a litre. So they try and increase profits by charging a bit more for extras such as food. Of course that's excluding motorway services, which charge more for fuel because they can!

My wife chose the Lexus! I wanted a Mk IV Golf 2.8 V6 4-Motion, but after we test drove one, she said 'it's too fast and it scares me - if we get one I'm not driving it' She'd always liked the Altezzas when we were back in NZ, so we had a look at IS200s and were surprised to find decent low mileage ones in our price range. So we got one ... although she still occasionally complains that it's not blue! If I asked her what she wanted next, who knows what she'd choose!

That's an S/SE grille too.

Mine's a 2001 (Y plate) and has the LSD according to the codes above... Is welding a diff legal in the UK?

I don't know if they could be described as dangerous, but some of the roads in the Troodos mountains of Cyprus were certainly pretty hairy. You're a long way up on some of those mountain roads, and the majority are extremely tight and twisty, with long drops on one side and big cliffs on the other. In addition, anyone who has ever seen Rally Cyprus footage will know about the razor sharp rocks which lie on some of the roads there. While I was never crazy enough to drive on gravel-only roads, they also have a tendency to fall on the tarmac roads as well. In fact I had stopped at one point to take some pictures, when a car came around the corner in front of me and took a big rock right in the sump. It drove off around the next corner leaving a trail of oil - I ran around after them to see if they were OK, and they had stopped with no engine oil. It was a car with 'rental' license plates, but luckly they had a local with them. Of course there was no cellphone coverage anywhere either, so they were in for a long wait. They declined my offer of a ride back to civilisation though! The roads in Cyprus weren't exactly helped by the rental car I was driving - a Chevrolet (Daewoo) Kalos, possibly the worst car I have ever driven! There are a few back country roads in New Zealand which are also a bit nerve-racking as well... Also once drove through a blizzard in upper New York state which was ... um ... interesting!

Mine does it too - I had just assumed it was an IS200 idiosyncrasy...

The gaiter just pulls straight up and off - there are two grooves at the bottom into which it slides, and two clips at either end of the opening which hold it in place. Not sure about the handle itself.

I don't know about around town, but normally I get around 430-450 miles out of a tank of fuel, which equates to about 33 MPG. This is some town driving, but most on my daily 20 mile each way commute in fairly light traffic. That's for an IS200 Sport.

That is some scary, scary :tsktsk: :o

Please let us know how you get on, as I'm sure the mod would be of interest to others ... such as me!

No, if it is registered between March 1 2001 and 23 March 2006, it will be £260. If it is registered before March 1 2001, it will be £215. Only if it is registered after 23 March 2006 will it be liable for the £445 full amount. This is unlikely, because as far as I know, the changeover to the IS250 was about this time. It's all listed in that DVLA link posted above...

I had Falken FK452s on my BMW and they were very good in both dry and wet - great value for money. I would get around 20k miles out of a pair. My only complaint is they can be a little noisy on some surfaces. I'm now using Vredestein Ultrac Sessantas and they are also very good, plus they have a funky tread pattern. However they are only available in sizes above 225 on a 17" rim. The Lexus currently has some cheap no-name brand tyres on the rear, and Federals on the front - stay away, they are approaching downright dangerous in the wet. The car understeers like you wouldn't believe. When the time comes, I'm going to try the Hankook K110 Evos on the Lexus - they have good reviews and seem a reasonable price.

I usually wave thanks to people who let me out because 1) it's polite, and 2) when I'm driving my other car (BMW), it's such a rare thing to have happen

Nice shot of the Harbour Bridge ... car isn't bad either :winky: I was back in NZ in March this year, and I was amazed at how many Altezzas were on the roads now. They've really become popular since I've been away.

What you mean is it WAS £245 ... it's now £260, as per the other posts above, and my renewal which arrived yesterday Seems to be going up across the board - our BMW 320d was £145, but is now £160. When I was looking at getting an 04-05-ish IS200 3 years ago, the tax for cars newer than 2001 was due to go up to £400+ at that time. But I understand that increase was never introduced. The issue is that the engine makes more than 225g CO2, and that would have put it in the top tax bracket. It wasn't a good comparison to, say, the BMW 320i - that car (in comparable E46 form) has a 2.2 litre straight 6, yet produces less than 225g CO2 and would have had a much smaller increase. But I guess it's all irrelevant now.