My friend is think about gettin one of these has anyone had one?
Have you had any problems?

Also who might tune them? Turbo's? etc

Cheers

MKD

 

Good cars, well put together and loads of toys to play with.

Only things to look out for are worn ball joints, leaking water pump, corroded alloys, rusted rear brake discs, ERR3 on the in dash 6 disc cd changer and heavy stone chipping at front. If the car in under warranty and purchased from a Lexus dealer then all these things would be sorted. Lexus dealers also give a years warranty on used cars if they are over three years old.

As for tuning there is a TTE Supercharger available for the IS200. Its not cheap though at around £4k fitted but it brings it from 153bhp up to over 200bhp. There are the usual exhaust, induction kits etc. available as well.

If you want more power as standard then consider a Japanese Toyota Altezza RS200. These come with a 4 cylinder Yamaha Beams Tuned engine which puts out around 210bhp. The Altezza is the JDM equivalent of the IS200 in the UK.

Hope that helps.

Gavin

 

The standard IS200 is painfully under-powered (in the torque dept), you end up thrashing it all the time, still getting no where(!) and using up gallons of fuel.

I've heard the standard gearbox can't cope with the TTE supercharger kit, and I can believe this 'cos I had the gearbox rebuilt on mine after 20k. It was not approved by UK dealers, but could be done in Ireland I believe (2 years ago anyway)

Yes most of the early IS200's had rotten alloys and brakes (all replaced under warranty).

Whilst the Lexus customer service was excellent, I thought the standard of workmanship was poor at times. E.g. The gearbox issue I had came back to me unresolved as well as introducing another problem! When the rusty brakes were replaced the car was returned to me with a very soft spongy pedal - turned out there was air in the system.

Oh, the seating position is a bit high too (even for shorties like me).

Nevertheless I still have fond memories of the car.

 

If it were me and I wanted an IS200 (which I do), I woul dgo for an imported RS200

210bhp 2 litre 4 pot, rear wheel drive, lots of fun

Not as smooth as the 150 6 pot but more fun!

 

get an Altezza instead(a jap is200) more power better equipment etc........

 

Get an altezza with (or put) a 3SGTE engine in it(turbo 245hp easily modded to 3xx hp)

 

cheers people I will pass on the info to my mate, it will give him something to think about. I know he will not choose the Import route as he is scared of that and he wont be changed on that front.

Thanks

MKD

 

the jap is200 still has the 150bhp 6 pot engine, its the RS200 thats go tthe higher powered lump.

 

The Altezza RS200 has the 210bhp Yamaha engine and the Altezza AS200 has the same 153bhp engine as the IS200

Gavin