imherenow

Thats a lovely car. So what else did u had to pay to ship the car from US in to Canada?. shipping?, customs?taxes?anything else? how much did u had to pay extras

Tony1M

Thanks very much for the information and advice. With it and the Japanese instructions I was able to install the flaps in about 2 hours. I took my time and did everything very carefully.

The hardware kit that comes with the mud flaps contains screws and their fastening clips. There are 2 larger screws and clips and 8 smaller. The two larger screws and clips match those four already on the portion of the front body panel inside the wheel well, so, after drilling one new appropriately-located hole on each front side, that's where I installed them. The remaining 8 screws and clips all go in new holes drilled in the rear wheel wells, right on the inside edge of the rear panels. Using the two screws already present in the front panels, I secured the front flaps, marked the locaion of the new holes, drilled them, installed the clips, then installed all six screws. For the rear, I placed the flap in the proper position, marked the holes, removed the flaps, drilled the holes, installed the clips, put the flap back in place and screwed in all the screws. Voila! The photos of the flap are the rear of the car. (BTW, I was able to install the fronts without jacking the car and removing the wheels. For the rear, however, I had to jack the car and remove the wheels, using the differential as the jacking point . If you happen to have a right-angle drill, you will be able to do the job without taking the rear wheels off.)

Tony1M

1. The car was transported on the top level of a big-rig car-carrier from Deerfield Beach to Sweetgrass, Montana, which is the US part of the Coutts, Alberta "port of entry" into Canada. My wife and I drove from Edmonton to Coutts in our '92 Honda Accord, then literally walked accross the border into the US, took possession of the Lexus from the truck driver and drove it back across the border.

2. "Exporting" the car from the US was a snap and, if I remember right, was virtually free.

3. Getting the car into Canada requires submitting the car into the Registry of Imported Vehicles program, which, of course, has a rather steep fee, for what you get. After that, we paid the 5% GST on the full purchase price, then, on top of that, there's a 6% fee for importing a car manufactured in Japan. The latter fee is nothing but legalized extortion, as far as I'm concerned.

4. Once we got the vehicle back to Edmonton, we had to get two inspections done which cost almost $300.

For the amount of money we ended up spending, we probably could have found a vehicle in Canada of that year, but its mileage and physical condition would not have been anywhere near that of the Florida vehicle. The odometer has just now passed the 18,000 mile mark and to this date, the vehicle has never been driven in snow. While putting on the rear mud flaps today, with the rear wheels off the vehicle, I couldn't help but notice that all of the suspension components look like new! Roads in Florida never get frost heaves, so the suspensions of autos that spend their lives in Florida last a very long time. Consequently, the car still rolls down the road like a tight new vehicle.

Anyway, if we had it all to do over again, we'd do exactly the same thing. As far as I'm concerned, we have a brand new Lexus LS430 for far less than the price of a new, entry-level Accord. (And my extra long legs can't fit in the new Accord, Camry or Avalon, while I'm very comfortable in our new Florida bagel barge.)

Kansas

Very good, Tony. And, of course, white is the only truly acceptable color for an LS! :-)

svanvooren

If you do not mind, can you share with me where you purchased your mud guards?

Thanks, Scott

Tony1M

After finding out that Lexus no longer makes the flaps with our car's 072 paint code, I bought a set with the 062 pait code from a private eBay seller. I then acquired two cans of custom-mixed paint -- base coat and top coat -- then, after the flashing of each coat, I applied about 4 coats of clearcoat. After about 5 days of drying, I wet-sanded with 1500 grit, then 2000, then polished to a high-gloss finish with System One. I think the color match is very good.

svanvooren

What color is the car?

Thanks, Scott

Dailow

So I inquired about these mudguards at Sewell, and they directed me to a mudguard set they had on clearance - part number 08414-50010-C0. Bought them back in October, and only just recently took them to the dealer to get them installed - problem is, these ones do NOT sit flush so they're unable to be mounted without some cutting/modification.

I tried looking up this part number on some online databases, but the only thing I could come up with was a Japanese auction for the same set, so I'm thinking these sets were meant for the Japanese Celsior, not the North American LS430. I guess the part numbers earlier in this thread starting with 766xx are the ones I should've ordered.

Now I'm stuck with a part I can't install. Sewell's policy is that they don't take back anything on clearance, which sucks for me since they recommended the part to me (yes, my fault for taking so long to trying to install them after ordering). I tried e-mailing them (apparently their website is devoid of phone numbers) but they haven't replied in a week.

So... anyone want a black mudguard set for cheap, or think Sewell would be willing to bend the rules for me?

Kansas

I've bought a lot of stuff from Sewell - I didn't think they sold stuff for non-U.S. cars.

The phone number I have for their parts department from a receipt I got when I bought from their website is 214-353-2056.

Funny, the cheapest source of the last Lexus LS mudflaps I bought was a dealer in BC - Metro in Victoria.

Dailow

Well, to make a long story short I imported a US-spec vehicle if there's a difference between the American and Canadian vehicles then that wouldn't be applicable to me in this case.

Then again, I was searching parts databases and the 766xx part number looks like it's used in both American/Canadian models so that should be a moot point.

Thanks for the phone number. I'll try giving them a ring on Monday.

Kansas

Yes, Canadian and U.S. vehicles use the same mudflaps. Mudflaps usually don't vary by world market. I'd bet that the ones you got from Sewell are not for an LS430. Sewell is usually accurate but at least one time I've had to return a part and have them send the correct one - but they were quick in doing it and they didn't wait for the wrong part to get back to them before sending the correct part.

KING

iTrader: (1)

Hello, may I ask where you got the screws from?

Because I bought OEM mud flaps for my LS430, but I didn't get the screws with it.

Thanks.

walleyeman

I read this without looking at the dates of the OP.

I guess the next best thing to eternity is to start a post here.

Still, info provided is useful. I would like to put some mud flaps on my 03. The $500 price tag seems pretty steep but like everything for our cars-value is in the eye of the beholder.