Introduction:
Sadly, this project never came to fruition. I told my friend, who owned this car for about 150,000 miles, that I would get first dibs if he ever sold it. When he bought a new car earlier this year, I was so excited! But alas, timing did not work out for us keep it either. However, it was sold to an autoX expert not far from us, so we hope to see it again soon!
About:
When Scott told me he finally bought a new car, I was ecstatic. After years of telling him that I would buy it, whenever he wanted to sell it, it came home to the Bad Ideas Garage in early 2022.
A couple years ago, he asked me about the approximate value of the car when he was first planning to find a new daily driver. This particular IS300 has very faded paint (which is surprisingly common on this model/color), flaking clear coat, but otherwise was in good shape besides regular wear and tear. I found that the worst thing about the vehicle, is apparently the undesirable tan interior. We figured a private party value of about $2500 was fair at that time. Fast forward to 2022, the IS needed a couple of maintenance items addressed and that is when we bought it for just $800.
Influencing this pricing was a note from Scott’s mechanic that said it needed $1000 in suspension work, namely due to a mystery sound that was coming from the passenger front. On top of this, we saw that the timing belt had not been replaced in well more than 100k miles, and the check engine light was on. After scanning the codes, the O2 sensor needed to be replaced and there was a leak somewhere in the EVAP system. However, it ran and drove supremely well.
We went through the vehicle from top to bottom and thoroughly test drove the vehicle since the intention was that our friend Colton was going to use it as his daily driver, periodically driving around his newborn baby. We advised the radiator also get replaced because it to come out during the timing belt replacement anyway and it started to leak under load. Even though these maintenance items were a bit in depth, we knew Colton was up for the challenge of fixing it up!
After driving it for 1000 miles and seeing that we both had zero times for a project, we both decided to let this one go. Cleaned up, the car looked great, but the paint still was getting worse. the timing belt still needed to be replaced. Thankfully, a friend of mine in the Portland area wanted a new project and bought it so we should be able to see it here and there. Colton replaced the IS with a GS300 Sport Design as well, so he still has a 2JZ powered vehicle, but it’s already sorted for his needs, and those of his family.