benvallack

Parking spaces are a joke aren't they. I'm currently driving a Subaru Forester (think they're quite popular in Australia?) and that seems like a squeeze in most supermarket spaces. I'm hoping to get an LS400 at some point in the future and parking it is my biggest concern (at least ending up too close to others and them dinging it). That being said, my wife will have a much smaller car so that will get used for the supermark runs. I guess physical land is at a much higher premium over here than in Australia. Simply less of it in total! Some roads are pretty narrow too but I figure if big lorries can manage it should be possible in a Lexus too.

Hiya, looking at a mk4 on autotrder but the sat nav screen apparently just shows Japanese writing. Has anyone heard of this happening? Is it likely to be something serious?

Heh yeah I did wonder if she might actually love it! Actually she really likes the idea of an auto - it's the size that concerns her most I think. Think insurance might be a bit prohibitive too - she hasn't been driving that long. I can't wait to get one though.

Thanks Keith - that does sound tempting. Annoyingly though I'm not ready to proceed yet. My wife has convinced me to hang on until probably around november (we're expecting a baby in a few weeks!). Also thinking that £1500 should be my maximum budget too really as I'm going to need to get a smaller car as well for my wife who definitely doesn't fancy driving the Lexus! I currently have an 03 Subaru Forester which I am hoping should fetch a bit more money in the winter than it would do now which is another reason to hold off. Thanks.

How can you tell it was sold at auction recently? That is useful info to know when looking at a dealer car!

Exhaust problems are a bit of a concern - I've read that it's cheaper to get a new one built with stainless steel - would these tuned mass dampers be applicable to a stainless steel replacement or would they only work with the original parts? i.e would a stainless replacement be noisier as a result?

Hiya, I posted a little while ago saying I was looking for a good example so it might have been me you thought of - many thanks! Unfortunately I'm not quite in a position to go ahead yet (going to have to get a second car for my wife if I go down this route so am waiting for the go-ahead on a big project so I can think about justifying it as a second car!) and this is quite a bit more than I was hoping to pay - although as you say it might be possible to bring it down a bit. It will be interesting to see if it goes quickly or comes back later at a lower price. Right now I'm lurking and keeping an eye out for what goes quickly and what gets re-listed with the price reduced. I got pretty excited by this one: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/261054819839?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649#ht_901wt_1182 - it was only on there for a few days then the listing got pulled; it was on Auto Trader for £1495 so I'm assuming someone bought it before the auction finished and the seller took it off eBay. Thought that would probably have been a bargain.

Car auction is an interesting idea. What sort of access do you get to check the cars over before? I've not had any experience of car auctions and the idea is pretty scary! Any tips/best practices? £400 for a 2000 with everything working is incredible.

Thanks for all the interesting points. Yes I was hoping to find someone on here who's selling. Some of the way the eBay listings are written doesn't exactly fill you with confidence! You're right about the detail, explanation and photos of all issues - they add so much credibility to a listing. Regarding the eBay price you pay when you win a bid - I think it comes down to what the previous winning bidder has set as his/her highest bid to. For example lets say Joe has added a maximum bid of £100 to an item. The listing had a starting big of £50 so eBay will only bid £51.00 on Joe's behalf, i.e enough to be the highest bidder. Then, if Jane comes along as says, "hum I want this, I'm going to put £200 maximum bid on it", eBay will then set her bid to £101.00 - enough to beat Joe's bid, but no more. If someone else, John, comes along and thinks "I want to enter the running, I'm going to bid £150" - eBay will then actually just change Jane's bid to £151.00, but she'll still be the highest bidder. John's bid doesn't even get him anywhere. He'll need to bid again with a higher bid than Jane's £200 to actually be the highest bidder. So I think the explains why some people are seeing big leaps after bidding on lower current bids.

Thanks for the info. I do appreciate the point you're making. I have however seen quite a few threads on here where people have mentioned their purchase price so did assume that there would be others who would also be happy to share. Still, you can but ask! Yeah it is looking like I'm going to have to travel some distance to find a good one.

Hiya, I'm thinking about getting an LS400 Mk4 - sounds like the best one of the LS400 bunch. However, looking on eBay and Auto Trader there seems to be a wild over-estimation of asking prices compared to the figures I've seen mentioned on here. Certainly the ones from dealers. I'm assuming people have made lower offers and they've been accepted. The question is how much is a sensible offer. I wonder if this thread could be used to consolidate a list of cars and prices you've paid for them (and any problems which you later found about which might have explained a low offer acceptance!). Perhaps using this as a basis: Model: (i.e LS400 Mk4) Year: Asking Price: Price actually paid: Date purchased: Condition: Mileage: Full Service History: Lexus Service History: Color: (just out of interest!) I guess a lot of people on here have also sold cars so would be good to know how much you let them go for!! Also - if anyone knows of any Mk4s near Bath please let me know - can't seem to find any much nearer than 100 miles away from me.

It's an HTML glitch, it should just be a normal ampersand symbol. In HTML (the code language used to build web pages) an ampersand symbol is represented by the following code: & The website visitor should just see '&' - however sometimes things go wrong and you end up seeing some or all of the code.