IanF

Some altezzas also have the external amp - I swapped a UK IS200 radio into my Jap import Altezza with no problems. Can't remember the number of sockets on the back of each radio, but the Altezza has only got 2 cables. No sat nav though Ian

Yeah - it would be ace if you could post a link to the auction. Cheers Ian

On a particular internet auction site... (no Gold membership yet, so no link :) ) Ian

To be honest, for a quick sale I'd be happy with an even lower price. If you know anybody looking for a Tezza - get them to make me an offer! Ian

I'll second that - LOC members have been absolutely fantastic. Thanks to everyone guys Ian

Sadly not - there is an "official" definition of a kit car or one off, specifically designed to prevent it being used as a loophole. Ian

PS Just so nobody thinks I'm a victim of my own supidity for entering into such a deal :winky: - I checked out a few other importers before selecting Scott - this seems to be the standard deal when importing a specific car to order. Also at the time Scott was very well respected on here, and I got a couple of refreneces that said he had done good work and was reliable. I also checked him out with the BIMTA trade association, who sad they had never had any complains about him (that's changed now!). It seemed sensible that if I wanted an Altezza, to use a specalist Altezza importer, recommended by the owners club.

Mr Morse - much as it's gonna hurt, I think you're right - I've got a choice between an expensive and difficult legal route, or trying to salvage as much as possible and moving on. I have a contract with Scott, but it is explicitly to act as my agent to aid importing. There is nothing that specifically says he will get me a particular car on the road for a particular price by a particular date. Mr Singh - No, even if the car goes back to Japan, I can never get the classifciation numbers back. It could go back to Japan for resale, but Ireland will be more cost effective. Once registered in Ireland, it's still not possible to bring it back to the UK, so it would have to stay there. Incidentally for anybody in Ireland - there is absolutely nothing wrong with the car itself - it's exactly what I wanted. The only problem is the paperwork doesn't display 2 numbers that are meaningless outside Japan, but the UK authorities insist on seeing before registering it. Ian

The trouble is that although Scott is 100% morally responsible, I don't think he is legally responsible. At the end of the day, he hasn't sold the car to me – it was bought from Japan in my name, he only acted as an agent to identify the car and advise on bringing it back to the UK. So although he has been completely incompetent and landed me in loads of bother, his legal responsibility is only that his service as an agent was inadequate, and any refund would only extend to his fee. If he refuses to shoulder any blame, I'm not sure that there is anything I can do other than make sure as many people as possible know about it, and his business suffers as a consequence. Maybe I should take some legal advice. Ian

When first sold in Japan, every car is issued with a classification and model number, verifying that it complies with Japanese safety laws. The numbers are issued by the Japanese version of the DVLA. As I understand it, every 3 years cars in Japan are inspected (similar to an MOT), and if they are found to be modified, the classification numbers are withdrawn (indicating they are no longer factory standard). If the car stays in Japan, this doesn't represent a problem. However if the car is exported, the deregistration document doesn't include the classification numbers. VOSA have a list of "pre-approved" classification numbers - as long as the paperwork shows this number, there is no problem. If the car has had this number removed, they will not accept that the car complied with Jap law, and therefore will not accept that it complies with UK law. They insist an alternative proof - either a comparison report against a UK equivalent car (which in this case doesn't exist) or a letter from Toyota (which I aint gonna get) I've since found out that any decent importer knows to check these numbers are present before buying a car at auction - once the numbers are removed, there is no way to get them re-instated. So basically I have been left in this situation by the incompetence of Altezzascot. Scott accepts no responsibility - he's disapeared off the face of the earth - doesn't answer phone calls or reply to emails. He's a member of the importers trade association BIMTA - even their committe haven't been able to get anything out of him.

This is the same car that Altezzascot inported for me 2 years ago. The problem isn't that it's a Qualitat (it counts as a regular RS200 on the documents) - the problem is Scott's incompetence in buying a car without checking the paperwork . Because the paperwork's not complete, VOSA wont accept it. Now the car has left Japan, there's no way to get the correct details. Ian

No - VOSA say they will only accept a comparison against a car that has been approved for UK sale.

I've just spent a frantic couple of days on the phone to VOSA, trying jump through their hoops to get my Altezza registered without the correct paperwork from Japan. The stumbling blocks were eveidence that the brakes, seatbelts and steering complied with EU laws. I thought I was getting somewhere - they told me that I could get an engineers report comparing my car with a UK registered equivalent (at enormous cost, but at least it would et me registered). However when I looked at the test protocols, even though the tests are on the brakes, seat belts and steering, they want everything to be comparable - including the engine. This means my 4 cylinder RS200 can't be compared to a 6 clylinder UK spec IS200 - and I'm sunk . So I've got a lovely RS200 Qualitat sat in my garage, with absolutely no way to get it registered in the UK. The only suggestion VOSA make is they will accept a letter from Toyota confirming that the car complies with EU law - but as it was built for the Japanese market, I don't think there is a snowballs chance of that happening. These stupid laws don't apply in Ireland - so if anybody in Ireland wants a lovely year 2000 RS200 Qualitat with 34K miles on the clock, send me a PM - I'll do a very good deal for you! :) Ian

I can't speak specifically for the RX400, but in general Japanese domenstic cars are tuned to run on 100 RON fuel, which I understand is standard over there. UK standard unleaded is 95 RON, which is where the problem lies. However UK super unleaded is 98 RON, and Jap imports run fine on this. I would be 90% sure that the ECU is capable of detecting the lower RON fuel, and adjusting the ingition timing to compensate - I've never heard of a modern car that wasn't capable of this, so I don't see why the RX should be any different. Ian

Do plenty of research on sat nav converters before buying - I'm sure other folks will have posted what does and doesn't work and the costs. I would estimate £300 for a converter, and another £800 for an aftermarket sat nav system. The downside is that it will never be as well integrated or elegant as the factory one - you will probably be left with redundant controls on the dash, and will need an extra remote control. It may also be harder to integrate properly with the stereo. You may also run into problems if the sat nav screen is also a touch screen for controlling other systems. I've personally never tried a radio band expander, but I've heard they cause a noticable degradation in the quality of the radio signal. If you listen to the radio a lot, this may be a problem. When I said most people dump the jap radio, I hadn't considered all singing built in systems - the options are probably to either live with the band expander, or find an identical system from a scrapped UK car and swap them over. You shouldn't have too much problem with an SVA - the things that need doing are speedo conveted to mph, rear fog light fitted, fuel neck restricator adding and if you have HID lights they must be self leveling. It's worth getting the car undersealed to protect against UK road salt, but this isn't a legal requirement. Ian

I can't recommend any specific companies, but there are regular car transports from Japan to Europe - it takes about 6 weeks and cost about £600 Jap sat nav will not work here. The best you can do is find a converter that will allow you to add additional video feeds to the built-in screen, and fit an aftermarket sat nav system to this. The original sat nav hard drive will be useless. Maybe you can get a good deal on having a screen fitted but no hard drive. Maybe you could get a UK spec sat nav installed (they all come out of the same factory - so they must be available) Not too expensive - speedo convertor about £50. FM band expander about £20, but reception quality is usually pretty poor - most people dump the jap radios when they import. SVA is the biggest problem with importing cars - in principle it is a check to demonstrate that an import complies with UK safety laws. However the paperwork required is very specific, and if you get anything wrong you could end up with a car that cannot be registered. I would highly recommend you leave this to an expert - a mistake can very easily cost thousands. I think the DVLA definition of 'personal use' assumes you are resident in the UK, but have bought a car from overseas. 'Personal import' is a different classification, and assumes you have owned the car for a period of time whilst living in the country of import. Personal import avoids most of the red tape and pitfalls, but there are restictions on how long you have owned the car before import, and how long you must keep it once in the UK. However, I'm only writing this from memory, and as you say, the website isn't very clear, so best check with the people in the know. Ian I believe so - if you have owned the car for (I think) more than 6 months in any country, you can bring it into the UK without too much hassle. It's still got to pass an MOT, but I think it doesn't need to go through ESVA. However there are lots of restrictions to prevent it being used as a loophole for importers - you have to have been resident in the country for a period of time, owned and used the car for this time, and you have to keep it for a minimum period once in the UK. I can't remember the exact time periods, but they are on the DVLA website somewhere. Ian

As one of the people who has just been shafted by a suposedly professional importer, I would agree - you wont gain very much financially, and could end up with an unregisterable car. The only exception would be if you are not leaving Japan for a few months - there is a loophole in the import laws that means if you live in the country of export, and have owned the car for more than 6 months, you can import it to the UK as a "personal import" without the need for ESVA and (I think) no tax. This is well worth it, as the tax is an extra 30% on top of the purchase price - and if you want you can get a car that wouldn't pass ESVA requirements. There are more details on the VOSA website (www.vosa.gov.uk). Ian

I've been looking at part numbers this afternoon, trying to identify bits that I suspect are critical to the brake system, and are therefore likely to be checked. I've identified these bits - anything else likely I've missed? I've got the following part numbers ABS Unit Toyota 44540-53010 Denso 133200-5040 Servo 862-02508 0221 High pressure cylinder (not sure about the name or relevence of this bit) 0B11 (could be 0811) B07 (could be 807) How does all this compare with what's on the IS200? Ian

Bugger - why does everything have to be so complicated! Surely I'm due a bit of good luck sometime soon :duh: . I'll check out what bits are on mine. Mat - do you mean the servos are different between IS and Altezza? Are they interchangable? Thanks guys Ian

Before I can get it registered, my Altezza needs to go through a comparison test with a UK spec IS200 (big thanks to Chris Javadude :D :D :D ) to demonstrate that brakes, seat belts and steering are the same. The guy at the test centre recomended confirming that the brake servos and ABS units all have the same part numbers before the cars go in for testing. Can anybody advise on where these are and what they look like. Cheers Ian

I think I heard somewhere that GM don't make anything at all selling cars - all their profits come from finance when people buy the cars. In effect, the cars are a loss-leader to get people to sign up to a credit agreement. I don't know if the same is true of Toyota/Lexus, but it does indicate that the profit margins are not as astronomical as you might expect. Ian

I don't want to sound like I'm leaping to Lexus's defense here, but they obviously didn't set out to make a car that rattles. When it was designed, somebody made a judgement on the number and location of pannel mounts, clips, etc - no doubt supported by a reasonable, but still small scale amount of testing. Now that the cars are out in the field in much bigger numbers, it's coming to light that the original design is not adequate. However, to prevent the rattles in subsequent cars is not as easy as the dealer letting the factory know about the problem. Lexus will have made enormous investment in moulding tools to manufacture the components as designed - adding more clips or mounting points is a massive job, and may cost many millions and takes many months. In the very early days of a new product, they may feel that for a non-critical flaw (eg a rattle), it isn't reasonable to make the change until they are sure that no other issues will come to light (and then do everything together as a face lift). I'm not saying that the rattle isn't a problem in a car supposedly built to exceptional standards, but I think that expecting the dealer (or even Lexus GB) to be able to have any influence in the factory in the short term is not reasonable. Just my tuppence worth Ian

No gadget required - just a cheap relay from RS Components, and following the instructions from Geoffers: http://www.lexusownersclub.co.uk/forum/ind...?showtopic=5137 Ian

I did the mirror closure gadget on my Tezza (I can't drive it on the road - so I've channelled my frustrations into fitting gadgets :D ) Because the Altezza has no factory alarm, the only bit of Geoffers original plan I used was the relay to switch polarity to the mirrors. I used the aux circuit in my Clifford alarm to switch the relay for 20 seconds - all the timing is built into the alarm, so no need for any additional timers. The location and colour of the wires in the footwell is identical to the plans in my yr 2000 Tez Ian

I think so, but wouldn't swear to it. There is no signal pin like Geoffers has in his diagram, so you will need to use the alarm signal as the +ve power supply to the timer Ian