Tempted by this any thoughts is250 auto

[Texas]

+1 on the interior colour, the black leather ( in my opinion, and I'm bias!) just 'looks' better after a few years of use, yes sure you can prob clean the others and the black is prob just as dirty but just dosent show it! apparently also the Black leather is slightly more thicker/robust that all the colours for some reason.

Did you get to drive the car a bit "enthusiastically" shall we say in PWR mode?

SE-L (only) has got the rear electric sun shade, real wood interior trim inserts and illuminated scuff plates on front doors.

Only factory extras available for the SE-L were Moon(sun)Roof and ACC/PCS Active (radar) Cruise Control.

paul m.

[Shackattack]

2 minutes ago, Texas said:

+1 on the interior colour, the black leather ( in my opinion, and I'm bias!) just 'looks' better after a few years of use, yes sure you can prob clean the others and the black is prob just as dirty but just dosent show it! apparently also the Black leather is slightly more thicker/robust that all the colours for some reason.

SE-L (only) has got the rear electric sun shade, real wood interior trim inserts and illuminated scuff plates on front doors.

Only factory extras available for the SE-L were Moon(sun)Roof and ACC/PCS Active (radar) Cruise Control.

paul m.

That's interesting to know. 

Have you heard the difference between the two audio systems? I sat in one afterwards without and genuinely couldn't tell the difference (although I suppose you're not listening to them side by side) 

In terms of options then I'm not too fussed about those things. I can live without I think

Also they wouldn't budge a penny and although the car was a 58 plate it had 110k on the clock I might have considered it if there was some haggling 

[Texas]

Can't comment on the audio variations aspect as I have only ever had the ML.

If the garage has got a good 'un then prob just holding out for a while as they know they are sought after!

Have you read all of this for specs through the years?

https://www.honestjohn.co.uk/carbycar/lexus/is-2005/

If you had some numbers on last weeks EuroMillions then you could get this Beauty for just over 10K

 

Paul m.

 

 

[baviaannl]

1 hour ago, Shackattack said:

That's interesting to know. 

Have you heard the difference between the two audio systems? I sat in one afterwards without and genuinely couldn't tell the difference (although I suppose you're not listening to them side by side) 

In terms of options then I'm not too fussed about those things. I can live without I think

Also they wouldn't budge a penny and although the car was a 58 plate it had 110k on the clock I might have considered it if there was some haggling 

If you're listening to the radio in both, they will sound identical.  If the source material is good (FLAC files for example) the ML will blow the standard system away.  On the other hand, if your source material is rubbish (Bluetooth streamed through aux for example) the standard system could possible do a better job than the ML.

[steveledzep]

I've had both in 2 ISs.  They are both sufficiently good for listening to music in an environment of noise and poor acoustics.  I'm very discerning about my HiFi at home, but in a car it just has to be good enough.  You should be concentrating on driving anyway 

[Shackattack]

51 minutes ago, baviaannl said:

If you're listening to the radio in both, they will sound identical.  If the source material is good (FLAC files for example) the ML will blow the standard system away.  On the other hand, if your source material is rubbish (bluetooth streamed through aux for example) the standard system could possible do a better job than the ML.

Very helpful, it will literally be the latter. Bluetooth adapter into the Aux port!

[Shackattack]

37 minutes ago, steveledzep said:

I've had both in 2 ISs.  They are both sufficiently good for listening to music in an environment of noise and poor acoustics.  I'm very discerning about my HiFi at home, but in a car it just has to be good enough.  You should be concentrating on driving anyway 

Lovely car to drive. Very relaxing and comfortable!

[Shackattack]

2 hours ago, Texas said:

Can't comment on the audio variations aspect as I have only ever had the ML.

If the garage has got a good 'un then prob just holding out for a while as they know they are sought after!

Have you read all of this for specs through the years?

https://www.honestjohn.co.uk/carbycar/lexus/is-2005/

If you had some numbers on last weeks EuroMillions then you could get this Beauty for just over 10K

 

Paul m.

 

 

If I had the money I'd get the convertible hands down, very nice!

Was looking at the CLK350 but road tax would kill me

[Linas.P]

8 hours ago, Shackattack said:

If I had the money I'd get the convertible hands down, very nice!

Was looking at the CLK350 but road tax would kill me

It depends on few practical things, if you only drive by yourself and only do it very leisurely, then should be fine. 2 main issues with IS250c - heavier, thus slower and all the weight is in the roof so higher centre of gravity and driving dynamics is not the same as sedan. Secondly, rear seats are pretty much for kids or amputees and boot is tiny in comparison.

Again if one doesn't care about driving dynamics and practicality of the car, then IS250c is great.. especially if it is 2nd or 3rd car in the household.

I personally would like to own convertible (I almost 90% alone in the car and 99% of the time it is two of us), but performance is serious issue for me. If only we have 350c, not 250c... Normal IS250 is already on the edge of being slow and sluggish - kind of ok compared with contemporaries, but not impressive nowadays. Adding more weigh high up into the roof construction doesn't help.

On the flip side it is more likely to find ISc with ACC/PCS and thus fully equipped, but at the same time it will be 2x the price of normal IS250 so you get more, but you pay more as well. 

[KenMavor]

Re the exhaust....a full blown Lexus replacement is circa £3k for parts.

You can get a cat back stainless steel one for £700.

You need to check the front part of the system.....there are three parts all together and 4 cats all told.

I have the black non leather seats, non heated and they are good...show little sign of wear on the bolsters which the leather ones start to show.

 

 

[Linas.P]

1 hour ago, KenMavor said:

Re the exhaust....a full blown Lexus replacement is circa £3k for parts.

You can get a cat back stainless steel one for £700.

You need to check the front part of the system.....there are three parts all together and 4 cats all told.

I have the black non leather seats, non heated and they are good...show little sign of wear on the bolsters which the leather ones start to show.

 

 

Cream or grey leather yes, they show a lot more wear then black ones. My car is now near 185k and bolsters looks better then on some cars with 30k miles and cream interior. F-sport seats have larger bolsters and even being leather they wear much faster.

[Shackattack]

Afternoon all, I'm very interested in one of the forum members cars (earlier in this thread). Going to view it this week and if all checks out should be good to go.

ONe thing which is mind boggling is the Lexus spec side of things with all the different trim levels, SE, SE-I, SE-L, Advance, Sport, SR, F-Sport etc etc

One question I had was in relation the facelift 2009 SE-I model.

Whilst having differences such as indicators lights on the wing mirrors etc I'm trying to get my head around the Audio and which one it is.

This car doesn't have Mark Levinson (which I believe to be a 14 speaker system), however it does have Navigation and reverse camera. Does that mean it'll have the premium 13 speaker system or the basic audio 8 speaker system (with sub in the read parcel shelf and centre speaker on the dash) OR I've heard that some offerings have a 6 speaker system?

Any help greatly appreciated

[Shackattack]

Think I've just answered my own question (Lexus press release). So this would mean that the one in question does have all the added features as below.

New Satellite Navigation Pack
Lexus has assembled an impressive Satellite Navigation Pack, available as an option (£1,825) on IS SE and SE-I models.

The pack comprises:

• Pan-European satellite navigation system
• Seven-inch VGA display
• Touch screen operation
• Bluetooth connectivity
• 13-speaker audio system with six-CD changer
• Rear parking monitor

[Linas.P]

On 1/7/2019 at 3:50 PM, Shackattack said:

ONe thing which is mind boggling is the Lexus spec side of things with all the different trim levels, SE, SE-I, SE-L, Advance, Sport, SR, F-Sport etc etc

One question I had was in relation the facelift 2009 SE-I model.

 

Actually, that is what it makes buying Lexus so easy - it only has ~8 trim levels, but most of the time only 3 for certain year and almost everything is standard. Options are very few e.g. Sat-Nav, ML, Sunroof, ACC/PCS - that is ALL! Try buying German car - option list will be 300 pages long and I guarantee you, you will never find used the car in spec. you want .. well unless it has all the possible extras which is very rare.

I was hunting for BMW M3 E92 and realised that from 128 options most cars only have 8-10 fitted, most BMW don't have electric folding/tilting mirrors on like 2010 cars... I mean that is premium car which was like £70k new and the electronic mirrors was an option.

With IS250 mk2 is easy - you just go for SE-L and decide which one of 4 options is deal-breaker for you.

You are right re: 13 - speakers, I think in UK models with 8 (was it Advance? maybe or early SE?)or certainly 6 speakers were never sold.

[Shackattack]

15 hours ago, Linas.P said:

Actually, that is what it makes buying Lexus so easy - it only has ~8 trim levels, but most of the time only 3 for certain year and almost everything is standard. Options are very few e.g. Sat-Nav, ML, Sunroof, ACC/PCS - that is ALL! Try buying German car - option list will be 300 pages long and I guarantee you, you will never find used the car in spec. you want .. well unless it has all the possible extras which is very rare.

I was hunting for BMW M3 E92 and realised that from 128 options most cars only have 8-10 fitted, most BMW don't have electric folding/tilting mirrors on like 2010 cars... I mean that is premium car which was like £70k new and the electronic mirrors was an option.

With IS250 mk2 is easy - you just go for SE-L and decide which one of 4 options is deal-breaker for you.

You are right re: 13 - speakers, I think in UK models with 8 (was it Advance? maybe or early SE?)or certainly 6 speakers were never sold.

Yeah good point actually

They come with a lot of kit as standard which is nice to have.

I'm looking at a few at the moment but there's a Sport with Alcantara seats, Automatic, Memory Seats, Full ML audio, Xenon headlights etc which I'm interested in too.

[Shaunomercy]

A little late to the thread but...audio.

I touched on this in another thread.

The mL is very transparent. Feed it a crap source signal and the music will be flat. However feed it a decent source and it will blow you away and give you goose bumps. It's not a bass heavy system. It's audiophile. With the best sources like dvd audio it will pick out the detail like a plectrum going over the strings on a classical guitar.

The pioneer based system is punchy, dynamic and I suppose the easiest way of describing it is a ghetto blaster type of sound. That's not meant to be harsh. Its certainly more musical with lesser quality sound sources. As for pulling out the nuances in the music it doesn't touch the mL.

The other point personally for me with the mL, is I don't feel the need to have the music blaring loud. I listen to the music like I would in a demo room at my local audiophile music shop. Enjoying the detail, timbre etc.

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[KenMavor]

Any progress.....have you managed to drive any of the aforementioned IS250s?

 

[rdb85]

I could be looking to sell my 2009 IS250 SE-L. if you're still interested?

[Shackattack]

19 hours ago, KenMavor said:

Any progress.....have you managed to drive any of the aforementioned IS250s?

 

Hi Ken (and all)

So after much searching and travelling I went to view Wetmybeak's IS250 in Warrington on Sunday and we agreed on a price and I'm now the proud owner! :)

58 plate (2009 model) facelift version, Dark Grey, Black Leather interior and the car is in great condition, I look forward to maintaining a high standard of care (maybe a couple of cosmetic modifications, LED lights etc) over my time as owner.

Very happy, I understand what everyone says now about these cars in terms of what's on offer to the cost involved. It's crazy but I guess we have a nice little (overlooked) slice of the pie

[Texas]

Nice one, glad you got there in the end and welcome to the 'club' of very luxurious, unassuming and hopefully trouble free motoring.

paul m.

[Shackattack]

20 minutes ago, Texas said:

Nice one, glad you got there in the end and welcome to the 'club' of very luxurious, unassuming and hopefully trouble free motoring.

paul m.

Cheers Paul

As I mentioned I'm looking at changing my headlights to LED, the stock Halogen's are extremely poor and I sometimes have wondered whether they're actually on or not

I've done quite a bit of research on these and understand it'll fail the MOT (not too fussed about as I'll swap them out come next year) and hope I'm in the 5% of people who actually do this right and keep the same beam pattern but get a nice true white light and a much improved driving experience.

Long gone are the days of CREE leds throwing light all over the road and dazzling other drivers. The way these new LED bulbs operate is to output the light in a very similar way to that of Halogen, so the beam pattern (including the Step) is pretty much bang on.

Does anyone have experience of replacing normal Halogens with LED bulbs from the likes of Philips (Lumileds)?

[Texas]

I haven't gone down the road of doing anything with the headlights on mine (HID's factory fitted) and I probably won't but I have upgraded all the interior lamps to LED's cost about £25 iirc and now radiates a nice white light at night when unlocked.

paul m.

[johnatg]

Don't try and use LED bulbs - they simply don't work - they don't project enough light, even though they look bright to look at. LED bulbs are just not the same as LED headlights as fitted to lots of new cars these days - they do work!

If you want to improve your lights, go for an HID kit - lots available on eBay for a few tens of pounds. They are illegal and you'll need to swap them out for MoTs (which is a bit of a pain because access, especially the nearside one, is very tight). But they do improve your dipped beams no end. Don't use HIDs in the main beams - get 'super' halogen bulbs for them.

[negativelift]

I went to look at the blue IS250 mentioned in the OP. Was nothing special (in my opinion) to stand in front of and certainly didn’t look worth what they’re asking for it!

If anyone cares, the one I looked at; smelled like it had been smoked in (which straightaway is a dealbreaker for me), there was a deep chip to the paint (down to the metal) where the roof meets the windscreen on the near side, some bad paint on the near side front wing - numerous raised bubbles/drips, have actually never seen anything like it before but looked really quite bad, also the rear quarter where it meets the bumper was a patch about an inch long down to the metal on the near side. It sounded to run alright. The roof gutter trim was not sitting flush on the offside at the rear. And the driver’s seat not all the motors worked for adjustment. Tyre wear wasn’t very even and a couple were gonna need changing soon. I’d had enough by then. It was also being kept not at their main site but at a different location and looking kinda grubby. That in itself made me think it’s perhaps not too great an example. If it was, surely they’d have it all shined up, front of house.

It was the first one i’ve looked at so maybe i’m being a bit critical but they are asking top money for it so i’m going to be! Anyway I was really impressed at the feel of the cabin. Had a nice solid feel to it. The amount of kit you get is really quite amazing. I’ve had a run of BMWs for the last 10 years and I was a bit dubious about a Japanese car feeling as well built/put together. I should not have been worried though. I wish i’d known about these cars years ago. 

The search continues ...

[leelacey17]

They are absolutely solid and great cars. There are a few about and the right one will come up at some point. The problem with the photos is that they always look good until you get up close.

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