“Lexie” is a 2004 Lexus IS200. It has been delivered at the Lexus Cheltenham dealership the 29th of November 2004 for its initial customer delivery inspection. Lexie was driven in the UK around the Birmingham, Bristol and Leicester dealership until 2009 where it probably switched owner at some point. These informations were found on the UK Lexus owner platform ( https://www.lexus.co.uk/my-lexus/ )
The powertrain is a 2.0L N/A 1G-FE (I6) Toyota engine commonly found in other Toyota sedans and mid-size passenger cars. This one is the BEAMS variant with VVTi and port fuel injection putting around 155bhp at 6200rpm and and 195Nm at 4600rpm. Toyota used a cast iron block and an aluminum head carrying two camshafts with 4 valves per cylinder. The exhaust cam is timing-belt driven while the intake cam is gear driven by the exhaust cam which leads to a much simpler timing belt replacement job.
The transmission on this car is an Aisin A47DE unit apparently only used on the GXE chassis. This transmission uses a torque converter with a lockup clutch and offers 4 gears (pretty lame in 2020) all controlled by the mechatronics of the transmission. I choosed this transmission mainly for the smoothness it offers thanks to the torque converter, exactly what I was looking for in a daily driver. This car was also a great opportunity for me to learn about automatic transmissions architecture, behavior and maintenance.
The features :
- SE with the 11 spokes alloys
- Sunroof
- Aero package (rear spoiler)
- Built in Satnav
- Full leather heated interior in black
Now my story with this car.
The car was listed on FB Marketplace early in July and quickly removed after the previous owner told me he needed the car for an emergency so wouldn’t be available for a few weeks. I kept the ad in mind and continued searching on other websites.
After two weeks of searching for another one in vain, the car became available and ready to be driven away. After a few phone calls and Emails, we agreed on the 8th of August 2019 for me to pick up the car.
The fun part.
My biggest fear on a car is rust. It is the hardest thing to fix and can be very time consuming (not even talking about the cost to fix it). I asked a lot of pictures of the sills and suspension components to see if any work would be required. The left sill was a bit bubbly on a 150mm section but wasn’t rusted through so nothing unfixable.
The hardest part when you buy a car overseas (almost sight unseen) is the decision you have to make regarding the deposit. To put everything in context I am a French dude calling with a French number to buy a car in the UK. It can be very hard to get the attention of a seller when he don’t want to deal with a foreign guy. In my situation I decided to show my interest by sending a 150£ deposit after looking at the pictures and details online to seal the deal and prepare the trip.
After that, I realized I forgot to ask a few things regarding the keys for example. I discovered that the guy only had one key for the car (fortunately a master one that could be used to make a new one), nice ! It’s not a big deal but I was really afraid of loosing or breaking the only one key during the 800 Miles trip home. Ebay came to the rescue and I found a guy able to make a second key 20 Miles up north of where the car was for just under 60£, love the UK. I explained the situation to the key guy and we agreed on a time for me to come by.
I reserved two seats on an Easyjet flight to Gatwick Airport and took some train tickets to reach central London right after the flight to enjoy a little bit of the financial district before picking the car up.
Let’s go.
After a short flight we arrived at Gatwick Airport pretty early in the morning, leaving us plenty of time to take the train and enjoy a morning coffee in London. It was a great time to confirm our ETA to the seller and keep the key guy updated. We then headed to the seller’s place in Barking using London’s subway, just a few miles East from our location.
We were picked up at the subway station by the owner (thanks a lot to him) and the Lex. It was a great feeling to see the car getting slowly towards the station with the sunshine hitting that beautiful Bluestone (8N6) colour. We had a quick chat with the owner before leaving the station thanking him for picking us up.
The ride to his house (with him driving) was the perfect opportunity to check every single electrical stuff like the sunroof, mirrors, heated seats, AC plus listen to any weird noise or smell. The exhaust was particularly noisy compared to my friends IS but it actually sounded pretty cool.
We took our time to fully inspect the car when we arrived at the guys house. After discovering a few little issues (water in the trunk and some scratches) I decided to negociate the price again to cover for my estimated fixing costs. After a long discussion we agreed on a price and got inside to complete the sale with some paperwork and an ice cold glass of Coke.
Next we got to a nearby Tesco to fill up the tank and grab something to eat before jumping on the A406 heading north towards the key guy. Me and my brother were very excited since the car had a few cosmetic issues but was running great and stayed very comfortable over time.
The key thing.
After we arrived at the rendez-vous point I quickly tried to get in touch with the key wizard who of course wasn’t answering any of my calls. Great. We decided to stay and have a quick lunch while I try to get him through the Ebay messaging. After a few minutes someone got out of a house and walked towards our Stoneblue metal brick. The guy told me to wait for him while he makes a copy of the master key before quickly getting back to his place.
To be honest I wasn’t really comfortable at this point. We were waiting on the curb of a strange street with a car I just bought and I gave the only key to some guy. What could go wrong ?
The wizard quickly came back with a brand new key perfectly cutted and programmed for my IS transponder. He then followed the Lexus procedure to add a new remote and make the buttons work.
The work was done. 60£ for him and a very valuable insurance for me if something goes wrong with the original key during the trip. Thanks !
Let’s hit the highway.
The sketchy part was over and we quickly got back to the highway towards our next destination, Folkestone where I reserved a AirBnB room to get some rest. That drive was the perfect time to learn a bit more about the features of the car, enjoy the ride quality and blast the stereo with the CDs we discovered in the 6CD changer. I also noticed the incredible highway fuel efficiency of that car since we averaged around 39MPGs on the first tank of cheap 95E10 gas. Not too bad for a N/A I6 ! We quickly arrived at Folkestone where we reached our stay for the night.
We celebrated the deal with a pizza on the seaside before heading towards the pub for some fresh beverages.