Lexus LS430 Slightly modified
Discussion
CDB1983 said:
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 
Fair enough, i have seen a lot of cut and shut jobs over there and know that MOT standards there are low as as driving standards which brings into question the road worthiness of a lot of polish registered cars here 
Quick update,
We have now done around 3000 miles since fitting the new wheels and they are still on (I have been checking the torque of the bolts weekly), They haven't fallen off yet despite my tyre fitter telling me they would which is nice,
Lexus LS430 ownership is actually pretty painless for what was once a very expensive car and literally no faults whatsoever (Unlike our previous BMW which was half the age and mileage) despite the LPG conversion. When having the rear brakes and wheel bearings done last week the mechanic mentioned some rust around the jacking point and mentioned that it needs to be sorted ASAP! Only on the drivers side so possibly a previous owner jacked it up in the wrong place.
Quick call to Lexus mentioning the 12 year anti-corrosion warranty (Bearing in mind mine is 11 years old) they told me make an appointment with my local Lexus dealer which happens to be Lexus in Poznan who assessed the rust and agreed that it was unacceptable and made me leave the car with them for 5 days. Picked it up this morning with all the corrosion replaced! We even got a new IS200t to motor around in whilst ours was being repaired. (Now i want one)
Suffice to say both myself and my wife were very impressed by the service and the attitude.
We have now done around 3000 miles since fitting the new wheels and they are still on (I have been checking the torque of the bolts weekly), They haven't fallen off yet despite my tyre fitter telling me they would which is nice,
Lexus LS430 ownership is actually pretty painless for what was once a very expensive car and literally no faults whatsoever (Unlike our previous BMW which was half the age and mileage) despite the LPG conversion. When having the rear brakes and wheel bearings done last week the mechanic mentioned some rust around the jacking point and mentioned that it needs to be sorted ASAP! Only on the drivers side so possibly a previous owner jacked it up in the wrong place.
Quick call to Lexus mentioning the 12 year anti-corrosion warranty (Bearing in mind mine is 11 years old) they told me make an appointment with my local Lexus dealer which happens to be Lexus in Poznan who assessed the rust and agreed that it was unacceptable and made me leave the car with them for 5 days. Picked it up this morning with all the corrosion replaced! We even got a new IS200t to motor around in whilst ours was being repaired. (Now i want one)
Suffice to say both myself and my wife were very impressed by the service and the attitude.
95 fiesta si said:
Back in the day, i always wanted the 206 Roland Garros. It was the 2 tone leather and the panoramic roof i fell in love with. Even went to the dealer for the grand opening of its release.....i never got one though
To be fair they are fantastic little cars, It sounds pretty cliche but the 206 was the first car in ages I "enjoyed" driving, Lightweight with enough power makes for very fun driving. The Lexus is a fantastic car to get from one end of Europe to the other but it can't be described as fun.After less than 2 months we are looking at replacing the IS with the new IS200t on a lease (In Poland you keep the car at the end of the agreement) as I really like them and strangely my wife who has only been driving 2 months prefers driving the LS despite the wheel being on the wrong side. Trafficstars will be transferred to the new vehicle however
Time to switch back over to summer tyres so decided to change the wheels too,
Settled on some Riverside Lehrmiester in 19" with 8.5j on the Front and 9.5j on the rear. They seem to fill the arches much better on the back that my previous ones and the extra 1" of tyre should help with grip when pulling away in the wet. Fitted with Uniroyal RS3's too which appear to be a bit of a bargain at the moment. (Ordered some for the wifes is200 too)
Nice bit of dish on the back too but nothing excessive.
So far in close to 30k miles no real issues apart from a Lambda sensor. MOT time soon and the front wishbone bushes could do with replacing but apart from this it should sail through hopefully.
Settled on some Riverside Lehrmiester in 19" with 8.5j on the Front and 9.5j on the rear. They seem to fill the arches much better on the back that my previous ones and the extra 1" of tyre should help with grip when pulling away in the wet. Fitted with Uniroyal RS3's too which appear to be a bit of a bargain at the moment. (Ordered some for the wifes is200 too)
Nice bit of dish on the back too but nothing excessive.
So far in close to 30k miles no real issues apart from a Lambda sensor. MOT time soon and the front wishbone bushes could do with replacing but apart from this it should sail through hopefully.
SR48 said:
CDB1983 said:
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
Fair enough, i have seen a lot of cut and shut jobs over there and know that MOT standards there are low as as driving standards which brings into question the road worthiness of a lot of polish registered cars here 
Lexus do trade on their reputation for customer service, but it's really impressive that you're treated that well with a 11 year old imported 'shed'
jamiebae said:
Yes, the Polish used car market is 'interesting' to say the least. New car sales are around 280k a year, but about 400-500k of 10+ year old cars are imported each year from other countries (normally Germany, France, Belgium and NL). Generally these are accident damaged, MOT failures or just too rough and knackered to be sold in their home market. Most are then clocked while being badly repaired before being sold as 'clean' because they have no accident history in Poland. Add in the secondhand parts, part worn tyres and imperfect roads and I'd be driving a new base model Dacia as at least I'd know the history
Lexus do trade on their reputation for customer service, but it's really impressive that you're treated that well with a 11 year old imported 'shed'
I would never buy a used car over here, Some of the stuff they repair is insane and truck loads of European scrap comes in every day. The standard of driving is appalling and made worse by the fact the cars don't behave as they should when they inevitably Hit a tree killing 4 people. The authorities try to solve the problem by cutting down the tree to stop it happening again as opposed to focussing more on driver improvement and stricter (or at least some sort) of MOT test.Lexus do trade on their reputation for customer service, but it's really impressive that you're treated that well with a 11 year old imported 'shed'
Examples like this are pretty much the norm,
They are then repaired by a back street garage and come back looking like this with a clean title as theres no such register for damaged vehicles.
https://www.otomoto.pl/oferta/bmw-seria-5-bmw-535-...
The standard LS wheels went to good use too,
As we only had winter tyres for my wifes car we decided to put some lower profile summer tyres on the standard LS wheels and stick them on the IS, I think they suit it well It looks like they had been recently refurbed just before we bought the LS so they are in perfect condition.
Uniroyal RS3's seem to be a bit of a bargain at the moment, 4 18" for less than 200 quid! The strange tread pattern is really messing with my OCD though
As we only had winter tyres for my wifes car we decided to put some lower profile summer tyres on the standard LS wheels and stick them on the IS, I think they suit it well
It looks like they had been recently refurbed just before we bought the LS so they are in perfect condition. Uniroyal RS3's seem to be a bit of a bargain at the moment, 4 18" for less than 200 quid! The strange tread pattern is really messing with my OCD though
Slight update,
Decided to tidy up the front bumper as it was quite stone chipped and had damage from hitting something that fell off the car in front at speed on the Autobahn leaving a huge deep scratch in the front bumper.
After a bit of browsing on yahoo auctions and many emails backwards and forwards to Nengun I managed to secure a factory aero kit for the Toyota Celsior which was installed along with sorting a few other bits of paint,
Dusty pic outside the bodyshop, (At least its daylight)
|https://thumbsnap.com/rJIPPvY0[/url]
After a wash and a quick polish to get rid of the dust,
|https://thumbsnap.com/zTOcOXtP[/url]
|https://thumbsnap.com/h23Y6MFE[/url]
Fit looks to be very good and as its ABS plastic should be quite strong too,
More pictures when its daylight and the glue on the rear bumper has set properly
Also had the rear 3 windows tinted in 60% tint.
Decided to tidy up the front bumper as it was quite stone chipped and had damage from hitting something that fell off the car in front at speed on the Autobahn leaving a huge deep scratch in the front bumper.
After a bit of browsing on yahoo auctions and many emails backwards and forwards to Nengun I managed to secure a factory aero kit for the Toyota Celsior which was installed along with sorting a few other bits of paint,
Dusty pic outside the bodyshop, (At least its daylight)
|https://thumbsnap.com/rJIPPvY0[/url]After a wash and a quick polish to get rid of the dust,
|https://thumbsnap.com/zTOcOXtP[/url]|https://thumbsnap.com/h23Y6MFE[/url]Fit looks to be very good and as its ABS plastic should be quite strong too,
More pictures when its daylight and the glue on the rear bumper has set properly
Also had the rear 3 windows tinted in 60% tint.
CDB1983 said:
Examples like this are pretty much the norm,
You should see the stuff this guy does: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEu3HaSINRE. In my native tongue there's a saying - making whitebread out of sh_t. Seems apt (No disrespect to the metalwork guy, just that the structural rigidity might be severely diminished.)PS LS looks ace with the aero kit and new wheels.
His metalworking skills are excellent however its pretty scary just how many cars like this are on the road in these parts of the world, I certainly wouldn't like to be the person who crashes it second time round. Its definitely a huge problem and certainly a contributing factor to the huge number of road deaths, Especially given how they drive.
Next on the list for the LS430 is a new exhaust as the standard one looks a bit small now and it would be nice to have a little bit of V8 noise however given that we use this car for pretty much only long journeys I'm trying to find something that isn't going to drone, Any suggestions?
Next on the list for the LS430 is a new exhaust as the standard one looks a bit small now and it would be nice to have a little bit of V8 noise however given that we use this car for pretty much only long journeys I'm trying to find something that isn't going to drone, Any suggestions?
After asking around on local forums I have managed to find a local distributer of Akrapovic exhaust systems, Booked in for mid July for an X pipe, High flow cats and back boxes. Hopefully not too loud however it would be nice to have a bit of a V8 burble.
The Place that painted uploaded some pictures to one of the forums, Obviously much higher quality than mine as i'm no photographer.
Must say i'm quite pleased with both how it looks and the fit and finish of the Aerokit. (Excuse the post apocalyptic background its a typical industrial estate here in PL)
[url]
|https://thumbsnap.com/E7neOHCr[/url]
As you can see the OEM exhaust looks a little lost, Initially I was just going to add tailpipes however the OEM ones just won't come off, 12 years of dirt and corrosion are obviously doing their part.
The Place that painted uploaded some pictures to one of the forums, Obviously much higher quality than mine as i'm no photographer.
Must say i'm quite pleased with both how it looks and the fit and finish of the Aerokit. (Excuse the post apocalyptic background its a typical industrial estate here in PL)
[url]|https://thumbsnap.com/E7neOHCr[/url]As you can see the OEM exhaust looks a little lost, Initially I was just going to add tailpipes however the OEM ones just won't come off, 12 years of dirt and corrosion are obviously doing their part.
After 18 months, Several very long road trips under its belt and close to 30k on LPG, Nothing really to report.
Managed to get the OEM navigation working with a used unit from Japan and butchering that for parts to get my navi drive working (Common problem) 50 quid and a replacement navi DVD later and it works in a very 2005 fashion. (Not worth the hassle as Waze and Google maps are far better)
LPG system has been flawless throughout despite my initial reservations about running a car on gas. Steady 25mpg most of the time so with gas costing around 35p a litre it costs buttons to run. No noticeable differences to how it drive either.
MOT expired, Tax is 300 a year and with having the motorhome too 2 MOT trips a year to the UK seemed a bit excessive so decided to register it in Poland,
Bit of a PITA as there was a bit of question around the legality of the headlights in LHD countries however a letter from Lexus confirming that as the beam is flat they can be used in LHD and RHD markets got that sorted.
Also trying to explain that the UK is still an EU country (For now at least) so my car carries EU homologation fell on deaf ears so had to get yet another letter from Lexus.
Insurance is bloody expensive too. just over 1k a year compared to the 500 or so I was paying to the specialist broker!
Anyone wanting a cheap and hassle free route to V8 ownership, I couldn't recommend the LS430 enough as they are built like tanks.
Managed to get the OEM navigation working with a used unit from Japan and butchering that for parts to get my navi drive working (Common problem) 50 quid and a replacement navi DVD later and it works in a very 2005 fashion. (Not worth the hassle as Waze and Google maps are far better)
LPG system has been flawless throughout despite my initial reservations about running a car on gas. Steady 25mpg most of the time so with gas costing around 35p a litre it costs buttons to run. No noticeable differences to how it drive either.
MOT expired, Tax is 300 a year and with having the motorhome too 2 MOT trips a year to the UK seemed a bit excessive so decided to register it in Poland,
Bit of a PITA as there was a bit of question around the legality of the headlights in LHD countries however a letter from Lexus confirming that as the beam is flat they can be used in LHD and RHD markets got that sorted.
Also trying to explain that the UK is still an EU country (For now at least) so my car carries EU homologation fell on deaf ears so had to get yet another letter from Lexus.
Insurance is bloody expensive too. just over 1k a year compared to the 500 or so I was paying to the specialist broker!
Anyone wanting a cheap and hassle free route to V8 ownership, I couldn't recommend the LS430 enough as they are built like tanks.
I have absolutely no need for a big Lexus, but if I did, then this type of thread could prove expensive!!
Car looks good, the new wheels are better than the other Max Power ones but I'd likely have it sat a bit higher and still on standard wheels if it was me.. the aero kit looks good though and with some subtle, well situated tailpipes poking out the bumper at each side then it'll be tip top.
Car looks good, the new wheels are better than the other Max Power ones but I'd likely have it sat a bit higher and still on standard wheels if it was me.. the aero kit looks good though and with some subtle, well situated tailpipes poking out the bumper at each side then it'll be tip top.
Cheers for the comments
I agree re the suspension as due to the length of the thing its a pain getting in and out of the garage at our new place so I'm researching other options, (Not too keen on the coilovers its currently on and the OEM air is prohibitively costly to maintain on such an old car and on utterly terrible roads + 3 went at once)
Exhaust is planned, I did book it in and then cancel as the money was better spent elsewhere (fixing the camper) but i'm torn between going for a system or just getting tailpipes,
We Polished up and spaced out the OEM ones for now so it doesn't look too stupid but I think a little bit of a burble would be nice and i'm fairly certain it wont drone due to the soundproofing.
Finding the right wheels for these things is a pain. The OEM 18's suit the car very well but sit so far in and leave the arches looking a little bit empty especially with the aero kit. They do however look great on the wifes is200.
I agree re the suspension as due to the length of the thing its a pain getting in and out of the garage at our new place so I'm researching other options, (Not too keen on the coilovers its currently on and the OEM air is prohibitively costly to maintain on such an old car and on utterly terrible roads + 3 went at once)
Exhaust is planned, I did book it in and then cancel as the money was better spent elsewhere (fixing the camper) but i'm torn between going for a system or just getting tailpipes,
We Polished up and spaced out the OEM ones for now so it doesn't look too stupid but I think a little bit of a burble would be nice and i'm fairly certain it wont drone due to the soundproofing.
Finding the right wheels for these things is a pain. The OEM 18's suit the car very well but sit so far in and leave the arches looking a little bit empty especially with the aero kit. They do however look great on the wifes is200.
CDB1983 said:
Cheers for the comments
I agree re the suspension as due to the length of the thing its a pain getting in and out of the garage at our new place so I'm researching other options, (Not too keen on the coilovers its currently on and the OEM air is prohibitively costly to maintain on such an old car and on utterly terrible roads + 3 went at once)
Exhaust is planned, I did book it in and then cancel as the money was better spent elsewhere (fixing the camper) but i'm torn between going for a system or just getting tailpipes,
We Polished up and spaced out the OEM ones for now so it doesn't look too stupid but I think a little bit of a burble would be nice and i'm fairly certain it wont drone due to the soundproofing.
Finding the right wheels for these things is a pain. The OEM 18's suit the car very well but sit so far in and leave the arches looking a little bit empty especially with the aero kit. They do however look great on the wifes is200.
Who are you insured with? friend over there is telling me insurance has recently shot up and gone are the days of being able to insurance third party fire and theft with PZU for 500zl. How are you getting on with the language ? winter is coming so watch out for the dreaded smog I agree re the suspension as due to the length of the thing its a pain getting in and out of the garage at our new place so I'm researching other options, (Not too keen on the coilovers its currently on and the OEM air is prohibitively costly to maintain on such an old car and on utterly terrible roads + 3 went at once)
Exhaust is planned, I did book it in and then cancel as the money was better spent elsewhere (fixing the camper) but i'm torn between going for a system or just getting tailpipes,
We Polished up and spaced out the OEM ones for now so it doesn't look too stupid but I think a little bit of a burble would be nice and i'm fairly certain it wont drone due to the soundproofing.
Finding the right wheels for these things is a pain. The OEM 18's suit the car very well but sit so far in and leave the arches looking a little bit empty especially with the aero kit. They do however look great on the wifes is200.
Edited by 83HP on Thursday 5th October 09:40
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