Lexus LS430 Slightly modified
Discussion
After our BMW was stolen back in November as us taking a little bit of a financial hit due to the insurance not paying out for it I've been in the lookout for a new car.
After a week without a car i decided that we needed to get something just to get us around, Bearing in mind the used car market in Poland is very depressing with decent sub 500 GBP cars not existing we decided to buy this, (I would have flown to the UK to pick something up but my passport was stolen with the BMW so i was stuck in Poland
)
Walking to the local shop to buy vodka to drown my sorrows I happened upon this for sale in a nearby street,
Its a 2004 Peugeot 206 Roland Garros 2.0 HDI, As I understand they didn't make too many of these with the 2.0 hdi engine so its a bit of a rarity.
Great fun in the snow especially on summer tyres
The tyres were pretty shot (Perished more than worn) so I found a set of 17" oem rims with winter tyres to stick on in which tidied it up nicely
I also added one of those tuning box things to make it drivable as it had no power whatsoever over 3500 RPM,
Oh and the interior was pretty smart…
When we bought the car it had done around 250k kms and when we sold it just over 300k, (Trips to the UK and back monthly from Poland will do that,)
Despite the fact long journeys were akin to travelling in a washing machine on full spin due to the short gearing and agricultural engine the old Peugeot didn't miss a beat in the 6 months we abused it for. Nothing fell off, Nothing broke, All the electrics worked as well as french electrics ever could. I must say i'm pretty impressed, Although theres no soft touch plastics and that "solid feel" when you close the door I actually think it was better screwed together than our BMW e90.
Anyway moving on, The car was sold to my brother in law, Not because i wanted to sell it really but because he really wanted it, My plan was to keep it in the garage as a spare car as I'd really grown attached to the thing.
Washed, not polished ready to be handed over,
I've been searching for a new car since the BMW was stolen and had set an initial budget of 15k GBP to replace the BMW as I needed something comfortable and reliable for my monthly commute between the UK and Poland, Since the Audi s1 came out i had been yearning for one but after having a test drive I just couldn't bear to part with the cash.
In the meantime My wifes parents had given us a huge chunk of land to build a house on and we were also in the process of buying a UK property so the money was obviously better spent elsewhere. A couple of quotes from a builder in my wifes hometown revealed that the cost of building a 120m2 house is only slightly more expensive than the Audi S1... Decision made.
Originally I was after the latest first generation Lexus IS200 I could find but with them being few and far between in unmodified decent condition (with the aero kit) I started looking at the LS430.
After reading UtterPiffles threads about his jaunts across Europe in huge engined Mercs running on LPG this got me thinking,
So I bought this
Its a 2005 Lexus LS430 on just over 100k miles with full service history and its huge!
For just over barge thread money and only slightly I'm pretty impressed at how much car we bought for the money. (Quite literally as it barely in our parking space, good job we have 2 and only one car)
The most surprising thing is everything works!
Anyway as LPG conversions can be done cheaply and to a very good standard in Poland it seemed like the logical thing to do so booked it in for next week to have the gas installed. 700 GBP for a sequential system with HANA injectors and an 80 Litre tank in the spare wheel well. (Payback period should be around 6 months)
Driving on the uneven roads of Poznan has revealed a slight worn air strut on the rear left so instead of replacing the oem parts one by one only for them to inevitably fail at some point I've ordered a set of Tein Streetflex coilovers to take the place of the air system and to future proof the car against any more suspension problems.
So far i'm very impressed however my previous Lexus impressed me too and was well suited for the sort of use it got,
For comparison next to the 206
[/URL]
They do seem to be very well built if not that good looking compared to its German counterparts but that V8 sound is amazing.
More pictures and updates to come as things progress.
After a week without a car i decided that we needed to get something just to get us around, Bearing in mind the used car market in Poland is very depressing with decent sub 500 GBP cars not existing we decided to buy this, (I would have flown to the UK to pick something up but my passport was stolen with the BMW so i was stuck in Poland
)Walking to the local shop to buy vodka to drown my sorrows I happened upon this for sale in a nearby street,
Its a 2004 Peugeot 206 Roland Garros 2.0 HDI, As I understand they didn't make too many of these with the 2.0 hdi engine so its a bit of a rarity.
Great fun in the snow especially on summer tyres
The tyres were pretty shot (Perished more than worn) so I found a set of 17" oem rims with winter tyres to stick on in which tidied it up nicely
I also added one of those tuning box things to make it drivable as it had no power whatsoever over 3500 RPM,
Oh and the interior was pretty smart…
When we bought the car it had done around 250k kms and when we sold it just over 300k, (Trips to the UK and back monthly from Poland will do that,)
Despite the fact long journeys were akin to travelling in a washing machine on full spin due to the short gearing and agricultural engine the old Peugeot didn't miss a beat in the 6 months we abused it for. Nothing fell off, Nothing broke, All the electrics worked as well as french electrics ever could. I must say i'm pretty impressed, Although theres no soft touch plastics and that "solid feel" when you close the door I actually think it was better screwed together than our BMW e90.
Anyway moving on, The car was sold to my brother in law, Not because i wanted to sell it really but because he really wanted it, My plan was to keep it in the garage as a spare car as I'd really grown attached to the thing.
Washed, not polished ready to be handed over,
I've been searching for a new car since the BMW was stolen and had set an initial budget of 15k GBP to replace the BMW as I needed something comfortable and reliable for my monthly commute between the UK and Poland, Since the Audi s1 came out i had been yearning for one but after having a test drive I just couldn't bear to part with the cash.
In the meantime My wifes parents had given us a huge chunk of land to build a house on and we were also in the process of buying a UK property so the money was obviously better spent elsewhere. A couple of quotes from a builder in my wifes hometown revealed that the cost of building a 120m2 house is only slightly more expensive than the Audi S1... Decision made.
Originally I was after the latest first generation Lexus IS200 I could find but with them being few and far between in unmodified decent condition (with the aero kit) I started looking at the LS430.
After reading UtterPiffles threads about his jaunts across Europe in huge engined Mercs running on LPG this got me thinking,
So I bought this
Its a 2005 Lexus LS430 on just over 100k miles with full service history and its huge!
For just over barge thread money and only slightly I'm pretty impressed at how much car we bought for the money. (Quite literally as it barely in our parking space, good job we have 2 and only one car)
The most surprising thing is everything works!
Anyway as LPG conversions can be done cheaply and to a very good standard in Poland it seemed like the logical thing to do so booked it in for next week to have the gas installed. 700 GBP for a sequential system with HANA injectors and an 80 Litre tank in the spare wheel well. (Payback period should be around 6 months)
Driving on the uneven roads of Poznan has revealed a slight worn air strut on the rear left so instead of replacing the oem parts one by one only for them to inevitably fail at some point I've ordered a set of Tein Streetflex coilovers to take the place of the air system and to future proof the car against any more suspension problems.
So far i'm very impressed however my previous Lexus impressed me too and was well suited for the sort of use it got,
For comparison next to the 206
[/URL]They do seem to be very well built if not that good looking compared to its German counterparts but that V8 sound is amazing.
More pictures and updates to come as things progress.
Edited by CDB1983 on Thursday 26th May 10:52
Just dropped the old barge off for its LPG conversion, Hopefully we will have it back by the end of the week,
Next week coilovers get fitted as the OE rear air shocks have pretty much had it.
I've been searching US Ebay for the wood panel without the suspension switches as having redundant switches on the dash will really make my teeth itch.
Next plan is to do something with the OEM sound system and navigation. I was hoping for something along the lines of a Dynavin system but it seems nobody makes them so the plan is to fit the climate control panel which is fitted to the non navi cars and install Alpines Apple carplay system. (6 CD's get tedious on long trips) Navigation system is out of date and very temperamental so the only solution is to bin it. Problem at this stage is sourcing the right harness to integrate an aftermarket headunit with the Mark Levinson System which sounds fantastic and would be a shame to lose.
Bring on 25p per litre barging!
Next week coilovers get fitted as the OE rear air shocks have pretty much had it.
I've been searching US Ebay for the wood panel without the suspension switches as having redundant switches on the dash will really make my teeth itch.
Next plan is to do something with the OEM sound system and navigation. I was hoping for something along the lines of a Dynavin system but it seems nobody makes them so the plan is to fit the climate control panel which is fitted to the non navi cars and install Alpines Apple carplay system. (6 CD's get tedious on long trips) Navigation system is out of date and very temperamental so the only solution is to bin it. Problem at this stage is sourcing the right harness to integrate an aftermarket headunit with the Mark Levinson System which sounds fantastic and would be a shame to lose.
Bring on 25p per litre barging!
Lpg system installed, well has been for quite some time and so far so good.
Tank holds 65 litres and gives a range of 250-300 miles and costs less than £20 to fill,
The paranoid side of me keeps the petrol tank nearly full at all times as the fuel guage still moves when on LPG and then bounces back to the actual fuel level periodically.
After ordering the Teins they told me it would be a 6 month wait so opted for some K-sport coilovers, so far so good,
And fitted!
The only problem im having is that the intaller didnt set up the dampening on the rear and left them in factory settings. Job for today is to remove the rear seats and adjust the damping. The car drives so much better than on the stock blown shock absorbers and for the cost of 1 OEM air shock I now have 4.
Ride height a little lower than stock
EBC pads and discs fitted too so should stop the way it should without the vibration i was getting before.
Tank holds 65 litres and gives a range of 250-300 miles and costs less than £20 to fill,
The paranoid side of me keeps the petrol tank nearly full at all times as the fuel guage still moves when on LPG and then bounces back to the actual fuel level periodically.
After ordering the Teins they told me it would be a 6 month wait so opted for some K-sport coilovers, so far so good,
And fitted!
The only problem im having is that the intaller didnt set up the dampening on the rear and left them in factory settings. Job for today is to remove the rear seats and adjust the damping. The car drives so much better than on the stock blown shock absorbers and for the cost of 1 OEM air shock I now have 4.
Ride height a little lower than stock
EBC pads and discs fitted too so should stop the way it should without the vibration i was getting before.
V8RX7 said:
Honestly do the new shocks ruin the ride ?
It's supposed to be a comfortable cruiser whilst I like "sporty" I don't like crashy and jiggly
Compared to how it drove on the broken air system its actually pretty comfortable, I have raised the ride height up as the installer set it far too low and its set at 3 clicks away from maximum soft on dampening which has eliminated any bounce.It's supposed to be a comfortable cruiser whilst I like "sporty" I don't like crashy and jiggly
CDB1983 said:
Compared to how it drove on the broken air system its actually pretty comfortable, I have raised the ride height up as the installer set it far too low and its set at 3 clicks away from maximum soft on dampening which has eliminated any bounce.
But compared to a standard working one or any other comparable barge ?I'd hope the coilovers have their range to include the original spec but IME they generally range from Rock Hard to Immovable
At the moment its at least as smooth as my old E38 with sport suspension, Obviously its not as smooth as its supposed to be however i couldnt warrant spending £700 a corner to repair the original air system only for it to break again as it seems the suspension is the only weak link on these things.
Some may have seen my other thread with regards to spigot rings etc...
Anyway It now has new shoes, 19" RTS trafficstars which have long been my favourite wheels but until recently have been way out of my budget, I'll let the pictures do the talking.
I know the rear needs more dish so new barrels and lips are in the pipeline after the winter
Polishes up well for an 11 year old 100k+ barge
Also as my wife finally passed her test and didn't fancy driving the LS with the wheel on the "wrong side" we scoured the local classifieds, Went to view a Yaris and a Fiesta which seemed to appall my wife and then she found this!
Looks good in the pictures but was pretty rough when we bought it, Dent on the roof from a badly loaded bicycle, Poor collision damage repair to the rear quarter and bumper and generally in a neglected state.
Week in the bodyshop and a weekend of polishing gave us this (not bad for a 17 year old car
Anyway It now has new shoes, 19" RTS trafficstars which have long been my favourite wheels but until recently have been way out of my budget, I'll let the pictures do the talking.
I know the rear needs more dish so new barrels and lips are in the pipeline after the winter
Polishes up well for an 11 year old 100k+ barge
Also as my wife finally passed her test and didn't fancy driving the LS with the wheel on the "wrong side" we scoured the local classifieds, Went to view a Yaris and a Fiesta which seemed to appall my wife and then she found this!
Looks good in the pictures but was pretty rough when we bought it, Dent on the roof from a badly loaded bicycle, Poor collision damage repair to the rear quarter and bumper and generally in a neglected state.
Week in the bodyshop and a weekend of polishing gave us this (not bad for a 17 year old car
Nice motor, I like the changes you've made to it as well.
Just for reference Internet, coil overs do not automatically mean 'rock hard with zero compliance'.
If they have the correct spring rates (suitable for the weight of the car) along with quality dampening, they can offer a great ride along with superb wheel control.
Just for reference Internet, coil overs do not automatically mean 'rock hard with zero compliance'.
If they have the correct spring rates (suitable for the weight of the car) along with quality dampening, they can offer a great ride along with superb wheel control.
Cheers
I think coilovers have come a long way over the years, These are on nearly the softest setting and ride nearly as smooth as the air did. Even on terrible Polish roads. The only difference being that when a shock absorber goes next time it will cost 150 quid as opposed to 700. Shocks only seem to last a year on these roads anyway
I think coilovers have come a long way over the years, These are on nearly the softest setting and ride nearly as smooth as the air did. Even on terrible Polish roads. The only difference being that when a shock absorber goes next time it will cost 150 quid as opposed to 700. Shocks only seem to last a year on these roads anyway
SR48 said:
Got balls to buy a used car in Poland, didn't want to look at cars in Germany?
The big one is from the UK, The Is200 was only around 1400 quid so thought it was worth the gamble, Any more than that and I will be looking over the border as buying used here is quite and experience Gassing Station | Readers' Cars | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff