Tuesday, February 21, 2006 - 12:01 am, by: Alfred Heng(Alfred)
After 10 weeks of looking for a Soarer, I have finally found the car I was looking for! It is a stock standard (except for 17" rims) FSG 1993, UZZ31 GT LTD (but it has the Lexus SC400 badges - where can I get the original Soarer badges from?) and it has just been collected on my behalf 5 minutes ago from the seller, by a mate of mine in Sydney! It will be picked by Moving Again/TNT on Wednesday and they said that it will take 9-11 days to get here. I can't wait, but I will have to! To make matters worse, just before it arrives, I will have to go away for 10 days on a business trip! Arghhh! So it will be about 3 weeks before I get to see her.
It's been a long search, I looked at many local cars and talked to many potential sellers over East, most were willing to send high res pictures but not many had service records and brushed the request off by saying that they did all the work themselves. I now have over a hundred photos in total sent in by various sellers. After putting together a short list, I finally settled on this one.
So far this is what I know about the car.
It has had only one owner since it arrived in Australia in 1999. It arrived with 40k+km on the odo and it now has 99,550km on the clock. Full service records with odo readings recorded at each service. It seems that it is still on the same set of tires that the owner put on when the car was sent in for compliance (now down to very little thread)!
A whole bunch of things have been changed or fixed by Sydney City Lexus (are they any good? Should I be worrying?) and the car is supposed to be fine.
Usual supermarket dings on the exterior and light wear but no tears on the drivers seat at all. No cracks on the dash or door trims or the central aircon vent. No blinky dash or flashing warning lights.
No EMV, but has the 12 stacker CD/radio with the expander fitted.
I expect that I will still have to spend money on her, 100k service, possibly upgrade the bushes with the good stuff, cam belt and the list goes on, but I intend to enjoy the process!
Tuesday, February 21, 2006 - 06:49 am, by: Nathan Richardson(Richtheblack)
Looks good Al, you did the right thing by not giving up till you found the one you were looking for (Took me six months to find my Active which I'm the first Aussie owner of ), there are a lot of Soarers that have been poorly treated out there, congrats and enjoy.
Tuesday, February 21, 2006 - 08:52 am, by: Benny Gammelmark(Oldfield)
If it's been serviced regularly by Lexus it should be fine.
The reason for selling can be many but if you go to Lexus to get the 100,000km service then it's expensive (mine cost $2800). I only discovered ALSC after I had mine done.
Get the service done by someone in the know up there and it should be a lot cheaper.
Tuesday, February 21, 2006 - 09:24 am, by: Alfred Heng(Alfred)
I will bring the car over here and send it in for the 100k service that the shop the WA Soarer folks recommend. I read conflicting views about when the timing belt should be changed - some say 100k kms and others say 100k miles??
Tuesday, February 21, 2006 - 07:50 pm, by: Alfred Heng(Alfred)
Got a date booked for a full service and cam belt change. Intend to order Andrew's LCA bushes and get them fitted at the same time. Should I just change all the bushes while I am at it? Will have the engine and tranny mounts inspected as well.
Tuesday, February 21, 2006 - 07:53 pm, by: Jason Kingsmill(Jason_k)
I don't know if this is correct or not, providing info for your benefit, but I was under the impression a certain tool was required to press the new bushes in???
Tuesday, February 21, 2006 - 08:43 pm, by: Alfred Heng(Alfred)
Any info is good at the moment. I will be sending the car out to get the work done and I checked with them, they have installed Andrew's bushes before.
Previous
), there are a lot of Soarers that have been poorly treated out there, congrats and enjoy. 
. I only discovered ALSC after I had mine done. 
