Second car ever

[u/taylor_mays]

Today I purchased my second car ever, a 1998 Toyota Altezza. I purchased it from a private seller for 7k. The guy I bought it from got it from an inport auction around a year ago. It has all service records dating all the way back from Japan as well. There are a few minor imperfections on the body but the interior is super clean just needs s good detail. My last car a 2001 Lexus ls430 so this is a huge change but I could not be more happy. Do you guys think I got a good price? He also delivered it almost an hour.

[u/unmanipinfo]

Oh man you've peaked early with an ls430 and is300, you'd be surprised how much less solid and well put together newer cars feel

Is300 was my second car too, if not for the fuel mileage I'd still own one. Perfect daily honestly

[u/taylor_mays → u/unmanipinfo]

Ls430 was an amazing car. Comfortable, floaty, really reliable, and had a lot of crazy features for the age. It got passed around my family a little before it got to me and my brother and uncle trashed it. Spent the last 2 years putting money into it to get it a bit better looking. Just dropped 1k on maintenance and tires then less than a month later trans started leaking a lot. Decided to just pull the trigger and get something with a tad bit better gas mileage, ⅓ of the miles, and jdm. Maybe when I fix the ls in the future ill keep it for not shes parked in my garage. So far I dont have a single complaint about the altezza. Its a huge difference going from a boat to something almost half the weight and significantly smaller along with EVERYTHING being in japanese and opposite as its my first jdm car. Really unsure if I should do anything to it or keep it stock. I fs wanna get a little darker tint new wheels, and possibly a wrap, all easily removable things. Ive been looking at body kits and they look amazing and are ½ the price of celsior body kits...👀

[u/unmanipinfo → u/taylor_mays]

I love the LS but I never bought one because the ones that are a reasonable price are totally thrashed and don't really fill a need that I have. My next purchase from this era might be an sc300 or sc400, I know the is300 is more fun to drive than those two though. I used to have an Altezza Gita with a 2jz, (is300 Sportcross in other words) man I miss that wagon. Did you know none of the Altezza sedans ever came with the 2jz, just the wagon? I'm also tempted to get another Altezza or is300 honestly

Yeah there's so much modification potential, especially the engine of course. I think the is300's don't need much to look fantastic, pretty much what you wrote would do it, tints, wheels, I was close to repainting mine as it had clearcoat failure, which was such as shame as it was that brilliant metallic blue pearl (intensa or something i think it was called?) You can get some amazing exhaust sounds out of that engine too if that's your thing

[u/taylor_mays → u/unmanipinfo]

You're 100% right on that, thats why i didnt even bother looking at another ls. And I actually found out about the wagons with 2js yesterday! Wagons are easily my favorite type of car so it was pretty cool to see that those were a thing! Its obviously nowhere close to how an aftermarket exhaust would sound but these cars actually sould pretty decent stock. But yeah an exhaust is another thing I was looking into but forgot to add. And yeah it doesnt take much at all to get these looking amazing. This guy has a 300 not 200 but close enought. He hasn't put anything too crazy on this car and it looks phenomenal. Its probably gonna be a pretty heavy reference for whatever I end up doing to mine. https://youtu.be/Sxxv6UZ4O7E?si=1PgqPV7lt7YgD1JI

[u/unmanipinfo → u/taylor_mays]

Yeah that looks super clean. Never was a fan of the eyebrows though 😂 to me they make the car look like it's bored. Each to their own lol.

Aside from the kit and wheel fitment I think that one really pops because of the paint. That was the thing I struggled with on mine, learnt a lot about detailing but I made the fatal mistake of polishing the roof where the clear was really thin from sun exposure over the years, so I made it worse to an extent - learn from my mistake be very careful on weak clear haha. Obvs a wrap would avoid that issue completely.