Ownership Verified: Summer car of 2020, Toyota Soarer 2005

luokyio

Merc Maniac
Joined
Apr 18, 2005
Messages
1,666
Location
Savonlinna, Finland
Car(s)
CLS, CL, Scorpio
Hello,

No, I'm not selling my Tesla. A week ago I just happened to walk by an identical S class Mercedes I had bought from Japanese auction couple of years ago. Realizing it would be the perfect time to do that again in order to get a summer car for next summer, I threw in a deposit to JPC Trade and started searching.

I did not really know what to look for. Getting used to Tesla as a daily driver makes this even harder. It would have to be pretty close to supercar class to make the acceleration really feel like anything, and that is just not possible with my budget.

For a few years now I have had a temptation to buy a convertible, but as a family man did not really have much time to drive one anyway. But things change, went through a divorce a year ago with split custody, and I now have kids with me only every other week. So this means the other weeks I do not even need usable back seat.

After a few lost bids this is what I won.

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Toyota Soarer from 2005. Better known as Lexus SC430 on the other parts of the world. 4.3 liter V8, 73000 km on the clock. I have never driven RHD car, but I trust that is as easy as everyone says it is.

The sheet says:

CONDITION
Wear on the seats and steering wheel
pain tmarks on the body
dents with scratches on the body

And these checks are superstrict. Having grade 4/B should mean that is pretty awesome condition considering the age.

Last time this took 80 days to get to Finland, so early June should be probable delivery date this time.
 
Nice car. Should be a nice blend of comfort and fun. Hope it makes the trip to .go OK and without too many delays.
 
This looks classy as hell. I especially love the colour combo and the amount of wood in the interior. No idea if it actually drives well, but it should be well made at least.
 
Approve massively.
 
Interesting and unique, that's for sure. I also find it amusing that you now have two very different ways of achieving speed - an electric car and a V8 :cool:

I call it emissions trading. I'm allowed to have a V8 in the summer now as I hug trees throughout winter.

What sort of tires are on it?
The photo says they're blackish and reasonably round. That's all I know :D At 74000 km they must have been replaced once or twice already, so probably not the run-flats anymore.
 
Just checked the Finnish import tax statistics. There are no Soarers of this generation taxed in Finland. Ever. So this will be actually the first and the only one in the country. I'm quite pleased with this information.

Only worry is that how will they determine the import tax then, when there is nothing to compare to. Worst case scenario is that they compare this to 2005 Mercedes SL or something similar with 30 k price tag, meaning 10k import tax. Hopefully they have enough sense to compare to Lexus SC430, which have been imported with 4k'ish taxes, and being RHD this will get 20 % discount. But as we are talking about government employees, I cannot be sure what will happen before I actually get the tax decision. If the decision is crazy, I still have to pay the tax, and then do the complaint, which could take years to be handled.
 
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Slav squat pose in the reflection! :D

Congrats!
 
Thanks! I really hope this mania around the world doesn't stop ships and this gets here as soon as possible. It would be really really annoying if I don't get this before our short summer.
 
Thanks! I really hope this mania around the world doesn't stop ships and this gets here as soon as possible. It would be really really annoying if I don't get this before our short summer.

Well, ships are without communication to the outside for months so the odds they stop before departure is low. If it's somewhere in the sea, you should be fine. Hopefully this won't fuck up the ports...
 
Having watched TechMoan videos, I’m kind of bummed that we never got minidisc for any length of time here. :/
 
Well, ships are without communication to the outside for months so the odds they stop before departure is low. If it's somewhere in the sea, you should be fine. Hopefully this won't fuck up the ports...
It is not in a ship yet, still at port, and no confirmation yet when it will be loaded. And probably it comes again in one ship to either Netherlands or Germany, and then change ship to Finland... That is one point that could be a problem if things come to a halt by then.

Having watched TechMoan videos, I’m kind of bummed that we never got minidisc for any length of time here. :/

What does anyone do with a minidisc? I don't know if I have ever even seen music disc in that format. :D
 
Well, ships are without communication to the outside for months
Wait what?
Are they really? I am no maritime expert, but this seems very archaic. I am under the impression modern ships have radio stations.
 
Wait what?
Are they really? I am no maritime expert, but this seems very archaic. I am under the impression modern ships have radio stations.


From what I can tell, they’ve got GPS and radios of course but it’s not like they’ve got reliable satellite or something out on the sea so they can check reddit. Sure, there’s the “we’re going down” mayday emergency radio.

https://www.quora.com/Is-there-Internet-connection-on-cargo-ships?share=1

Seems there’s some that do and some that still don’t. It appears to be really expensive still. Spotty at best, not sure actually.
 
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