H3XME

Having been in that boat, I considered a 200t, albeit RC. My thoughts on it, after a 45min test drive were.. mixed. Ignoring the tuning potential, out of the box it didn't feel much faster than my IS250 (08), probably due to its weight. The sound wasn't anything to rave about either, and fuel economy was worse/same as my IS250's.. I literally saw no point in it. Especially since we're talking IS now, that you can still buy with an already proven V6 version or the 300h if you do a lot of city driving. The best thing to do is to go out and drive it, see what you think.. 10 people / 10 different opinions and all that. https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202404128595259

Btw, why import one? You won't be able to get it much cheaper than buying one here. There's 3 for sale on the marketplace atm. One of them is for £5k in Grey.

It will disable the speed limiter altogether. If you any questions, I'd contact Torque GT. They've been importing cars for a very long time, they know what they're talking about. They even provide a kph to mph conversion with odometer recalibration.

GS300 Calipers you can pick up for £150-200 for the pair. Pads / Discs are pretty much the same money as IS250 stuff. I think the only extra you'll have to buy is the dust shield if you want it. That's comes up to £18.50 each on Amayama from japan.

Sounds normal if you're due pads change. While you change the discs and pads, grease up the slider pins and you'll be alright 🙂

Yeah, they’re almost flush on stock suspension. You’d need +25 front and back to be flush on stock wheels and suspension, so you’ll be fine 🙂 don’t have any pics of them on stock car I don’t think

Fills you with confidence that doesn't it! Managed to damage 2 of them already.😁 Good luck John!

Depending on how much you're looking to get out of it, I would seriously consider getting the scrape fixed, even if it's a few hundred quid to repair. And a new armrest is going to be under £100 surely. Check eBay. You're up against the scrape and the fact that private sales over £10k are generally difficult as people would need finance.. Might be worth considering fixing it and checking what Motorway, WBAC and Arnold Clark offer if you were to get rid that way.

No, I've installed 3 sets of Vland headlights now and none had issues at all. I keep the battery connected etc when putting the extra fuse in for the DRLs.

You're best off looking on eBay for a mirror in your colour Oz. As your car is 2007, you shouldn't have issues finding the right one. It's only the facelift cars with indicators on the mirrors that a bit harder to come by.

Again, depends on the insurance company. Some don't care about a windshield, that's not classed as a claim in everyone's books. It's not so black & white and that's what's so fkin confusing about car insurance in this country. This week, I called 8 different insurance companies to get a quote on a 2013 Toyota Mark X G's (2GR lump, IS platform). All of them were import friendly. 4 of them refused to insure it because they don't have "tables" for this kinda car. Maybe that makes sense as there's less than 5 in the UK, I can see the logic, fair enough. The other 3 were happy to insure it but differed in quotes. £2100, £2400 & £1000. All policies included protected NCBs, modifications & 8000miles. They make stuff up as they go. It's frustrating. Was considering a PCP deal on a facelift RC300h too, but the new Lexuses get stolen left right and centre, so the cheapest quote I got was £2700. Who would've thought that insurance would price me out of having a regular car at the age of 28. I pay £480 for my IS250 atm. It's brutal these days.

Consider yourself lucky Malc. I didn't have issues with slider pins on my 1991 V8 Soarer, but the piston within the caliper itself was seized. I believe early LS400 shares the same brakes. It was a major PITA to remove the seized piston. Dust washer ruptured and the piston was seized solid. I had to weld a bar to it to get a better leverage to hammer it out. Never again🤣

It's probably by design. Indy's will actually try to fix stuff. Lexus will not be fixing anything, they just replace stuff. Perfect example is when i had a health check done and they wanted to charge £400 per caliper because they didn't move as they were supposed to. All it needed was £25 replacement slider pins and a bit of elbow grease. Did it myself in the end.

This is a bit of a niche product, so you're most likely looking at OEM parts. Contact your local dealer. Or find a part number. I think this could be it though.. https://www.amayama.com/en/part/toyota/7575353010 Roughly £50 shipped for RH side. OEM part from Japan. Your dealer could quote similar amount though so check. Part no. 75753-53010 (RH) 75754-53010 (LH)

This isn't a problem. Especially if it's a JDM counterpart. JDM IS or RX can still be serviced at Lexus or any Indy garage of your choice. Cars that were never available here can go to indy garages or import specialists. In terms of parts, it's all the same as here, you can still order from Lexus/Toyota. They can find part numbers from a VIN.

Debatable, there are also lots of the same cars in base model spec compared to what we get here. Be careful what you're getting. If the car is under 10 years old, it will need an IVA test (MOT on steroids basically), it will need to be converted to MPH too. However, if the car is over 10 years old, it requires only a standard MOT, can remain reading in KM and it will just need a fog light if it doesn't have one. So it's fairly straight forward 🙂 Radio goes up to 89hz IIRC. So that will need a range extender but it's less than £20. Or a new head unit. Most cars will be fitted with ETC which is a just a device used in Japan for not having to stop at tolls on motorways. Can be removed once here. No, it doesn't matter if it's available here. Let me use an example of Nissan 370Z. UK cars will have a £700/year road tax bill. JDM imports will be around £300.. £325 I think it is these days. Imports aren't emission tested.

I can confirm this isn't always true, although majority of the time it is. Really depends on your insurance company because I made a claim last year, £50 fee and when renewing this year there was no problems, no questions etc. I did also ask before I claimed it if it's going to affect anything, they said nope. They have to replace the clips. They are not re-usable. They tried (and did) to do this on mine because I wasn't there when they were doing the work on my driveaway. They re-used the clips, put the plastic trim back and I could hear the wind blow when at speeds over 50mph. The trim didn't sit flush with the window because of the clip and it ended up flying up and bending backwards when I was on the motorway. Luckily it didn't completely fly away, but it bend and crack the trim/moulding. I called National Windscreens, made a complaint and went back to their HQ to get it replaced. Unfortunately for me, Lexus didn't have any in stock so I ended up having to wait 3 weeks before they could get the new clips and driver's side trim. All sorted in the end, but yeah, those clips must be replaced with the windshield, but moulding/trim doesn't if removed carefully.

Picked up some front end pieces. It slowly taking shape. Coilovers are going on this weekend if the weather holds. Android Head Unit is on order too, arriving next week. I went for the more OEM looking model this time. Also doubled up on the RAM (4GB. I had the 2+32 spec last time and I had no issues with smoothness of it etc, but I used it for about a month before I sold the green Lexus so I thought I'd future proof it a little with this one. Wheels from Japan should be with me at some in May and then it's more or less done.

Yeah he must mean centre caps. There are no wheel covers for alloys like the ones you'd put on steelies.

Yeah, well I normally leave work a couple of hours early to get there, so I don't go often.

It's always better to put the exact same one as OEM. Yes they OEM one is Denso but there are different models. Is there any way you could send your alternator off for a rebuild?

I can confirm that you won't fail MOT on the headlight washers. Not on this car anyway. It's old. My green one had them and when I did a 3IS conversion I had to plug the plumbing to the headlight washers as the 3IS bumper didn't have washers. @MartinH I will have a black 08 SE bumper for sale in May. No headlight washers, good condition, but I presume you'll have it all fixed by then.

You guys @BkS @Thracing-44 wanna meet up at C&M (Stratford) on a Daikoku night in May? 1st May. My car should be ready by then

You can have my F Sport wheels (graphite) - £500 or 350Z wheels. Or even 370Z but that’s down to whether you fancy going for 19s.

Would it be worth buying in England or is it not worth it because of import fees?