We are wishing to purchase a Toyota Lite Ace 8 seater 2ltr Auto 4WD. We have seen a 1992 model at £5,995 is this a reasonable price.
Many thanks to all who reply. - (#2194) Trevor Hardman, 10 Feb 02

dealer or private? later body shape models seem to command a slight premium, price sounds good to me.. - (#2195) david miller, 11 Feb 02

It's the luck of the draw. We went to a dealers
( won't mention who, but they were within 20 miles of Accrington. ) 12 months ago, they were asking around £5500 for a 1990 Toyota Master Ace Surf 4x4 diesel, with 56k on the clock. My mechanic brother in law couldn't find fault with it, apart from the clock 'looked dodgy', his words... The numbers were off set, not lining up correctly. By chance I picked up a Loot, and a private importer from Rochdale was offering an almost identical ( but even better + cd player ) model for £2950 cash. 12 months mot, good tyres, and faultless, as it's been over the last 12 months, sailed through this years mot no problem.
Have a good look round, and try Loot. - (#2202) Kevin Savage, 11 Feb 02

I have a 92 LitAce I bought last June. I aquired it damaged so I can't relate true prices, if you know what I mean. I do however try to keep a look at prices here in NI, in the local papers of second hand prices. Personally I think it's too dear! Privately I've seen other LiteAces of the same year cheaper and another example would be of a 1994, 2.2Td Previas offered at £5500. Realistically I would of thought a Private sale would of been in the region of £3000-£3500 average and £3500-£4000 good condition. With a dealer you can add a £1000. But prices do vary depending on the UK location. If you buy make sure you use the warranty for every single teeney weeney little annoyance.
Eventually it boils down to "Horses for Courses". If you really like the vehicle "BUY IT". Sometimes it's worth paying that little extra for something we want. Their not that unreliable and they have a lot going for them over other people carriers.
I spent a lot of money repairing mine and I still think it was a bargain. Incidentally a lot of other Dealers were after it.
As Obi Wan Canobi ( Star wars film ) would say "Luke! Trust in the Force" - (#2205) stephenjudge, 11 Feb 02

Trevor,
We purchased a 1991 Townace Super Extra, with the full spec & everything still works on it (except one of the electric curtains !!!! shame !!!) in November 2001, it is a late 1991, the 88-93 shape, from a private importer in Chiswick West London, he had it up for £3500, but we eventually paid a measley £3000 for it, it only had 77,000 Km (48,000 miles) on the clock, which does not appear to have been played with. Interior is completely unmarked & not a scratch on it. So the best part of £6000 for a similar year sounds a little steep. However a dealer near us currently has one the same spec as ours & similar age/mileage up for £5495, so maybe we just got a cracking deal on ours. I suggest you have a look at lots of them until you find the 'one' for you, we looked at thirteen of them until we found our one. Also have a good look at the rest of this website & also this Ace Answers website for lots of tips on buying & owning these fantastic MPVs. HTH. Regards Rob. - (#2211) Rob Drinkwater, 12 Feb 02

I got my 1990 MasterAce Surf, 4x4, manual for about £3400 (but got the Irish VAT back) so that made it about £2650)
I went direct to an importer (where the dealers buy from) and saved a fortune.
when I was looking around 2 years ago for it, all the dealers had them up for between £5000-6000 (even in the Channel Islands where I live)
it was worth the extra effort to save that amount of money (and that included two flights to Dublin)
The importer I used now has a place in Liverpool and if you tell him exactly what you require he can source them in Japan for you.
see the website <a href="http://www.webcars.net/carssale.htm">here</a> ... he has two on the way to Dublin now - (#2213) skippy, 12 Feb 02

I paid £2000.00 for my Townace 2.0 TD Super extra auto The only thing missing was the curtains (so if any one knows where I can get the track and curtains , let me know) It has 68k kilometeres on the clock and is an F reg, to date we have had no problems with it. I think I got a good deal!!! - (#2236) Steve, 16 Feb 02