Michael Brown

My last tank full in May I put in 62 Litres and did 484 miles with it and I don't hang about. I keep to the speed limits in villages, try to keep to speed limits of 50mph on country roads and put my foot down on motorways and dual carriage ways. Getting 35 - 37mph. If I slowed down I'd get up to 40 mph and have done. I hope this helps.

Mine is chain driven, but I think 3litre engines are belt driven. Correct me if I'm wrong

Through Howden Insurance, I am with Aviva. Like with all insurance companies, Age, where you keep it and any accidents you may have had in the last 5 years, and good luck

I frequently wave to other Alphard drivers

Hello  Neil

35 - 40 mpg

I had broken down  and Alfie had to be ferried home on an RAC breakdown lorry. Peter Holland came highly recommended to check Alfie over, so I had it ferried over to his workshop in Southbourne nr Emsworth. Where he stripped it down  after testing the Inverter, he rang me to say the Inverter was beyond repair as he had no needed parts and could not obtain any. Then he said the Inverter was still available in Japan and to ship one over including taxes and delivery charge it would be £5,200. + a fitting charge and set up. I said leave it with me. I rang my bank and managed to get a loan. I then rang Peter back as he wanted the funds to order the Inverter. It took two and a half weeks for it to come. Peter then phoned me to say it was ready to collect.

Since then I have had no motor/engine problems, but have had a few punctures and had the rear trailing arm bushes replaced and Colin Campbell my local motor mechanic replaced them, he had made a tool to extract the bushes, he said they were a swine to do.

In 2011 I joined the Toyota Estima Club and in around 2013 a lady reported that she had used BIMTA to check on her mileage and her Estima had been clocked, so I thought it wise to get mine checked. BIMTA charged me £10. for a milege check ex dockside in Japan and gave the true mileage, I was not too happy. By having a lower recorded milage meant the Vendor could sell at a higher price.

So be aware.

Yes go ahead and buy it, not forgetting the vhicle is 20 years old and you would be extreamly unlucky for something to go wrong or breakdown after you have bought it. Do you have breakdown and recovery  on the vehicles you drive. Well worth having it just in case. I only had my Alphard for 6 months and the Hybrid Inverter packed up. A costly repair. £5,200. for the Inverter and about £500 to strip it down, fit new Inverter, do the codes. Like giving Alfie a new heart.

Thanks for showing us all those nice pictures and good luck.

Nice looking Alphard Hybrid, mileage to good to be true. You could also get a BIMTA check (British Independant Motor Trades Assosiation ). They can do a mileage check dockside in Japan or a fulll check of the vehicle. I had a mileage check done on a Toyota Estima that had 65,000 miles on the ODO. I did not get the check done till I'd had it a few years and 67,000 miles had been removed. When I bought the Mk2 Estima in 2011, it was a 2000 model. All the imported Estima's at the time had around 65,000 miles on the ODO, definately worth getting a mileage checked at least.

You should look up Alfies reg no on DVLA to see if its compliant to take into cities and not have to pay any clean air charges.

Good luck in your quest 

Sorry not got back to you sooner but I have had computer problems with a new machine not playing ball. You have to sit in the seat beside the window you want to set. Lower each one down, hold for 5 secs, raise it up hold for 5 secs, repeating this a couple of times for each window. Then the windows can be operated from the drivers seat.

My Hybrid is a 2.4 and I get 35 -40 mpg which is good compared to the 32 mpg I was getting for my last vehicle 2.4  2004 Toyota Estima

Hello Laura

Welcome to the forum

Your insurance all depends on age, where you are going to keep your vehicle, where you live and how many accidents you have had in the last 5 years. £1,000. seems relatively cheap to me. Mine is £1,900. March 25 till March 26, then I hope it will come down another £1,000. In 2023 it was £4,200. In 2024 around £3,600. All because I unfortunately had a few claims. Insurance companies tend to right Japanese imports off rather than repair them fearing parts are unobtainable.

So enjoy driving your Vellfire carefully. Back in 2023 the Hybrid Inverter on my Alphard packed up redendering the vehicle useless. I'd paid £9,500. in August 2022. On reccommendation from Colin Campbell who services Alfie, he suggested a guy called Peter Holland, he runs a business out of Southbourne nr Emsworth specialising in car electrics . www.brightsparkautomotive.co.uk  I took Alfie to him. He reported back that that the Inverter was beyond repair and followed it up by saying the Inverters were still made in Japan. Costing £5,200. including shipping and VAT. So I took out a bank loan and the Hybrid Inverter was ordered. 2.5 weeks later Alfie was given a new Inverter, like being given a new heart. No problems since apart from a couople of punctures and a new battery.

Happy motoring

Thank you guys, I will try that out tomorrow

After a 12v  battery change, what is the sequense to get the windows working again, as only drivers door window works

Hello Richard,  I used to drive Toyota Estima's. The second one I bought had lowered suspension and would bottom out on speed bumps. I tried to get a garage to adjust the thread on them, but they could'nt. So I got my local mechanic to replace it all. He had no trouble at all in doing that and replaced to original spec from his local Factor. The tyres I put on were Pirrelli P7's 215/60/16, it drove a lot better then

Driving my Hybrid recently when the sun was quite high, I found that I could not see this instrument cluster as well and the speed I was travelling at. Has anyone else found this and how do you rectify it. Has anyone put additional lighting inside the binnacle facing in to give more light. There is nothing wrong with my sight, other than glasses for distance driving with UV protection

Well done for completing your mammoth project, now go and enjoy driving

Thanks Roger, a quick charge so RAC man could meter the battery and its not holding its charge. He announces battery is US. Off he goes to get another, a Varta I will check out the model No another day. As for the previous one which only lasted a year the RAC said they had no record on file to that I had had  one convenient for them. The new one today cost £170. I will check bank statements to see how much and when I paid for the last one to remind them.

I eventually had my trailing arm bushes done, about 2 months ago by my local mechanic Colin Campbell. He said they were a swine to do. I must find out where he got the bushes from. Total Job came to £555.. He made a punch to knock them out

I have had the misfortune to have spent a week in Warwick Hospital. Coming back to Mothers House in Stratford upon Avon, my Alfie will not start. No lights on dash at all. Battery fitted by RAC less than 2 years ago. Will just charging it up fix the problem and willl it charge up ? tempted to phone RAC in the morning and ask them. Must be under some kind of warrenty

I am looking to hard wire a Dash Cam

Very nice colour, I wonder if it was resprayed ? not seen any that colour about

That looks interesting, does come with a fuse in it and which fuse box did you plug it into ?

What amazes me is they all come over with low mileage. The Japanese chaps who drove them in Japan must clock up more. I did a BIMTA test on a previour Estima I bought back in 2011 and 79,000 miles had been wiped  from clock. The 65,000 miles it was sold at  did not look so rosy. Worth getting a BIMTA check done before you part with some money

I'd have thought once an import, always an import

Go for it, I have been buying imports since 2007, much better appointed inside

When the car tax change happened back in the early 2000's and some became cheaper because engines were more efficient, our imports stayed the same and go up with inflation. Having a Hybrid appears to make no difference at all, unfortunately