Used car - Pre-sales advice wanted

[gtuser]

Hi,
I'm looking to buy a MK3 MR2 and have been looking around for a while.
I've seen a car on ebay which looks nice, the only worry that I have is that it's an import and not sure if this should raise any concerns or questions to the history of the car.
It looks to be in good condition and the guy appears to have looked after it, I'm thinking it's a Jap import as when speaking to him he mentioned it had a Cobra alarm, and from what I've read only the Jap MR2s don't come with an alarm as standard and I don't know why someone would want to the stock one.
Ebay: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=160614218796&ssPageName=ADME:B:SS:GB:1123

Also I'll need to find out if this would affect insurance by much.

Any advice would be appreciated.

GT

[roger]

The quick answer is that imports can be a bit of a problem.

Insurance definitely is one, the other is you need specialist equipment (or a DIY with a bit of wire) to read Engine codes (CEL). Toyota dealers CAN'T do it. Unless you consider yourself up to getting round foibles such as these a UK car is a much better bet.

Looking at the ad, obviously the owner has taken pride, and white is very rare (a respray?). But being 2000, and looks like a 2002 import certainly one of the earliest. So check out our threads on pre-cats and oval bore.

[gtuser]

I've double checked and is definitely a Jap import and Admiral would charge me an extra £150-200 for an import and the mods on this car so I will pass.
For the price I could get a UK spec MR2 with the same miles, did mention this to the guy but he want £3.2k and would only drop by a hundred or so.

I did like the look but not the one for me, now just need to line up a couple more to look at this weekend.

[uktotty]

lovely car, it looks like a facelift model, everything that could be upgraded has been upgraded!
Maybe its a facelift car but had the wrong plate when imported over here?

[xsarahx]

My previous car was an import (vw) and it didnt make any difference to my insurance, getting parts and reading codes were the the problems i had.

I would choose a UK model as you dont need to worry about any of it then   s:) s:)