Going To Buy A 2001 Is

lexuseng · October 18, 2005

I've settled on buying a 2001 IS and the one I'm looking at happens to be from California (I guess that's better than an East coast used car, do they still use salt on the roads back east?). Is there still a "California emmissions" difference for cars sold in CA?

Also, if you compare vin # tag on body parts to the vehicle vin # and all match but suspect a part is not the original, can you trust the vin # tag or can a body shop get a identical tag if they buy the replacement from Toyota?

Anything to watch out for on this model year?

bartkat · October 19, 2005

Not sure about the emissions, but I think they are 50 state approved.

01 had some problems, being the first model. I don't think there was anything really serious. Main thing was a ECU reflash or two that was done on recalls. There were some problems with the 1-2 shift on the auto trans.

The main thing is to find out if the car was serviced regularly and that there are records of that. If it was serviced at Lexus, they have it on computer. Lexus will also do a 100+ point checkup for about $100. If there are problems they usually find them.

Don't know about the VIN tags, but I would trust a good body shop to be able to tell if there's been anything fixed or replaced, body wise. I believe it may be possible to remove and transfer some of those body parts stickers.

If you want to run a CarFax, pm me with the VIN. I still have CarFax for a few more days.

lexuseng · October 19, 2005

Not sure about the emissions, but I think they are 50 state approved.
01 had some problems, being the first model. I don't think there was anything really serious. Main thing was a ECU reflash or two that was done on recalls. There were some problems with the 1-2 shift on the auto trans.

The main thing is to find out if the car was serviced regularly and that there are records of that. If it was serviced at Lexus, they have it on computer. Lexus will also do a 100+ point checkup for about $100. If there are problems they usually find them.

Don't know about the VIN tags, but I would trust a good body shop to be able to tell if there's been anything fixed or replaced, body wise. I believe it may be possible to remove and transfer some of those body parts stickers.

If you want to run a CarFax, pm me with the VIN. I still have CarFax for a few more days.

←

Thanks for the offer but already have a CarFax account.

I was thinking more in the lines of more stringent CA emmission meaning less performance? Many years ago I think it was wise to avoid cars with CA emmissions but not sure if that applies anymore.

I agree, it looks like the body part stickers can be carefully removed and replaced. While looking at some used cars, some stickers looked like they were barely on. Guess it's not a reliable way to tell if a car's been wrecked and I don't think hood or fender replacements show up on CarFax.