Gully

thx mate, good ones :)

yeah, good thinking mate, i will have a look before i decide anything. is it worth doing a HPI check on cars from dealers (not main lexus dealers)? or do most of them include such checks in the price? edit: any there any other questions that you can think of that I should be asking relating to the private seller? i am asking about if there are mods on the car, did they buy from new etc... but any other important ones I should be thinking about?

ok, thx for the help! :) looks like i will be definitely buying a HPI check. I did a bit of research and looks like it will only cost me £40. Is it worth doing this before I go and visit the car? It would mean phoning up the owner and asking for his/her registration plate and (optional) MOT certificate number and VIN mileage number - is this a bit cheeky? and what about when I go to see the car - is it worth me buying one of those AA checks where some chap comes out to have a look at the car? Or is this being overly-paranoid especially since I will definitely doing a HPI check?

sorry mate, i totally forgot to mention it was a private sell, my bad ;) anyways, thx for the advice shanz. so what starting offer should i try if it were a dealer? after all, i will be looking round a number of IS200's. and hopefully, by mentioning the fact that I am looking round a number of them, they should **** their pants! and another quick q while i here, is it pretty essential to get a HPI check? how much do they cost?

i havent owned many cars before in my life, well, er, 1 to be exact and this was bought from a friend of mine! Im looking to buy an IS200 SE and I believe I have found one on the net that suits me nice... it is a IS200 SE 2001(Y), manual, 45k miles on the clock, fsh, immaculate condition throughout and is going for £10995. plus, the added bonus of it being only a few miles from my house! parkers guide say about £11370 is the right price, so I am getting a pretty good deal already. soooo, what I wanted to know is negotiating a price for it if I were seriously considering it (I havent looked round it yet). I have been told that I should offer say £10k to start off with, and then leave my details for him to consider. and then we can come to some agreement once he had thought about it. is this the right way to go? any help would be appreciated.

Sport model cheaper than SE?! my insurance quote was about £100 more with the Sport model compared to the SE PS. NO NEED TO SHOUT! :P

pity it is in green cos I would be majorly interested otherwise ;) where abouts in kent are you mate?

it just completely depends on your circumstances i guess :)

update: tried toyota/lexus insurance and they quoted me £3567.04! :o i guess they didnt like my age and car combo :P

ok mate, thx for info. will definitely give them a go and will report my findings :)

Have you taken one for test drive? you might be surprised!! I was very recluctant to get an auto, but took one out for Test Drive and loved it, i dont regert it one bit :D im sure it is good d00d, but i want the extra speed! :P

just got a quote back from confused.com saying that the best they can do is £1146.60. @michaelH> i suppose that i need to know the Lexus reg plate details in order to get a quote from them right? i havent yet got an is200 yet, but please correct me if im wrong :)

im looking for a is200 se. but not auto soz :P

i tried all sorts of online quotes, my results below: some wouldnt accept my application (More Than, Zurich), dunno why. Said to phone a number, and do this and that, yada, yada, yada... Tried the AutoTrader insurance search thing. Got an average response - varying from £3,300 (from Lloyds) to £1180 from Bells. I also tried Tesco who quoted about £1500. But the best by far was www.elephant.co.uk who quoted £892. Dead pleased with this. All of the quotes included my father on the list (but me as the primary user of course!) and numerous other details such as 0 no claim bonuses. By increasing the no claims bonuses, the quote went down big time (like £500) but unfortunately this is not the case :( It is so tempting to cheat on these forms, saying like Im the Company Director! :D Anyways, anyone else with any decent advise for me to try? Thx for all the help btw, much appreciated

well im with direct line so I will definitely give that a try... as you said, if that works, i will be laughing my way down to the pub! edit: just realised that I am not the policy holder so I very much doubt this is gonna work :(

@dobedo> yeah, i get enough of that **** from my dad, thx! :D @TheDon> cheers mate, will give that a try as well. @RazRankin> ill take a look at some of the piccies and see what i think, but i kinda dont like OTT mods plus the expense and reliabilitiy factor! Perhaps later on tho... :D

yep, i was expecting about a grand. im not interested in modding at the moment anyways, so that should be fine. and perhaps even joining the gold club may even lower prices i would hope ;) thx for help raz

cheers dude, looks like i was looking in the wrong part of the board :/ jeebers, will i really be looking at that much? i suppose that was with direct line. would being 2 yrs older (and 2yrs driving experience) in conjunction with say a cheaper alternative such as elephant.co.uk be a lot cheaper? im a bit clueless when it comes to insurance matters

Am I being too hopeful at looking to buy a IS200 SE at the age of 22? I have been driving since 17 (4 yrs and a bit) however I dont have my own insurance policy - I had to share with my mum and sister on my current Peugoet due to lack of money. On this policy I have never claimed anything ; no accidents, no points on license etc. However, now that I have got a job after graduating and a regular income I can afford to go individual. The probs is that I have no no claims bonuses. So my question is: is it possible to do this, and roughly how much would I be looking on insurance for a s/h IS200 SE. (group 12 I think) If I have missed anything out regarding info, please let me know. Any advise would be appreciated! cheers :)