dmiddle2

Cheers for that - its good to know that you are happpy with yours (especially as I am going to be looking at a very similarly aged/priced one). No sunroof for me is always a benefit instead of a drawback - I am 6ft5 so the extra head room is always welcome. Funnily enough, I am single at the moment - but I have never found a girl who is interested in cars beyond the fact that it gets them from A to B and is a pretty colour! Perhaps I need to broaden my horizons in that sense.

No problem Mitch, I am a realistic chap... I know I am not going to get a new new one... but I would rather buy a V, W or X plate IS200 for £10k than a new corsa or something :-)

In that case, I will do that Stu - thats silly though as they must know when I enter my DOB on the web site that I am under 25. Although I have had a couple of problems with shall we say... ambiguous information from them in the past. Thanks for the info.

Well, there are a few reasons for that: Firstly I am looking to spend about £10k, which will limit how new and what spec I can go for. The second is that I don't actually have the full £10k, I will be looking to get the last £3k on finance and finally, my uncle is in the trade so I should be able to get a trade one a little cheaper. Nope... I will worry about that when I become a fully fledged owner... as in ACTUALLY own a Lexus! :-) Just gone through their online system again and the quote came out at £781 with no compulsary excess... I can add excess in, but I am happy with that. I don't live anywhere near Norwhich though and I don't have a garage to keep it in or anything like that, perhaps stuff like that makes a difference.

Excellent, thanks for the tips. I have already got an insurance quote... I am 23 with 5yearsNCD. A quote for comprehensive insurance with £0 excess and everything protected and 25000 (Social, Domestic & Commuting) miles a year came out at just under £800. It may sound a lot but I am currently paying £640 for a diesel VECTRA! And the cosumption figures of 30mpg (combined) seem fairly reasonable, if they are accurate!? Thanks again... will let you know when I find one.

Hi there I am looking to buy a new car... new to me that is, in reality a decent second hand one! So far I have looked at Alfa 156's, Astra Coupe's and SAAB 93 Cabrios. All of which I have gone off for various reasons.... Which led me to the the IS200. I have looked at a few and taken a couple out for a drive and so far it meets my requirements head and shoulders above the rest. Basically I want a car that is nice, well built, luxurious... but NOT especially fast (I have a motorbike for speed). I have to spend about 2.5-3.0 hours a day in the car and want some nice surroundings. Thats all. I also don't really want to pay through the nose on insurance and fuel consumption. Can anyone give me any pointers on things to look out for when buying a second hand IS200? any common problems, little tell tale signs that only a "lex person" would know about? Any particular variations of the model to avoid or anything like that would be really handy. Also - are they all the 2.0 6cyl rear wheel drive models? or are there any variations in the engine options (I know they do the IS300 aswell). Any guidance on particularly good ones to go for would be useful too. Thanks in advance Dan